Hobby Cheating 02 - Undershading & Glazes 

Glad it was helpful! Always happy to assist. :)

Wow, thank you!

R Morris Glad to see I am not completely crazy, I recently picked up mini painting has a hobby starting from nothing and when deciding which paint to start learning I choose oil. Then as I started to dip deep in the hobby that most people actual use acrylic paint. So basically I am now switching between oil paint tutorials and acrylic miniature tutorials to learn. After my fourth mini I am currently planning how do I paint a fire giant with OSL and after a few days of reflection I arrived to something similar to what to you describe. Undercoat of with white and black with red for the OSL area then use a grey glaze to coat to create the black skin. Not really sure if it will work but I will give it a try this weekend.

Always nice to see someone else with a solid art background who understands the interplay between materials and mediums. Would you happen to have any pictures of the miniatures you've worked on to share? I'd love to see them!

I would like to know how thin I have to make the oil paints,how much thinner do I have to use?

Got any links for your work or others who use this technique?

That's great to hear, I often shudder at the quality of my early videos (and the late videos for that matter) - but i am glad to hear they are helpful.

Vince Venturella they’re so helpful. Especially to come back and hear it again with a fresh perspective. Like your how to paint linen video I watched again today and the part about cold and warm purple made more sense now than when I watched months ago

Thank you, happy to help as always. :)

Thank you, that is very much appreciated. :)

Glad it was helpful! :)

Thank you, that is much appreciated and always happy to help. :)

Excellent. thank you and always happy to help.

Thank you, that is very much appreciated and I am always happy to assist.

+Smallpox Thank you very much, more vids will be coming, fear not, I have a long list. As always, if there is anything that you want to see, feel free to suggest.

+Vince Venturella I'm looking forward to anything on airbrush. I bought one two months ago but don't feel I've got the hang of it yet. Too much fiddling around and cleaning. Some cheats here will be super helpful for sure.

Excellent, happy to help. Ironic that you would watch and comment on 2 videos today, one about thinning your paints way down for good effect and one about not thinning them at all. Shows that there are many ways to achieve the same end result. :)

Excellent, there are lots of videos in this series on this theme. It's the normal way I paint and it's really amazing what you can do so quickly.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Always happy to help.

Excellent, happy to help as always. :) - There is a lot more in this series on this topic, as it's one of my favorite ways to paint.

I see, just found your channel and looking forward to watching all weekend at work:) I've watched probably 200 youtube videos on painting (brush and airbrushing) and already have a couple of great tricks from you after only 2 videos:)

+OnceBitten360 As am I sir, it's something I have been wanting to do for a while, finally decided to stop being lazy - oh and also got a camera that could actually record this decently ;)

+OnceBitten360 Still looking forward your Tomb Kings army.. painted I mean!

Awesome, I have covered this in more details in more videos, check these out below. Unusual Zenithals: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Doc2GdL2Lv4.html Warm Zenithals: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rFDHpVJiNC0.html True Metals: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ByX2jIEmXJM.html Zenithal & Glazes: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-J-dQU-dSNa8.html

@@VinceVenturella I finally got around to trying this out - I used the technique to paint green flesh on an orc mini. This one video allowed me to produce better results than 3 months of practice and over 10 hours of using techniques from other youtube videos. Thank you so much!

Thank you, happy to help as always. :)

Glad to hear. The reality is, there are lots of different technical way to attack the miniatures and achieve a painted miniature. None of them are innately better, but they could be better for you depending on your goals, style and time.

Excellent, I just put up a video today deeper diving on glazes, so if you want to see more on it, check that out. Always happy to help. :)

Both very good suggestions! I will add them both to the list.

+Kevin Lorenz It is hard for me to overstate how often I use this technique. It's a real time saver and powerful tool for realistic blending.

It's magic but sooo logical! I've ordered different cans right away. Sooo looking forward to try this out on my Skaven Plague Monks!

+Kevin Lorenz They would be awesome for this with those big robes. Use a very thin deep green (something without any white - if you want to lighten it, mix in a yellow, as that is a translucent way to lighten things) and go, you should see great results. You could also use Ivory or bone as your final highlight, which will change the look of the green glaze.

Sounds awesome! Have to wait for a few things to get delivered, but will post pictures in the PmP group asap.

+Victor Ques (Neojarlaxe) Thank you sir, I have a long way to go to get to your level of hobby tips ;)

+Vince Venturella To be fair with you I never used the technique you are showing in this video.

Sure, it's certainly something I will return to frequently.

