Another paper towel tip: rather than using cloth, you can get really good "mechanics quality" paper towels from auto parts stores. They're usually blue, and they're designed to not leave any paper fibers behind. They're really great.
Wanted to work up the courage to try old-fashioned oil blending like this on a mini, but always felt I was missing some important technique or step. This guide is one of the most in-depth while being easy to understand and now I have no choice but to try, so thank you Vince!
Some things I've found working with oils for over a year. The surface you paint on makes a pretty significant difference to the experience. I like to paint oils on a matte to ultra matte surface because I prefer how the paint sticks a bit better when applying/blending. This also allows me to do more textured work on things like leather. You do your lines and dots, blend it just a little bit so it fades, add more lines and dots etc. Also oils are unparalleled for heavy corrosion. Obviously they can be thinned down to an enamel wash consistency but I love them for thick chunky rust. I have an old short bristled filbert that I use to stipple thick impasto rust tones and it's just marvelous.
I'm thankful of every video that shows some nice oil painting. So many videos just oil wash when they could do so much more with this time proven type of paint.
"Oops I did it again, I've blended my paint..." Oils are amazing for blending. In past miniature painters were saying "liquid talent" when talking about washes. Now we are saying so aboout oils! I can't believe for how long I was dismissing oils in mini painting. I remember a few years back seeing on AoS reddit Beastmen Gor painted with oils and thinking it's a gimmicky and hard! How times have changed! Great video, Vince!
11:28 That being said, you did showed us at the beginning of the video: 1:08 EDIT: I understand what you mean now. You where saying that you don't tell us what colors you are using when, but you did show us what pallet you are using. Got it.
This was what I was thinking about for the last 2 weeks!! I already know this will help a lot!! Thank you Vince, now I’ll watch this golden, priceless lesson! ❤🌞🙌🏼🙏🏼
Really appreciate this video. One suggestion: a (probably short) list of pitfalls and gotchas when mixing media would be helpful to someone who's just starting out with this technique and doesn't want to learn about issues the hard way.
1:19 small correction: cardboard is used to absorb the excess oil, not any (added?) white spirits. That being said, I don't use cardboard either. The persoon I look up the most when it comes to painting with oils on miniatures: Anton Fomenko doesn't, so I learned not to do it either. It does help with speeding up the drying time, but my thinking is that those oils are their for a reason.
Love oils. For tabletop stuff I like to start with some speedpaints as a base layer and add oils as highlights. Might just be adding a step but it's still crazy fast. Mixed media for sure. Like you said, right tool for the right job.
One thing to note is that if you paint acrylic over oils you risk it cracking in the far future, this isn't as likely with miniatures as it is with a canvas and thick oil, but it can happen. It might not have happened to you, but it can happen. Even if you varnish, tho I hear a method that can work is to varnish with a solvent based varnish then after it's dried a water based varnish. Like ink reactivating dried acrylic, just because something can happen doesn't mean it will for everyone, but that doesn't mean it's not a thing nor a risk and it's one of those things worth knowing. It most likely won't happen, most likely. Love the video btw, your end result looks stunning!
It seems you missed the part where he specifically mentioned that he let the oil paints dry completely over 1,5 day and then varnished the model before using acrylics.
@@minibob9252 Nope, I'm just really knowledgeable on the subject. Unless we are talking about an oil wash which is mostly mineral spirits that evaporate, or you add some galkyd or liquin to your Oil paints to speed it up, it can take like up to 6 months to dry FULLY, if you painted a painting thickly then it takes over a year to two years to dry fully. Just because you can touch it and it doesn't smear doesn't mean it's not still releasing gases, why do you think it cracks? also it's not about a single varnish used for acrylics which are about the most easy medium to work with in terms of what varnishes. You need a varnish for the oil, then for the the varnish so you can then acrylic over it, and it's not recommended even then, but it's the best option for this. Ultimately the average miniature painter doesn't really care about the nitty gritty or patience. But if you hop on over to the oil painting community you'll find the sentiment of oil over acrylics, no acrylics over oil to be pretty much unanymous. Hell, try googling "can I paint acrylic over oil" I'd bet you'd get mostly results saying not to. Like rules of fat over lean as well as many other things, in this hobby, people don't care and wing it a lot after briefly watching a tutorial, it's why I like vince he almost always explains why things work the way they do and is always experimenting, learning, etc. Often enough when things go wrong for anyone else you'll find a topic about it explaining the process and people being like "weird, that doesn't happen to me" as everyone scratches their head. Just because you painted 10 models a certain flawed way and nothing happened doesn't mean it won't. Just like a person playing a buggy video game might not experience a single bug. Sometimes you gotta dis-encourage against bad habits before they form even if it isn't obvious why until something goes bad down the line. Like say when you are are months into a competition piece.
It's always a chance, that's why I give the full curing time with some heat lights to bonus (or the sun for short periods) and the varnish. Never had an issue even after years - but yes, if you aren't careful, it can happen. :)
This is incredible. I was musing over this topic recently after watching one of your videos where you painted a titans metallics with oils. I think I am slowly been pushed over to try oil paints, though old habits die hard.
Awesome job Vince. Seeing that cool detailed warpstone just reminds me again how much i would love more HC tips and tricks on placing light/shadow patterns on reflective or transparent textures. There's just something in my brain not being able to visualize how the light would bounce at certain angles on stuff like metals or crystals, so i often have to just repaint a ton of times which messes up the texture and looks meh. Your clips are by far the biggest assistance in understanding this though, so thank you.
