Hello all,

I've finally gotten up the courage to use some washes and had a question about the ratio of each of the components in an acrylic wash.

I picked up some Academy tube acrylic paints last night to try out. As far as I understand it, I need to mix some paint with water and some dish detergent to break up the tension. My question is, how much of each? If I drop in a small glob of paint, is there a ratio of water and dish soap I should add?

Any replies would be appreciated!

Hi Gunfighter, I myself use oil paints for my washes so not to sure on the acrylic..this will bump it up top for more to see and help. Sorry

ive never had excelent results with my washes, no matter how hard i tried... but iam not giving up...ive tried enamels, oils and acrylics.... never heard of the dish detergent tho.... il give it a try!

Frank

I get best results on a gloss surface, so first give your model a coat of Johnson's Klear (Future, in the US) and allow it to dry overnight. Dilute your acrylic paint about 10:1 with water so that it looks more like dirty water than paint. Cover a reasonable area, say 2 or 3 square inches, with clean water then load your brush with well mixed, diluted paint. I usually use a size 0 or 1 brush with a good sharp point. Touch the brush into all the depressions, folds and corners where you want to concentrate the wash and allow it to dry. If you overdo it in some places just soak up the excess with a piece of clean Kleenex. You will need to go through this procedure three or four times but you will see the little fiddly bits standing out more and more after each application. Putting the water on first helps avoid tide marks but if you should notice the odd unwanted mark just lightly brush over it to disperse the paint with a clean brush dipped in water.

It takes a bit of time and patience but it is quite easy to produce satisfying results.

You can use the same procedure with both enamels and oils, using the appropriate solvents.

Cheers

Bill Brignal

il try that out bill!!! thanks a lot! i bet that will help me A LOT!

Cheers!!!!

PvtParts - thanks for the "up"!

Golf - So far, the process you described is what I've been following, with the exception of laying down a like coat of clean water where you want the wash to go. I was under the impression that a properly mixed wash will follow the lines anyways, but I gave your suggestion a go last night and it worked well. I would say that it would work well as a replacement for adding dish soap to help break surface tension.

I managed to play around with an acrylic wash last night and had some good results. It'll take a couple of applications to get the look I'm after, but so far so good. Plus easy clean-up and no smell!

Back to my request for a ratio. I remember reading a post (I thought it was on this site) where someone was talking about acrylic washes. I swear he said something about 5 parts water : 2 parts acrylic paint : 3 parts dish soap. I just can't find the post.