With Wet Blending

Transcript*

Intro

Hello, my name is Paul. Welcome to the Loisirs vers le soleil YouTube channel. Uh, today I will be teaching you the ways of the force, specifically wet blending. Call me master, but don’t call me master. Anyway, uh, wet blending is a technique that we all commonly use, but you might not even be aware you’re using it. Basically, it just ensures the transition from one colour to the next and to the next and on and on and on to be as smooth as possible.

So you don’t know where the brush stroke begins and when the next one ends basically. And that’s the entire goal for this exercise. Uh and what better way to show off this demo than by painting something that’s on fire. Yes, flames, explosions, even smoke is the perfect way to show off wet blending at its finest. And it’s quite simple. A little tricky, but simple.

Materials

The model kit we will be using for today is none other than Guilliman himself, Primarch of the Ultramarines. and Lord Regent of the Imperium. And he is using his dad’s flaming sword. The dad being the emperor. So yeah, grab anything that’s on fire sculpt wise. Don’t actually grab something that’s on fire. And yeah, paint along with me if you want to follow along. So long as it’s on fire, you can effectively follow along the steps that I’m about to show. Just very quickly, let me just run through the paints here. I’m using white and yellow from Ionic and Imperial Red and Satin Black from Ammo.

And doesn’t have to be Ammo and Ionic. And it doesn’t even have to be these colours. This is not a colour and brand specific step. You can paint blue flames for all I care uh during these steps so long as you follow the steps. Uh but we will be thinning them down with glaze medium instead of water because glaze medium ensures that they dry for uh a longer period of time. water just kind of dries too fast. If you’re careful, you can use water like you know what you’re doing. 100% use water, but I feel like with glaze medium, the transitions will be smoother. So, yeah, that’s why I’m using glaze medium.

Step 1

Step one, the Super Bowl commercial. We will be using Citadel XL Painting Handle to load up Roboute Guilliman on top. And then we will be using Army Painters Monster Brush to spread around Imperial Red by Ammo all over his blade. This will makes make our job a lot easier down the road. And then we have a Warhammer water pot right here. It’s not for any thinning job. It’s just for any brush cleanups just in case. And finally, we have the AK tear off paper palette.

We won’t be using any sort of wet palettes for this. So, we’ll just be using a dry one. Did you get all that? Did the trademarks and the copyrights uh hit your head yet? So, just go a 50/50 mix. So, that’s already two drops. There was a drop there before I started recording.

Step 2 – Red Paint Application

Uh and two drops of médium de glaçure. So, yeah, 50/50. So, don’t overfill uh your palette yet with glaze medium. There’s no need for that. It’s the initial base coat on the surface and just load it up. Now, this could have been orange, by the way. I just chose Imperial Red. I’m going for a darker blade look here. Um, but if you have an orange, feel free to replace Imperial Red with some sort of orange and use that all over the blade as a base coat.

Step 3 – Mixed Yellow Paint Application

Step three, we will be using yellow Ionic here. Again, it could be any yellow. And again, a 50/50. So, two drops of ionic and two drops of the glaze medium here. And what we’ll be doing is Oh, it’s a little bit more than 50/50. Do not follow me uh by action. Follow me by words. I’m a terrible example. Oh. Anyway, reminds me of the time when I held a Zoom class during uh the pandemic for how to paint or not how to paint, how to make banana bread and I accidentally dumped on camera more than a pinch of salt. I think it was like uh five pinches and I had to play it off on camera.

So, like ah, ignore that guys. The banana bread ended up being so salty. But anyway, this barbecue sauce looking colour is actually good. Basically, I didn’t clean my other brush. Um, and I transitioned uh the colours of a Ionic plus glaze medium into this sort of what brownish uh barbecue sauce looking thing, which is perfectly valid, perfectly fine. Though, if you want to use pure yellow for this, it’s okay. Then I’ll grab my other precise brush.

This is Vallejo detail synthetic brush number one. And I’ll be precisely applying it down the middle where it should be brighter the rest of the outer blade. Just right there. Just glazing it on. That’s the point of this. So eventually once you keep layering it, yellow will start to appear and push it towards the flames here sprouting outward towards the uh outwards right not towards the sword away from the sword. And just keep re-layering it over and over and keep refilling your palette with more yellow and more glaze medium as you go along. And eventually the centre will come out really yellow.