Have been using oils as a wash, and now shifting into oils for blending / mottled skin for Nurgle over the top of acrylics. Its fantastic for dotting the oil, then using the blending brush to give a mottled look, but its still smooth. some great tips here for beginners and experienced
Great video! It’s such a game changer when it comes to quick high quality paint jobs. Oils help me a ton with getting contrast and saturation. Acrylics do a great job cleaning up the edges for me :) I’ve been painting up my second lord of change with a mix of airbrush acrylic base coat >> dry brush with oil paints(can’t beat oil based magentas 🙌🏻) >> airbrush some high highlights on the wings with acrylics >> oil pinwashes to finish it up
Great job, thanks! In the end I couldn't tell if it's the statuette or 2d artwork. It really took me to see three sides to let it sink in, I thought you were just showing the artwork which was a reference, and would then shown your final result. Awesome and wholesome!
Slaps paint on - makes a mess - smooths it out - looks incredible - ruins it with more paint - makes it look even better. It's like watching someone play chess with you sometimes Vince!
Interesting to see this different take on using oils. I've been using exclusively oils for just over a year now, following more of the "Wappel Method" for lack of a better term. Drying time can definitely be an issue, especially if you get the paint on too thickly. Very important to use much less paint with oils than you think you need--that stuff will spread out a LONG way. Also, if you're in a cool, damp environment, a small reptile light can really help with decreasing the oils' curing time. Most of my oils will dry in 8-12 hours (unless I used a lot of cadmiums), but I can cut the cure time down to about half that with a small 25w reptile heat lamp pointed at the model stuck in my airbrush booth. Oils are also *amazing* for washes, which I know you've covered before. ;)
I've also been using white enamel over gloss varnish almost like a drybrush. The enamel is smoother than acrylic. The only problem is working time. When it gets to the right consistency on the brush you need to work quickly. Then clean with oms. Mistakes can be corrected with mineral spirit. I think the varnish here is vital for smoothness and mistake correction. Thanks Vince for the tip about hair. Lately my acrylics have been mainly relegated to underpainting. I'm going to try this on my next minis..that have hair.))
19:28 "re-instantiate" oof, as a non native speaker I had to Google this one... If I am honest, I Googled "cathartic" too; I had a vague idea, but wanted to be sure.
Great video love to see how you worked with oils, I have a set of oil paints and just bought myself a six set of Daler Rowney inks having seen you use the white and magenta inks in other paint videos. Will be watching them before I use through the airbrush, trying to push myself skillset.
I started painting with pils a year ago. I consider myself a primitive with them and yet they are such a game changer related to blending! I mostly paint with Kimera, which are matt and somewhat demanding for blending, so I typically only use them after I've created most of the smoothness with oils. If you don't have an airbrush or can't use one, have a look at oil paints. Particularly if you paint long blends a lot. I'm looking at you and your long dressing gowns dear Nighthaunt.
Incredible stuff Vince!!! Perfect size for illustration tutorial but would love to see you paint a normal size mini with oils on skin sometime. Rat Queen is beautiful, mostly - just can't get used to that face on that body!
Awesome job on this rat lady! I am a bit hesitant to get into using oil paints because my work space doesn't have (any) ventilation, and I'm a bit concerned about the fumes. But the work you just showed us is undeniably impeccable. Another great video as always!
This video convinced me to finally give oils a shot. Does anyone have tips for oil setups and cleaning up? You all using sealed jars for your cleanup paper towels? And do you use fresh paint thinner each time? Thanks!
Awesome video! I bought a ton of high quality oil paints and just gave up on them after some attempts. This motivates me to just try to paint big flat surfaces with them, and not the details (that's what killed me before).
Im using oils on a character with a very sunny skin tone. What's a good shadow color for it? I've done test fig after test fig and i cant seem to get it right.
I am always a fan of Alizaran Crimson mixed with varying degrees of payne's grey into our existing skin tone. You can also use a little darker purple colors mixed with some dark umber.
This makes me wonder how an experiment with black would go - that is, I love the different sheens you can get in black, blues and purples and such. With an oil being more translucent it might be possible to get some really fun effects, while keeping it looking black (easier than acrylic anyway). I'm thinking of my ME Winged Nazghul model in particular!
Totally bitchen!!! Sure! Fabulous instruction. You always inspire me to take risks and just play with paint! Thanks! Love how you continue to improve you production quality!!
I don't know if someones already said this but if you need to you can speed up the drying time of oils with a fast dry medium and/or use heat to speed up the curing time with a heater, fireplace or make a lamp box.
As a pretty good baker (mostly bread, have at times apprenticed with some pretty good guys in Kansas, the point of origin for a ton of your wheat flour :P) even baking isn't as rigid as the popular idiom suggests. It's important to measure by weight versus volume for good reason but recipes aren't EXACTINGLY rigid lol. You don't want to be way out of lane or using antithetical tools to the purpose (I.e naan really needs yogurt)...but you can most certainly play around. I often don't use a recipe to make bread because I understand the dough. I pick a hydration level and whatever enriching things (anything besides the water flour salt yeast) and work and shape the dough accordingly. My mother just made a ton of shortbread biscuits to ice for holiday trays she distributes annually in town and I told her the test batch wasn't short (lacking shortening, aka it needs fat). "But I followed the recipe!!!!!!!!!!!" Cool. Increase the butter 50% (Also, get the best butter the store has because cheap American butter has kinda sucky butterfat content). She was scared to change the dough that much but afterward thought she made the best biscuits in all of her 70 years of life.
I've been watching a lot of Japanese Garage Kit builders lately, and they do a lot of their flesh work just with filters, its a very different approach. They also use a lot of things like Tamiya Weathering Master H (Pale Orange, Ivory and Peach) to apply highlights, shadows and colour complexity to skin. While not something that is easy to apply to a human sized 30mm model, large models like this one would apply the techniques.
