I'm never one to hold back in giving back to the community, everyone who has ever commented on any of my work has helped me get to the stage I am now whether they are a showcase painter or just starting out, everyone has opinions and sometimes its the new guy who's right on the money, so thank you to all of you.



At this stage I'm after opinions, if enough people should show interest I'll write it up, if not I'll just expand on the current article with the planned images.

How helpful / interesting would people here find it if I were to expand on the current article about painting the blue sections (and subsequently painting using the wet blending technique) into a full "how I paint my TSons" article?

I was initially planning on doing this but real life caught up with me before I had the chance (I still have yet to add images in the existing article), basically what I'm proposing is a very comprehensive listing of all Painting/modelling techniques used, including stage by stage examples, the colours used, why I used them etc, etc...

I could also do it on something else (or as well), a firewarrior may be more appropriate given the forum, but then I'd need to work out a new scheme as I'd use that as the start of a new force and rather than have another the same colour...

Essentially what I'm proposing is a painting series that would include all the most common techniques and thought processes that I use. I'd also be up for suggestions on content, if people want to know how a particular technique works I can add that into the series, just so long as I know myself

Essentially I want to talk about ideas, techniques and tricks that can get an army winning best painted awards at top tournaments without spending years layering layer after layer of paint to build up your subtle gradients. The same techniques are used in Golden Demon entries (I actually entered one of my squads and walked away with Bronze) to improve speed in painting to a very high standard so that more time can be spent on the little details like freehand. They can also be used to paint army figures to an exceptional standard (if you bother taking it that far) relatively quickly for the result (but not quickly, if that makes sense)...


In case, for anyone who doesn't know here are links to my Army:
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=11070

...and the current article:
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=11223


I'll leave it with you guys...

It would be interesting indeed. I always like to learn new painting tricks.

I've seen the pics of the army, and I've to say it's very well painted. It's like you haven't used any inks to create the shadows.

Well, if you ask me, your army is the best army out there!
I would most certainly like a 'how to' guide on the wet blending, cause with the current one I've only failed so far
Great initiative
Kern

Even though I'm not planning on painting many Thousand Sons in the course of my hobby career, or that much blue for that matter, I would definetely love and appreciate if you were to type that article out: it'd make for a really interesting read, would allow me to learn quite the number of tricks to try out in practice, and would definetely inspire to way better works.
Please note that I'm 120% sure what I stated under the key of "my own benefits" is something the whole community will share, regardless of how good they are at painting

Thank you for opening this topic, regardless of what you'll end up doing.

Kiten

I for one would love to see a more in depth series of articles on your painting techniques. I am starting some Marines soon, so I'm looking forward to learning how to do blending. I personally would love to see a video (time lapse probably) actually showing how to blend. I am a very visual person, so reading about techniques does me little good.

Maybe you could also provide a few examples of how to change up the color scheme in case we don't want to do blue.

Idea! What if you started a thread where you would show us a simple technique (like blending a shoulder pad or something) then members could post their attempts in another thread and you could help them after seeing how their stuff is turning out. Then each (week, month, whatever) you could post a new tutorial and the cycle starts again.

Anyway, that's just an idea.

Hi guys, Thanks for the interest so far!

I've thought about this more since my late night posting and realised several things that should be mentioned...

The guides won't be aimed at complete beginners, but also won't only be beneficial for those who have a reached a high standard so I guess they'd be a moderate to advanced set. The goal is to cover areas where I feel people often slip up (read: where I've struggled in the past) to try and give people a good chance at reaching a higher level than they might be at currently.

Having said that I want to start right at the beginning as I find when people start to paint to that next level they often make mistakes in the beginning stages such as with model clean up, paint consistency or even paint brush quality etc.

I think given the forum rules this would be most beneficial using Tau models, if the articles are hidden in the enemies section fewer will stumble upon them.


...AND the Q and A


I think it's more important to look at the techniques and show examples of their POSSIBLE application. TSons are simply an army I've been building the past few years and therefore I have many examples of finished models in that force using these techniques. Colour and model choice really doesn't mean much at all in the grand scheme as you could follow along with the tutorials with any colours of your choosing (you can even blend two different colours together, like a red and blue).


I am hoping that anyone reading would be able to walk away with something from the articles, though I'm certainly far (very, very, very far) from the best painter out there!


I'm sorry to hear that you've not met with success using the current article, I feel that pictures and possibly a re-write will help there though. It's not a technique everyone feels comfortable with, but it's something that can improve speed in smooth blends.
I find that people most commonly use poor paint consistency or work too slowly when first attempting wet blending, but it gets far easier with practice, keep trying and it'll come.


I'm glad you like it, and to answer the statement, I haven't use any inks or washes, I find the result far too random. Washes and inks shade the figure, not the lighting of the figure (a subtle but important distinction). I'm not saying the result can't be pleasing, but it's not something that I wanted for the TSons, I preferred the (ultra) Zenithal look for them.

You posted this right as I was posting, so I missed it!

What an excellent Idea! That would actually be a really simple way to write a larger series anyway, given that the feedback from people trying the tute out would be a very valuable resource for me to know what needs to be explained more clearly!

That also gives a really nice and clear way for people to request certain tutorials, whether it be a painting technique, a question on modelling/sculpting (which I'm not as good at, but may still have valuable knowledge to pas off) or a specific type of area (like gemstones or something).


So with that in mind I might make a short tutorial on a technique that I think will pave the way to "wet blending" and in many cases works to provide a very similar look - Feathering.

As to frequency, I think we'll start off with once a month, and I'll post more frequently if I get the time to build the tutorial earlier.

shadowwalker,

I'll second you in complimenting Wolfs16's idea. That would work great, even better than a written article maybe (though I would still provide an "articly" version of what you want to share, both for the sake of clarity and because somebody may get more from that than from a video, if that makes any sense).
With that said, may I proceed to thank you in advance for your work? I'm really looking forward to it.

PS: I noticed you quoted me on the "I won't paint that much blue" thing; maybe it's the language difference, or maybe I'm just plain bad in expressing myself in english, but your response was conveying exactly what I meant over the matter: it'd be great for learning a skill which would be appliable to other models, of course changing the recipe presented with one suitable for one's colour schemes, and definetely improve or inspire other's works. Sorry for the confusion.

No confusion here, I just wanted to make sure it was entirely clear to everyone reading through the post, you are very well "spoken" and I don't have any difficulties at all in reading your posts. Basically I won't be writing anything that would only apply to painting blue, and just wanted that clarified.

The part of Wolfs16's idea I really liked was the growing and organic nature of a series of small tutorials that people can try out and get advice on / post their attempts, though I love the idea of a video I am not sure if I can successfully video the technique with a high enough resolution to show the nuances. I lack a HD video camera though I may be able to borrow one from the university, so stills are somewhat easier for me at this stage. I'd love to give a video a try, but keep in mind that it may not work out
Still a great idea, but possibly less practical unfortunately.
Time lapse really wouldn't be necessary though, wet blending is a very fast approach to getting a massive contrast in colour/shade and simply cutting the footage to reduce the time "off camera" will show it quite quickly (and more effectively as you'll see just how quickly you need to work with paint in it's natural form, that is to say not with any sort of dry inhibitor)