Make Your Own Contrast Paints

I went through my process of making my own versions of contrast paints in posts. Part 1 covered the color testing and Part 2 covered making the colors into paints. My blog posts are verbose, to be polite, but here I'm going to get more to the point.

I got my information from Goobertown's YouTube video. If you're not already subscribed to his channel I recommend you do so. He's kind of the Bob Ross of miniature painting. Using what he taught I figured out the rest on my own.

You need three things to make contrast paint:

• Color
• Matte Medium
• Flow Improver

Color in this case has been acrylic artist inks but you can use paints as well. You'll just have to adjust the mix to get the right viscosity.

Matte Medium is the paint base. It has the 'stick' to make it into paint.

Flow Improver is the part that adjusts the viscosity of the resulting mix. Viscosity is key for these.

The Base Recipe

I'm using inks for this. If you're using paints remember that they're thicker than inks so you'll have to adjust the flow improver later to get the right result.

The recipe - in its most basic form - is 1:1:1 of each component. In theory that should get you what you want. In reality it will get you close but you have to work at the viscosity.

Viscosity

Here's the tricky bit but I've tried to make it so there's a relatively easy way to test it. I had to get a bottle of the brand name to get the actual viscosity. The blog post states how I feel about that.

When I make my mixes I start with less flow improver. I've found that it's a finer adjustment than more matte medium. Try it yourself to find the way that works best for you.

The one with the green arrow is the brand name. Notice how it leaves a smooth coat of paint behind before it makes a pool at the bottom. That's what you're going for in your own mixes.

If you don't use welled palettes with straight edges get a piece of polystyrene and use that. You need to see how it behaves on a vertical surface to know if you got it right.

If it flows down the edge with no color left behind then it's too thin. If it doesn't slide down well then it's too thick. Test, test, test until you feel it's right.

Using Contrast Paint

The second blog post goes into how to use these. They're obviously not like regular paint because they're heavy washes. Rather than repeat what I wrote there I'll direct you to Part 2 again to find that information.

These paints require texture to work. A flat surface isn't going to do much since the intent is to have the color density change through highs and lows on the model. Experiment with them on various kinds of surfaces to see what they can do compared to the result you want. They're another tool in your painting kit.