In this video I'm going to show you how I paint
super smooth results by thinning my paints :o) Hello everyone and welcome to another
Brushstroke Painting Guide, so as you heard from the intro there, the topic for this
video is going to be how to thin your paints. And the reason for making this video is because
the question I get asked, most of all, without fail, is how do I get my paints so smooth?
and to be honest it's something I've always struggled to answer because I've
kind of put it down to a trial and error thing that I've developed,
but it's got me thinking lately because I must be doing something over and over again
to replicate the same results, so there should be key characteristics and things that I'm
looking for in order to produce that result. So what I'm going to try and do is explore
that in this video for you now and hopefully you'll be able to replicate that and
get the same results that I do! :o) So let's start off then with trying to establish
exactly what is the problem we're trying to fix? I have a model piece here which I've
just primed with some surface primer from Vallejo and I'm going to
paint the left hand side with unthinned paint straight from the pot.
So let's do that really quickly now. It's not looking too great is
it? Let's be honest it's a mess! It's got clogged up details, it's not smooth,
there's brush marks and it's really bumpy. So, there must be something I can do which
is going to improve that paint finish and if ever you've asked a question online you'll get
the answer and the answer is THIN YOUR PAINTS but it doesn't tell you the full story, does it?
It doesn't tell you why that would help, it doesn't tell you what you need to do, it
doesn't tell you how much you need to thin it. So let's have a look at some of those questions;
Starting off with the first one, how will it help? The easiest way to answer that is to show you what
the end result would be. Now through the magic of video editing, we can jump ahead and see what the
end result of thinning your paints is, compared to what we've just done with the unthinned paint.
Now obviously this comparison is night and day you've got the unthinned paint on the left
hand side, which has clogged details and is gloopy and bumpy, and then by just adding
water to exactly the same paint on the right hand side I've been able to achieve
a clean, smooth and flawless finish. So we need to work out,
why? What's happening here? So for this we're going to go and
have a look at a bit of theory. So let's imagine the profile of the
model piece that we just painted and then, What do we know?
So when I painted on the unthinned paint it went on really thick and it filled in those grooves
and then when it dried, it dried really uneven and blobby and still filled in those details.
By comparison then on the right hand side when I painted that in with exactly the same
paint, but this time with added water. When that dried, it's the added water that
actually evaporates out and allows the paint that's left to shrink down and effectively
follow the contours and the shape of the model, leaving a smoother thinner layer of paint.
Right, well that's brilliant! So adding water just helps the paint shrink down and follow
the contours of the model. Excellent, but wait! How much do I actually need to thin the
paint, in order to get the result that I want? Okay, well that's our next question then and to
answer this one we're going to need to think a little bit more about what the characteristics of
the paint are and how adding water changes them? So for example what I'm going to do is I'm going
to take some water on the back of my hand here.. and then I'm going to get some gold paint
and I'm going to mix that into the water. I've chosen a metallic paint on purpose
because it's the flecks in them which will show the characteristic that I'm looking to
demonstrate. and that characteristic is MOVEMENT. So as I've added paint to water or
water to paint and it's increased the movement that the paint has.
It's easier to flow, it's obviously become more of a liquid, it's less viscous,
it's fluid *well it literally is now a fluid* So as you can see as I'm interacting with
it with my brush the paint doesn't stop moving the moment I stop moving my brush.
It still reacts it settles, it flows and it's that movement and that characteristic that is
very important when you're thinning your paints. Because it's how much of that movement and how
fluid you want it to be, that you need to consider in terms of how much you need to thin it.
Because depending on what you want to use the paint for, you need to have a
different level of movement to your paint. Right okay, what am I going on about? How does
movement of your paint affect how you use it? Okay, let's go back to our little drawing
board and we'll talk a little bit more theory. Right, let's imagine that we've got an
incline and that we take our unthinned paint and we put a big dollop of it at the top.
What would happen to it? Nothing. That's right. It's static. It wouldn't move. It
would stay there. It has no movement. So let's go to the other extreme then and, on the
same incline, let's put a big dollop of water. What would you expect that to do? That's right!
You'd expect it to flow down. You'd expect it to move, you'd expect it to run down to the bottom.
Which must mean then, that the optimum for our smooth paint finish must lie
between these two extremes. Well that's fairly obvious I hear you say.
But, bear with me, because this will tell us a little bit more about the characteristics
that we need to be looking out for, for this particular "Sweet Spot".
Specifically, we know that we want it to have movement, we want it to be able
to flow, we want it to be able to settle, and we want it to shrink down when it dries.
We don't want it to be able to be heaped up, or be able to hold brush strokes. We don't want
it to be static, we don't want it to clump up, we don't want to be able to make peaks out of it.
