Let Me POWER LEVEL Your Mini Painting

MINIAC KICKSTARTER:

Sonic Mini 8K 15% OFF discount code: Ninjon15

Monument Hobbies Pro Acryl: (my brushes, also paint, primer, etc.):
10% off your total order! Enter COUPON CODE: ninjon

Umbrella Games (where I buy my hobbies goodies in North America!):
With my link, gain an EXTRA 5% off MSRP, meaning most products are 20% off!!!

Element Games - (ALL your hobby needs, UK based, ships WORLDWIDE):
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Red Grass Games (my mini holder & wet palate)

AMAZON LINKS: materials I use, no extra cost to you and they give me a bit of money as a kickback (anything you buy while starting with these links, actually!):

Golden High Flow Paint:

Magnifier Glasses (Sexy gogs)

My Airbrush: Iwata HP-CS:

Airbrush Thinner:

Brush Cleaning Tank

Flexible Sanding Sticks

Vortex Mixer

Flow-Aid:

Wall Mounted Paint Racks (Nail Polish Rack)

0:00 Intro
0:34 The Most Important Thing...
2:17 Airbrush Blending
5:15 Layering
10:11 DO NOT TRY THIS
12:41 Wet Blending
15:23 Feathering
16:34 BONUS: GLAZING
18:33 Up Close Peeper Painting
19:19 Final Reveal & MASTERCLASS???
20:16 Outro and Outtakes

[Lhamymolette]

Trovarion: Forget smoothness, contrast is the key!
Ninjon: You want to be better? Get that extra smooth finish!
Me: I don't know what I'm doing but I'm having fun!

[taugrumbler]

I would like to add a game changer technique I learned from Ben Komets. He called it loaded brush technique, which is a variant of wet blending. First load your brush with a color like dark blue. Then pickup the highlight color (much thicker) with the same brush (still loaded) just with the tip. Start at the highlight position and gently place the color from the tip while you unload the rest of the color in a swiping motion towards the shadows. As you have both colors on your brush there is no licking or changing colors in between which really helps to blend both colors. Unfortunately it is hard to get the consistency right.

[MaskedRiderChris]

I'm still perfecting this whole blending thing even after 12 or 14 years of painting, so videos like yours that explain it as clearly as you do here are always welcome, Jon!

[DarkerSavant]

I haven't looked at a painting video in 10 years and I don't know why youtube algorithms decided to bless me with one of your videos a few days ago, but this last couple of days I've binge-watched so many of your videos and it has made me want to paint again. How you narrate explaining technique and errors or traps as you paint helps make it seem so simple. I love the mantra of "slay the gray". I am a little ashamed that I have nearly 20k points of Tyranids unpainted and some of your speed painting videos have shown me that it is well within my reach to paint a significant number of them. I am gonna bust out my stuff from the garage and get back to slaying the gray. My wife is gonna be annoyed as she's been threatening to sell them.Youtube blending tutorial emoji lol. Keep up the great work.

[Swooper]

That "brush licker blending" is what Vince calls void blending.

[sstinger]

My daughter and I have been reading these since you first recommended them to us way back when. She's almost seven and loves it. We're going to do our very first D&D campaign with the fart quest module. Super excited.

[tempusavatar]

Thanks for the video. Recently I've moved to oil paints for my details and blending duties after laying down acrylic basecoats. The extra working time allows for more patience during the process.

[maverickman]

Hey, "Brush liker" technique is really "Quick one/two swish brush in water and quick swipe dry brush on paper" technique. I like doing it as it is really fast and works well with glazing.

[TheShelbyTheShelby]

I think this is the first time I've seen one of the hobby channels I love using Cuttlefish Colors - neat! I backed their Kickstarter and use at least some of their paints nearly every time I paint. They have some of the prettiest blues.

[JustinHudechek]

Cool to see you using cuttlefish paint I love that stuff and Ryan's a super great dude

[KiloCharlie]

Wet Blending!

I actually started doing that when I tried my hand at doing fire, I looked up how to layer the paints to have a nice fire effect and didn't like how it had hard lines between each one, so I decided that I'd just mix the two colours still wet on the mini as I transitioned and literally stumbled into Wet Blending. When I showed it off right after I got a bunch of people amazed at how I worked it out on my own into what is apparently one of the harder techniques. and because I found it organically, it's actually super intuitive for me now. I rarely use it because just I don't feel I need to layer on paints for most things, I actually enjoy that more vibrant cel-shaded style that is informed by the early 90's paint styles and it looks very striking. but when I do break out the technique it tends to look great, just needs to be used in the right place.

Funnily given you talk about doing things slightly different literally right after Wet Blending, mine is done differently than yours, I wash after the first paint, then start blending immediately with the second. no intermediary wash/wipe. I feel it helps me get more control out of my gradient, but apparently I'm also insane when it comes to painting. I don't thin, I don't palette, I paint direct from the pot as the paint came in. I reason that if the paint was meant to be thinned, it would come that way. it works for my style, but I'm very much not someone to emulate lol

[appledornart]

I simply can't comprehend how anyone ever thought licking paint off their brush was something they should do. It's nasty and harmful. Use a damp cloth or sponge (heck you did it in the drybrushing challenge). Not only are artist acrylics dangerous, but you don't even know what mix of pigment is in your hobby paints. I'm glad you aren't recommending it, but it so bewildering to see that people actually do this.

[Cnsrious]

Great video. My 6 year old son loves reading Fart Quest togeather we just finsihed the Dragon's Dookie they're great books.

[stef]

You are a fantastic painter. And just as good teaching how to paint. Very entertaining. Thank you.

[wumao]

That brush licking method you mentioned. So far in my 30years of mini painting I have only seen 1 guy using it and all the time I thought he was the only person in the world who does that. Didn't know that other people use that method too.

[Ridevanslife]

4:50 turn airbrush pressure down! as soon as i learned how to use a mac valve, i can spray washes in like 1-2mm lines/dots.

[chrissmith]

You have a way with explaining and demonstrating a lot of these techniques that really make stuff click in my head.

[AvoidTheCadaver]

It'd be also worth mentioning that your environment will limit what you can do. I live in Australia and the very dry climate here makes wet blending acrylics very difficult to do. The paint dries so quickly I'm almost fighting with it, and that takes a lot of the enjoyment out of it. I do enjoy layering and feathering. The mini slowly comes to life with each stroke.

[tobybyte]

Some super useful tips in this vid. good job sir.

[KayS]

Thank you so much for your work. Your Tutoriales are so high quality and so on Point. I paint for years and many of the tutorials are nothing new for me, but it is so good explained. Absolute brilliant