Thx for the video. I use oils from time to time on my minis, butthe biggest issue for me is the solvent, even "odorless" thinner is annoying and I have to wear a breathing mask
I know this question doesn't pertain to the topic at hand, but how do you keep your metallic paints from drying on the pallet so fast? I picked up the vallejo metal silver as per your recommendation in that metals video and it's been a blast painting with it but I always lose about half of that 1 droplet of paint because it dries so fast. Only solution that comes to mind is to just open the bottle and grab paint from there but since it's so bubbly, at least in my bottle, I pick up a lot of extra that just goes into the paper towel. Thank you for your time!
I use a little dropper palette area to minimize surface area (i.e. don't put it on the flat surface, put it in a concave well) and I always do a few drops. It will dry after some time, no way around that other than working quickly sadly.
@@VinceVenturella I will put a brush under my cup next time I'm painting with it. And yeah, I might have to plan for speed and sloppiness for first passes and then be more controlled for the 2nd pass. If only trims and whatnot were separate parts so I can just blast them with the airbrush.
One thing of note that I think I went wrong early on: Use a larger brush than you think you need, and also try to find relatively stiff bristled one. I have some very cheap 30-in-a-bundle-for-four-bucks chinese synthetics that I've used, and looking at how easily you pulled away the paint, these brushes are way softer than those. Or it's just about the size, where in the smaller brush the bristles just don't support each other well enough. With the soft brushes I have, I need to get my oils to about as thin as my acrylics to have any hope of moving them around at all, at which point it becomes a balancing act to not make end up with just oil washing the whole mini with no substantial deposit of pigments anywhere but the crevices. Of course that is one way to approach the same issue, using the oils more like filters and glazes. You paint your base layers in with acrylics, then come in with the oils to just do the tiny dots of color and smooth them out. I can't remember who was weathering a tank/titan with that approach(might've been you), just dots of darker tones and grimes, then wiping them down until the desired level of use was achieved. Oils are so much fun, definitely a tool everyone should try out at least once. Entry level investment isn't too bad either, couple of bucks for the white spirit, 5-6 bucks a tube of paint that is a lifetime supply for most painters. Get yourself a white, black, red, green, burned umber and a magenta of some description, and you're ready to do 90% of what oils are really good for. 30ish bucks and you're set for life with the oils. And they're not that hard to sell forward if you don't like them too, parents want their kids to try out some oil painting and bam, set sold.
Cool model, awesome paint job! If you happen to see this, I have an airbrush question. I've noticed a couple of times, my airbrush base coats tear when I paint over those areas with a brush. Even with a couple thin layers of varnish. Any tips to prevent this? Cure time, more durable varnish, paint consistency? Any help is appreciated, hope you're felling better!
It's hard to judge without being there. Could be that there is too much humidity in your airbrush room, so the moisture is preventing the paint from fully curing. Could be that when you're applying paint with brush, you have too much water in the brush, or you're pressing too hard. You could always try to set-up a dehumidifier in the room and see if that makes a difference.
@@VinceVenturella Thanks for the feedback. I know you've said your environment is fairly dry, how long do you wait to apply varnish after airbrushing, and then brush painting after varnish? It could also be that I'm just impatient 🙃
Astonishing paint job Vince. I would love to see if you have a technique for simulating fur on "large" flat surfaces like on this model. Also: would love to know where you might get that specific miniature, I'm always looking for rodents to add to my Skaven collection.
I can see your brush moving across the mini, touching paint to it, establishing volumes and blending, but yet it still seems like dark magic, since i've never tried oil paints myself... how does it not just lift darker paint into the lighter paint when you move back and forth on the surface like that? It looks like you're swooshing light to dark as you said, and then go back on top of the lighter parts. Or are you dragging the lighter paint on top of the darker paint layer and the brush effectively doesn't interact with the dark shades, at least not before you wipe off the excess...? 🤔 Also, do you recall by any chance which acrylics you used to basecoat/shade the hair, that crimson looks delectable.
It's just working with the paints and getting how they blend, it's actually pretty easy, just a little experimentation. :) - The red hair was Burgandy from Pro Acryl.
I've been going through your back catalog and watching all of your oil painting videos because I just picked up a set of Golden's Open acrylic line. Supposedly, they work like oil paints, so I was curious to see how they worked on some minis. Have you considered doing a review for that line of paint? I've only found reviewers who paint on canvas, but so far, the feedback has seemed overwhelmingly positive.
How does one clean and maintain the oil paint "dry brushes" so they are dry when you need them? Do you just clean them completely, wash them with mineral spirits and store them completely dry?
Really enjoying the oils tutorials. How are you disposing of the oily paper towels used white spirits, and oily paint at the bottom of the jar etc.? I’ve heard the are potentially flammable or shouldn’t go in regular trash?
There are a couple products that can help speed up drying oils. Smhincke malbutter. And also shmincke and gambling has matt varnish (solvent based) - you can mix in a bit and it will matt and speed up drying. But mostly it important only for reds and cadmium colors - they might take up to a week of drying. Also it quite depends on oils brands, some more matt drying a bit faster.
I think im ready to cross over into and start using oil paints, which brand is recommended? i was leaning torwards windsor and newton because it's easy to get ahold of.
Very informative as always! One thing I find myself struggling with is excessive thickness of the oil paint layer: should I just subtract more with the blending brush or should paints be thinned more?
Ooooh, that's a lovely looking model, and I rather like the mixed media approach. Any recommendations for a dry palette for oils? I'm currently using sheets, and as handy as they are, I'd prefer something a little more solid, as well as reusable.
I often use a marble tile I got for a few dollars from the hardware store. Easy to scrape and clean, no drama. That or for small jobs, a metal well palette.
