SketchStyle Painting Class With Matt DiPietro

This last weekend I had the privilege of attending a 2 day workshop taught by the very talented Matt DiPietro (of Contrast Miniatures). Matt taught all about his "Sketch Style" painting technique. This was an incredible opportunity and definitely ranks among my favorite painting classes every taken. I haven't included all of the random notes from the class, but I do have this photo dump from the 2 days.

	This was Matt's introduction to types of contrast, out of which he emphasized that value is the most important when it comes to SketchStyle.
	Matt demonstrates priming for Sketching. He starts with quick bursts, waving the can towards the model in the process to do the diffuse lighting. Then picks an angle for directional lighting and does some more focused bursts to add that lighting. This priming step is pretty important. When doing mine, I was worried that I had put too much white on mine, but in the end I found that it was just right.
	Here Matt was talking about Value in color. He started by creating a gradient using P3 Morrow White and P3 Thamar Black. Then he extended that gradient even further using artist-grade Titanium White and at the other end a mix of Thamar Black with Indigo ink. Once he established this gradient, he picked random swatches and showed how each color had a value on that gradient scale. This understanding of Value became a foundational piece of the whole class.
	Here Matt is doing his Sketch, which involves enhancing the black and white aspects of the priming step. There's really much more to it than that though. He starts by using black to deepen the shadows and create separation between elements. It's important to note that the Thamar Black paint is darker than black primer, so this step really helps push shadows deeper. Next he goes back and starts raising the brighter parts of the sketch with P3 Morrow White, and then after that uses Titanium White sparingly to push the value even further. Matt commented that it's the Titanium White that really helps make the Sketch more "durable" for when the coloring step starts.
	These are photos of the model he was working on. His concept was to create a sense of glow from the tablet she's holding, with an additional directional light from behind her to create a contrasted set of lights. At this point he's only added black shadows; all the white is from the priming step.
	This is after he's added white. The effect is very striking.
	This was a second Sketch he did after the first one. What was great about this one is he did it at his normal speed. We timed him and it was just about 17 minutes. Watching him work at full speed was very helpful since it gave a real sense of how he works his way around the model and what he does to keep his pace moving. Matt's secret: Pandora Dubstep station.
	This was my Sketch. The idea here (thanks to Matt's prompting) was to have the coils of the guns be a light source. He also helped me get a better sense of how to handle the cylinder of the gun canister.
	Day 2 began with a LOT of discussion about color. He showed us a bunch of gradients and specifically talked about Saturation. To be honest, although I already knew a fair amount about Saturation and Hue, I found his discussion both very education and somewhat over my head. I know that I'll be mentally unpacking a bunch of what he said over the coming months as I put it into practice.
	These are from an exercise he gave us. He handed us each a bunch of swatches of colors and instructed us to put them in Value order. Then he told us to take out our phones and take a black and white photo to check our results. I clearly failed at mine, but loved the exercise.
	This is an in-progress pair of pictures of Matt's Sketch example. The photos aren't very good, but it illustrates the point. At this point he's using thin glazes to add color over the sketch. It's important to note that the glazes are purposefully thin and the sketch is supposed to show through obviously. Unlike a wash, he's using even coat glazes and getting an entire surface face (black and white).
	This is my finished model. I started with the glow effect of the coils and built that up first. From there I did the red canister which is where I felt like I started to really understand the glazing process better. I actually asked Matt to look at the canister effect just to confirm I hadn't made the glaze too thin or thick and he confirmed it was perfect. From there I moved on to the blue armor, then added the yellow. For the yellow, Matt saw I was going to use an Indian Yellow and suggested I also add a second glaze using his Indian Yellow ink afterwards. This really brought the value of the yellow back up more vividly. After that it was freehand details and touch ups. Total painting time, taking out pauses for questions and other such interruptions was probably 2 hours.
	This was a model that Matt did full speed from start (just primed) to finish (all color). It took him about 45 minutes (about 15 for the sketch, and 30 for the color), which I watched completely from start to finish. This process was amazing and the fur in particular was really fascinating to watch. The fur was a slightly different process where he used essentially several glazes as washes and wet blended them as he applied them over the fur areas. Again, seeing him paint at full speed was impressive and helpful.
	And this is a group shot of all the project pieces from the class.

I'll try to add more notes at a later point in a follow up post, but for now I wanted to get all the pictures up.

Review: Dropzone Commander

Figured it would be good to do this one too...

Disclaimer:
I like this game. I'm biased to like it for a few reasons. Also, I've only played 6 games of it so far, so my opinion might change in the future.

Overview:
Dropzone Commander (DZC for short) is an epic-scale type game, using 10mm scale models and built around rapid deployment and sound strategic decisions. The games tend to have a rock-paper-scissors sort of dynamic in that there are aircraft, ground units and infantry, each with its own key value to the game.

What I Don't Like:
* No bases - Seriously, no models really have bases. This is a pain for things like determining movement and line of sight. Sure, they would ruin the aesthetic of the game, but it would tighten up the gameplay a lot. This is hands down my biggest complaint.
* Small models - 10mm scale is just weird to paint. Like weird hard. I've seen some pretty amazing paint jobs and would love to paint to that level, but it's really hard.
* Army building - This is just complicated to learn. It could probably be simpler, and in all fairness I get the purpose of it, but they really need an app to make this easier.
* Rules index - Their rule book index is terrible. Fortunately the rules are relatively compact to mitigate this, but learning the game is a real challenge.
* No cards - Come on! Seriously? Reference cards for models is just a de facto standard now!

What I like:
* Epic! - The battles represent a larger force. It's still a sort of skirmish, but they are battlegroups of models instead of the kind of stuff I've been playing with Warmachine or Malifaux.
* Tight rules - The rules aren't perfect, but they are relatively tournament worthy. Plus they have rules for when aircraft get shot out of the sky and crash, and for destroying buildings and such. I dig that.
* Different - This scratches a very different itch for me. The game has this very dynamic due to transports and dropships and how that can make everything move very quickly.
* Missions - The system for setting up missions works very cleanly and yet is very flexible. It might be my favorite aspect of the game so far.
* Strategic - I feel like the game allows for sound strategy to really take center stage rather than "this tricky models does X and wins".

Barriers to Playing:
Cost, painting, etc. But honestly, this company did something smart: They have faction starter boxes with a skirmish-level force for dirt cheap. It made jumping into the game ridiculously cheap, fast and easy.

Overall Summary
I dig this game. I'm looking forward to the next book and more releases and generally playing more of it.

Review: Age of Sigmar

At the request of a reader, here's my thoughts on Age of Sigmar. It's kinda long, so I've labeled sections in case you want to skip to specific parts.

Disclaimer:
First, let me say that I had played 1 game of 8th edition (which I can't say I was particularly fond of), and prior to that, had only played maybe 1 or 2 games of Warhammer Fantasy from some long ago edition around 20 years ago. I used to play a fair amount of 40k back those 20 years ago, but beyond that, my GW gaming experience is limited to all the fringe games like Space Hulk and Warhammer Quest. Thus my review here is more based on me primarily being a Warmachine player, so take it all with that context.

