I've been painting in some form my entire life, from watercolors and gouche to oils, but until now, any three dimensional human face has only been as an accessory to a military model.

I'm armed to the teeth with Vallejo, have a collection of trusty Series Sevens and some Cobra on hand and plan on working mainly with 1/16.

Most of my Vallejo goes through an airbrush and have yet to have tried a glaze medium with them.

Is there an advantage to using an acrylic like Jo Sonja over Vallejo for faces? Is the pigment quality or size, mixability with retarders, glazes and flow agents better?

I know this probably falls under personal preference, and my experience with acrylic artist colors was years ago and mostly in illustration type of applications, more cartoon that fine, so I can't say I've ever tried to truly blend them like an oil, but wouldn't mind trying.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated, even a simple 'shut up and get on with your Vallejo'.

you could paint the face in pastels if you like ............it does not make a difference chap ................... some guys can do things with acrylic that others can only do with oil and vice versa ............... main thing you have to do is just go for it and enjoy!

The only real difference I've noted (and I use both Josonja and Vallejo acrylics all the time) is that Josonja paints always dry dead flat, whereas sometimes Vallejo paints can dry with a shiny finish, especially red, green and blue colours. You can fix that by adding a small amount of Tamiya X-21 Flat Clear to your paint when its on the palette.

Thanks guys.

Tony, just what I needed to hear. I've been using X-21 as a sheen killer for years, will do with Vallejo. I also have Vallejo's matte medium on hand too, but haven't used it. With model building, the differences in finish aren't a concern because since the whole piece gets a gloss coat before decaling, to be knocked down with washes and pigments, then sealed in flat. From memory, the only issues I've had with the finish during painting are the yellows, oranges and bright reds, but those are difficult colors to begin with.

Have you ever mixed JoSonja and Vallejo? I only ask because I'd like to buy the glaze and flow medium in larger bottles than the 17ml Vallejo offers.

You know what, I have a collection of mediums including ones made by Liquitex, Golden, Vallejo, etc.. airbrush mediums, fluid stuff, matte medium, etc.

But I will most often reach for my trusted bottle of distillee water. One or two drops of water for one drop of Vallejo paint is all you really need most of the time. If you go for higher dilutions, you will need to add some binder.

No problem to mix Vallejo and Jo Sonja paints.

Adrian

i personally use andrea color is very opaque

Thank you gentlemen, great information.