Lets say you didnt like your paint job on the next day (oil paint still not dry) would you go directly over the previous paint or let it dry first or remove all with white spirit to start from the beginning?
I would say not to let it dry first unless you intend on fixing it with acrylic. As to whether you fix it or completely start over, that's likely a case-by-case decision. You can absolutely make adjustments while the paint is still wet if you want. But if you hate it too much, you can just wipe it off too.
Loved this! I’ve got some oils, but only had the courage to use them as thin washes so far, however this video has encouraged me to take the next step. Quick question; you have two metal cups you dip your brush into between mixing paints. Can you enlighten me as to what they are?
Dear Vince, i painted something metallic and used oil paint over it. I do not want to varnish for the metallic effect. I assumed, if I let them dry long enought, to highlight with acrylic should not be a problem without varnish? Always happy to know your opinion. Cheers!
I did a mini test tonight with a few basic colors i had on hand and found that i kept "dry brushing" (blending step) down to the primed base coat to the point where it was obviously visible, as i was just testing i admittedly did not have any sort of value on the base coat it was just straight black, but wanted to ask if this was due to me possibly just not using a thick enough swab of oil, or just dry brushing too much. or if it was just more obvious since it was painting directly over a black primed miniature. Thanks for the video it was inspiring as always!
So it can often be good to Have a base color underneath to avoid this. But you can also add additional paint or just smooth more softly (softer brush, lighter touch)
Can I ask what consistency you are using for your paints? Are you thinning them at all with white spirits? Are you rinsing your original brush out very often?
You can see me working with them, I am thinning them a little, just to get them moving, but not much. I'm generally rinsing between strong color changes.
Great video, thank you for sharing with your usually great explanations! I have been thinking of oil paints recently, so this came at a great time! This may be an obvious answer, but have you used oils to start with the NMM process to get some smooth blends out of the gate? Then go to acrylics for the bright and edge highlights? Also, what oil paint brands do you recommend?
Yes, it can be a good base, but most of the key with NMM is the contrast, and you either need a second pass or you need to puch it up with Acrylics. For Oil paints, I like the Winsor & Newton artist paints.
I never would have considered using oils for highlighting, very neat! Curiosity question though. I was always taught to never paint acrylics over oils, but you mentioned that using varnish in between the two (obviously after the oil has dried/cured) works just fine. Does it matter the kind of varnish that is used? I'd love to know which you used too if you're willing to share ;)
:D Ya I prefer a satin/matte mix myself (though more 1:2 / 1:1), more I was asking if there was a particular brand that you would suggest for this specific application :)
Vince, you open my eyes. Thank you SO MUCH for your content. You're incredible.
My pleasure!
Another paper towel tip: rather than using cloth, you can get really good "mechanics quality" paper towels from auto parts stores. They're usually blue, and they're designed to not leave any paper fibers behind. They're really great.
I accidentally put one of those through the laundry once, came out good as new.
I’m a simple man, I see a Vincey V video and I click, doesn’t even matter if I’m interested in the topic. Always informative !!
Wanted to work up the courage to try old-fashioned oil blending like this on a mini, but always felt I was missing some important technique or step. This guide is one of the most in-depth while being easy to understand and now I have no choice but to try, so thank you Vince!
So lovely to see the vermin queen painted as you have. Wonderful work. She was one of the very first in our tails from the garden line.
Thought I recognized it!
Awesome, I like the whole line, they are perfect for my Vermin Lords, thanks for the clean, fun to paint sculpt!
Well now I feel like a fool for asking if that model was from Atlas and here's a comment from Atlas lol
@@jamescrawford8538 :D Glad to know she's still a fan fave - was one of our first and a joy to bring to life.
Only just seeing this video but this is absolutely magic and I’m 100% going to be trying this now!
That opening is hilarious XD "I got a rat lady…"
Some things I've found working with oils for over a year. The surface you paint on makes a pretty significant difference to the experience. I like to paint oils on a matte to ultra matte surface because I prefer how the paint sticks a bit better when applying/blending. This also allows me to do more textured work on things like leather. You do your lines and dots, blend it just a little bit so it fades, add more lines and dots etc. Also oils are unparalleled for heavy corrosion. Obviously they can be thinned down to an enamel wash consistency but I love them for thick chunky rust. I have an old short bristled filbert that I use to stipple thick impasto rust tones and it's just marvelous.
Yeah I learned this after I realized that working on an extremely dirty pallete was probably the reason why my work with oils didn't look so great😅
I'm thankful of every video that shows some nice oil painting. So many videos just oil wash when they could do so much more with this time proven type of paint.
I totally agree!
Excellent start to a Saturday morning. Thanks Vince!
My pleasure!
Saturation lives in the mid-tone. Just had a ohhhhh moment. Things just started making more sense.
The purple part on the clothing was just beautiful to watch. Damm it was easy!
Vince thank you; this is amazing.
Glad you touched on this Subject
Another kick ass tutorial Vince 👌💜
Finally a video about the way I paint! Thanks Vince I learned a bunch.
This was awesome. I really want to pick up some oil paints now.
You should!
Thanks for this vince, its really helpful seeing oil painting content not just for washes.
Incredible. You've inspired me to bust out the oils and try again!
This makes me want to venture out, im a beginner and soaking up everything up. You make this look like magic.
"Oops I did it again, I've blended my paint..."
Oils are amazing for blending. In past miniature painters were saying "liquid talent" when talking about washes. Now we are saying so aboout oils! I can't believe for how long I was dismissing oils in mini painting. I remember a few years back seeing on AoS reddit Beastmen Gor painted with oils and thinking it's a gimmicky and hard! How times have changed!