Actual Gameplay
For the 1 game I played, I played Skaven, only because I have a bunch of Skaven models. We actually played a starter scenario right before this as well just to get a grasp of the rules. But for the main event I rolled out a huge mountain of Skaven models. As you probably know though, there's no point amount for it. I think it amounted to something like 12 war scrolls worth of stuff deployed. My opponent (the fun and gracious Henry) played Orcs. During deployment Henry eventually stopped putting stuff down and chose the Sudden Death option where if he wiped out my Skavenslave horde of some 70 models, then he instantly wins.
The game was brutal, with a few ranged attacks before melee happened. Honestly, I was really impressed with the ratio of casualties due to melee vs ranged. So called "gun-line" armies might work in this game, but from what I can tell it's the grand melee that really gets things done.
During the course of the game it became obvious that if I left my mob of slaves in combat that they were going to easily get wiped out, so I executed a careful removal of casualties from the front to get them disengaged. Then I executed a tactical retreat with them and closed in the gap with my Rat Ogres and Clanrats. Eventually the tide of battle turned and I had the Orcs severely on the run by the time the game ended. I was victorious!

What I Didn't Like:
* Pointless Warscrolls - Skaven slaves as an example. The lack of a point system does make things weird. I'd NEVER take slaves again if I played. There are a number of war scrolls for units that are essentially useless in the game as far as I can tell.
* Warscroll options - It's still a bit too complicated in terms of options on a warscroll. Things like "do these rats have 1 reach weapon or 2 short weapons" or whatever configuration. I get the whole "model accurate" thing, but there's also options that are not represented by models. Lots of notes needed and it's complicated. And again, no points, so why wouldn't I just load up every option?
* Ambiguity - There's definitely some ambiguity in the rules when resolving certain things like wound assignment to multi-wound models, or having multiple different types of banners. Maybe this will all get tightened up later.
* Measuring - Yeah, not using bases to measure is just dumb. I'm sorry, but it just made the game more complicated rather than easier.
* Initiative - I'm still not sure whether I like the way you roll each round for initiative. It can cause a pretty hard sway. In generally this is a bit of a preference thing for me though and I just haven't played as many you-go-i-go type games.

What I liked:
* Placement - The whole taking turns putting additional stuff on the board is an amusing dynamic. I could literally write a whole article about why I think this is a brilliant system. It becomes a combination of list building and deployment all at once. It gives you the option to adapt to what your opponent is placing to thus have a more balanced game. You have to make hard decisions quickly. It steers the game away from "playbook list building" and more towards an adapt-on-the-fly strategy game which I really love. This is hands down my favorite thing about this game. Or perhaps tied for my favorite thing...
* Hellpit Abomination - Straight up, totally fun on the board. It wrecks the shit out of things. The big models like that really shine as fun in this game format.
* Rat Ogres - Cause like, they are crazy amusing. They have lots of features and flexibility. It was fun crashing them into Orcs and watching massive chaos ensue.
* Clanrats - Cause nothing says amusing like a massive mob of 50 Clanrats all together getting big bonuses. Seriously though, I do really enjoy the whole "it's a huge mob of models moving in something resembling a formation" thing. This is one of the pieces of Warhammer that always appealed to me. I can totally see people continuing to use movement trays for big units and just house-ruling their usage in this new game system.
* Moar dice - Rolling tons of dice is pretty amusing. This game is great for it when you get to melee.
* Close combat - The game really gets epic when you're piling in huge amounts of stuff and the close combat trade offs turn into a game of chicken. This actually becomes a pretty important aspect of the game in that choosing when to activate something can make or break your whole army if you aren't careful.
* Strategy - There's definitely some tactical aspects to the game in knowing when to withdraw/feint and when to commit or reposition. More on that below, but I think this is easily overlooked.

Barriers to Playing:
So let's talk about this. Switching from Warhammer 8th ed to this has a barrier in that it's a clearly different game requiring a whole new mindset. Also because the war scrolls aren't balanced on a point system it's a whole new way of approaching what to include in your army. Previously you'd build (assemble/convert/paint/etc) your models with a plan of building a specific list. Now when you show up for a game, you likely need to bring your entire model collection to be well prepared. Yes, that's my opinion here: To play "competitively" you need to bring every model you have so that you can have appropriate things to counter what your opponent puts on the table.
What are my personally barriers to playing this? There's a few and I'll admit that lots of these are just cause I'm stuck in my own little bias.
1) I'm heavily financially invested in Warmachine/Hordes already.
2) I prefer games with really tight rule sets. This game is not nearly as tight as I prefer.
3) There's no way I'm painting hundreds more models for this game. I can't even catch up on the other games I play.

Why All The Hate??
Honestly I don't get all the hate for this new game. Let's review a few points:
* The rules are free, and there's an app. They've made it accessible.
* It plays relatively smooth and quick, in my opinion.
* Every model that existed before is still playable.
* Nothing is preventing players from playing the existing 8th ed game also!
Seriously though, I think when you step back and look at it, this is actually a pretty good game for what it is. I personally think this game is better than 8th edition was, admittedly based on 1 playing of each. But in the end, AoS is it's own game, and should be treated that way.

Overall Summary
Do I like AoS? Yes.
Will I play it again? Maybe, but rarely.
This game could fill a miniatures gaming niche for me of large scale strategy battles which I don't have a game for today. I honestly felt like there's a good opportunity for proper strategy in this game after pulling off a feint with my slaves. Games that enable more proper strategy rather than just "I rolled a 6 on this spell and your unit blows up" are good in my book. I like strategy and planning in my games. In any case, I had fun and it was definitely worth trying out.

Review: Shipping containers

Just a quick review on the Knight Models shipping containers "kit". I got 3 sets of these on a whim and have to say I'm very pleased with them. They look nice, are perfect scale to use with Warmachine, and go together really easily. The doors even open and close if you assemble them properly. Sure, they aren't painted and say Wayne on them, but honestly, for 10 minutes effort to assemble 2, it's a pretty sweet terrain option.

From the Desk: The Bag O Crap!

Last week I ordered the "Bag O Crap" from Secret Weapon Miniatures. For those of you not familiar with this, Secret Weapon throws all their miscast stuff into a bin and every so often they make up bags of those bits which they then sell. At first glance this might sound like buying garbage. To some degree it is a gamble. Some of the things are legitimate miscasts, and lots of it is just random with no clear knowledge of what will be in the bag. The Secret Weapon line includes terrain pieces and a variety of bits as well which makes the potential ingredients even more varied. Still though, I was already ordering a set of the Alien Temple bases anyway, so I figured why not throw in one of these bags for kicks. So what did I get?

Pictured here is all the stuff I decided to keep. A little over half the bag was bevel-edged bases which I mostly had no use for. I kept everything from the Alien Temple line for experimentation purposes and I kept all of the terrain bits and round-lipped bases. Out of all the stuff pictured here, only a couple were what I consider "badly miscast", and even then they are recoverable. Many of the bases are perfectly fine, including a really sweet 120mm base. One of the bad miscasts was a 50mm Alien Temple base so I'm using it as an experiment base right now.

