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

[elmoheadbutt]

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 ) for my own liking. These photos are taken with my iPhone so please excuse the quality but nonetheless, some pics:








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.

 

[n810]

Looking good man, I like the subtle variations of thr green, I do something similar with my troops.

 

[Arli]

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.

 

[SanDiegoSurrealist]

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.

 

[n810]

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

 

[elmoheadbutt]

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.

 

[Arli]

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.

 

[n810]

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,

 

[elmoheadbutt]

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.

 

[elmoheadbutt]

WIP of the banner.




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

 

[Old Mossy]

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

 

[elmoheadbutt]

Yes, I blame it on iPhone. Maybe if I use instagram it'll look better...

 

[FavoredoftheOldOnes]

Simple yet effective. Good looking stuff so far .

 

[lordberti3]

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

anyways, keep up the good work.