Great video, Vince!
Beautiful work. Thank you
I was very skeptical about this oil technique before watching the whole video, but now I am sold. I will definitely try this on my next mini.
Please do!
Watched the whole video with my mouth wide opened ... Can't believe what I saw you doing ... It's just AMAZING!!!
Thank you so much 😀
You are a inspiration! Thanks for your insightful lessons
My pleasure!
Too many questions best left unanswered!!!
Hope you are on the mend too. :-)
I am!
@@VinceVenturella that's great to hear :-)
fantastic as always. thank you Vince!
Loved this video. Great information and skills, as ever.
Yeah I also painted the skin of a skaven with oil!
11:28 That being said, you did showed us at the beginning of the video: 1:08
EDIT: I understand what you mean now. You where saying that you don't tell us what colors you are using when, but you did show us what pallet you are using. Got it.
This was what I was thinking about for the last 2 weeks!! I already know this will help a lot!! Thank you Vince, now I’ll watch this golden, priceless lesson! ❤🌞🙌🏼🙏🏼
Wow, totally makes sense... haven't really considered the value of the slow drying property fully though
Fantastic tutorial Vince! That came out really smooth for the time & effort put into it. Well done!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great video Vince, thanks!
Great stuff friend 👏 👍
Really appreciate this video. One suggestion: a (probably short) list of pitfalls and gotchas when mixing media would be helpful to someone who's just starting out with this technique and doesn't want to learn about issues the hard way.
That's a great idea!
Your amazing Vince. Thanks again.
My pleasure!
I try oil since mounth now.
Had so many problems.
One of your Videos solved so much of them😂
Thanx a million😉
Happy to help!
Killer video today, Vince!
1:19 small correction: cardboard is used to absorb the excess oil, not any (added?) white spirits. That being said, I don't use cardboard either. The persoon I look up the most when it comes to painting with oils on miniatures: Anton Fomenko doesn't, so I learned not to do it either. It does help with speeding up the drying time, but my thinking is that those oils are their for a reason.
I love the skin showcase, but at the end all I looked at was the hair. That is such a nice and beautifully painted hair!
Thank you so much 😀
Love oils. For tabletop stuff I like to start with some speedpaints as a base layer and add oils as highlights. Might just be adding a step but it's still crazy fast. Mixed media for sure. Like you said, right tool for the right job.
One thing to note is that if you paint acrylic over oils you risk it cracking in the far future, this isn't as likely with miniatures as it is with a canvas and thick oil, but it can happen. It might not have happened to you, but it can happen. Even if you varnish, tho I hear a method that can work is to varnish with a solvent based varnish then after it's dried a water based varnish.
Like ink reactivating dried acrylic, just because something can happen doesn't mean it will for everyone, but that doesn't mean it's not a thing nor a risk and it's one of those things worth knowing.
It most likely won't happen, most likely. Love the video btw, your end result looks stunning!
It seems you missed the part where he specifically mentioned that he let the oil paints dry completely over 1,5 day and then varnished the model before using acrylics.
@@minibob9252 Nope, I'm just really knowledgeable on the subject.
Unless we are talking about an oil wash which is mostly mineral spirits that evaporate, or you add some galkyd or liquin to your Oil paints to speed it up, it can take like up to 6 months to dry FULLY, if you painted a painting thickly then it takes over a year to two years to dry fully. Just because you can touch it and it doesn't smear doesn't mean it's not still releasing gases, why do you think it cracks? also it's not about a single varnish used for acrylics which are about the most easy medium to work with in terms of what varnishes.
You need a varnish for the oil, then for the the varnish so you can then acrylic over it, and it's not recommended even then, but it's the best option for this.
Ultimately the average miniature painter doesn't really care about the nitty gritty or patience.
But if you hop on over to the oil painting community you'll find the sentiment of oil over acrylics, no acrylics over oil to be pretty much unanymous. Hell, try googling "can I paint acrylic over oil" I'd bet you'd get mostly results saying not to.
Like rules of fat over lean as well as many other things, in this hobby, people don't care and wing it a lot after briefly watching a tutorial, it's why I like vince he almost always explains why things work the way they do and is always experimenting, learning, etc.
Often enough when things go wrong for anyone else you'll find a topic about it explaining the process and people being like "weird, that doesn't happen to me" as everyone scratches their head.
Just because you painted 10 models a certain flawed way and nothing happened doesn't mean it won't. Just like a person playing a buggy video game might not experience a single bug.
Sometimes you gotta dis-encourage against bad habits before they form even if it isn't obvious why until something goes bad down the line. Like say when you are are months into a competition piece.
It's always a chance, that's why I give the full curing time with some heat lights to bonus (or the sun for short periods) and the varnish. Never had an issue even after years - but yes, if you aren't careful, it can happen. :)
This is incredible. I was musing over this topic recently after watching one of your videos where you painted a titans metallics with oils. I think I am slowly been pushed over to try oil paints, though old habits die hard.
Mind Blown.
Amazing, really inspiring, great
Glad you enjoyed it :)
Awesome job Vince. Seeing that cool detailed warpstone just reminds me again how much i would love more HC tips and tricks on placing light/shadow patterns on reflective or transparent textures. There's just something in my brain not being able to visualize how the light would bounce at certain angles on stuff like metals or crystals, so i often have to just repaint a ton of times which messes up the texture and looks meh. Your clips are by far the biggest assistance in understanding this though, so thank you.
