Oil paints: miniature painting on EASY MODE! — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Hello guys, welcome back to Not Just Mecha,
2. 0:02it s Marco here and today we work using  the magical properties of oil paints!
3. 0:17Most of the time a title like this  is just an effective click bait, but
4. 0:21what if this time it s actually true! My very first video on YouTube is about
5. 0:26oil paints and since the beginning I used them  almost constantly for weathering and to create
6. 0:31quick definition and extra shades in speed  painting but I made only one video where I paint a
7. 0:37model from start to finish with oils and that was  almost one year ago well, this madness ends here!
8. 0:44I painted this Shaman in about 3 hours with  brushes and oil paints using only a very simple
9. 0:51and beginner friendly approach that in terms of  complexity I'm not afraid to compare to the basic,
10. 0:56base tone, wash, edge highlight of acrylics,  but I think the result speaks for himself
11. 1:01about the difference in efficiency of the two  processes. I m not trying to sell you anything,
12. 1:06you know that I like to combine the two  techniques and I m deeply conscious of
13. 1:10the merits and limits of both kinds of paint but  oils have been out of the spotlight for too long
14. 1:16and I really want to help their recent comeback  to mainstream miniature painting because as
15. 1:21always is a matter of having more options  and as you ll see oils are a great option.
16. 1:28Don t forget to SUBSCRIBE and hit  the bell button to always know what
17. 1:31happens on the channel and if you want  to support my work, like, comment, share,
18. 1:36watch another video and maybe check my Patreon  page where you can find the real time footage
19. 1:41of my videos with every single little line  and brushstroke! Thanks a million guys
20. 1:47If you want to try oil paints you don t need any  particular precaution in the preparation stage
21. 1:52and you can prime your models like you  always do, without changing a thing.
22. 1:57I prime with the same black you have seen  me using dozens of times and I do my usual
23. 2:02zenithal light with white ink like you have seen  me doing dozens of times, nothing chances here!
24. 2:09You can easily start painting over a  simple full white primer but I think
25. 2:12that a zenithal light is a more  beginner friendly starting point
26. 2:16because you get a clear map of the volumes  that you have to create later anyway
27. 2:20and in general underpainting techniques  are an integral part of oil painting.
28. 2:28Another beginner friendly, but absolutely  non mandatory step is to fix a couple of
29. 2:33base tones with acrylics and, the tool you  choose for this step doesn t really matter.
30. 2:37The objective is only to have few colours on the  surface to limit a bit the volume of oil paint
31. 2:43you ll need later to obtain the opacity  we are used to and we naturally look for,
32. 2:47so you can use standard acrylics or inks,  contrast paints and similar products,
33. 2:52just choose the paint you are most  comfortable with to get a quick,
34. 2:57simple, light base tone on the parts where you  feel the need of a more opaque starting point.
35. 3:02As you can see, nothing fancy or complicated  here even in terms of visual output.
36. 3:08Before moving to oils I want to reveal  the two key, foundational ideas that you
37. 3:13have to keep in mind throughout this video  and all your future work with oil paints!
38. 3:18First revelation: in almost every aspect oils  are acrylics in reverse. This is obviously an
39. 3:24oversimplification but when in doubt this  loose concept can save you a lot of trouble:
40. 3:29they dry slowly, light colours are more opaque  than dark colours, thick paint is better for
41. 3:34large blendings and diluted paint is  better for sharp details and so on.
42. 3:39Second revelation: this is a powerful  mental image for oil paints behaviour
43. 3:46because more or less everything revolves precisely  around this, the direct application of thick
44. 3:51paint and its spreading and even the actual  movements with the brush are quite similar!
45. 3:57I want to jump into the real work and I don t  want to talk too much about materials here so
46. 4:01if you need to know more about what you need on  the table to start painting in this way and how
47. 4:06this medium and its tools work in general start  from this super comprehensive video up here! ---
48. 4:12The only updates I made to my setup since that  video are moving from a glass palette to cheap,
49. 4:17paper disposable palettes that make cleaning  much easier and upgrade my palette cup to a
50. 4:23version with lids, a little thing that makes  a lot of sense considering the long life of
51. 4:28the palette itself so I can keep the same  tools and materials on the table for days
52. 4:33without moving or cleaning anything. In the first stage my palette is entirely
53. 4:40made by deep dark colours and I m going to  use them to set my deeper shadows and all
54. 4:45my dark definition from the very beginning. They came on palette directly from the tubes
55. 4:52without any extra preparation and I use just  a teeny-tiny bit of white spirit to thin them
56. 4:58down where I feel that the consistency is  a bit too dense but it s not so uncommon
57. 5:03for me to use the softer ones straight from  tubes, especially in the advanced stages.
58. 5:10The true objective of this step is to envelop  the model in a general coat of oily medium
59. 5:15that will improve the grab of the next  layers of paint like a sort of wet primer
60. 5:20making every part of the model an active and  reactive surface where the colours can move
61. 5:25with a proper wet on wet behaviour and the brush  can slide on the oily medium like a skater on ice.