All things considered, I'm pretty happy with this bag o crap and I'm looking forward to getting another one next time they do this.

And no, I am not being compensated in any way for this review. I bought the Bag O Crap at normal price and at my own risk. I just happen to have really enjoyed getting it and wanted to share my excitement.

Class Review: Scenic Basing with Seth Amsden

This last weekend I had the pleasure of attending a basing workshop given by Seth Amsden. The aim was to impart Seth's techniques and thought process on how he builds scenic bases, particularly plinths, for the projects he works on. My review here won't do justice to the class, so instead I'm going to dump some of the photos from the class and then just dump all of my random notes here for reference. Let me just comment first that Seth was a great teacher and a remarkable artist. He put a strong emphasis on using reference photos, especially taking pictures of the places where he collects basing materials from.

Photo Dump Section!

Example base from Seth. This one was a great example of a classic scenic base.

Another example. This one started as a chunk of wood. And yes, he painted the wood to make it look like wood.

My base after 3 hours of work. Obviously not primed. I was creating a little scene where someone created a small makeshift foxhole. We'll see if I end up using this for a real project or not. It doesn't look like much here for 3 hours of work, but this is actually a huge leap forward from anything I've done before. I tried to incorporate all the elements and techniques that Seth showed us previously to make sure I had absorbed the understanding.

Seth painting his example base. This was a unique sort of experience to watch. He first primed it black, then did a directional white primer coat to set lighting direction. Then to paint it he dunked the whole thing in water and proceeded to put paint straight from the droppers in a bunch of places. Then he used a fairly large brush (probably a 4 or 5) and washed and blended the paint around. The whole thing stayed wet. The philosophy here is that it creates a color harmony over the larger area and the wet on wet allows the primer coat to show through a bit which automagically creates highlights as well. He used blue-greys on the stones and browns on the earth parts. The net result was sort of a classic Mike McVey 2-step process that goes from base coat to magical highlights and shading in a single step. For me this was a massive "Ah ha!" moment though for painting larger bases like this.

Note Dump Section!
So here's a dump of all the notes I scribbled down. If you're curious for more details, just post a comment and I'll explain in more detail.

• Yellow Milliput is the best to use for basing due to it's "grit" level.
• Combine yellow Milliput and Green Stuff (60/40 ratio) as a good working putty for basing. Mix each separately then combine and mix. The green stuff gives it more working time, and the Milliput makes it harder. Adding just a touch of water helps in the whole mixing process too.
• The above mixture is great for making banners too. Roll out a thin sheet of it and press a cotton t-shirt into it slightly to give it some texture.
• After mixing the Milliput and Green Stuff, mix in some of the long static grass (the 2" length stuff) into the mix. Then tear off chunks and the grass will stick out of the putty like tiny roots. It also creates a nice natural texture to the putty on the torn edge. I can't express how much of a great tip this was. All of the residual grass sticking out of my project plinth was from that method.
• To create a nice "receptacle" point for the model that will be added, create a little spot of putty and press the model into it.
• When using grass tufts, use small scissors to trim them to different heights.
• "O" scale model railroad stuff is the best scale typically.
• When using oils, do a quick gloss seal first. Seth uses Future Floor Wax (or an equivalent) for this. The wax has a self-leveling agent that fills in the tiny pores creating a smoother surface for the oils to spread over. After finishing with oils, seal with matte sealer before proceeding since they take a long time to dry.
• Future Floor is also good for washes since the leveling agent will help drive the wash into the recesses. It also dries really fast so it's great for quick sealing passes or washes in that respect.
• Future is also handy for thinning inks for the above mentioned reasons.
• "Inks before washes". I didn't get a chance to ask more about this comment.
• Partway through the workshop, Seth gave everyone (that was relatively new to airbrushing) a ping pong ball. He said the practice exercise is to put it on a stick and try shading it like a sphere. It's apparently harder than it sounds.
• Mix dry pigments with oils to create textured effects, like moss.
• When working with oils, use two brushes: the first is to apply points of paint in the various places, the second clean and dry brush is for working the oil around. Oil paints tend to be fairly transparent and will let the lower layers show through better than acrylics.
• Use mineral spirits to clean brushes after using oils.
• Seth swears by Andrea paints.
• Use tree/bush roots to create branches.
• For the demo base Seth did and then again for mine, the steps went roughly like this: glue down big rocks. Add putty/grass mixture. Add branches/roots. Stuff in slate pieces, medium rocks, etc. Glue in small rocks/sand mixture.
• Seth sometimes uses a "glue where it falls" approach. So glue down a big piece of something that can be crumbled, then lay down a layer of glue around it, then use pliers to crush it and let the crushed pieces fall into the glue. Simulates gravity and erosion all at once!

Shopping List Section!
This is just a quick shopping list of things I need to get and add to my hobby arsenal:

• Slate tile from DIY store - Take it into the back yard with a towel and a hammer and smash it to make little slate chips. Seth's example bases both used these.
• More glue - Especially superglue. I used a ton of it.
• Pink Insulation Foam - I should have had this long ago, but finally I have a better reason for it.
• Brass Etched Jungle Leaves - I bought a small pack at the store when I was there, but I see myself using far more of these in the future.
• Superglue Accelerator - I've never seen a critical need for this, but Seth's process moved fast in assembling a larger base and there's a definite value in that.
• Disposable Gloves - Mainly for working with Milliput. I've always hated working with Milliput before but Seth's class has turned me around. But using gloves is clearly mandatory.
• Oil Paints - I'll probably spend more time practicing with the ones I already have, but I can see myself using these more in the future.
• Andrea paints - I need to just find these and order some. I keep hearing how great they are.

Review: Vallejo Surface Primer

For the longest time I have been a die hard fan of Duplicolor Sandable Primer. Until today. I got a tip from my friend Bryan about using Vallejo Surface Primer and spraying it on using an airbrush. Now at first I was a bit skeptical, but Bryan is a very reliable source of information and I figured I'd give it a try. A few clicks later and a 200ml bottle of white primer was on its way. It sat on my desk for a few days since I was still focused on finishing up Bishop and needed to decide what to prep. I also spent a little time building a better (and collapsable) backstop for airbrushing in front of. Last night I broke out my low grade airbrush and primed 3 models. So how did it go?

The Good:
This is really amazing. The Vallejo Surface Primer is good to begin with, but using it through the airbrush is almost effortlessly perfect. The primer itself goes on nice and smooth and works well. The biggest problems I've always had with it pooling and not getting proper coverage was due to using a normal brush. But with the airbrush I can easily get a nice thin even coat over the whole model and do it really quickly. I even did a little test painting already on the coat and paint adheres to it really well. Plus the benefit of being able to prime indoors without nasty fumes is just enormous, especially with winter setting in. No more fears of grainy primer coats ruining an otherwise good model!

The Bad:
Honestly the only drawback is the setup time to use the airbrush as opposed to the spray can. It also requires a bit more attention to cleaning than normal due to it being primer. Beyond that small time investment, I'm hard pressed to find another drawback.