So, already we're getting an idea of the collective characteristics we need this paint
to have and we need to be looking out for. So in my mind, a good way of summing
all this up, all these different characteristics. Is to consider this range
of movement, to be the paint's speed. So on the left hand side, we would have slow
paint. Moving all the way over to the right, to the other end of the scale,
which would be fast paint. So this is where I hope you'll start to see where
the different speed of a paint has different uses. So, for example, slow paint is static and doesn't
move. So that's really good for dry brushing, for building up texture, for
stippling, that kind of thing. And then on the right hand side,
you've got your fast paints. These are paints that want to only settle into
the recesses and run off the top surfaces. So, they're your Shades and your
Contrast Paints, for example, and then somewhere in between, we've got
that point which is perfect for smooth, solid base coat colors. Which is the one
that we're looking for, for this video. Okay, so now we know in order to achieve
the smooth finish, that we're after, we're going to need to thin the paint and that'll
allow it to shrink down and follow the contours when it dries. The consequence of thinning the
paint will make it become faster and flow easier. Now, there are actually another couple of
consequences that we do need to consider, so the first one if you remember, when we were looking at
the gold paint, was as I added the gold paint to a large quantity of water it dissipated out into the
water. So it actually spread out and became quite a thin covering across a large area. And you can
imagine if this gold paint were to dry, the final result would be quite patchy and it'd just be
a lot of the surface underneath showing through and just a few sort of patches of the gold.
And essentially the result of that means the faster and the thinner we make
the paint, the less coverage and the less opaque the paint is going to be.
And that's going to be our trade-off, so to get the smooth solid finish we
want, we're going to need to apply multiple thin coats to get that coverage.
And then obviously, because we're adding more water, it means that the drying time
for each layer is also going to take longer. Now interestingly, that lower opacity level
you get the thinner you make your paints, is actually really good for blending and glazing
- but that's a topic for another video ;o) Right, I think it's time
we had a look at what these characteristics look like on some real paint.
So, I'm going to start off with the slow end of our scale and look at some unthinned
paint. And as you can see, it's static, it has no motion, I can heap it and it will
stay in one place. I can put grooves in it and you can just tell there's very little moisture
in it which is going to shrink when it dries. And then in comparison, on the other
end of the scale, I've thinned the same paint down so now it's more like a
wash - and you can see the difference. It's really fast. It just flows so
easily. It reacts to every motion I'm making with my brush. It wants to spring
back and settle and you can just tell it's going to flow into all of those recesses.
There's just no way I can heap this up. And now for the middle one, what I'm going to do
is, I'm going to add some water to some unthinned paint and find this midpoint. So, what I'm
doing is I'm just pulling the paint down, and with the water I'm mixing them together, and
I'm looking for that moment where it just starts to spring back and has that movement.
There! Do you see that? Where it sort of pulls back on itself.
So, that's how you want it to be behaving and then it's a case of trying to get
it as thick as possible, while still retaining that movement and that settling. As that
will mean it'll shrink enough to be smooth, when it dries, but still opaque enough to
limit the number of coats that we're going to need to apply to get a solid finish.
Basically something like that! :o) Okay, so let's see what happens when we add
those three speeds of paint to a surface. Starting off with the slow paint -
it goes on thick, it doesn't move, and it just doesn't settle at all. So, you know
it's just not going to shrink down when it dries. The medium paint though, does have that movement
that we're looking for and you can see it settle, it also runs slightly down the contour of my
hand, while still keeping a decent coverage. And lastly the really fast paint - you
can see it's really thin and actually all it wants to do is run off my hand.
Now, if these three different speeds of paint look familiar? Then that's good!
Because that's exactly what we were thinking they should look like when we were talking
about how a paint would behave on an incline. And I think you'll agree, they're
actually a very good match. The slow is staying exactly where it is, the
middle one has decent coverage but has moved a bit, and then the fast one has tried
to flow straight off the side of my hand. Okay then! It's time to put everything we've
been talking about into practice. So what I'm going to do, is I'm just going to take some
paint straight from the pot, as I did before, but this time I'm going to put it onto my
palette. Now, having a palette will give me that extra control and will allow me to mix in
the water to find that consistency that I want. Speaking of consistency, let's remind ourselves
of the checklist of characteristics we're looking for to get that optimum smooth finish. We're
looking for the paint to have that movement, it needs to be able to flow and settle, it
has to be fast enough so it can't be heaped and you can't leave grooves or brush marks
in it anymore, but we don't want it to be so fast that it's actually transparent. We want
to get it as opaque as possible. So that way we can limit the number of coats that we're going
to need to apply to get to that solid finish. Okay so, let's add some water to the palette
now, so that I can use that to mix in with the paint. I do recommend actually that
you have separate dots of water next to each paint. so that you can use it to
mix each without any contamination. Okay then so I'm going to repeat exactly the
same process that I've just done. So I'm going to start taking water and I'm going to start
mixing that into the paint by pulling it down, just so you have a little bit of paint to work
with at once. So I'm going to start keep mixing that water and that paint together. Until I
find that point where I see that the paint is just starting to move and try and spring back.