Have been using oils as a wash, and now shifting into oils for blending / mottled skin for Nurgle over the top of acrylics. Its fantastic for dotting the oil, then using the blending brush to give a mottled look, but its still smooth.
some great tips here for beginners and experienced
Great video! It’s such a game changer when it comes to quick high quality paint jobs. Oils help me a ton with getting contrast and saturation. Acrylics do a great job cleaning up the edges for me :)
I’ve been painting up my second lord of change with a mix of airbrush acrylic base coat >> dry brush with oil paints(can’t beat oil based magentas 🙌🏻) >> airbrush some high highlights on the wings with acrylics >> oil pinwashes to finish it up
Great job, thanks! In the end I couldn't tell if it's the statuette or 2d artwork. It really took me to see three sides to let it sink in, I thought you were just showing the artwork which was a reference, and would then shown your final result. Awesome and wholesome!
Slaps paint on - makes a mess - smooths it out - looks incredible - ruins it with more paint - makes it look even better. It's like watching someone play chess with you sometimes Vince!
Interesting to see this different take on using oils. I've been using exclusively oils for just over a year now, following more of the "Wappel Method" for lack of a better term. Drying time can definitely be an issue, especially if you get the paint on too thickly. Very important to use much less paint with oils than you think you need--that stuff will spread out a LONG way. Also, if you're in a cool, damp environment, a small reptile light can really help with decreasing the oils' curing time. Most of my oils will dry in 8-12 hours (unless I used a lot of cadmiums), but I can cut the cure time down to about half that with a small 25w reptile heat lamp pointed at the model stuck in my airbrush booth.
Oils are also *amazing* for washes, which I know you've covered before. ;)
I've also been using white enamel over gloss varnish almost like a drybrush. The enamel is smoother than acrylic. The only problem is working time. When it gets to the right consistency on the brush you need to work quickly. Then clean with oms. Mistakes can be corrected with mineral spirit. I think the varnish here is vital for smoothness and mistake correction.
Thanks Vince for the tip about hair. Lately my acrylics have been mainly relegated to underpainting. I'm going to try this on my next minis..that have hair.))
19:28 "re-instantiate" oof, as a non native speaker I had to Google this one... If I am honest, I Googled "cathartic" too; I had a vague idea, but wanted to be sure.
Great video love to see how you worked with oils, I have a set of oil paints and just bought myself a six set of Daler Rowney inks having seen you use the white and magenta inks in other paint videos. Will be watching them before I use through the airbrush, trying to push myself skillset.
Thank you!
I started painting with pils a year ago. I consider myself a primitive with them and yet they are such a game changer related to blending! I mostly paint with Kimera, which are matt and somewhat demanding for blending, so I typically only use them after I've created most of the smoothness with oils.
If you don't have an airbrush or can't use one, have a look at oil paints. Particularly if you paint long blends a lot. I'm looking at you and your long dressing gowns dear Nighthaunt.
Incredible stuff Vince!!! Perfect size for illustration tutorial but would love to see you paint a normal size mini with oils on skin sometime. Rat Queen is beautiful, mostly - just can't get used to that face on that body!
Here you go, normal 32mm miniature - ua-cam.com/video/-ha32I_iJPM/v-deo.html
I'm going to get brainwashed into buying more paint again, aren't I? Very fun video, might have to give oils a go!
Awesome job on this rat lady! I am a bit hesitant to get into using oil paints because my work space doesn't have (any) ventilation, and I'm a bit concerned about the fumes. But the work you just showed us is undeniably impeccable. Another great video as always!
This video convinced me to finally give oils a shot. Does anyone have tips for oil setups and cleaning up? You all using sealed jars for your cleanup paper towels? And do you use fresh paint thinner each time? Thanks!
I always use fresh white spirits each time.
Awesome video! I bought a ton of high quality oil paints and just gave up on them after some attempts. This motivates me to just try to paint big flat surfaces with them, and not the details (that's what killed me before).
Im using oils on a character with a very sunny skin tone. What's a good shadow color for it? I've done test fig after test fig and i cant seem to get it right.
I am always a fan of Alizaran Crimson mixed with varying degrees of payne's grey into our existing skin tone. You can also use a little darker purple colors mixed with some dark umber.
This makes me wonder how an experiment with black would go - that is, I love the different sheens you can get in black, blues and purples and such. With an oil being more translucent it might be possible to get some really fun effects, while keeping it looking black (easier than acrylic anyway). I'm thinking of my ME Winged Nazghul model in particular!
Totally bitchen!!! Sure! Fabulous instruction. You always inspire me to take risks and just play with paint! Thanks! Love how you continue to improve you production quality!!
I don't know if someones already said this but if you need to you can speed up the drying time of oils with a fast dry medium and/or use heat to speed up the curing time with a heater, fireplace or make a lamp box.
As a pretty good baker (mostly bread, have at times apprenticed with some pretty good guys in Kansas, the point of origin for a ton of your wheat flour :P) even baking isn't as rigid as the popular idiom suggests. It's important to measure by weight versus volume for good reason but recipes aren't EXACTINGLY rigid lol. You don't want to be way out of lane or using antithetical tools to the purpose (I.e naan really needs yogurt)...but you can most certainly play around. I often don't use a recipe to make bread because I understand the dough. I pick a hydration level and whatever enriching things (anything besides the water flour salt yeast) and work and shape the dough accordingly.
My mother just made a ton of shortbread biscuits to ice for holiday trays she distributes annually in town and I told her the test batch wasn't short (lacking shortening, aka it needs fat). "But I followed the recipe!!!!!!!!!!!" Cool. Increase the butter 50% (Also, get the best butter the store has because cheap American butter has kinda sucky butterfat content). She was scared to change the dough that much but afterward thought she made the best biscuits in all of her 70 years of life.
This is awesome. :)
Very nice and cool video. I need to get some nice synthetic brushed to try oil a bit more ;3 I love how the skin comes slowly together O-o
Thank you! 😊
Another tip: acrylics and water soluble oils CAN be simply mixed. I'm still experimenting with uses.