The Verdict:
I don't see that I'll be using can primer again unless I'm in a huge rush. The benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. I highly recommend that anyone out there with an airbrush look into doing it this way if you aren't already. Now I just need to order some in black and grey and I'm off to the races.

From the Desk: Pantone Color Guides Book Review

Book Title: Pantone Guide to Communicating with Color and Color: Messages & Meanings - A PANTONE Color Resource
Author: Leatrice Eiseman

The Pantone guides are sort of an industry standard, particularly for advertising. After reading both of these books I can see why. I originally bought these books because I was looking for a resource that would provide me with more insights into the associations between colors and evoked emotions, and I definitely got that in these books.


What I learned:

These books are the 5th in my series of book reviews. In the course of my readings I've read books aimed at mostly artists. In my past (as an armchair theoretical physicist) I've read plenty of books that dealt with the topic of light and color in that realm as well. However this is the first time I've read a book aimed at marketing and advertising. The fascinating thing is the book treats the topic of color more from the perspective of psychology than anything else. But not in a soft fluffy way. It's a very scientific psychological study of color. They've done thousands of interviews with focus groups. They weave in information from physics, biology and sociology. It really opened my eyes even further to the complex world of color.

The second Pantone guide does an incredible job of breaking down colors and showing related word associations most commonly evoked by each color. This part is invaluable in particular and was exactly what I was hoping for.

And one last interesting fact that I learned: 20% of visual information taken in by the eyes is directed to the pituitary gland. That's pretty fascinating.


What I liked:

It had exactly what I wanted in terms of word/emotion association for a wide selection of colors, as well as general impressions of color families.

The color printing quality is, of course, top notch. I honestly expected nothing less, but after experiencing books with sub-par or even poor color printing I've gotten much more picky about this.

The additional information about the perception of color was a welcome addition. There were plenty of little tidbits of information that I found particularly interesting.

There are loads of sample color swatches using a Dominant, Subordinate, and Accent model. And when I say loads, I really mean loads. Several hundred swatches. And they are all grouped together into themes. The swatches are not only good for finding examples, but from them you can extrapolate your own swatch pretty easily.


What I didn't care for:

In the end, I didn't really need to buy both books. That's probably my only complaint. I could have also done without the basic color wheel theory stuff they threw in, but I completely understand why it's there and since it was limited to just a couple pages I didn't mind.


What I would have liked to have:

The one thing I would have loved is simple condensed chart with small color swatches next to it of all the associations. Obviously that would be a lot of information to condense down though. I might end up making my own at some point if I find myself with a bunch of free time.


Overall though, these are great books and I see myself referring back to them many times in the future.

From the Desk: Creative Color Book Review

Book title: Creative Color
Author: Faber Birren

Yes, I'm already reviewing another book on color theory. My recent flight to Shanghai afforded me many hours of time to read and I literally read this book all in one sitting. This book was a somewhat random pick for me. I was searching around on Amazon looking for a book that had information about the emotions evoked by various colors and somehow came up with this book. Now admittedly, I had expectations of this book that didn't come to fruition, so I have a somewhat biased view of it.


What I learned:

True purple doesn't exist in sunlight! It had never occurred to me, but purple is a fabrication of red and blue, which are at the ends of the color spectrum when sunlight is split by a prism. Once I stopped to think about it I realized it was obvious. It also goes along with why the human eye sees yellows and greens as brighter than other colors, since they are in the middle of the sunlight spectrum.

"Psychological study has shown that the average person will readily distinguish about nine steps from black to white." If I use myself as an average person, this isn't true. But check for yourself using the below chart of 16 steps.

x00

x11

x22

x33

x44

x55

x66

x77

x88

x99

xAA

xBB

xCC

xDD

xEE

xFF

There's definitely a couple that blend in, so it's interesting to note. For me the first 2 appear identical, but the rest are easy to identify. Perhaps their study was influenced by having borders between the different steps, which I learned from Interaction of Color will definitely influence the experienced value. In any case, another interesting point made is that a mid-tone grey is usually picked out at a ratio of roughly 3:1 black to white. Again, I didn't find this to be personally true. Example:

x000000 x000000 x000000

x888888 x888888 x888888

xFFFFFF xFFFFFF xFFFFFF

Perhaps they are speaking specifically when using paint.


What I liked:

There's a really good section about a painting technique of the Old Masters called Chiaroscuro. The relevant part to paint mixing is that when shading or lightening a color, add a little bit of the color (hue) in to keep the ratio strong. For example, when creating a darker shade of pink, add both black and a little bit of red. This will keep the ratio of red to white/black more consistent and keep the color vibrant and strong. I found this to be of huge help just to know. It was sort of a 'eureka!' moment for me because it gave me a solid explanation why shading colors with things like P3 Coal Black or Umbral Umber helps keep the color more vibrant and interesting.

A few key wording definitions were actually quite helpful to walk away with:

• Lustrous - Reflects light (example: metal)
• Iridescent - Diffracts light, splitting the spectrum like a prism (example: mother of pearl)
• Luminous - Gives off light (example: the sun)

What I didn't care for:

The color printing quality of this book was, in my opinion, poor. Many places there are color plates that are meant to illustrate differences of colors and I found them to not actually have color differences between some swatches. It was frustrating to say the least.

The author talks a lot about the "non-objective" style of art, which personally I found to be a huge turn off. Particularly in the realm of miniature painting, non-objective art is a rather useless pursuit since miniature painting is, but it's very medium, about painting an object to look like that object.


What I would have liked to have:

I would have really liked more color plates (and of course of better quality). Perhaps I was spoiled by Interaction of Color but the more I train my eyes, the more sensitive I am to poor printing quality of colors.
As a final note, there wasn't really anything about emotions evoked by colors in this book. Perhaps that biases my view of it as a whole (along with the other great books I have read recently), but I have to say that other than the couple of key takeaways, I didn't really get a whole lot from this book.

From the Desk: Interaction of Color Book Review

Book title: Interaction of Color
Author: Josef Albers

Written almost 50 years ago, this book really caught me off-guard. It is written with a very practical mindset of experimentation and observation. Unlike other color theory books I've read, this book's studies utilize color paper to create plates for study purposes, rather than allow for the blending of two colors via mixable pigments. The result is a number of very scientific-like observations about the perception of color, and more specifically, the interaction of multiple colors when placed next to each other in various ways and combinations.


What I learned:

The perception of color is unique to each person, and there is no way to actually know how another person perceives color. Albers puts this forward early on in what seems like a statement to undermine the rest of the book, but he's very right. Color blindness is a perfect example of how we know that some people definitely do not perceive color in the same way.

The perception of one color is influenced by colors that are surrounding it. The amount and type of influence obviously depends on the colors. Some examples of this are after-image effects, hue shifts, value shifts, and vibrating boundaries. This is particularly valuable in painting miniatures, especially when thinking about what colors are bordering each other. One such summation of this is the Bezold Effect.

