I am returning to painting figures after many years break. But I cannot find a medium I am entirely happy with.

OILS
I base coat with either Humbrol or acrylic; leave the oils on a piece of card for several days to dry out; but I still get a slight sheen. Particularly if you touch up on top of the dried oils. I did overspray with Testors Dullcoat once this seems to help but I would rather avoid varnish.

ACRYLIC
I mostly use Andrea. I tend to get a faint sheen when using very thin washes to blend colours. Are Vallejo acrylics better? I've seen a post about applying matt varnish to the mix anyone tried this? Also about painting on top of acrylic that has not dried, can this lead to a shine?

Grateful for any suggestions.

Alex

never had any problems whatsoever with vallejo paints, using them straight from the bottle or diluted 1:5 even 1:7
what kind of dilution are you talking about ?
I think that some people are diluting way too much their acrylics, weakening the paint film by doing so

Perhaps this thread may help you with oils.

http://www.planetfigure.com/threads/matting-down-oils.71111/

Although cutting the oil with high quality white-spirit, or Turps, does have a matting effect with oil paint..

I am sure, Del, Ron Clark, (Kakemusha), Brian, and Smudger, Ron T.. Will all be of help to you.

Regards,

Mark.

And for acrylics a trick is to mix in a touch of Tamiya X22 matte medium.
Using a hair drier in between layers of acrylics, to properly dry them before proceeding, also helps to keep things matte.
Some colours are more prone to shine than others.

Adrian

Try using Vallejo's matte medium or glaze medium for your acrylic glazes. You won't even need to thin the paint with water (but you can if you want). I add one part paint to about 8 or 10 parts glaze medium (this is a guess as I don't measure). If I still get shine with a particular color I'll use matte medium. Or I'll just apply a glaze of matte varnish at the end.

Hi
I put this in another post .... but here it is again ...I put a bit of Vallejo Matt varnish into my mixes
The Number is 520

Also break the water tension with a drop or two of washing up liquid

The consistency of the paint I aim for is the paint to flow from the brush
and cover in two coats ...... three for some colours if needed
The method I use to apply the paint is by following the sculpture of the figure
I do recommend the use of a hair dryer between layers of colour passes

Never had a problem with glossy acrylics

As for oils .... I am returning to them for some applications
so having to re-learn how to get the best out of them

Hope some of this may help

Frank

I just recently returned to oils and enamels. I really like the easier blending.

I still use acrylics for some things, but I started with oils and enamels years ago and they are what I am most comfortable using.

Don

Many thanks for all the useful tips.

Alex

Certainly wouldn't leave oils to dry out on a card let alone two days
With oils its down to the quality of the pigment , for the most part the students grade will be more oil than the latter , so the artists quality will give better results
Agian different colours dry at different rates with the lighter ones taking the longest also you got to check for opaque , semi opaque and transparent , all will dry with different degrees of sheen , earth colours being the most matt.

Having said this there are different schools of thought re oils , with some advocating the card trick and others relying on a light box for fast drying or a bit of both . Personally I like the slight sheen you get with age on the oils .

If you remove too much oil, you will lose one of the principal quality of oil paints and that's their ability to blend so easily.
I think that you can remove the excess oil. But after that, as long, as you apply only a tiny bit of paint, you are good to go.
Then let it dry with the help of a lamp or not.