That's the magic point that we're looking for, so it has that movement and you can just feel that
the paint is starting to settle rather than heap up. And then it's a case of just trying to find
that that point where it's just starting to move so it's as opaque as possible but it settles
and doesn't hold any brush marks anymore. Okay I think that's about right. I can't put
any grooves in it anymore and it definitely still has that slight movement to it. So I
reckon it's time to give that a bit of a test. Now testing is the final part to all of this
process. It's key that you always check to see how it's going to react before you put it
anywhere near your model. This is your safety net, just in case it's not quite how you want it
to be. So this is behaving really nicely, I'm quite happy with that. So, it's
time to start putting it onto the model. And straight away you can tell it's completely
different to how it was when I was doing it straight from the pot. The paint is obviously
a lot more like a liquid. It is flowing on a lot smoother. You can feel it going into the
grooves and around the details. Now obviously the compromise here is it's not as opaque as it was
straight from the pot, so you can still see the black underneath, but that's not a problem because
we know when it dries it's going to shrink down and it will form a smoother finish. So obviously
straight away we can tell that we are going to need to do an additional coat to this but already
I can tell this is going to be so much better, so much smoother. Um right okay, just running out
of paint there so it's going to mix a little bit more up so now I know what the consistency needs
to be I can get that feel quite quickly and I can just load up my brush and carry on painting.
One thing to note is brush control. So, now we've got the paint flowing cleanly and smoothly
from the brush, the key thing here is that you want to have a very light touch to the brush so
you don't want to be pressing it hard against the surface. The paint should flow very cleanly and
very smoothly, like it's an ink straight from the brush. So all you need to actually do is touch
the bristles to the surface and the paint will do the work for you. Because it now has that
movement and because it has that speed, it is just flowing from the brush and I'm not pressing
it in any way to try and force it onto the model. Right, okay I think this is getting near to the
first coat completed. Erm, it's a bit patchy but obviously that's to be expected. Just going
to fill in the hole details a little bit more, um, what I'm thinking actually is I could
do with it being a little bit faster so it flows into these recesses a bit more. A bit
more like a wash, I guess. So just going to mix up a bit of a thinner mix and then hopefully
it'll settle into those gaps a little bit easier. um I'm going to check it on the back of my
hand obviously before I do that and yeah that seems fine. So let's get that into those little
gaps. Okay yeah that seems to be going in quite well now, that's what I expected. Right, so now,
there's a little bit excess on my brush I'm just going to take that off onto my palette and then
with the brush that a little bit dryer, I can just take off the excess, so that I can smooth down the
surface a little bit. Again, this is just to try and even out the coverage across the surface,
so it dries as smooth and cleanly as possible. Okay so that's coat one done. Let's come
back and see how it looks once it's dry. So that first coat is now fully dry and as
predicted we can still see some of the black underneath because we had to thin it down to get
that smooth finish, but it has done what we wanted it to. Which is, it shrunk down and it's followed
the contours. So we have a lovely smooth first coat. So, now it's a case of just doing the same
again to try and build up to that solid finish. And looking at the paint on my palette though, um,
it does look like the wet palette has diluted it a little bit more than we wanted it to. It's a
little bit too thin. Just to be sure though I'm going to check on the back of my hand and yeah
that's a little bit too transparent for what I want. So let me go and grab some paint and then we
can get cracking on mixing up for the second coat. Okay then, so it's an exact repeat of what
we just did for the first coat. So loading up some paint onto my palette. I'll get a fair
amount so, I can do a decent coat in one go. And then it's a case of just adding the
water to the paint, pulling it down, getting in that movement that we want, and then
building it back up to that point where it's no longer able to be heaped up and maximizing
that opacity but still has that movement and it settles. And of course you need to check it on
the back of your hand. Right okay, I think that's actually still a little bit too thick so it's
got a little bit more water okay mix that in. And then check that on the
back of my hand again and yeah! I think that's better. It's got no brush marks
in it, so I think that's going to be perfect. So let's get onto that second coat. And that
second coat is a repeat of exactly the same process that I just did for the first coat.
So, um, it has the same level of opacity as it did before but this time obviously I'm starting
from a slightly more purple base coat. So I should be able to build up to a solid finish in just this
second coat I think. So I'm just applying it all over the model. Again, I've got the speed of paint
just right so it's flowing into these recesses and uh not clogging up any of the details.
And it's just a case of trying to get as smooth a coat on, as possible, and even
coverage across the whole of the model piece. Okay so, I know this is just a repeat of
the first coat but I do get quite a few people who ask to see more real-time
footage of the painting process. So I'm just going to leave this running
for the next minute or so and just let you watch me paint for a bit and then
I'll catch you at the end of this coat. Oh actually, it's probably worth mentioning you
might notice there's a few bubbles that are formed as the paint started going into some of those
gaps there. They're not a problem and usually they'll just pop on their own accord. But if
you do find that you get the odd persistent one, if you just gently blow on them, you'll
find that they'll pop quite easily. Okay, I'm gonna leave that now and then we
can come back and take a look when it's dry. And here is the end result! Obviously, not
much of a spoiler because we did look at it at the start but I hope you'll agree that is
one nice clean, smooth base coat of paint. And I hope now that you see a little
bit more about the processes that I go through and the characteristics that I
look for in achieving that smooth finish? THANK YOU so much for watching I really hope
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