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Absolutely love this. I've been getting into mixing for miniature painting myself, but with a bit of added perspective which (I think) isn't captured here. It

Absolutely love this. I've been getting into mixing for miniature painting myself, but with a bit of added perspective which (I think) isn't captured here. It turns out there's more than just raw color going on here. Acrylic paints have different degrees of opacity, and you can increase transparency by mixing in acrylic medium. Additionally, adding water and/or flow-improver helps the acrylics slide off flat surfaces into crevices, producing deeper colors in recesses and thinner applications in open areas - this is the principle which gives us washes, shades, and contrast/speed paints. And there's basic acrylic mediums (matte or gloss) but also specialty mediums which have more texture (gels, modeling pastes) or additives (pumice, fiber, glass micro-beads). [Edit: And of course, Metallics!!! There's a few different additives, like mica, which are used to create metallic paints.] Together, this points to a combinatorial problem: No pre-mixed bottles will ever cover all of the possibilities, so you have to start mixing paints (and mediums!) to achieve the desired effects in any particular project.

raphlinus 3y ago
Indeed. I learned color theory from "The Measurement of Appearance" by Richards Hunter and Harold, and one of the strengths of that work is that goes well beyond simple color into things like gloss, opalescence, etc. Highly recommended. Also Bruce MacEvoy's in-progress book "Color Experience"[1] looks like it will be a fairly definitive treatment of the topic. It is also rooted in physical colorants (the author is an extremely serious watercolorist). [1]: https://www.handprint.com/CE/book.html https://www.handprint.com/CE/book.html
gilleain 3y ago
I've been using various paints (watercolour, gouache, acrylic) and various mediums (gum arabic, aquapasto, gloss gel medium) on (paper, canvas, gesso) to paint repeating patterns. It's interesting how much experimentation you have to do to learn about a particular paint or combination of paint and medium. Sometimes I think combinations will have _more_ of an effect - I was hopeful that ink on paper below gloss medium acrylic would be more obvious, but did not come out the way I expected.

raphlinus 3y ago

Indeed. I learned color theory from "The Measurement of Appearance" by Richards Hunter and Harold, and one of the strengths of that work is that goes well beyond simple color into things like gloss, opalescence, etc. Highly recommended. Also Bruce MacEvoy's in-progress book "Color Experience"[1] looks like it will be a fairly definitive treatment of the topic. It is also rooted in physical colorants (the author is an extremely serious watercolorist). [1]: https://www.handprint.com/CE/book.html https://www.handprint.com/CE/book.html

gilleain 3y ago

I've been using various paints (watercolour, gouache, acrylic) and various mediums (gum arabic, aquapasto, gloss gel medium) on (paper, canvas, gesso) to paint repeating patterns. It's interesting how much experimentation you have to do to learn about a particular paint or combination of paint and medium. Sometimes I think combinations will have _more_ of an effect - I was hopeful that ink on paper below gloss medium acrylic would be more obvious, but did not come out the way I expected.