Sunday, February 13, 2011

Shaky hands, Mixing paints...

So after a whole week I finally went out of my appartment.
Yesterday we went to become friends with other children - Balrog ate his first fritter, chased balls in a pool and snatched toys from his colleagues ;) but he didn't get beaten badly - everything was under control.

And today I took my boys to a museum. We strolled from one fire extinguisher to another - they were the only attractions at the level of little visitors' eyes. Balrog was privileged thanks to his height - he was the only one whose noises were forgiven - and he felt like singing... I am not really surprised as there were many nudes presented in the museum, so he might feel inspired to sing some dirty songs ;)

Nooo po całym tygodniu w domu wyściubiłam nos za drzwi.
Wczoraj byliśmy zakolegować się z innymi dziećmi - Balrog wcinał pierwszego racucha, gonił w baseniku za piłkami i podbierał zabawki kolegom ;) ale za mocno po kubku nie dostał - wszystko pod kontrolą.

Dziś za to wyciągnęłam chłopaków do muzeum. Spacerowaliśmy od gaśnicy do gaśnicy - jedyne atrakcje na wysokości oczu małych zwiedzających. Balrog miał przywileje z racji wzrostu - był jedynym, któremu wybaczano hałasy - na przyśpiewki mu się zebrało... trochę się nie dziwię, bo same golizny dookoła, więc sprośne kawałki mogły cisnąć się na język. ;)


You may have noticed that on many blogs and websites the most useful things are said in comments submitted by readers. That's why I pay much attention to the comments that people leave on my blog. And sometimes you can find such useful pieces of information as this one:
 
Może zauważyliście, że na wielu blogach i stronach często zdarza się, że najbardziej przydatne rzeczy można znaleźć w komentarzach czytelników. Z tego powodu zwracam dużo uwagi na komentarze pozostawiane na moim blogu. A czasem można w nich znaleźć tak przydatne informacje jak ta:

Luovahulluus said:
Sometimes I get shaky hands too. Remembering to breath usually helps for me. If it doesn't eating something will. Ofcource these are just two reasons for shaky hands...


I've been painting for about six months now, only showcase-style, and your blog has some great tips! Trying a lot of different techniques by different people has really helped me to improve my painting. I will absolutely try that second method of painting sometime.


 Here is something I did, and some of you might want to try: Just to try something different and to train my eye for seeing the colors as they are, I tried to paint the skin of a figure green. The trick was not using any greens, only a cold yellow, brownish warm yellow, a blue and a black. I mixed everything on a wet palette as I needed the color. The torso and the head is painted more with the brownish yellow and the limbs with the colder one. There is more blue in the limbs than the torso and head. There is more blue in the shadows and more cold yellow in the hilights. It made the surface quite nice continuously changing lively color. It was quite difficult to make the blends smooth because it was so hard to make the color what it needed to be. The whole thing was great training for blending, mixing the colors on wet palette and eye-color-coordination.

And sorry for the completely unrelated rant about my own painting experiences :)
Luovahulluus napisał:
Mi też się czasem trzęsą ręce. Zwykle pomaga mi pamiętanie o oddechu. Jeśli to nie wystarcza, zwykle pomaga zjedzenie czegoś. Oczywiście to tylko dwa powody trzęsących się rąk... 

 Maluję od około sześciu miesięcy, tylko w stylu wystawowym i twój blog zawiera trochę świetnych porad! Próbowanie wielu różnych technik stosowanych przez różnych ludzi naprawdę pomogło mi poprawić jakość mojego malowania. Na pewno kiedyś wypróbuję tę drugą metodę malowania.

Oto co kiedyś zrobiłem, a czego niektórzy z Was mogą chcieć spróbować: Po to, żeby spróbować czegoś innego i przyzwyczaić moje oczy do widzenia kolorów takimi, jakimi są, spróbowałem pomalować skórę figurki na zielono. Sztuczka polegała na tym, aby nie używać żadnych zieleni, tylko chłodnej żółci, ciepłej brązowawej żółci, niebieskiego i czarnego, Mieszałem wszystko na mokrej palecie kiedy tylko potrzebowałem jakiegoś koloru. Tułów i głowę pomalowałem bardziej brązowawą żółcią, a kończyny tą chłodniejszą. Na kończynach jest więcej niebieskiego niż na tułowiu i głowie. Więcej niebieskiego jest w cieniach, a w rozjaśnieniach więcej chłodnej żółci. Dzięki temu powierzchnia stała się ładna, ciągle zmieniająca swój żywy kolor. Dość trudno było utrzymać gładkość przejść kolorów, bo trudno było mi uzyswkać te kolory, których konkretnie potrzebowałem. Było to świetnym ćwiczeniem w przejściach kolorów, mieszaniu kolorów na mokrej palecie i koordynacji oko-kolor.
Przepraszam za odbiegającą od tematu tyradę na temat moich doświadczeń malarskich. :)
Hi Luovahulluus :) and thanks for this useful comment!

Regadring the problem of shaky hands, I use the same methods to deal with it. My brother-in-law prefers a glass of something stronger ;) but what he does is some kind of engineering designs and it's only very rarely.

Sometimes I can see a photo of a painter who keeps his elbows on the table and paints with hands on the level of his eyes. I would be unable to do it this way. I need to rest my arms on something at the level of wrists - I think it reduces shaking of my hands. Or at least it makes me feel more comfortable and secure this way.


Cześć Luovahulluus :) dzięki, za cenną myśl!

W kwestii trzęsących się rąk, to mam te same sposoby. Mój szwagier faworyzuje kieliszeczek czego mocniejszego ;) ale on robi projekty od wielkiego dzwonu.

