Blades of Glory

Here's another figure that I used in the dealers room demos at GenCon to illustrate the use of glazes to not just shade, but tint as well.

Now that I am painting so many vehicles, it is interesting to hear the terms modulation and filters being substituted for my more traditional artist names for those techniques.  It was a bit confusing at first... especially figuring out what was meant by a filter.

For me, tinting is a crucial stage, because that is what allows the Shaded Basecoat to be so effective.  The principal behind that is to get lights and darks positioned across the entire figure as rapidly as possible, just like my old 2D painting days!

Once that has been completed, the 'real' colors come out in the glazing stage, where I not only darken colors, but tint them to the hue that I need.  For instance, the coat on this figure was originally going to be blue or brown... but early on the need for something brighter and more eye catching became apparent.

I tried out a few glazes of reaper Clear Red, just to see how that might look.  Yes, this is the prime advantage of the Shaded Basecoat (which I say over and over again... sorry!).  I can completely change my color scheme in mid stream if the need arises, since I have only done a basic framework of lights and darks.

The final colors are confirmed as the glazing and tinting covers over the Shaded basecoat.  I use plenty of different glazes, washes, etc. , that all cover that early shading very effectively.  One of my classes at Reapercon will focus on this element of tinting, using those clear paints.