Minis in Oils

My first experiments in painting figures entirely with oils were conducted on these figures, since they had many of the elements that I thought were well suited for that medium.  First, there are a number of hard to reach areas, and the oils are helpful in that aspect.

Since getting a brush into them would be difficult enough, trying to make shades/blends in those deep crevices and out of the way spots would have been a nightmare.

The oils allow me to essentially blend the colors blind, since there is no 'layering' per se.  I can smush a few colors into the deep recess, and then use another clean brush to blend them together, which will be just fine with the tiny amount that you can actually see!

Finally, these had plenty of earth tones, which matched a huge quantity of other figures that I was also working on.  So, I was able to work on 3-4 times as many figures at once as I could using acrylics.  Not only were the colors staying wet on the palette, but they were on the figures too!

So, that extra blending that I could still do many hours if not days later proved to be quite handy.

Savage Blades

I have been using the oils for a greater and greater percentage of each figure as I learn more techniques, and manipulate the colors even more.  A set of four figures was painted all at once using the oils, and I pushed much farther into the skin colors, eyes, gems and other surfaces than I had thought possible.

Keep in mind, the primary use of the oil paints is to allow me to work on a much greater number of figures at the same time.  It is not necessary to paint entire figures with them.  In fact, the vast majority of figures will be finished off with standard acrylic paints once the majority of the work has been done with oils.

The ability to continue blending colors on the surface long after they have first been applied is a massive advantage for me, and that means I can work on 3-5 times as many figures as I used to.  It also makes painting very large creatures, or figures with many hard to reach areas take far less time with way less hassle!

On Point

This figure from Cadwallion Miniatures was an interesting subject.  It seemed to be sculpted in ZBrush, and cast in resin.

This is one of a few recent figures that I have done from this line, which apparently is a spin off from Rackham/Confrontation.

As with most of the pieces I have done lately, the first 50-60% was done with oil paints, and then the rest finished off with acrylics.  The oils allow me to work on many more figures at the same time, in particular figures that have similar color schemes.  

Since the fantasy and historical pieces all have the same kinds of earth tones and greens, this is very handy!!