62. 5:33More old school painters tend do this step using a  uniform colour almost identical in value and tone
63. 5:40to the one used for the acrylic base to  start painting from the same mid tone but
64. 5:44with the oil s properties, but as you know  I m obsessed with efficiency and I like to
65. 5:49obtain as much as I can from a single step. I want to be clear, I didn t invent anything here;
66. 5:58oil painting especially on display and competition  models is a real thing around the world, in Italy
67. 6:03in particular and I ve been super lucky to learn  about its use from true masters of this medium
68. 6:09but like every real wizard they are often a  bit shy and sometimes secretive in their ways.
69. 6:17I was really surprised when I discovered  the work of James Wappel and how much we
70. 6:22streamlined some steps in a very similar way  especially when painting gaming models. James
71. 6:28is for sure the most active of us in teaching and  spreading the oils way so check the links in the
72. 6:34description to find to a ton of extra, great  super informative content about this topic.
73. 6:43Again I want to keep this video very beginner  friendly so I don t want to stress you with too
74. 6:48much with colour theory and the crazy  interactions you can trigger with this step,
75. 6:52we ll get there don t worry, so here I  simply use a dark green for the green skin
76. 6:58(in reality I couldn t resist adding a bit  of violet around fingers, knees and elbows) a
77. 7:03dark blue for the bluish cape and dark browns for  wood and bones. And since I want a colourful flow
78. 7:09of tones on the magic smoke I put in sequence  red, magenta, violet, blue and green on top!
79. 7:18I know this seems a total  mess now but watch this!
80. 7:24Like I usually do with oil washes I use make-up  sponges and q-tips to remove the excess of paint
81. 7:30from every open surface but leaving a ton  of wet, active paint inside the details.
82. 7:37As a bonus, thanks to the thick consistency of  the colours and their heavy load of pigments
83. 7:42over a mat, porous and receptive acrylic  surface everything remains stained by a
84. 7:47nice transparent base tone perfect for that area.
85. 7:54Even if you remove most of the paint everything is  still covered by a thin oily layer because you can
86. 8:00t really take off that kind of substance simply  rubbing without a solvent chemically acting on it.
87. 8:08Anyway, like working on washes,  be gentle in this stage;
88. 8:12you are moving wet paint that  doesn t really fight or resist you
89. 8:15and you have only a couple of acrylic layers  enduring all this external physical stress.
90. 8:24Here you can see the small number of consumables I  used and my bad management of the sponges surface.
91. 8:31Usually, I use just a couple of q-tips for the  most hidden spots but here I needed a few more
92. 8:36because of the strong undercuts of this model. Let s be honest, this is already quite
93. 8:43interesting! All the preparation is  done and we can move to the fun part!
94. 8:49I add to the palette my lighter tones, setting  the entire pool of colours I ll use until the end
95. 8:54and I finally start painting  in a more classic way!
96. 8:59I have a couple of pointy brushes for  mixing and the application of paint
97. 9:04and few blending brushes in different sizes and  shapes that will remain dead dry for the entire
98. 9:10process without ever touching the thinner! White spirit is a powerful solvent for oils,
99. 9:18much more powerful than water for acrylics  so I ll use it only in minimal, microscopic
100. 9:24quantities to adjust a bit the consistency  of the thicker colours on the palette and to
101. 9:29clean the application brushes when I need to jump  between extremely different tones, that s all.
102. 9:37With experience and more general control you  ll start using often the same brush both for
103. 9:42application and blending but if are a beginner  start with a super strict two brushes technique;
104. 9:48this little thing will make your life  incredibly easier and you can thank me later!
105. 9:57To clean the blending brushes I simply  rub them on a piece of paper towel,
106. 10:02this is more than enough to remove the  meaningful excess keeping them dry.
107. 10:10Remember, these are not acrylics and using  paint with a good density and thickness
108. 10:15is the core of the technique. Despite all these recommendations
109. 10:21the actual workflow is the simplest and  most straight forward you can think of:
110. 10:26you take the paint from the palette, you slap  it without any crazy precision where needed and
111. 10:33you blend it on the surface or directly with the  other colours of the gradient you want to create.
112. 10:41There s no need for multiple overlapped  layers to fake a gentle progression
113. 10:46and you don t need to glaze dozens of thin  transparent layers to obtain smoothness;
114. 10:53gradients and flowing colours come from gently  spreading around that initial blob of paint.
115. 10:59Remember, always keep bread and butter in mind!
116. 11:05Thanks to the previous steps I ve already in  place the darkest shadows that contain a ton of
117. 11:10interesting colours and the dark definition they  create so here I basically need only to, quote
118. 11:15unquote, colour inside the borders and every time  a new colour gets near those shadows it naturally
119. 11:22blends with the wet paint creating a gentle  progression from light to mid tones and shadows!
120. 11:30The blending brush is your main weapon, the  tool that makes all the real work. You can
121. 11:38gently dab it to blend the paint on the  spot or use long brushstrokes to spread it
122. 11:43with a precise vector, but remember that  to better control the blending process
123. 11:48the pressure you apply is a bit more important  than shape and direction of the brushstrokes.
