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Painting in layers (and mixing colors)

PostPosted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 2:13 pm
by zen_
@Taron
I wanted to ask you this question for some time now, but as I saw these beautiful oils it raises the question again to my mind!
Which are steps to best mix paint?
Is it possible to control amount of paint (material) brush carry to the canvas in order to paint over in layers (you can see many strokes on these paintings as layered with various mixing props)?
If I want that my paint mix more or less with paint on canvas, which props are best to use, instead of fluidity only?
Can you maybe export some of fluid options so we could tweek them to achieve aforementioned properties, and at the end a bit closer look and feel to the real oil paintings?
Or there is some other completely different approach?

Best I can get is to lower build up and rise fluidity (up to 50%).
Then with more agile brush strokes I can get some layering and color mixing (see attachments).


These are some of real oil painting as eventual references.

Love colors here....
Image

And here...
Image

These are kinda weak for my taste, but also great (as it's a night scene).
Image

Re: Painting in layers (and mixing colors)

PostPosted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 2:34 pm
by Taron
As with any real paint medium, the way you use them seemingly changes how they behave.
To get a nice thick oil like feeling, try using around 15% fluidity and turn off drying. You may want to lower the opacity of your color and activate pressure on opacity to force some more mixing as you paint gently.

- Everything matters!

The speed at which you paint as well as pressure and how it changes the brush size, if it should, all of this matters for the feeling you develop for it.
Fluid-smudge also has a severe influence on the behavior, which you should experiment around with.

Later on I may start experimenting with more "simulation" like approaches, having a "loaded" brush that may pick up colors from the canvas as you paint. I imagine for this to be pretty interesting then.

Re: Painting in layers (and mixing colors)

PostPosted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 2:50 pm
by zen_
Thanks! :D :ob
I didn't yet experimented too much with smudge as I was aiming for more rough or clear painting. But yes, smudge should be good for subtle transitions and mixing on polished surfaces. I may use that soon or later.
I will try your oil-like suggestions and post results here.
I invite anyone else to try and post here as I think it's a valuable technique in painting (even digitally)! ;)

Re: Painting in layers (and mixing colors)

PostPosted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 6:53 pm
by Knacki
Hey zen,

what about that?
Thick-Oil.jpg
Thick-Oil.jpg (65.93 KiB) Viewed 16893 times


Thick-Oil.zip
(352 Bytes) Downloaded 757 times


Play around with blending & build up, decrease blending for first layer!. Very less pressure almost just blends the colour. Slightly more and it is somehow mixing.
Stronger and it is opaque. Try it with Brush#2

Also play around with STRG+SHIFT+Stroke
You can "carve" brush structure in and mix colours.
As verve is not really loading colour from canvas, these would be my work around.

The other work around is to use an image brush and brush #9 to get a multicolour stroke.

Image_Brush.jpg
Image_Brush.jpg (206.34 KiB) Viewed 16893 times


Remember, even a brush with zero opacity paints structure.Sometimes helpful.

Cheers,

Knacki

EDIT:
Even better if you take opacity generally down to ~60%

Re: Painting in layers (and mixing colors)

PostPosted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 9:49 pm
by zen_
Thanks Knacki!
These are really good suggestions! I will try them! :ob :D

Re: Painting in layers (and mixing colors)

PostPosted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 10:18 pm
by Taron
By the way, the image brush made me ponder over those alternative brush behaviors I mentioned above, picking up paint from the canvas as you go. I think, I could make it lightning fast, but then I also realized that it would pick the canvas in intervals, potentially leading to weird results. It's tricky... but I will get it eventually. :geek:

Re: Painting in layers (and mixing colors)

PostPosted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 10:22 pm
by Knacki
Yes, go for it. ehh I mean zen, but no taron.........both! Both go for it :D
If you move your brush slowly with just a bit of pressure it will seamless mix when you slightly increase pressure. As said, best with opacity around 60%
Look at that!:
Freaky-3D-Strokes.jpg
Freaky-3D-Strokes.jpg (184.01 KiB) Viewed 16881 times

Re: Painting in layers (and mixing colors)

PostPosted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 10:35 pm
by zen_
Thanks for the shot! :ob
Fauvist's spaghetti! :D