Hi all Sirs,
here a new painting project, which will be painted with the new SDW shading colors.
The figure is a 75mm from the little italian brand Bestsoldiers. I usually prefer 54mm, but I was captured by the personality of this figure.



The baseplate was cut here and there, to place the figure slightly turned, adding further personality to the subject, and the gaps had to be filled.
For this task I used some Ready Earth, spread and resized with a metal tongue.





As soon as it looses its stickyness, some minutes, the whole is moulded with fingers to fit with the sockle



And the upper edge softened and leveled with the ground with a water-wet soft brush

Lovely start.

Very Nice, Ill be watching as well.

Mark

Good start on a very nice figure.

Ian

www.elliesminiatures.com

"SDW shading colors"? Transparents?

A lovely piece.

Paul.

I'm looking to seeing the progression of this piece with much interest!
Fantastic start

Salinger,

Andy

Many thanks to you all !

A couple hours later, some READY EARTH again is mixed with water, and literally painted over the remaining part of the base., just to match somewhat the surrounding color an add a texture.



As cured, the stuff is concrete-hard. No matter if some grey primer shows thorough, this is just a basecolor.

Now stones. This is just a first approach into the use of SDW colors.
You will excuse me if I move in little steps, but also I have to re-train myself a bit into figure painting.

A wash with thinned down (water) sdw black.



Over the still fresh paint (I'll explain you later some of these paint's features) some sdw tan



Then a light, aimed ahead left (figure left), with pure sdw white



The light is then blended with a gentle stippling motion.

When dry...



Then a coat of a well thinned darker earth tone. A sort of wash, although these paints are not suited for washes.

That is a very impressive simple technique.

Paul.

Well, now it's time to "seriously" get into the painting.
What I'm going to show you, is what I feel to be a good "transitional" technique between acrylic and oil paints, well suited for the SDW Shading Colors.
For anyone who does not know them , they are waterbased resin paints, with the blending capability of oils. More about them you can find HERE

First layer is a mix of sdw grey green and bistro additive. From now onwards let's call it "basic shadow". Stretch it well on the figure, gently rebrushing it a minute after painting, and let it dry.



Meanwhile, a mix of basic shadow and sdw white for the vest



Lighted with pure white. Along drying, the two colors on this little area will blend without further intervention.

You will excuse my poor, scholastic english. Ask wherever unclear...

Still deeper into shading technique. Over the dried, first layer of basic shadow, we paint a thin and well stretched second coat. (I just forgot to say you I'm painting with pure, unthinned paints as out of the bottle).



Over this still fresh layer, the overcoat color is painted along the folds light area. it is the darker greenish color you see into palette.



Passing the brush along the contact area, we will avail the two colors blending. That's all...
Adding more of one of the two paints, you can adjust, move and extend the blending area at your taste.



Now let me say a couple things. This is no critique to any method, nor product, just an opinion to share with you.
Although now very out of practice, I've been longtime painting with acrylics, and longtime with oils. Acrylics is a more cold, mechanical approach : layer-layer-layer. Oils instead is, at least for me, an emotional experience. You have a living matter in your hands, at any moment you can move lights and shadows as you like. This is why the waterbased sdw colors. (incidentally, sdw can be used also like an acrylic, but this is just another tale...).

Over the still fresh coat, a higher light can be added on upper folds.

This is the still wet result
I initially used a little oven to speed up drying (metal biscuit box with a bulb), but now I noticed that they blend better, and also more matt, leaving them to dry freely. Anyway it's matter of one hour or little more.

Nice work sir..the true earth paints really do perform as indicated, and for me are a welcome change from working with my nose right into nasty odours

@John

Now the procedure is repeated on the front side, although here the blending areas are much smaller. Instead of blending colors by brush, I preferred to add two subsequently lightened tones, and let the paint do itself.

First light



Second higher light



And when finally dry

Good sculpt and an interesting SBS. I look forward to reading more.

Cheers

Huw

I am very sorry but this is a rare thing for me to post ...
a negative critique.

This thread is a disguised advertisement and it fails in my view
The groundwork product looks superb and I would buy it tomorrow, no problem, but the photographs showing the use of these paints are not blended together at all as claimed there are huge differences in the transitions of colour.

If you used them in a few layers maybe but I am not impressed with your poor results.

I was excited to read the beginning of this process but you are not showing me anything that makes the shadow colour paints worth spending any money on!

This is plainly an advertisememt disguised as a thread and to me it is very poor.

It is terrific that you are trying to put forward a new concept to the painting public, but it doesn't work in the images.

I think this is the first time I have not found something to praise on this forum and I think this is very sad....but good luck to your efforts.

PAUL.

@ Pedee : you should at least see how the figure proceeds.... Result is AT THE END
...Should a waterbased paint work like an oil paint be not a true novelty in painting inventory...
More or less blending is due to my painter's technique, as you have seen on the back of the figure where folds are softer.

More : an advertisement says "buy this, it's good". A tutorial instead explains you how it works, and this is definitel a tutorial. So, as any other modeller here shows his techniques and the products he uses (or at least should have to be done into a forum, to anyones advantage).

But maybe you prefer to pay for books explaining you how a product works, instead of seeing it freely into your forum. You don't like it ? Just turn the page.

I can't claim the expertise of many here, but in returning to modelling I've been working with the products and find they indeed do blend to my needs, however I am just one voting with his money. As far as the work in progress report, perhaps it's advertorial, but is that different from a figure designer showing a new casting? I am watching for the final result in terms of judging the product and quality of execution. How else can new materials get an airing? Or perhaps the thread is in the wrong spot and should be under a different topic?