Czasem na zdjęciach widzę malarza, który podpiera łokcie o blat i maluje z uniesionymi rękoma na wysokość oczu. U mnie to nie mozliwe. Podpieram ręce na wysokości nadgarstów - tak sobie myślę, że pewnie niweluje mi to drganie dłoni. Ja się w każdym razie czuję pewniej.

Regarding the subject of mixing colors for painting skin, the way you described is something I use pretty often :) even though I don't use the wetblending method. I like to reduce the number of paints used... and I think that taking another green color from my drawer seems more time consuming to me than mixing Citadel's Snakebite Leather (that I used for NMM gold) and Vallejo's Night Blue (that I used for painting a cape) which are already on my desk. I just mix these two colors and am sure that the color will match other colors on the miniature.


A w temacie miesania kolorów na skórę, to i ja bardzo często tak maluję :) choć nie stosuję techniki malowania na mokro. Lubię ograniczać ilość farb ... a inna sprawa, że wydaje mi się bardziej czasochłonne dobieranie farby z szuflady w kolorze zielonym, skoro na stole mam np. Snakebite Leather z Citadel bo malowałam złoto w NMM i Night Blue z Vallejo którym malowałam pelerynę. Mieszam oba kolory i mam pewność, że będzie mi ten kolor pasował do sąsiadujących barw.



Moreover, I tend to get bored with the colors I have in my drawer - I used so many color schemes already, and then I get another customer asking me to paint a space marine... So to make painting more interesting, I make my own color mixes for his blue armor :-> Many other painters most likely don't even care and put all these dark blues into one box. ;) But for me it's what makes painting more enjoyable.

And do you prefer to use ready colors or to make your own mixes? 

Poza tym z czasem nudzą mi się kolory z szuflady - wiele ze schematów juz przerabiałam, a tu trafia się kolejny klient na marinsa ... no to żeby sobie uatrakcyjnić malowanie, robię sobie własną mieszankę na niebieski pancerz :> Inna sprawa, że inni nie zwracają na to uwagi i szufladkują wszystkie te granaty do jednego pudła ;) ale mnie to uprzyjemnia malowanie.

 A czy Wy wolicie gotowe kolory, czy może własne mieszanki?

7 comments:

  1. Sitting here now I have very shaky hands but I have just tried to fit myself into a wet-suit that was too small so it's probably adrenalin fueled however when I do shake like this I tend to do something relaxing like watching a fire or listening to some classical music to calm me down.

    As for mixing paints my other half's ex boyfrined was a graphic artist and he taught her all about colour theory so I'm always asking her what colours I need to make this and that colour, my biggest problem is that my wet pallet is so small (it needs to be due to space restrictions) that I end up with a puddle of all the colours mixing into one another. I think I need to get myself a better wet pallet and I can then start to mix colours again because I don't like having too many paint pots in my painting box.

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  2. Hi Ańa,
    I too am a shaky hand sufferer, and can't paint when I'm too stressed. :-D Like your bro-in-law I find a glass of something strong works, a good merlot or fine scotch works for me :-D All I have to be aware of is not to dip a loaded brush in the glass :-D LOL!
    Keep up the great blog: I really look forward to your posts - particularly, since my little munchkin is 10 months old (I really don't know how you juggle modelling and a young family).

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  3. I don't really think I should compare anything I do painting-wise to your accomplishments, as I am light-years away from your technique, but I'll indulge myself with answering your questions :)

    I deal with shaky hands just like you do - I try to steady my breath and I rest my hands on the edge of the table with my wrists. As to mixing colors - I don't like it for two reasons:
    - first - usually I need mixes for some fancy details or highlighting, which means I need small quantities of them. That in turn means lots of mixed paint goes unused and wasted.
    - second - as I paint whole armies, not individual models, I need all respective shades on each models to be exactly the same, which is impossible when mixing it every time anew. The exception is colours I use a lot, in which case I just make a custom mix in an old, empty can. Apart from that, I prefer readies.

    Not to mention that having scores of miniatures to paint and limited amount of time to do it (work, Balrogs etc) I need to take shortcuts wherever possible.

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  4. only use 5 or 6 colours ever but the use of dischords eg a darkish green under skin tone applied as a glaze over this is a way to make flesh look transparent and real - i hold mi breath to stop the shakes .........

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  5. Never thought you would make a blog post about my comment to an older posting...

    Usually I use one base color, and then mix one other color to it as I move gradually towards a lighter tone and another for a darker tone. Using three colors to mix a completely new base color that changes gradually depending on the position on the figurine was a new thing to me. Then adding aproppriate tones for the shadows and hilights still using only the three colors (and a tip of black) adds so much more dimension to the whole mixing process, especially when compared to my usual style.

    Someday I have to try to use just two colors for one area of a miniature. Maybe a yellowish color for the hilights and a dark bluish purple for the shadows and everything else is a mix between them.

    It's good to hold your breath for a few seconds when you need to get the color just to the right place, but holding your breath for too long makes your hands shake. That's why you need to remember to breathe.

    I really recommend trying a wet palette for everyone. It made my painting so much easier and prettier. And I waste a lot less paint as it doesn't dry on the palette that fast. And it's very easy to do by yourself, just the size that fits on your painting area. I have found that about A5 size is good.

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  6. Witaj Anno, moje pytanie będzie trochę off-topic.
    Czy możesz polecić jakąś gazetkę dla początkującego w której były by informację lub tutoriale jak malować?
    Jakie posypki kupiłabyś na początek dla upiększenia podstawek?

    ReplyDelete

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