I've been watching a lot of Japanese Garage Kit builders lately, and they do a lot of their flesh work just with filters, its a very different approach. They also use a lot of things like Tamiya Weathering Master H (Pale Orange, Ivory and Peach) to apply highlights, shadows and colour complexity to skin. While not something that is easy to apply to a human sized 30mm model, large models like this one would apply the techniques.
Thx for the video.
I use oils from time to time on my minis, butthe biggest issue for me is the solvent, even "odorless" thinner is annoying and I have to wear a breathing mask
Yes, I know some individuals can be more susceptible to the odor, and that is tough.
I know this question doesn't pertain to the topic at hand, but how do you keep your metallic paints from drying on the pallet so fast? I picked up the vallejo metal silver as per your recommendation in that metals video and it's been a blast painting with it but I always lose about half of that 1 droplet of paint because it dries so fast. Only solution that comes to mind is to just open the bottle and grab paint from there but since it's so bubbly, at least in my bottle, I pick up a lot of extra that just goes into the paper towel. Thank you for your time!
I use a little dropper palette area to minimize surface area (i.e. don't put it on the flat surface, put it in a concave well) and I always do a few drops. It will dry after some time, no way around that other than working quickly sadly.
@@VinceVenturella I will put a brush under my cup next time I'm painting with it. And yeah, I might have to plan for speed and sloppiness for first passes and then be more controlled for the 2nd pass. If only trims and whatnot were separate parts so I can just blast them with the airbrush.
One thing of note that I think I went wrong early on: Use a larger brush than you think you need, and also try to find relatively stiff bristled one. I have some very cheap 30-in-a-bundle-for-four-bucks chinese synthetics that I've used, and looking at how easily you pulled away the paint, these brushes are way softer than those. Or it's just about the size, where in the smaller brush the bristles just don't support each other well enough. With the soft brushes I have, I need to get my oils to about as thin as my acrylics to have any hope of moving them around at all, at which point it becomes a balancing act to not make end up with just oil washing the whole mini with no substantial deposit of pigments anywhere but the crevices.
Of course that is one way to approach the same issue, using the oils more like filters and glazes. You paint your base layers in with acrylics, then come in with the oils to just do the tiny dots of color and smooth them out. I can't remember who was weathering a tank/titan with that approach(might've been you), just dots of darker tones and grimes, then wiping them down until the desired level of use was achieved.
Oils are so much fun, definitely a tool everyone should try out at least once. Entry level investment isn't too bad either, couple of bucks for the white spirit, 5-6 bucks a tube of paint that is a lifetime supply for most painters. Get yourself a white, black, red, green, burned umber and a magenta of some description, and you're ready to do 90% of what oils are really good for. 30ish bucks and you're set for life with the oils. And they're not that hard to sell forward if you don't like them too, parents want their kids to try out some oil painting and bam, set sold.
Cool model, awesome paint job!
If you happen to see this, I have an airbrush question. I've noticed a couple of times, my airbrush base coats tear when I paint over those areas with a brush. Even with a couple thin layers of varnish. Any tips to prevent this? Cure time, more durable varnish, paint consistency? Any help is appreciated, hope you're felling better!
It's hard to judge without being there. Could be that there is too much humidity in your airbrush room, so the moisture is preventing the paint from fully curing. Could be that when you're applying paint with brush, you have too much water in the brush, or you're pressing too hard. You could always try to set-up a dehumidifier in the room and see if that makes a difference.
@@VinceVenturella Thanks for the feedback. I know you've said your environment is fairly dry, how long do you wait to apply varnish after airbrushing, and then brush painting after varnish? It could also be that I'm just impatient 🙃
@@just_fireball3958 30 minutes to an hour.
@@VinceVenturella Thanks for taking the time to give me some tips! I'm exited to give it another try.
Astonishing paint job Vince.
I would love to see if you have a technique for simulating fur on "large" flat surfaces like on this model.
Also: would love to know where you might get that specific miniature, I'm always looking for rodents to add to my Skaven collection.
I've showed how to do fur texture over flat surfaces before - ua-cam.com/video/Jzk5DHKBEtY/v-deo.html
The mini was from My Mini Factory from Atlas. :)
@@VinceVenturella Ah, must have missed that one, thank you for the lessons as always.
I can see your brush moving across the mini, touching paint to it, establishing volumes and blending, but yet it still seems like dark magic, since i've never tried oil paints myself... how does it not just lift darker paint into the lighter paint when you move back and forth on the surface like that? It looks like you're swooshing light to dark as you said, and then go back on top of the lighter parts. Or are you dragging the lighter paint on top of the darker paint layer and the brush effectively doesn't interact with the dark shades, at least not before you wipe off the excess...? 🤔
Also, do you recall by any chance which acrylics you used to basecoat/shade the hair, that crimson looks delectable.
It's just working with the paints and getting how they blend, it's actually pretty easy, just a little experimentation. :) - The red hair was Burgandy from Pro Acryl.
@@VinceVenturella thank you, Vince. Keep 'em coming :)
I've been going through your back catalog and watching all of your oil painting videos because I just picked up a set of Golden's Open acrylic line. Supposedly, they work like oil paints, so I was curious to see how they worked on some minis. Have you considered doing a review for that line of paint? I've only found reviewers who paint on canvas, but so far, the feedback has seemed overwhelmingly positive.
I’ll have to check them out
How does one clean and maintain the oil paint "dry brushes" so they are dry when you need them? Do you just clean them completely, wash them with mineral spirits and store them completely dry?
Yep, you have it exactly.
