QUALITY TAKES TIME
(LAYERING AND BLENDING)
In this advanced course of learning how to paint miniatures. We are going to move on to a more complex method of painting your miniatures.
It may take time to pull it off well but that’s okay, we are here to learn from mistakes as well. And learning always has a positive outcome in the end.
Layering and blending are essentially the same techniques, one just requires a few more steps than the other. In other words they are just two techniques having the same outcome. These techniques produce some of the amazing outcomes but do require a lot of time and practice. But, as they say, quality takes time.
Let’s first tackle layering. Layering is essentially just you adding two completely different colors and layering them together in between each other while adding an additional color in the middle (usually a mixture of the two colors together) adding that blended effect on your miniature. Layering is just another way of learning how to add a blend effect of colors together, or rather giving it a gradient look to your work.
Blending on the other hand is applying one color onto your miniature first and then, while the paint is still wet, you then add an additional layer of paint and watch as they blend together. The main technique to this is that you always want your paints while they are still wet in order for them to interact with each other. It may take a couple of coats of the same two paints to get the effect exactly but overtime you should be getting a clean result with enough time. And make sure to always give your paints the right consistency before applying. Again, not too thin, and not too thick.
With these two methods you really have to take your time with them and might require you to experiment a little. And it heavily depends on your patience as well. However, please keep trying. Art is also a process. And through that process you learn along the way. Once you get the hang of it then you should be able to understand it even more.
As you can see, here are the final results of the two blending techniques.
Once you’re happy with the results, good job! And now you may proceed through.