+Jon Kreher So the trick is that the more white the color is, the less this will work, because the surface layer has white (reflective) that will interfere with showing through the undercolor. So you would have better luck going all the way up to very bright white and then using something closer to black or german grey. You make an excellent point that you can also do this over drybrushing, or really any other application of the color. I will talk about that in some later vids as well.

Yep, as you go on in the playlist, I have many videos on using inks over this type of undershading. :)

If you're looking for more detail, here is really my favorite video I did on it - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-N88NtHNmz1Q.html Hope that helps.

@@VinceVenturella I'm sure it will. Currently sitting on video 17 and they have all gotten me to start thinking in different ways about the basic stuff I'm always doing anyways. I think that is the hardest part for me as an artist. I generally don't like the process of discovery. As you always say, time is valuable and I'd rather have things look good to a decent tabletop standard than spend time trying to figure out things that don't work out more often than not. Yours is really the first channel I've found that tells me exactly what the process is so I can replicate it. I still need to have the skill to pull it off, but I'm not wondering what mediums to use or what mixes to have on hand. So, thank you very much for making my life easier and keeping things simple!

+Paul Conti Here to help buddy, you can season that to taste as well, Apply a few more layers to darken, or mix like a said to push the highlights or lowlights up. Either way, then you are only making slight adjustments, not trying to build the whole thing from scratch.

+Mitch B Thank you much, glad to help.

I've been looking into the airbrush and compressors, there seems to be a million on the market. What would you recommend?

+Mitch B THe link below is where you should start. It's not a great airbrush, but I wouldn't recommend a nice car for a new driver either ;) Realistically, you need that, some Airbrush Thinner (I like Vallejo) and some Airbrush cleaner (I like Iwata). That will get you started with the basics. Pick up some of the Vallejo primer and/or model/game airs (the primer being most important, as you can do the Zenithal trick with the thinned primers alone). All told, you can get started for around $100-$120. That airbrush will get you learning. Take care of it and clean it well and you will get to the point where you can confidently make a larger investment. Airbrush: www.amazon.com/Master-Airbrush-Performance-Multi-purpose-Dual-action/dp/B001TO578Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1445400356&sr=8-2&keywords=master+airbrush Cleaner: www.amazon.com/Iwata-Medea-Airbrush-Cleaner-8-oz/dp/B001BHGD9S Thinner: www.amazon.com/Vallejo-VJ71061-Thinner-32ml/dp/B007D1R6QU/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1445400589&sr=1-1&keywords=vallejo+airbrush+thinner

Thank you, much appreciated.

Well thank you. Nope, I do not have a patreon or anything, I mainly do this because I just love teaching. THe best thing you can do for me right now is just watch and share and of course comment with any way I can help you. :)

+evil7ash Yes, you can do green this way, but there are some tricks to it. 1) You can run a yellow glaze first, just like a did. You will have a weird bright orc, but you can then use a dark green (one lacking most any white) very thin to tint it green, the result should be a bright orc skin with that yellow-green tint 2) You can do just a very thin dark green, which will give you a purely green tone orc. The real key is you don't want any white in the colors you do this with. White, as I mentioned, reflects light instead of absorbing it. The more white that is in your glaze, the more it will show on it's own and prevent the color underneath from coming through.

+manga3040 I would say it's best to invest as per what you feel comfortable with. It's another tool and technique. I think it's a highly valuable one, but the better you learn color theory, highlighting and all the techniques of either, the better you will be with either. My advice would be to take it at your own speed. There is a fair investment (usually

Now that is some serious binge watching and thanks for all the shoutouts during the show. Glad you enjoyed. :) Now as to Primers, I make mention in a few videos, so you will run across it, but I use only two brands of primers. Vallejo (Specifically Vallejo German Panzer Black-Grey) and Stynelez from Badger (multiple colors, but they have a great grey and white.

You could also try Pro Acryl whites, they are great.

+Brandon Huss Yes, though it's tricky. Black is a tough color to work with and I have a hobby cheating planned specifically for this.

+Vince Venturella Great, I want to paint some Slaanesh Warriors with a black armor paint scheme but don't want to do black with a gloss varnish. I look forward to seeing the video.

Absolutely, if you look at later videos where I explore this (I come back to this quite often in the playlist) I use inks quite often, they are perfect for this.

+Micky Ward Yep, if nothing else, it shades your colors and gives you a map to follow. It's just a useful technique and once you understand how to utilize those under colors, you can do more with advanced techniques as well.