124. 11:55A secondary but not less important work that the  blending brush does for you with its movement
125. 12:00is to fix the texture and the finish of the paint.
126. 12:04I m using thick paint that easily catches  the shape of bristles and brushstrokes
127. 12:09and while blending I can easily erase those  marks plus using the dabbing motion I create in
128. 12:15a microscopy level the texture of mat paint,  that s why even on screen you can see that
129. 12:20the model is never really shiny or glossy and  thanks to this, everything will dry quite mat.
130. 12:31Usually I talk more about the  colours I m using and their relation
131. 12:34but as you can see I m working with  basic hues and simple mixes because
132. 12:38the real complex interactions  happen directly on the model.
133. 12:43I believe that in this case the most important  part to deliver is in the brushstrokes,
134. 12:47the flow of the work and its stages. I must be honest with you, if you are
135. 12:54a beginner miniature painter in general, you ll  not face huge problems adapting to this workflow,
136. 12:59but if are coming from years and years of  acrylics and traditional wargaming techniques,
137. 13:05well your first experiments are going to be tough  because again all your world will go upside down.
138. 13:12The good thing is that thanks to your  experience with brush and paints in general
139. 13:17your learning curve will be extremely steep and  you ll find yourself giggling at the table asking:
140. 13:23why the hell I don't I always paint like  this? this is happing to me right now.
141. 13:33I want you also to be aware that  everything you see here is just an atom,
142. 13:37not even a molecule of the tip of the huge  iceberg that is oil painting and of course
143. 13:42there s a lot of my personal way of  understanding and using the medium;
144. 13:48oils have been around for literally one  thousand years, even today they are still one
145. 13:52of the most used artist s mediums and they  are still made almost in the same way and
146. 13:57I think this gives you a good idea of why they  are considered the pinnacle of what paint can do.
147. 14:03If you think about it in modern, advanced  miniature painting the trend is to imitate
148. 14:09their behaviour with acrylics; zenithal  lights and all the underpainting techniques,
149. 14:14the wet on wet method, the sketch and blend  approach, a lot of things we do with the airbrush
150. 14:20or even our basic tools like mediums, flow  improvers and even the wet palette, all the needs
151. 14:26that these tools and techniques try to satisfy are  easily covered by the basic properties of oils!
152. 14:33Again, we come from a strange perspective  where acrylics are the centre of the universe,
153. 14:38but they have been invented only 70 years ago  and even if they are functional for what we do,
154. 14:44if we want to be called painters, I think  we should know better what s around us.
155. 14:56I put a lot of emphasis on large, smooth blends  because that is what is perceived as the difficult
156. 15:03part of brush painting in acrylics but oils can  also easily cover textures and sharp details.
157. 15:10We ll talk better about this in future videos,  but painting textures with oils is quite easy
158. 15:16because thanks to the natural thickness of the  paint you can quickly set the rough pattern of
159. 15:20the texture on the model and then blend  its impact and visibility as you need;
160. 15:26you can make it more subtle and transparent  with more passes of the blending brush
161. 15:31or sharper and easily visible with just a couple  of super light touches and obviously you can
162. 15:36combine both in multiple steps to create  a deeper and even more realistic effect.
163. 16:00Painting sharp lines and  edge highlights I simply add
164. 16:03much more thinner to my paint reaching  the consistency of a fluid acrylic,
165. 16:08something in between a well shaken  dropper bottle and contrast paint.
166. 16:14The flow of the brush loaded with diluted oil  paint over the active surface is incredibly smooth
167. 16:20and precise and the lines get a natural gradient  mixing a bit with the tones and values you have
168. 16:26already on the surface making the edge highlights  more harmonious with the area of application.
169. 16:38As final note, I know you are worried about the  drying time but really, don t! Oils dry slowly,
170. 16:45that s true but the idea that this takes weeks  or months is true only for canvases where it s
171. 16:51often used a crazy mass of paint like entire  tubes sometimes. With an application like the
172. 16:58one I used here the model will be completely  dry in no more than a couple of days and if
173. 17:03you follow the link up here you can discover how  the process works and how you can speed it up!
174. 17:25And here s the final result! This took me about  three hours, and I can t stress enough how easy
175. 17:31has been to arrive here. I want also to point  out that I always use the time I needed to
176. 17:37complete a project not to brag about my speed  or because I value speed in a particular way
177. 17:43but because I consider obtaining a good looking  model in a short time, synonymous of a conscious
178. 17:49efficiency and an easy, effective process. Again, the more I paint the more I feel the
179. 17:54need of this kind of properties to create what  I have in mind and sometimes instead of doing
180. 18:00a million tricks with acrylics to obtain that  I feel it s easier to just change the medium.
181. 18:05I hope you enjoyed this updated version of  my gateway to oil painting and I can t wait
182. 18:10to go more and more in depth into the topic  because there s still sooooo much to say!!!