In addition to looking at colors as warm or cool (traditionally yellow-orange-red vs blue), it was also mentioned schools of thoughts that look at scales of light/dark (blue-violet vs yellow-orange), and wet/dry (green vs violet-red-orange). It had never really occurred to me to think of all these comparisons, but having it pointed out makes it obvious. I suspect I'll be incorporating this into my upcoming P3 color wheel project.

Honestly, I learned a lot more from this book. I've added a whole extra section to this review at the bottom with a bunch of other highlights of those items.


What I liked:

Color plates - These were awesome. Printed with great color accuracy, these color plates did an incredible job of demonstrating the various color interactions described by Albers. Some of them were so vivid in their demonstrations that it was hard not to stare at them for several minutes.

Short but sweet - The book is concise and to the point. About half of the book was the actual text content and the other half was color plates with annotations. I didn't skip a single word of this book, and that's really saying something because most "educational" books end up with some amount of content that I lightly skim read because there's too much repetition or over-explanation.


What I didn't care for:

Two books put together - Having the color plates in the second half of the book was a little disjointed. I ended up with two bookmarks as I worked my way through the whole thing. Not necessarily a huge issue and I get why it was done, but still a little frustrating.

A little too concise - I could have actually stood to have this work be a bit longer. Some items in it barely get a one line treatment and then he moves on. There's sort of an assumption of plenty of prior art training I think. Both a plus and a minus on this one.


What I would have liked to have:

More color plates! Even though there were a number of (obviously) carefully chosen plates, I could have used even more examples. Certainly I can make some of my own, but having more would have been great.

Beyond that, the book really felt complete. Probably because it was the output of the classes that Albers taught. And with that, I'll leave you with a quote I found incredibly appropriate both from and for this book:

... good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.


Glossary of a bunch of other stuff I learned:

• Scotopic vs Photopic vision - Scotopic is "low light" vision which is predominantly from the rods of the eye. Those are more sensitive to the blue-green range of wavelengths, which is why things appear more blue at night. Photopic is at the higher light, supported more by cones in the eye, and obviously more sensitive to red-yellow ranges of light.
• The Weber-Fechner Law - Perception of an arithmetic progression of color darkness depends on a geometric physical progression of the application of that color. That is to say, to have a range of colors look like they are equal darkness steps apart requires a geometrically increasing application of paint (1, 2, 4, 8, 16 layers of paint to create a progression of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
• The Munsell Color Tree - A 3 dimensional charting of colors. The first color system that broke down color qualities into hue, value, and chroma. Ironically, the color wheel I purchased not too long ago us a representation of the Munsell system.
• Ostwald Color System - Similar to Munsell system, but organizes by dominant wavelength, purity, and luminance.
• Faber Birren Color System - I'm still not entirely clear on this one since it was mentioned in half a sentence, but I've already ordered a book.

Something Different: Helvetica

The other evening while painting I watched a documentary called Helvetica. Now my point is not to do a review of the movie (which was a fine documentary), but rather to point out how it got me pondering. The Helvetica font has quickly become a very common choice, particularly for signs and logos. There's plenty of reasons why (which is what the documentary goes into) and they make sense. However what it got me pondering is how often we don't notice such stylistic commonalities. Take for example a door. So often there will be slight stylistic variations to the door's handle (size, color, etc), but there are many doors which have virtually the same door handle. It's not due to there being very few door handle manufacturers (as evidenced by the slight stylistic variations), but rather due to the usability design and ease of function of the door handles. That is to say, many door handles look virtually the same so that we, as humans, can easily assess how to use them without significant conscious thought. Helvetica got me thinking about this as well in terms of color choices, visual styles, and just overall appearance. How often are the visual qualities of things similar just for our cognitive convenience. And perhaps more importantly, how does that subconsciously influence us as artists?

I have no real answer to this. Rather I'm curious what others think. Some of the most striking miniatures I've seen have been models that set aside the "normal" and did something really different. Sure, some of them were by world class painters, but many weren't, and that's not really what matters. I've seen plenty of models painted with smooth blending, perfect zenithal highlighting, and rick color usage, and as impressive as they might be, they can sometimes feel all the same when taken in context of subjects where the artist really stepped out. Here's some examples of models that I found very striking.

This Ramos by Eric Johns is probably the first paint job that really caught me off guard with how unique it was, and it still stands out in my memory as a favorite. What stands out to me so much is not the OSL specifically, but the implied story that the overall piece inspires. I can't help but look at it and wonder if he's hunting someone or something in the cool damp night. This is of course a beautiful paint job, but the vision is what really strikes me. In the vein of imitation is the highest form of flattery, this model has served as inspiration to many other painters.

This "magma troll" by my buddy Lance is another such example of having a vision and working to make it reality. Despite not being a "world class" painter, he's captured the essence of his vision here, and the implied background is clear. There's several magma trolls on his blog, including a brilliant Mulg, which all come together to make a beautiful looking army.

This epic Skarre model is not necessarily my favorite. I'm not even really sure that I like it at all. However it is striking. Not because of the buttery smooth blending or well executed NMM, but rather because of the well executed dual light source implication. If anything, I think it's too complicated for the viewer to immediately interpret what is supposed to be going on around the model to cause the lighting, but still the vision was quite intriguing. In that respect I am very much in awe of this model. It's not often I come across a model that I don't personally like, but sticks in my memory so strongly.

This Rahn (which I'd posted a link to previously) was also quite striking to me. The mood of the overall model is great, but I think what struck me most was how the base was so incorporated into the complete look. Not in the normal building up of a base, but in a very different "the base is the light source" way.

So where was I... There are common things all around us, and particularly as painters, these commonalities can slide us right into a rut without realizing it. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with painting a Khador jack red, or painting troll flesh blue. The documentary Helvetica just got me thinking that many times I paint parts of models without necessarily making conscious decisions about how to paint those parts (like leather for example). Just because I have a "proven" technique for doing something doesn't mean I should use it all the time.

Ok, that was much longer of a post than I expected. I imagine about 90% of readers abandoned reading this post long ago, so if you made it this far I thank you and ask that perhaps you post a comment with a model that you found particularly striking to share inspiration with others.

From the Desk: Color Choices Book Review

Book title: Color Choices
Author:Stephen Quiller

This book came recommended to me by another painter, and I have to say it was definitely worth the read. The intended audience of this book however is not really that close to the miniature painting hobby domain. Now before I continue with this review, I should make clear that I am not very educated on art history and will freely use terms that I may not fully understand. With that disclaimer in mind, I'm aiming to give a review of this (quite good) book from a miniature painter's perspective.


What I learned:

This book is jam packed with information about color, color schemes, and approaches to choosing a palette of colors for a subject. Perhaps the first big lesson was that there are other color wheels out there besides the classic one. The "Quiller Color Wheel" (laid out by Stephen Quiller obviously) has a slightly different arrangement of colors. Without getting into too many details about it, one of the things I found fascinating was the arrangement of colors such that if yellow is at 12:00 on the wheel, a grey scale bar can be put beside the wheel going from white at the top (aligned horizontally with yellow) to black (aligned with purple) and represent the relative brightness of the colors in horizontal alignment with the grey scale.