Vince Venturella One thing I've tried recently on KD:M figures is using monochrome preshading to define the tone and shade of the models, and then use thinned flesh tones to just add some tint of colour over the top

+Micky Ward Yep, I like to do that flesh tone not with black and white, but with Chocolate brown to ivory, it has the right tone for flesh and creates the same effect.

First time I tried doing it with flesh tones (not done much flesh before honestly), so took a lot of time and many many layers to get it right.

Yes you can!

+iggysawdust It can be tricky, but no more tricky than having some paint go onto an area that you have done layering and blending on (though with much less initial time investment). In general, you will just want to slowly glaze over that area and bring it back into color. It takes a little massaging, but it can be done.

Awesome, glad to hear it. It really does make for some quick and great looking outcomes fast, which is great when you need to get an army on the table. :)

You have everything you need. It varies by paint, but generally washes are water and glaze medium maybe 1-2 to 1 with paint, and glazes are more like 4-5 to 1. The real key is to test first - use the thumb trick. Put a little white paint on your thumb and then take some of your wash or glaze and run a thin layer over that white strip on your thumb and see how much it covers - that is how it will cover on your miniature. The other element that is important, when dealing with very watery paints like this, always make sure you wick the excess off your brush before you put it on the miniature (i.e. touch your brush to the paper towel to get excess fluid out).

I am missing the thinner medium (that thing that looks like PVA en in the video when you pour it). Wont that affect my glazes?

Thinner helps, but it's not absolutely necessary, your paints may just get a little glossy so you would have to back it out with a dull cote at the end. The thinner is a nice thikener that keeps the paint from going too watery or out of control, but you can compensate. I would pick it up when you can, but it's not a must have.

Thank you very much. Then I will experiment with 1 drop of vallejo paint, 1 drop of vallejo glaze medium, and X drops of vallejo airbrush thinner, until I get a good consistency. I will try this technique (zenithal + glaces) very soon, and show you my results! I cant thank you enough for your ideas, have a long way to go, to visit all your videos. I am hoping a miniature painted in this way can still have some strong, vibrant colors.

+Marrok Wolf I am sure I will do a vid on it at some point, but it will probably be more about how you can use the techniques on TMM to make them look better (probably both).

+Hooves of Doom Yeah, something funny happened with the sound there. I would normally paint with the cap, I just happened to be holding it for the video (when I finished him, I did complete him on the cap). I will make sure to use all my proper tools going forward. It's a great technique for quicker painting that still looks good. It doesn't work in every color or on every model, but for big flatish areas like cloaks, it's fantastic.

+Vince Venturella Awesome and I like your intro/exit addition. :)

Hmmm..That's strange. Some thoughts and questions, as I have never had that happen. First, what primer are you using? What is the material you are painting (i.e. resin, plastic, metal, bones)? How long are you letting the primer dry? Are you wicking off the excess liquid of the glaze? Any of that might be contributing.

In order to eliminate issues that I felt like I could control, I used every element in your video, down to the Chaos Warrior and all paint brands, glaze, thinner, etc. It's possible that my error has something to do with being heavy on the flow with the airbrush. It's also possible that I should have waited longer on the primer. One thing I didn't see you do, however, (and it's something you must have done), is avoiding the highlighted areas after the first glaze or two, otherwise you end up covering them completely. Example: If you're going to glaze more than a couple of layers, you should avoid the highlighted areas on subsequent layers to avoid covering the light tones beneath completely. Unfortunately, I’m not able to post images here, as that would probably clear things up rather quickly. Any chance you offer paid tutor services. 😂

Perhaps scratch the glaze avoidance issue. I see now that the issue there is that your white highlights are far more powerful than what I was doing, and therefore could stand up to the multiple coats of glaze.

Yes, that is one of the ways I have done it and it makes red beyond quick and easy. You can also just lay down your Black/Grey, then coat the whole thing in sepia ink, then just do an ivory from above and your red will go on like butter.

Sorry, meant to say hive fleet kraken!

If you are going Kraken but with a color swap to blue, I would make my top color a more warm ivory. That won't hurt the blue at all, but will make it so you can just wash the flesh with a 50/50 mix of seraphim sepia and flesh wash and get a good instant flesh tone (it will likely take two applications.)

@@VinceVenturella fantastic, thanks mate

All the way around, you are replicating diffuse light bouncing off everything. So you want a 45 degree angle grey. Then white from above.

Yes, usually with inks, over the metallics, I have several videos about it. Here is one. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NRYgfJDNL2k.html

Not really, the pigment being metallic and opaque means to look like metal, it has to be evenly distributed and thick, when you thin it down like that, it just looks like glitter.