Oils are so much more intuitive. Was wondering if you had any thoughts towards impasto for fur textures?
I think it's something we tend to avoid as miniature painters but shouldn't.
Did Vince say this “wasn’t” for competition? Oh boy.
Yeah, this was for fun and learning as always. :)
I liked just for the 'probably asking questions of me...'
Really enjoying the oils tutorials. How are you disposing of the oily paper towels used white spirits, and oily paint at the bottom of the jar etc.? I’ve heard the are potentially flammable or shouldn’t go in regular trash?
I've never had an issue, I double bag them and put them in the outside trash.
There are a couple products that can help speed up drying oils.
Smhincke malbutter. And also shmincke and gambling has matt varnish (solvent based) - you can mix in a bit and it will matt and speed up drying.
But mostly it important only for reds and cadmium colors - they might take up to a week of drying.
Also it quite depends on oils brands, some more matt drying a bit faster.
This tutorial was great and it has me more motivated to take on oil paints. I would like to know what colors you used fo he hair, thanks!
Just Burgandy from Pro Acryl as a base and then adding deck tan.
I think im ready to cross over into and start using oil paints, which brand is recommended? i was leaning torwards windsor and newton because it's easy to get ahold of.
Yep, thats just fine, perfectly reasonable place to start
Oh yeah! Right to my hearth.
Vince do you think oils could a go to for any task where one is hesitant of using a loaded brush technique? Even NMM?
Yes, though with NMM, you often need 2-3 applications after curing to get the full contrast.
Anyone have a link to the miniature?
Atlas games on MyMiniFactory.
I use cloth and paper, cloth first and then rub lightly on paper.
Very informative as always! One thing I find myself struggling with is excessive thickness of the oil paint layer: should I just subtract more with the blending brush or should paints be thinned more?
Subtract and smooth more.
@@VinceVenturella thank you!
This is my method as well. So rewarding, it feels like cheating!
Excellent video, as always, Vince!
Now that Newsh is here, how would that + inks or acrylics work for this purpose? (skin/blending)
Probably not as well, I haven't tried it for this purpose, but you need to work thick, and newsh is still thinning to some degree.
Ooooh, that's a lovely looking model, and I rather like the mixed media approach. Any recommendations for a dry palette for oils? I'm currently using sheets, and as handy as they are, I'd prefer something a little more solid, as well as reusable.
I often use a marble tile I got for a few dollars from the hardware store. Easy to scrape and clean, no drama. That or for small jobs, a metal well palette.
Lets say you didnt like your paint job on the next day (oil paint still not dry) would you go directly over the previous paint or let it dry first or remove all with white spirit to start from the beginning?
I would say not to let it dry first unless you intend on fixing it with acrylic.
As to whether you fix it or completely start over, that's likely a case-by-case decision. You can absolutely make adjustments while the paint is still wet if you want.
But if you hate it too much, you can just wipe it off too.
You can see me do this in the fixing mistakes video on Kragnos. I just worked over the top.
Loved this! I’ve got some oils, but only had the courage to use them as thin washes so far, however this video has encouraged me to take the next step. Quick question; you have two metal cups you dip your brush into between mixing paints. Can you enlighten me as to what they are?
Sure, one is just for clean white spirits for thinning, one is for rinsing and cleaning.
@@VinceVenturella That’s great. Thank you!
I can only think of the rat couple art a certain comedian purchased now....
Dear Vince, i painted something metallic and used oil paint over it. I do not want to varnish for the metallic effect. I assumed, if I let them dry long enought, to highlight with acrylic should not be a problem without varnish? Always happy to know your opinion. Cheers!
You'll have to let them fully cure, and it will be tricky, but it can be done.
Are the cadmiums mainly opaque?
Depends, but largely yes.
@@VinceVenturella thank you. We're yhe green crystals also done with oils?
@@simbobcrafts4843 Nope, those were traditional acrylics.
I did a mini test tonight with a few basic colors i had on hand and found that i kept "dry brushing" (blending step) down to the primed base coat to the point where it was obviously visible, as i was just testing i admittedly did not have any sort of value on the base coat it was just straight black, but wanted to ask if this was due to me possibly just not using a thick enough swab of oil, or just dry brushing too much. or if it was just more obvious since it was painting directly over a black primed miniature. Thanks for the video it was inspiring as always!
So it can often be good to
Have a base color underneath to avoid this. But you can also add additional paint or just smooth more softly (softer brush, lighter touch)
Also, it can be good to at least have a zenithal, never go over black.
Can I ask what consistency you are using for your paints? Are you thinning them at all with white spirits? Are you rinsing your original brush out very often?
You can see me working with them, I am thinning them a little, just to get them moving, but not much. I'm generally rinsing between strong color changes.
Great video, thank you for sharing with your usually great explanations! I have been thinking of oil paints recently, so this came at a great time! This may be an obvious answer, but have you used oils to start with the NMM process to get some smooth blends out of the gate? Then go to acrylics for the bright and edge highlights? Also, what oil paint brands do you recommend?
Yes, it can be a good base, but most of the key with NMM is the contrast, and you either need a second pass or you need to puch it up with Acrylics. For Oil paints, I like the Winsor & Newton artist paints.
I never would have considered using oils for highlighting, very neat! Curiosity question though. I was always taught to never paint acrylics over oils, but you mentioned that using varnish in between the two (obviously after the oil has dried/cured) works just fine. Does it matter the kind of varnish that is used? I'd love to know which you used too if you're willing to share ;)
Any varnish can work just fine, but I like a mix of satin and matte varnish.
:D Ya I prefer a satin/matte mix myself (though more 1:2 / 1:1), more I was asking if there was a particular brand that you would suggest for this specific application :)