Clean Up & Brush Application

During this entire demo, if you’re following along and any of the steps, feel free to grab Q-tips. These ones David grabbed from the dollar store. Uh let me grab one right here. There we go. And they’re actually better than makeup sponges that would have suggested initially or those makeup uh egg looking brushes are because they absorb less the Q-tips that is. You don’t want to absorb all of it especially in a very liquid sort of form. Uh just dab it all over.

And basically the solution is paint, dab with Q-tip, repaint, re-dab, etc., etc. Just to get rid of any excess and to speed things along. And it’s also a flame, right? It’s not going to look uniform. So dabbing it randomly or semi- randomly across the surfaces will ensure a more spontaneous and natural looking flame. Also doing this sort of stippling brush motion from the darker to the lighter shades of paint will ensure a smoother transition. Right. And then we hit them with the Q-tip once again to just get rid of any excess, especially the ones that got pushed around to the end. And then keep on repeating.

Step 4 – Only Yellow Paint Application

For this next step, we’ll be using ionic yellow. It doesn’t have to be yellow, of course. If you’re doing blue flames, for example, uh please stick with an upper mid-tone for this step. All that matters is you do not thin it down. It’s has to be applied purely, just the yellow. Um, no mediums, no water, just pure. Make sure everything is clean and dry, including your brush. So, rinse it. Literally just got a paper towel, get rid of any excess water, make sure it is completely dry, and apply pure yellow for this step. I think three drops. Oh, that was four.

That’s okay. So, and just stick it to near the middle of your flames or where you want the flames to be the strongest and just lather it on near the middle, guys. Near the middle. And then we’ll do a stippling action to properly blend it with the rest. So it blends perfectly. The more layers of yellow you apply, the hotter will flame your flame will look. Not will flame. Okay, there we go. See? And just stick a little bit more to the core if you want it to look really really hot. All along the spine of the blade or wherever your flames are supposed to be the hottest.

Too Much Paint Mistake and Correction

Two major things. If you feel like you’ve messed up and applied too much of either the yellow or the red when you’re retouching things, just take pure either or uh and just for the red, for example, just reapply it on the edges because that’s where it’s the coldest and therefore the darkest. So just literally reapply towards the edges just a little bit to ensure a smoother darker to lighter transition. Right. And especially towards the tips of the flames.

Just right there. We’re not Justin Timberlake here. We’re not keeping the frosted tips. It’s gonna be May. For pure yellow, just again stick it to the spine of the blade. Yeah. Lightest possible because it’s going to be vibrant regardless. Just keep redoing this over and over till you’re satisfied. I’m not satisfied. And then let me apply more pure red to the edges here. stippling again so it’s a little random and to make the flames more real.

Step 5 – Black Paint Application

There we go. For the second to the last step, we will be incorporating satin black. Now, depending on where you apply it, we’ll either tone it down with a little bit of medium and a little bit of red and medium because what I plan to do for the most part is use it by itself onto the edges of the blade to transform the Fire Blade onto a magma looking blade where it’s cooled down and hardened at the edges.

Or at least that’s the feeling it’s evoking by applying a black. And naturally the black to the red I have to make it as smooth as possible. So uh mixing the two right wet blending would be ideal at the edges of the black. So yeah that’s the plan for the second to the last step.

Stippling Application

So I’ve just been kind of stippling the black onto the blade. I’m putting a lot more on the base. And this is pure black, not thinned. Not bad so far. We’ll make it cleaner. So, I’m about to apply it. This is uh now a 50/50 mix of black, red, and the medium. So, I’m going to do a some sort of transition here. Stippling again. And now I’m going to bring back while this is still wet the orange and the yellows and such. Especially at the tip there. These two parts I applied a little too much but that’s okay. That’s okay. Bring it in at all the tips.

