Quoted Text
... I have read that a blue/black colour is a good base mix as well, but I've looked at art stores online in Victoria, and no one seems to have it, it's made by Winsor & Newton, the art stores carry all but that...figures. Is that colour important, or would there be something close to it, this is a new world to me, usually it's acryllics and washes and dryburshing 
Oh, forgot one thing, one of my practice figures, my paint seems to go a bit grainy here and there as I'm applying, the paints aren't that old, so I'm wondering if it may be the brand or type of oils...
Hey Kelly,
In regards to the blue-black color, something to consider is that black paints mix with other colors as if they are either a very, very dark brown or a very, very dark blue.
Lamp black tends to have a blue cast and ivory black tends to have a brown cast. So, the first, lamp black, will sometimes move your mix to green or violet because of the yellow or red in the rest of it. The second, ivory black, will sometimes move your mix to a more brown or orange shade than you intended.
Also, when shading blues, reds and yellows, the nature of the black you're using to mix the shadow colors can tend to shift the overall hue. With blue, this is usually not such a problem, but with red or yellow, you can get some shadows that are more violet or orange than you wanted. It really is a matter of your own artistic vision, though.
At this stage of the game, just getting started with oils, these are issues to keep in the back of your mind, but not things to worry over much about. Later, as you experiment with ideas like making a particular figure's color pallet "warmer" or "cooler" in order to convey some feeling to the viewer, then subtle changes in shades and hues can be important.
So, if you want to track down a tube of the W&N Blue-Black to experiment with, go for it. But to start out, ivory black will be the most useful. Most modern uniforms are shades of olive green or khaki and the brown trend in ivory black works well with them.
In regards to your second question, it's really hard to tell what the problem is. It could be that the tube of paint has gone bad or was poorly formulated at the factory. Sometimes, the oils and pigments are simply not mixed well or at the best ratios, or the pigments used were the grainy stuff at the bottom of the barrel. I've purchased the (very!) occasional tube of quality brand paint that was simply not suitable for figure painting.
(I actually have a tube of raw sienna like that right now. The pigment will simply not mix with the oils... It's not even any good to mix up washes.)
If this happens, I recommend just buying a new tube of the same color and not fighting it. You can sometimes squeeze out the paint until you get to the good stuff, and this is worth trying before you bin the entire tube.
However, if you do need to buy another tube, if you go to the same store, switch brands, if you can. The bad tube is likely part of a "lot" of tubes in that color from the same brand and factory all made at the same time. Odds are good that you'll just buy another tube of the same bad paint if you stick with the same brand at the same store.
So, if the bad paint was, say, Grumbacher, then switch to a tube of the same color from W&N, or vice versa.
This is one of the advantages of using "artist" materials in modeling. As an example, raw sienna is just about the same color no matter what the brand. In fact, as you use more and more "artist" paints and materials, you'll start to notice that some colors by some model paint brands may be labeled "such and thus" color, but they're really an exact match for some standard artist color.
(For instance, Citadel / Games workshop "Beastial Brown" is burnt sienna by any other other name. Their "Snakebite Leather" is raw sienna. I could go on...)
There's usually not much difference, except price, between "student" oils, "hobby-painter" oils, and "professional" oils. Boxed sets of student oils are an inexpensive way to add a lot of low-use colors to your kit. I generally buy paints based on the color I need and not the brand or the "quality." Even in well stocked art supply stores, color selection forces your to purchase this or that tube simply because that's all that's available.
I've never noticed any difference between major brands of oil paint, either. They all seem about the same as far as quality goes.
However, there can be a major difference in price between various colors because some pigments are just more expensive than others. Chrome yellow, for example, often costs 3 or 4 times as much as, say, yellow ocher. This is because the chrome yellow pigment is very expensive. So, the difference in price between brands in the case of bright yellows will be because of the amount of chrome yellow pigment used and what other pigments have been mixed in with it.
Fortunately, you don't need much chrome yellow, so a small tube will last you a very long time!
Finally, as you're starting out, the number one mistake beginning oil painters make is trying to use too much paint. You actually need very little paint, and the paint you use should be brushed out thin. Too much paint leaves heavy clumps and brush marks, takes too long to dry, is difficult to blend, and hides details. Undercoating with basic acrylic colors helps to minimize the amount of oils needed. As you blend, wipe the excess paint from your brush often to keep from over spreading the blended color to areas where you don't want it and to also remove the excess paint from the figure.
Anyways, hope this helps some.
