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Blog Painting with artist's acrylics - Elmo's blog

Discussion in 'Personal Paint Logs' started by elmoheadbutt, May 24, 2012.

  1. elmoheadbutt
    Cold One

    elmoheadbutt New Member

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    And thus another paint blog has spawned. I'm using artist's acrylics to paint instead of the more popular Citadel/Vallejo/coat d' arms/etc. choices just because I am more familiar with the texture and how workable these paints are. I find miniature paints too runny (and expensive :p) for my own liking. These photos are taken with my iPhone so please excuse the quality but nonetheless, some pics:

    9PBPu.jpg
    bjI7w.jpg
    3cr9M.jpg
    sKFXd.jpg
    t3gxF.jpg
    ouDfv.jpg

    I try to colour every saurus a little different. I thought, with all of them having different wristbands, different head crests, etc. they must surely have slight colour variation.

    Also, since I use artist's acrylics, I have the option of painting using a pearlescent white colour. You can't see it properly but the white spike balls and the musician's drumsticks are actually pearlescent. I'll try to capture the effect some other day. The paint itself is very transparent, I had to use a white base colour and have 4 coats of the pearlescent.

    I also find it rather easy to blend colours together. If you look at the musician's drum, the red and blue colours are actually blended, with orange/light blue on top and red/blue at the bottom.

    c/c welcome.
     
    Warden likes this.
  2. n810
    Slann

    n810 First Spawning

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    Looking good man, I like the subtle variations of thr green, I do something similar with my troops. :smug:
     
  3. Arli
    Skink Priest

    Arli Moderator Staff Member

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    Good work. I have been using some less expensive acrylic paints as well. I picked up 21 bottles of paint from a Michaels and AC Moore (arts and craft stores). I paid in the range of $.89-1.29 for them. They were less than $30 I believe. The paint needs to be thinned out, but I get a huge amount of paint versus GW or Valejo.
     
  4. SanDiegoSurrealist
    Ripperdactil

    SanDiegoSurrealist New Member

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    I have a box full of old acrylic paints from when I attended Art School that have been collecting dust for years. I have often wondered about painting figs using them but never tried, just resigned myself to using the GW paints. Guess I will have to give this a try. Thank you for the post.
     
  5. n810
    Slann

    n810 First Spawning

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    Hmmm i was thinking, perhaps the gold bits could use a bit of a brown wash to help shade them a bit.
     
  6. elmoheadbutt
    Cold One

    elmoheadbutt New Member

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    I did shade them with burnt sienna (I think the colour is similar to griffon sepia), its just not showing up on the photos, like the pearlescent.
     
  7. Arli
    Skink Priest

    Arli Moderator Staff Member

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    When you shaded them, what did you use to thin out the paint? What was the recipe?

    Just curious. I have played around with some darker washes using just water, but I am wondering if I should use a medium to thin the paint down.
     
  8. n810
    Slann

    n810 First Spawning

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    Yea I was thinking more of a raw umber/delvin mud type of wash.
    not a lot either, just a tint bit near the cracks and crevices,
     
  9. elmoheadbutt
    Cold One

    elmoheadbutt New Member

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    I use a mixture of paint, water and a bit of dish-washing soap. Without the dish-washing soap you will get more like a stain than a wash. Don't put too much otherwise your wash will have lots of bubbles lol.

    I haven't tried any mediums yet. I'm sure you'll get better result than my home-made version, but it's good enough for me as of now.

    On a side note, I just won a stegadon from eBay for AUD37! Maybe I'll purchase a medium then...

    n810: The base gold colour is a very pale gold. I decided to use burnt sienna to get a bit of orange into it. But you're right, I will use raw umber for a second wash.
     
  10. elmoheadbutt
    Cold One

    elmoheadbutt New Member

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    8zjrk2.jpg

    WIP of the banner.

    wqyqnd.jpg
    2hxcaol.jpg

    This is all I've painted so far. *sigh* 50,000,000 more reptiles to paint before I start making terrain...
     
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  11. Old Mossy
    Bastiladon

    Old Mossy Active Member

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    it's a good looking unit! The gold on the banner looks really flat, but I suspect that's the photo quality.
     
  12. elmoheadbutt
    Cold One

    elmoheadbutt New Member

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    Yes, I blame it on iPhone. Maybe if I use instagram it'll look better... :p
     
  13. FavoredoftheOldOnes
    Terradon

    FavoredoftheOldOnes Member

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    Simple yet effective. Good looking stuff so far :).
     
  14. lordberti3
    Saurus

    lordberti3 New Member

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    i think the subtle differences between models is a great idea; i might try with my saurus with different blues for the skin etc. i tried a bit with my skinks but the differences are too subtle so my efforts were for nothing :rolleyes:

    anyways, keep up the good work.
     

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