Posted 08 January 2012 - 02:31 PM
Washes. Big subject.
Right!
The first and obvious wash is a bought one, like a Citadel wash. I hear these are quite good, dry matt and dry reasonably quickly.
Next on the list is ink. This is old school; I used inks for year and somewhere in the back of the batcave I still have some C1990 citadel inks. inks tend to gloss, but the depth of colour, I find, tends be be greater than a bought wash. The hard gloss surface it creates can be killed with matt varnish. I haven't used inks in years.
Third choice: homemade washes. now, you can just water down some paint, and it;ll work to a point. but if you add a solution like Johnsons Klear, or airbrush thinners, it will kill the surface tension in the paint mix and allow the wash to work into fine detail much, much more effectively. you can also use alcohol to kill surface tension amongst others, but worst case scenario, you can use washing up liquid. just a dab mind, any more and you'll have foamy paint. The main advantage to this (and this is what I use mostly) is that you can colour washes to your exacting requirements. these also tend to wards a satin/slightly gloss finish, but I always matt varnish.
Last on my list, and I'm sure I have missed something, is Army Painter. it's a system of top coat washes that instantly pull detail though heavy shading. these tend to be used for mass producing rank and file dead quick, but i have seen people use it as an effect wash, worked on top of.
Washes are like any other aspect of figure painting; how much time have you got? using a big brush, fill it with a decent amount of wash, apply it carefully but generously to the area you wish to paint. it should run into the cracks and details (good for panel lines). chances are it'll also colour the main body of the work too; some people like this, some people knock it back with a top highlight drybrush or similar.
if you have a bit more time, thin your wash down and build it up in layers (like normal paint, more layers;greater depth of colour), or use a smaller brush and apply it directly to the areas you want to shade. This takes a lot longer, but can be, as with any process with more control, more effective.
The one thing you want to avoid is pooling, where the wash pools in a spot on the top surface. if you are quick, you can fix this with a brush dipped in a little water, which will thin the wash and (assuming your brush isn't full) suck up the excess. if you aren't quick, just paint over it once it is fully dry.
I tend towards a couple of thin coats of homemade wash, normally a brown or a black (depending), then a top coat to re-pop the main colour. sometimes a dry brush (especially on metallics) sometimes I'm more careful.
Don't just take my word for it; everyone here will do it differently.
Drybrushing...Big subject.
Take a reasonable sized brush, depending on the object of your drybrushing. pull some paint (normally a highlight colour) onto your pallet, add a little to your bush (do not fill the bush) and then wipe it, back and front, on some bog roll, several times. Let the paint wear out until a thin, dry, broken trail results.
Now gently flick this over the raised detail you wish to highlight, back and forth, building up the layer of colour. it you splurge or do to much, just run a little wash over it and knock it back.
It's better to have a brush to dry than other wise; it's easier (and more effective) to add more drybrushing than to kill a splurge of colour.
Just take it easy, build it up slowly. you can also apply drybrushing to larger areas using a bigger brush, but again it's all about building up the layers of colour.
As with everything, I/we can only type so much, just experiment, work it out and try it out. it'll go wrong over and over again, no doubt, but it'll make sense eventually.