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Figure painting |
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Figure painting is a hobby involving the art of painting models or small figures just for the sake of art or for the games or war-games which include playing roles, or even for military models. Due to the small size of these figures, the minute details that have sculpted are lost with the application of colors. Figure painting involves the incorporation of exclusive techniques permit the painter to put stress on the details in the figure and endow it with life.
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Materials used in Figure painting:
The paints used in Figure painting include acrylic paints which are available particularly for painting small figures and models. Many figure painters use enamel paints or oil paints that used by the artists. As the properties of differ media vary, different ways of painting figures go with different paints and different thinners are also used for thinning the paints for making them smooth and also for cleaning the brushes. For acrylic paints water is used as a thinner while white spirit is used as a thinner for both the enamel paints and oil paints. Thinners which are used for thinning must be kept away from those which are used for cleaning in order to keep the colors off from contamination. For obtaining best results a pipette should be used for adding thinners. For washes aqueous inks are used and for different paints different types of agents are used. The retarders make the acrylic paints dry slowly and flow aids are used with inks and acrylics for reducing surface tension and improving washes. Gloss varnishes are tougher than the matte varnishes which endow the figures with livelier finishes. Many painters also apply matte varnish above glossy varnishes to reduce the possibility of formation of the whitish residue on the direct application of the matte varnish over the figure.
Tools required in Figure painting:
Figure painting needs the finest of the brushes like 00000 for painting the details in the small figures. The quality of the brushes must very good, a Kolinsky sable brush being the most-liked one. A synthetic brush is usually preferred for dry brushing and undercoating, and whatever be the type of the brush that is used for Figure painting, it should be cleaned quite often in order to avoid the mixing of one color with the other. Palettes, which are non-porous like a ceramic plate, are required for blending and thinning the paints prior to their application. Wet palettes are used particularly with acrylic paints.
Techniques for Figure painting:
The most popular techniques used in Figure painting include –
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Undercoating or priming – Facilitates the paint to stay on the white metal figures
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Highlighting and shading – Put emphasis on the light and shade
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Blending – Guarantees the smooth shift of one tone into another for improving the appearance of the artificial light and shade
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Layering and feathering – Involves the application of acrylic paints in consecutive layers in smaller parts
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Dry brushing – Technique used for highlighting
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Usage of washes– Washes are used for filling in the shadows
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Toning – Much diluted color layers are applied to diminish the stark differences in lights and shades
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Outlining and edging – Outlining involves painting of dark solid lines and edging is a balancing technique
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Painting metals – Metals can be painted with metallic paints.
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Non-metallic metals – The non-metallic paints are often used by painters to suggest the look of metals.
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