Shading

Once the base coat is complete, it is time for some shading! Which is to say, that we are going work down and make the recesses of the figure darker.

The reason we start with a mid tone base coat when speed painting is that shading will usually be accomplished with a “wash.” A wash is similar to paint, but it is thinned out such that it is very runny. The thin consistency causes the liquid to pool in the recesses of the mini, taking a higher concentration of pigment with it. Thus, those areas are now darker! Ta-da!

Washes are a mainstay of speed painting. Although judicious use of washes are also used in showcase painting. In future articles, we’ll cover how to make your own washes. But, for now, we’ll keep it simple by covering the mini with some premade Vallejo Game Color Sepia Shade. For a brownish Warg, I want a little more of a red tone, so I added a drop of red wash to the sepia.

The wash pools in the recesses creating a shading effect.

Even though most of the wash will pool in the recesses, it will also darken the raised areas to a lesser extent. This is the reason we start with a lighter tone of base coat.

Don’t worry about being a little messy at this point. We’re just slopping the wash on there. But, while we want it to pool in the recesses, we don’t want it to lake. We certainly don’t want it to ocean. Too thick of a pool of wash won’t dry well and will look… well… gummy… I guess. It won’t look right. This is more of an art than a science, but you’ll learn the limits. If you want to remove some wash from an area that has pooled too much, dab off any liquid from your brush, on a paper towel or a rag, and let the capillary action of the bristles suck some of the wash out of the pool for you.

Brushes. Your good and faithful friends.

Now, looking at the contours of the mini, and some online pictures, it seems that the sculptor is suggesting a difference in color for the face and back of the mini from the body.

I’m going dark with this guy… but I don’t want to go too dark. So I mixed up a black wash with Vallejo black shade with a couple drops of grey shade. These I put on the face, back, hind quarters and the tail. This will take multiple coats. Be sure to allow each coat to dry before applying the next one.

First coat of black and sepia washes.

I like where this is going, so I got a little tricksy. As I added more coats of both the sepia wash and the black wash, I wet blended the washes together. This means I applied both washes at the same time, while they were both wet, without rinsing my brush in between. Then I pulled the black wash into the sepia wash to get a blended effect. I just kept doing this until I was happy with the result and decided to stop.


Important safety tip: Do not confuse inks with washes. Washes have the same components as the paint, but in different ratios. Inks are a whole different animal. They usually have alcohol as a medium and the size of the pigment is ground an order of magnitude smaller. Washes paint the mini, while inks dye it. Most importantly, never use inks with a natural hair brush. The alcohol will strip the natural oils out of the hair and greatly reduce the lifespan of the brush.

And that is the basics of shading with washes. Next time we'll cover highlighting, which will make your minis really pop!

This post was adapted from an article originally published on the Mad Adventurer's Society.