That's Shady! How to use inks and shades to make your models come alive.
Hello and welcome to another edition of my mini painting for beginners guide! Now that you have the base coats applied to your models the next step is to get shady!
Now when I say get shady I'm not talking about being dishonest, I'm talking about the subtle art of applying shades to your models.
Firstly what is shade exactly? Shades or as some may call them inks or washes are specialized paints made to reach the recessed areas of a model to give the mini depth and shadows.
Shades are essentially paint that has been watered down heavily to be a free flowing liquid with the viscosity of water.
By watering the paint down you reduce the pigment in the solution. This allows the shade to flow into cracks and recesses and settle.
When I first got into mini painting I thought people actually painted all the tiny little blacks and browns in the details of models.
It wasn't until I got into the hobby that I found out about the magic of shades. No technique will take you from beginner to intermediate faster then learning how to shade. There is a reason it's called "liquid talent" or "magic in a bottle".
All you need to become shade master is a shading brush (rounded oval with many soft bristles think like a mop), a pot of shade (you can make your own by thinning base paint with water but to start I highly advise using premade) a cup of water, a paper towel and a miniature of course.
The best part of shading is that you don't have to worry about painting in the lines for two reasons. One because you are going to go back during the layer step to clean it up anyway and two because the paint is so thin it will flow away from the non-recessed areas.
Take your brush, dip it in water, wick it into the paper towel and then dip it into your shade. Note you can control the amount of shade on your brush by running it against the lid of the paint pot. Doing so will cause it to shed some liquid.
Once you've got the right shade you want to start brushing it liberally over the area you wish to shade. Once you've covered the area if you need to remove excess shade, dry your brush and then gently touch it to the area you wish to remove some shade from. Be careful though you don't want to remove all the shade. Through trial and error you should learn how to manipulate the shade to your advantage.
Look in the example pictures and you can see how shade makes the muscles ripple and pop on the chaos warrior.
One last thing to consider when shading is color. You'll want to match colors so the shading looks right. Luckily Citadel Paints makes shades in pretty much any color you will need.
There are three shades that every painter needs in their tool box. Nuln Oil (black) Agrax Earthshade (Brown) and Reakland Flesh Shade (brownish/red for flesh shading).
Those shades should feature prominently in most models. Once you've shaded the area don't worry if your formerly pretty model now looks dark and a bit dull. It will look like that before you clean it up in the laying step.
I hope you have found this guide helpful. Make sure to subscribe and follow so you don't miss my next guide that will cover layering!
As always if you want to see more pictures of my models check out my instagram @sprutopitch, Twitter @SprueToPitch, and Facebook SpruetoPitch.
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