This book really gave me a stronger eye for the hue of a color. More on that later, but a preview is that I had 2 color wheels on my desk. I had never noticed it before, but the hue of the colors on each of them varied a bit. I have since retired the color wheel that I consider to be less accurate. This "gift" so to speak, from this book, is probably the most valuable lesson I learned.

It also goes over in detail the traditional color schemes: monochromatic, complementary, harmonious, split complimentary, and triadic. Although I knew about all of these before, Quiller goes over them in a bit more detail and talks about strategies in employing them. I found this additional perspective to be fairly interesting.


What I liked:

First, this book gave me motivation to use my own paints (P3 mainly) to experiment with putting together my own reference color wheel. The color value chart on the side of the color wheel is another part I really liked. I'll be doing more posts on that later.

Second, this book got me to experiment more with color. I've got a few swatches of color mixing that I used to get a better handle on how colors mix together.

Third, Quiller does a good job of reinforcing the need to feel one's way through the project. He's a big proponent of connecting with his subject and channeling that feeling of connection to make the production really come alive. I found it to be a good balance between discipline and freedom that he portrays. Subtle and unclear perhaps, but I appreciated it nonetheless.


What I didn't care for:

Straight up, this book is geared towards "2D" artists, and many of the examples are primarily done in an impressionist style with watercolors. This makes it a much more challenging exercise to translate it into miniature painting. The impressionist part is probably less challenge. Watercolors on the other hand behave very differently from acrylics.

Second, the color printing quality was somewhat lacking. Different color wheels presented in the book in different places have different hues. Now whether this was intentional or not I have no idea, but as a student to the book, it was frustrating to say the least.


What I would have liked to have:

Honestly I think this was a good book. It required a bit of heavy mental lifting on my part to really absorb it, but this book inspired me to experiment with my own paints in a way that no other book or class or piece of advice has ever done before. If anything I would have just preferred to have a stronger feeling that the color printing quality was consistent throughout the book.

From the Desk: Color and Light Book Review

Book title: Color and Light
Author: James Gurney

James Gurney (creator of Dinotopia) writes what is arguably one of the best books on color theory. No really, if you don't believe me, check out the reviews and ratings on Amazon! Honestly I really enjoyed this book. It's strikes a great balance between explanation and example. It covers a huge range of topics. And best of all, it's very accessible to non-classically trained painters such as myself (I have a whole 4 college art classes under my belt). As I sit here with the book on my desk while writing this brief review, I'm struck by the fact that there are over a dozen post-its sticking out from pages that I marked for reference. Definitely worth the investment to add to my meager library of art books.


What I learned:
The green problem - Common in nature, but can end up dominating a scene, so some artists have banished it from the palette. I'd never thought about it because miniatures don't tend to have this problem, but paintings of forests can cause havoc for an artist due to the amount of green. Nature's "green" is deceptive in the number of other tonal shades in it.

Proper definitions - It was nice to learn proper definitions for the 3 key qualities of a color. Specifically (and here's my paraphrased versions):

• Hue - The "color"
• Value - Measure of brightness on a B/W scale. Also called luminance.
• Chroma - Perceived strength of a color, as relative from neutrality. Sometimes called saturation. Think of the difference between Khador Red Highlight and Skorne Red as an example of reduced chroma.

Gamut Mapping - Another useful tool for selecting a specific palette of colors to work with. Create a triangle and only work within that triangle. Good for limiting the brightness of a palette and keeping harmony. "Pre-mixing" a palette for a miniature painter would be just picking out the paints and staying with just those. I'm definitely going to give this a try I think.


What I liked:
It's a very well organized book. Everything is accessible to the untrained provided they have at least worked with color a bit. The reference photos and paintings are very well chosen. And best of all, it covers probably 90% of what I had questions about.


What I didn't care for:
This book has a fair amount of focus on the traditional canvas painter. No doubt there's plenty of useful stuff for the miniature painter in here as well, and obviously miniature (or any "3D" painting) is not nearly as common. However much of the content about how light "works" is in relation to rendering in 2D which is not so helpful. Honestly this is a pretty small gripe against the book all things considered.


What I would have liked to have:
Some more discussion about texture would have been very helpful. There's a little, but obviously an exhaustive dive into rendering texture to a painting would be a pretty huge task.


And that's that! Hopefully you've found this review somewhat helpful. There's plenty of other reviews out there for this book, but I tried to bring more of a miniatures painter's view to it.

From the Desk: Displaying Models

There's plenty of discussion out there about how to transport models, but displaying them at home is a whole different ballgame. Perhaps I'm slightly insane, but I like to have all my painted models in a display case. Whether it's pride or an obsessive compulsive streak, I actually enjoy unpacking my models from the toolbox and placing them back on glass display shelves. For those of you looking for such options, I'm going to review two such cases that I've had first hand experience with.

First is the Detolf case from Ikea. I really liked this display case a lot. It's remarkably study for being 4 sheets of glass. A while ago I posted about adding shelves to that case as well, which worked great. The upsides of the Detolf:
* It's relatively cheap
* It looks nice
* It doesn't require lights in order to get good views of models (especially with glass on all sides)
The downsides:
* It's glass all around (making it rather unsafe for toddlers)
* It has distinct gaps on either side of the door that let in a fair amount of dust

The second case, which is the one I have now, is the Bjursta (also from Ikea). There are two reasons that I "upgraded" to this display case. The first is that I simply ran out of space in the Detolf. The second reason is that I have a new son, and I needed something a little safer. I actually blocked out the glass on the lower doors with cardboard for the time being. The upsides of the Bjursta:
* It holds way more models, probably 5 times as much shelf space as an unmodified Detolf
* It's easier to make toddler-safe
* It has a convenient drawer in the middle to hold cards, dice, books, tokens, etc
* The shelf heights are adjustable
The downsides:
* It needs lighting added
* It's definitely more expensive, especially when adding in the cost of lighting
* It has a larger floor footprint, approximately twice that of the Detolf
* Reduced viewing angles of models inside

There are plenty of other options out there. When you look for a case, there are a few key things to keep in mind:
* Model height: Determine what your largest model is, then make sure the case has plenty of height for that model.
* Maneuvering space: Again, in regard to shelf heights, make sure you have plenty of space to get your hands in and move models around safely without knocking things over.
* Capacity: Make sure whatever you get has plenty of space for everything you want to display, with room to expand as well.

And now a quick picture. This is the top half of my own Bjursta case. It has all of my Protectorate, Legion, Cryx, and Malifaux models, with room to spare still. I added the led display lights to it with a switch on top of the case to activate them all. So far I've been extremely happy with this case.

From the Desk: GW Foundations Review

This week I'm doing a quick review of a relatively well-known product: GW Foundation paints. I'm sure many people out there have used them before, and I've mentioned them several times previously on this blog. However I figured it would be a good idea to give them a quick review here to make sure people knew what they were all about.