+Kevin Lorenz Depends on the subassemblies. If we are talking about a rider and a mount for example, I prime them separately (i.e. if they are wholly separate elements of the figure). If we are talking about something like an arm, a component of the actual model, then yes, I would blue tack and zenithal then remove again.

Ace! Thanks, mate!!!

They are actualy quite similar, they are both acrylic medium with some additives (namely a little flow improver and a little retardent), but I am not sure of the exact ratios and that is likely the difference.

The grey is at a 45 degree angle. So you are hitting the miniature at an angle and creating the natural diffusion of light. Hope that helps.

@@VinceVenturella Hi Vince!! A followup question on the 45 degree angle: are you airbrushing the grey layer only on the front of the figure? Or are you shooting 45 degrees on all sides of the figure? If you only shot 45 degrees from the front, I would expect the cloak would almost completely black with a little white from airbrushing white from directly above.

@@ronlouie7171 45 degrees all around the figure, you are basically trying to capture ambient environmental lighting.

@@VinceVenturella Thanks Vince!! Great video and explanation. :)

Could be many things, the paint could be too thin, you might not be wicking away the excess, check out this video and it should answer your questions - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-N88NtHNmz1Q.html

Yes it would, as to the difference between the two, it's basically some additives that make it glaze medium, some flow improver and similar elements.

@@VinceVenturella thank you Vince I appreciate it. Watched all your videos so far. I have a lot of time to watch but very little to paint these days. Hope that changes soon. Last question, so to follow your guide I would use the paint, the glaze medium, and a little bit of the airbrush thinner right? Also, is the only difference between the glaze medium and thinner medium only the retarder added in the glaze medium?

@@SilentBob1219 Correct, I will also say, if you want a more full treatment on the subject, check out this video - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-J-dQU-dSNa8.html

@@VinceVenturella thanks again checking it out now. I appreciate you supporting some of your older videos. A lot of us discover these videos a little late. :)

+Scott R Metallic paints are a whole different ball game. It's such a dense topic, it has it's own video planned. As to NMM, yes, this is a very good place to start your NMM blending as this will very quickly help you identify where the highlights are you need to be catching (at least to start).

Thank you. I'm still a little intimidated by the idea of non-metallic metal.

+Scott R It's time consuming and not always worth it, but it's very good to try it, as it teaches you lots of good tehniques you can apply elsewhere. There are many, many good tutorials out there, if you try it, just spend some time watching those walk through's first.

I was looking to do a to Hoffman construct crew and do it in copper.

+Dave R Huh, it's in the playlist for the series, not sure why it isn't showing for you - but it's right here (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LuUJK5UgDZw.html)

Vince Venturella Thanks Vince. This series is a great idea. Quite frankly time is the biggest obstacle to people fully participating in this hobby.

Well, it's a different audience. if you started at this stuff, I suspect you might be overwhelmed. Their content is usually targetted at the newer hobbyist or those with serious fear to painting to overcome, so they keep it simple and have a dedicated process. I am glad they do so, as I am sure that they have helped thousands of folks lose the initial fear and pick up the brush. I just hope sometime down the line, when they want to accomplish something else technique wise, I can be there to help. :)

So the rule of thumb is anything with a low amount of white, because it's naturally transparent. So it's not the particular color, as much as it's the hue (the shade or tint of that color) - so a dark blue, green, purple will all glaze well, but a light version of those colors might not because they tend to add white to lighten them. Red, Yellow and Orange tend to all glaze fairly easily because they rarely contain white. Flesh and Black can both be used for glazes, but brand and the use of thinner, glaze mediums matters here. I have found Scale 75 and Warcolours glaze easier than most others here. White is just always tough because it's naturally opaque (it reflects all colors in the spectrum) and so will always be difficult. Hope that helps.

That helps a lot. Thank you.

Yes, I did make another version of this one, but it's still not great, but it's better - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-J-dQU-dSNa8.html

Appreciate.

Apparently, they get to a good number and just stop. :)

@@VinceVenturella well someone threw a like on this one, but it wasnt me, i was willing to let the sacred numerology persist.

I think old bad microphone would be the best answer. ;)

Yes, there are many more videos in the list (including more recent) about undershading, glazing and more.

@@VinceVenturella thank you Vince, I’m pretty new to the hobby. I’m got my layers down (shading up to lighter colours) but I need to smooth them together and I think the glaze will work that magic.