Trying my hand at painting faces with Acrylics. Ive used oils for awhile, not liking the drying time I decided to "try" acrylics paints.

One major issue is blending, the acrylics dry to fast for me to blend. Is there a process on doing this? Right now I am using life color paints

Also, what is a good brush for face painting 1/35 scale?? Thank you kindly!

You can try a paint retarder like you would for airbrushing. It will slow the drying time. I use the smallest brushes I can find for facial details. The larges is a size 0.

If the Lifecolor does not work, you can try another acrylic. I use Golden acrylics, and blend them as I work. I have been able to do this with Vallejo as well. I have never used Lifecolor.

Basically, there is no real blending done with acrylics.. painting with acrylics is a totally different method based on building several very thin layers to achieve the required effect

Try to read here about the basic idea of painting with acrylics

HTH
Hisham

Hey Russ,

You know I was thinking the samething, I do have some retarder. Ill give that a try. I guess keeping the paint wet is the key. Im so use too oils, thats the problem.

Yep I have some triple 0 brushes but there not that great. Leaving brush marks on the figures looks terrible, I want something that eliminates brushes strokes and can hold up

Thanks for your reply!

Thanks Hicham!

I bookmarked that site into my favorites. I appreciate the respose

Another method to help keep the paint from drying out while you paint is using a wet palette.. you can see an easy how-to here

Hisham

You can see a couple of videos I posted links to a while ago here

Hisham

Also, consider a larger, yes, I said LARGER brush. BUT make sure it's a quality sable brush, such as Kolinski hair. My smallest brush is probably a #0 and I've done 54mm eyes with a #2 with a fine point. Too small a brush will not bring enough paint to the surface and allow it to dry on the brush.

I was at a presentation by Marion Ball, she of Hisham's video, a few years ago and she was doing all her work with a #1 or #2 brush and Vallejo acrylic paints.

use a wet palette with parchement paper. Basically a plastic container with a damp sponge on the bottom..keeps acrylics wet & you can blend on the palette.
http://www.pepehiller.com/tutorials/painting/how-to-make-a-wet-palette-for-acrylic-colors/

All great advice, thanx to all!

Figure painter Calvin Tan actually uses a 'wet on wet' technique for acrylics. He blogged a lot about it. One of the best examples of his work is with this Luftwaffe Bomber Crewman on his blog:

http://zyclyon.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2012-02-20T21:04:00%2B08:00&max-results=7&start=28&by-date=false

http://zyclyon.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2012-05-10T22:33:00%2B08:00&max-results=7&start=21&by-date=false

This is a technique I use myself now after having watched him do it. Its a very interesting way of working with acrylics with many different effects and possibilities. I primarily use Vallejo acrylics and their own excellent retarder called 'Glaze Medium'- it thins the paint and helps it to flow and gives it a greater blending time. Other retarders work well too- Calvin Tan uses Amsterdam Acrylic Retarder and I have it too- its a good product. Windsor and Newton Slow Drying Medium is pretty good too- though it is more of a gel than a liquid. Calvin also uses a water-brush which is a handy product to keep acrylic paint flowing and to make blending easier- not something I personally use all that often but I find they work very well with wet palettes which has already been mentioned by a few other guys here.

The best thing to do is experiment with various techniques and see what works for you.

Though he always makes it look so easy, I've always found it very difficult to understand Calvin's methods by just looking at pics.. Do you know if he ever made a video explaining this method?

Hisham

Painting in very thin, almost transparent, layers of color works best, making each coat slightly lighter (or darker) to make gradations of color. That also keeps your overall paint job thinner and doesn't block up details. This method works well not only for skin areas, but also for clothing, etc.

I don't think so unfortunately ! He seems to have stopped blogging his work as well which is a shame.