About a year ago, I was fortunate enough to win a complete set of these foundation paints. But even previous to that I had picked up a few colors after hearing a fellow painter talk about them. The Foundation paints are basically just formulated with a very very high pigment ratio. The intention is to provide excellent coverage in as few coats as possible. However, before I get too far into that, let's look at some actual test results:

For my first test I started with a blue/green-ish color painted over a piece of white plasticard. I should point out that I did not prime the plasticard at all. Each stripe was painted using a quick single stroke, with the intention of applying roughly the same amount of paint for each. My aim was to apply an amount of paint that would attempt to cover, but not diminish details too much. From left to right, the paints used are P3 Coal Black, Vallejo Dark Sea Blue, GW Foundation Orkhide Shade, and Reaper Master Series Green Shadow. As you can see, most of these covered quite well. Blue/green provides a good level of coverage in general, particularly in darker tones. On to test number two...

Red is traditionally a difficult color for a number of reasons, not the least of which is coverage. From left to right we have P3 Sanguine Highlight, Vallejo Burnt Cad, GW Foundation Mechrite Red, and Reaper Master Series Violet Red. Comparing these there is little contest. The only reason the Vallejo color does so well is that it's a darker shade (sorry, I didn't have a lighter shade on hand). The P3 color does an ok job, but a second coat would be necessary. The Reaper color does a pretty abysmal job.

So, were these tests fair? Yes and no. To make for a really fair test I'd need to get matching shades, and unfortunately I couldn't really afford (or want) to go out and buy matching shades of paints, particularly if I have no intention of using them again. However the test is pretty fair in that I didn't thin anything, and the target surface was uniform and the application amounts were fairly even.

Would further tests help? You bet. Sampling more colors and testing on black primed surfaces as well would provide other comparisons. I can vouch that the Foundations perform quite well over black primer where almost all other lines require a couple coats, particularly for lighter colors.

What are the limitations of the Foundations? Two big limitations are the relatively limited color range, and the speed with which the dry. I can't emphasize the latter point enough. They dry fast which means you can't do any meaningful blending and you need to pay attention to the build-up in your brush. It also means you need to pay attention to putting down a smooth coat the first time or you could end up with some added "texture" to your model's surface.

Are they worth buying? Yes and no. Depending on the color they range from little more than convenient to absolutely necessary. I've personally gone through more than one pot of the Mechrite Red, and the range of yellows/tans are extremely helpful. Other colors like the blues get nearly no usage. Honestly it boils down to this: If you have colors you commonly base coat with and have to do more than 2 coats, you might consider getting a Foundation color that matches relatively close to your base coat. Also I wouldn't necessarily recommend these for competition work since you need to be careful in applying the coats due to the thickness of the paint.

From the Desk: Flip Video Review

Originally I had intended to do a demo video of two-brush-blending, however it became obvious to me very quickly that I had no experience with doing any video work. So, this post is going to be part review, part how-to, and very much a demo of my lack of video skills.

Results:
Before I get into any of the review or how-to parts, I'll start right off with the results: This video I took of myself doing two-brush-blending on my test model. Note that there is no intentional audio for this video.


What I Used:
The video was taken with my new Flip Video MinoHD. I picked out this model specifically for home video as I have a new son. I did not pick out this model with miniatures filming in mind. I put the Flip on the mini-tripod that I use for my normal miniature photography, and used my normal painting desk lamp for the lighting. The video is posted through Youtube.

How-To:
Once again I must point out that I am no expert. There are plenty of things that I can improve upon. My goal was simply to do an initial test to see what level of quality I got and what sort of improvements would be next. Comments are of course welcome, but know that I'm already doing research to figure out how to improve my process. That being said...

All I did was put the Flip on the tripod, line up all my equipment, and shoot the video. I think this particular one was the 4th attempt, with minimal differences between them. The real differences were in trying to make sure I framed as much as possible to convey how the two-brush-blending mechanically works but still give enough detail of the paint itself. All things considered, it wasn't that successful. Anyway, once I shot the video, I simply plug the Flip into my computer (via the pop-out USB connector built into the Flip), transferred the video, and then uploaded it to my newly created Youtube account. I did absolutely zero video editing on this video before uploading it, which means that the original HD video is actually on there. I should note that it took forever to upload a 3 minute HD video.

Review:
The Flip itself is pretty slick. The built-in USB connector is handy, and the interface is brain-dead-simple to use. However, it has no settings to speak of so you pretty much just get HD all the time, and any editing must be done on a computer. Also there's no macro mode, so the focus in this video is terrible. For taking video of painting it didn't work out so great. However for the price point it's not terrible, and with some additional experience and tweaking there's still potential. For larger projects (like terrain making) it would probably be sweet. Also note that I didn't experiment with the audio at all, so I can't speak to the quality of that, although my experience of shooting other family video has been relatively good thus far.

Well, there you have it. Serious amateur hour from me this week, but it definitely gives you some perspective on the total newbie experience of posting video in the realm of miniature painting.

From the Desk: Brush Care 101

This week I'm going to cover brush care for natural hair brushes and review a product I am particularly fond of. During this post I'll refer to specific parts of a brush, so if you want a quick overview of the anatomy of a brush, check out this link. Also, rather than bore you with extra details, I've included some links out to other sources where some trivia exists.

Choosing a brush is a very personal choice, and I'm not going to tout my own personal choice in this article. However at the very high level is a choice between synthetic and natural hair brushes. The products listed below are meant for natural hair brushes. I make no claims as to their performance on synthetic brushes.

I personally use Winsor & Newton Series 7 round brushes, in sizes varying from 0 to 2. I have multiples of each, and as the quality of one degrades, I buy new ones and rotate the batch down. This allows me to continue to use the degraded ones for base coating and washing work, and preserve the higher quality ones for precision is needed. Series 7 brushes are made from kolinsky fur. There are a variety of other kolinsky or sable hair brushes out there that perform differently. Again, this is a personal preference and I won't get into a comparison here. The important point is that these brushes are using actual natural hair from animals.

Before...
Here you can see a couple of my working brushes. You'll notice that there is an obvious deposit of paint where the brush head meets the ferrule. This is a common problem, particularly as a result of using washes and not carefully cleaning a brush after every use. Regardless of how careful you are, paint will very likely build up in the ferrule over time. As paint builds up in the ferrule, this will cause the bristles to splay outward, ruining the brush's point. With the right care however, you can keep a brush clean and like new for quite some time.

Products:
The first product tip I have is dish soap, particularly a kind that is good for your hands. I use Palmolive for this myself. The soap quality has the ability to help break down water cohesion and allow the paint to better flow out of the brush. Soaps like Palmolive have moisturizing qualities as well which will help condition the natural hairs of the brush. Note that it takes very little such soap. I use old jam jars for my rinse jars (water I use to clean my brushes during a painting session) which are approximately 12 fluid ounces, and for that I only use 2-3 drops of soap. The effects are not perceptible on an individual use basis, but over time it does make a difference.