50/50 Mix of Red, Yellow and Glaze Medium

Now, this is a 50/50 mix of red, yellow, and the medium. Just putting it back at the edges there and stippling as we go. So, the black is fading, and it gives this sort of translucent effect that makes it look like it’s hardening, but you can tell it’s like glowing from the heat by doing it like this. It’s about to solidify, but not quite. And then we’ll bring back the yellow in the middle to ensure a smooth transition.

We’ll add a little bit more orange as it gets closer to the yellow. And then pure yellow. The orange being a 50/50 mix of red, yellow, and medium. by the way, just a little bit like right here. And then we’ll smoothly transition that with a mix of yellow and medium to give it that really sort of bright orange effect at the midtone cuz you don’t want to give the effect that the entire blade is cooled down. No, no, no, no, no. Just closer to the tips. There we go. There we go. Now it’s looking sick. And then same thing with the tips. Don’t forget, do the exact same sort of thing.

More Yellow Tip Application

Yep. And then we’ll bring back the pure yellow, not even with medium, just literally pure yellow to hit the flames and just the spine of the blade very finely. Here we go. Pure yellow.

Middle Blade Painting

Just concentrate it around the middle and keep stippling in random spots so the flame looks more organic and real. Organic is the wrong term. Spontaneous, sorry. There we go. Wow, that looks insane. Oh, that looks good. That looks really, really good. I’m so good. Wow.

White Paint Application

For the final step, you can just add white to the apexes of the curves of the flames that’s been sculpted onto the blade. Uh whether you concentrate it so no thinning or just thin down enough so there’s a little bit of a hint of glowing white is up to you. I’ll leave that for you uh to decide. Uh but also you can ignore the last step completely because to be honest if that blade looks good to you, you’re done.

Yeah, it looks pretty done to me to be honest. But you know what they say about the dwarves in Moria? The dwarves delved too greedily and too deep. They dug too deep. I will dig. Let’s hope I don’t dig my grave. Hey, just add a bit of white. And if you feel like you’ve added too much, you can always just read the other colors cuz remember these paints are still somewhat wet. So nothing like a little wet blending can’t fix. So just hit the apexes of the flames. They will be the hottest there.

Final Look

And there we go. There’s no exact science to this, but to be honest with you, if you’re comfortable with what you’re doing, you’re good. You can stop. And I made the blade look like a initially a magma blade, but now it’s transformed to what looks like the surface of the sun. This is I’ve done I’ve outdone myself to be honest with you. I know that sounds incredibly cocky, but sometimes you got to pat yourself on the back, you know, because wow. And again, there’s no exact science. Stop when you feel like you’ve already achieved what you needed to achieve and never overdo it. I’m just greedy. And it turns out that, you know, I’m good. Or else it wouldn’t have worked out.

Um, and don’t worry about the amount of layers. Again, this is just a flat blade with flames on it. Literally, other than the flames, there’s no detail on the the blade itself. So, apply as many layers as you want. Just make sure to use Q-tips whenever necessary if you feel like you’ve overfilled your blade. Just one more for the road before we wrap things up. From close, from afar, and then when you’re up top and you’re playing a game, that’s roughly what it’s going to look like.

Paul’s Conclusion

Well, that’s it for me today. Thank you guys so much for watching. Hopefully, you enjoyed that. Hopefully, you adapted to the moment by moment changes because there’s a lot of improvisation involved whenever you’re doing wet blending. So yeah, follow us on our social media pages, links in the description down below. And we’re about to hit 15K subscribers. I think as of the filming of this video, we we are at 14.5 or 14.6.

So yeah, if you enjoyed this video, you found it insanely helpful, please leave a like and subscribe. Comment down below what you thought of the blade. Do you prefer straight flames or maybe the sun magma blade is better? What do you guys think? Let me know. Comment down below. And again, as always, bye-bye

About the Author:

Paul Catindig As someone who’s been building model kits since he was 8 years old, Paul is very knowledgeable and adept at model kit building! When he’s not building or painting kits, he spends his free time cooking, playing video games with friends, or at a restaurant patio somewhere. Hopes to make his very own movie one day.

*Video by Paul Catindig
Video Edited by Daniela Castellano
Transcript generated by youtube
Edited by Angelo Castellano