I am pretty happy with how my mountains and cliffs are turning out but, there is still room for improvement. I am using water base craft paint form Wall-mart called Apple Barrel. This is how I am doing the paint work.
1 Paint the base color, light gray.
2 While still wet, I add a darker color of gray in deeper sections and all so blend some of the darker color with the light gray.
3 After dry I then dry brush some brown in the deeper section, then add some Pumpkin Orange to the brown paint left and dry brush again on the out section of rock.
4 Let dry aging and dry brush on a medium gray so it is in the outer face of the rock. Darker colors are in the nooks and cranny’s of the rock faces
I am figure the lighter colors should be pretty much on the faces and darker colors in the nooks and cranny’s.
I want to use a black wash no the cliffs to make the details stand out more. Tips on using and making washes? Using craft water base paint, what is the ratio of water to paint for a good wash?
Other problem I have with doing section to section is keeping the base color all the same. My eye for color is pretty good being in auto body and paint for 20 some odd years. But, it all so makes me see the slight changes more. I have seen mixing cups for mixing auto paint down to a pint. That is a lot for the space I do at a time. Anything smaller that you folks know of?
What about chalk and dull coat?
After the current section is dry I will post a picture and feel free to pick it a part!
Thanks for putting up with my none stop questions.
Good coments. I use black tube acrylics for the wash. I use lots of water and sometimes have to do it more than once. I use white for the final dry brush to make the sunny highlights a little more bright. I don’t worry much about color variation, in that nature changes color all over the place. Thanks for sharing this info.
Your theories and techniques sound pretty good to me. I reckon your rocks will look good.
I too use black acrylic very heavily diluted and I like to pre-wet the area so it flows and spreads nicely when brushed on. My rocks were finished off with opaque colours [white added] plus powdered artists pastels [chalks. They give a nice dull finish.
I have done similar to what you did, only on plaster because I made a mess at the beginning and had to fix it by painting it. I think I painted it all dark, burnt umber and blacks first, then worked out to the surface with lighter colors. I tried a wash afterward but had too many paint coats for it to do what it should have. Because I made it work once, I will probably do it again on foam when needed. A coat of flat Modge-Podge may help the wash to stick better to the paint.
A paint wash is usually 10 to 1, water to paint, but can be adjusted to suite your needs.
I use plastic cups for mixing acrylic paint. You know, the ones you buy at the grocery store for picnicks or bathrooms, depending on the size you want. I don’t try to save what paint is left unless I need it to finish the work the next day, then I seal the top with plastic wrap and a rubberband and swish a little paint around the lip for a better seal. It will last a couple of days that way, but not much longer.