Next in the lineup is actual brush soap. This stuff comes in a little plastic screw-top container. The soap itself, when you first get it, is very hard and difficult to work with. However after a few uses it gets more and more wet and works into a sort of thick paste. This works very much like the dish soap, but in a more concentrated effort. When you use it, rub the brush around to work the soap throughout the head of the brush and clean the bristles. This will help to work the small amounts of paint out of the brush head. This product is intended to be used after every painting session. Note however that you should not use this in the middle of a painting session as the soap will dramatically affect any paint you are applying if you haven't washed it all out of the brush head.

Finally on the docket is a product I am particular fond of: W&N Brush Cleaner. This product is specifically designed for the care and restoration of natural hair brushes. I use this every 2-3 months, as the process is relatively inhibiting for getting painting work done. Again, this product will dramatically affect your paints if it is not completely washed out of the brush head before returning to painting. Also, for the brush-lickers out there, it tastes horrible and is detectable if even a tiny bit is still present in the brush.

Using the W&N Brush Cleaner...
This picture probably seems a little insane, so let me explain how to use this cleaner. First, the brush head needs to be completely submerged in the cleaner for several hours. Second, the brush should only be immersed into the cleaner up to the ferrule, but not all the way to the handle. I can speak from personal experience that the cleaner can actually dissolve the lacquer from the brush handle, which will weaken the join between the crimp and the handle and it will, literally, fall apart. Third, obviously the brush should not just be thrown into the container and rest on the brush head, as this will distort the bristles permanently. I have solved for this by drilling holes in my brush handles and using wire to hold them up so that the brush head is immersed in a smaller container of the cleaner (specifically an old paint pot). I make sure that the brush head is not resting against the side of the paint pot as well, for the same bristle distortion reasons mentioned above. I then leave this overnight and clean the brush head out under lukewarm water the next day.

The net result can sometimes be striking, depending on how much paint was built up in the ferrule. The cleaner actually works to "push" paint residue out of the ferrule somehow, and loosen it from the hairs of the brush. Not it is not a miracle working agent. Not everything will come out of the brush. However it does make a noticeable difference, and helps to condition the hairs of the brush for prolonged life. Also, it's safe to say that buying one bottle of this will last you a very very long time. I've had this bottle for at least 3 years now and can't imagine I will ever exhaust it. Definitely worth the price I paid for it.

Well, there you have it, my personal tips on brush care. I will freely admit that I could take better care of my brushes and get even more life out of them. A lot of it is just discipline to clean brushes after every session. In any case, thanks for reading, and please share any other tips floating around out there!

From the Desk: Palettes

In what may turn into a weekly sort of review post for me, I'd like to share my thoughts on porcelain palettes. For all of you that have very strong opinions about whatever you happen to believe is the best thing, I have nothing against it. Everyone has their own preferences for palettes, even among the top painters. Jeremie Bonamant swears by a home-made wet palette, Laszlo Jakusovszky uses porcelain spot plates, and Mike McVey reportedly used leftover pieces of plasticard. I've personally used all 3 (and some others), and keep coming back to porcelain palettes. So, let me share a little more about my experience.

First a touch of science, although not too much science. Porcelain is essentially, clay that is fired to fix its shape, and in the process forms some amount of glass. There are many varieties of porcelain, but for the purposes of paint palettes, they are fired at high temperatures and the formation of glass is part of what makes them impermeable to liquids. This makes them idea for using with acrylic paints. Acrylic paints (GW, P3, Vallejo, etc) are basically plastic polymers in a liquid suspension. When the suspension dries, it leaves the polymers deposited on the surface and they form into a hard(er) material. The suspension allows the polymer to easily form to the surface it is being deposited on. This polymer can however lose adhesion to its surface when too much moisture is applied (depending on the particular acrylic paint formula).

What does that have to do with palettes you may ask? Well, the advantage of using porcelain palettes is that the glassy surface makes for less surface texture for the paint to adhere to. I used to use a plastic palette and was always frustrated with trying to clean it. Well duh, the plastic has a zillion irregularities (seriously, I counted them one day) for the paint to adhere to, making it really hard to clean. Furthermore, if I didn't clean it thoroughly, further usage could result in small flakes of previously dried paint in the well to come lose and then show up in my brush or on my model. Porcelain palettes make that much easier to deal with...

To clean my palettes, I simply submerge them in water overnight and then the next day I can easily wipe out all the paint with very little effort. Now strictly speaking it doesn't take overnight to loosen up the paint, but I've got about half a dozen various palettes that I use, so having 2-3 soaking and out of action is no big deal so I'm lazy about it. The porcelain comes clean every time and dries easily. This defining feature is exactly why I use them almost exclusively now.

So what's the downside to porcelain palettes? They cost more than the plastic/metal ones for sure. About 3 times roughly. So if you're on a tight budget you may pass them up. They are also not as readily available, so you may have to order online.
When comparing them to wet palettes, well, it's apples and oranges. Porcelain palettes won't keep your paint wet and workable for hours (or days) like wet palettes can. I certainly won't argue that point here. And depending on how much time you've spent refining your wet palette, you may have the option of not having to thin your paints directly. When I experimented with wet palettes I will admit that I liked that feature about them. I could go from pot to palette and then in seconds my paint was properly thinned to the consistency I needed for painting. However, the trade-off here is maintenance. Wet palettes require more care than traditional palettes and you have to make sure they have plenty of clean water in them, and have a steady supply of parchment paper on hand. Honestly it's just a trade off that each painted must choose for themselves.

When it comes to shapes of porcelain palettes, I have quite a variety. I have two of the traditional 7-well flower shape, one large 12-well one, two 12-well spot plates, and a few plain tiles from a hardware store.

7-well Flowers - I tend to use this for making washes primarily. The well is large enough to mix up plenty of wash and experiment with the consistency as needed. I've owned these for the longest. The ones pictured above I have owned for probably 5 years now.

Large 12-well - I rarely use this one anymore. It's handy for jobs where I need to wet-blend a number of colors together, but that's very specialized. In general I find that it just takes up too much space on my desk being approximately 9" in diameter.

12-well Spot Plates - These are getting more and more use. Laszlo turned me on to these last year at KublaCon during one of his classes. Spot plates are typically used in scientific labs. This particular one measure approximately 4"x6". The wells are fairly small which is actually good since I end up wasting less paint.

Ceramic Tiles - Not pictured here, I also have plain ceramic tiles used for things like kitchen backsplashes. The tiles come in a variety of sizes. I use plain white 6" square tiles. I'll use these when I want something more like a traditional artist's palette and actively mix paints together on the palette itself. I don't do this very often since the disadvantage of the tile is there's nothing to prevent the paint from just rolling right off the tile and onto my desk. Generally it behaves fine, but like the large palette, this is a more specialized use.

If you're still reading this already lengthy post, I'd like to just make one last remark in closing. Palettes are a tool just like paints and brushes, and should never be overlooked. Experimenting with your palette will help you learn more about how you paint. Even though I rarely use a wet palette anymore (cause it annoys me more than it helps me usually), I'm glad that I forced myself to try it out for a couple months. It helped me learn more about my own style and techniques. Hopefully some of the information here was useful for you. Until next time, paint like you have a pair!