So I've been trying to paint a head for ages.
I had some moderate success with weapons - blacks, greys, metallic colors. Here at least imperfect application can be handwaved as weathering. Still, sword blades look uneven. And I've cheated, in some sense - my better results were achieved with airbrush paints (Vallejo Air).
Which segues to the next point: thinning. All the tutorials always stress that paints should be thinned. Okay, makes sense, otherwise they are thick as lava and cover the surface with uneven blotches. But when I add water, the paint behaves like dirty water, not actually sticking to the surface and pooling in deeper areas.
Add too little water, it's lava. Add a bit more, it's too liquid. There is no in between.
Well, maybe sometimes. One time out of ten. So I was able to apply one later of paint several times in my life. But not even two, because do the math.
Oh, and this was for darker colors, which may look like tanned skin if you squint hard enough. I want something lighter, but all lighter colors have this powdery texture that never lays evenly, always in streaks, especially if it is thinned even slightly. I guess the proper word for it is "chalky": if you remember wiping chalk from whiteboards with wet cloth, that's exactly how it feels (oh how I hated that back in the day...).
I mean, just look at it:
Speaking of colors, I have this,
and it's useless. Maybe some colors work for scene details - but not for skintones. They are either too yellow or too orange, or too pink for Keeanu or Cara, and mixing with anything lighter (including white) results in chalkiness described above. I've tried Citadel, and they may be better unthinned (not as lava-like), but become too liquid much quicker. Tutorials say the desired color can be achieved by blending layers of lighter paints on top of darker, or vice versa, but I can't paint more than one layer. They all look like the owl to me now
So I just don't know what to do with it. I get that learning something isn't supposed to yield satisfactory results right away. But I've been trying for years. Not continuously every single day though, it's more like a week or two then break for 6 months (otherwise I'd start throwing paint bottles at people and slowly burn brushes with a manical grin on my face). And I don't see how to adjust what I'm doing to do it better because there is no consistency or direction. It's like playing dice with a black cat in a dark aquarium, and the cat isn't even there (or pick any other metaphor about futility).
Maybe I should try an airbrush, but with my skills I expect it to get clogged even before I load anything into it, or it'll spray everything around save for the model, or explode in my hands.
It's probably moot anyway, there are already a few John Wick figures to choose from, the one from Aton Custom will likely come out before I paint more than one layer.
Anyway, this is not really a question, just stating that there are things not accessible to me. Sorry for the long rant.
I had some moderate success with weapons - blacks, greys, metallic colors. Here at least imperfect application can be handwaved as weathering. Still, sword blades look uneven. And I've cheated, in some sense - my better results were achieved with airbrush paints (Vallejo Air).
Which segues to the next point: thinning. All the tutorials always stress that paints should be thinned. Okay, makes sense, otherwise they are thick as lava and cover the surface with uneven blotches. But when I add water, the paint behaves like dirty water, not actually sticking to the surface and pooling in deeper areas.
Add too little water, it's lava. Add a bit more, it's too liquid. There is no in between.
Well, maybe sometimes. One time out of ten. So I was able to apply one later of paint several times in my life. But not even two, because do the math.
Oh, and this was for darker colors, which may look like tanned skin if you squint hard enough. I want something lighter, but all lighter colors have this powdery texture that never lays evenly, always in streaks, especially if it is thinned even slightly. I guess the proper word for it is "chalky": if you remember wiping chalk from whiteboards with wet cloth, that's exactly how it feels (oh how I hated that back in the day...).
I mean, just look at it:
Speaking of colors, I have this,
and it's useless. Maybe some colors work for scene details - but not for skintones. They are either too yellow or too orange, or too pink for Keeanu or Cara, and mixing with anything lighter (including white) results in chalkiness described above. I've tried Citadel, and they may be better unthinned (not as lava-like), but become too liquid much quicker. Tutorials say the desired color can be achieved by blending layers of lighter paints on top of darker, or vice versa, but I can't paint more than one layer. They all look like the owl to me now
So I just don't know what to do with it. I get that learning something isn't supposed to yield satisfactory results right away. But I've been trying for years. Not continuously every single day though, it's more like a week or two then break for 6 months (otherwise I'd start throwing paint bottles at people and slowly burn brushes with a manical grin on my face). And I don't see how to adjust what I'm doing to do it better because there is no consistency or direction. It's like playing dice with a black cat in a dark aquarium, and the cat isn't even there (or pick any other metaphor about futility).
Maybe I should try an airbrush, but with my skills I expect it to get clogged even before I load anything into it, or it'll spray everything around save for the model, or explode in my hands.
It's probably moot anyway, there are already a few John Wick figures to choose from, the one from Aton Custom will likely come out before I paint more than one layer.
Anyway, this is not really a question, just stating that there are things not accessible to me. Sorry for the long rant.
