I paint exclusively with Liquitex and have picked up a few pointers and criticizm along the way: 1. If you don't like Satin (I HATE shine of the satin), then I strongly suggest "Ultra Matte Medium" from Liquitex. It's an additive you mix in that does such a good job removing the shine, it's good enough for things like dry skin or clothes. Absolutely phenomenal. It's like you're painting a flat layer it's so good. 2. I found the paint tends to dry somewhat quickly for me, however they also sell "Slow-Dri Medium" and "Slow-Dri Fluid Additive." The difference is what degree it thins out the paint (fluid additive pretty much dissolves the paint in to a liquid, which is useful in some cases). This allows for spectacular thin applications, but isn't perfect. 3. When using Liquitex, I noticed if you don't thin it with water enough and brush over the same bumps/ridges, you risk causing "cake clumping" of paint. A slighly damp brush can usually fix this. This is where I'd suggest adding a little Slow-Dri to any mix. Just be careful. 4. Liquitex does fade in to a color change (sometimes). As a rule of thumb, I usually paint with more contrasting colors than I would had I painted on canvas, but use a low-setting on a blow dryer to speed up the drying process. If you want a true representation of the final color, wait 24 hours. This has its ups and downs: Ups in that over many days you'll achieve a subtle color change which with many layers, will give it spectacular realism. Downs? It takes many days to do, distorts real color expectations, and is somewhat impractical for multiples of the same figures. Me personally, I paint one figure, then sell it as a stand alone piece of art online. So I'm willing to put in the extra effort, and actually enjoy the challenge of getting unique color combinations. It takes practice. I tend to use a "brigher" color than I normally would with the expectation that it'll dull out over a day to what I want. 5. When painting, I suggest buying the cheapest, biggest "experimental" figures you can find, spray on a thin layer of matte primer as a base. Add a base color over that of Liquitex, then completely paint over that. Finally with the big figures, test out color combinations using different colors to see how it looks. This is also a great way to try out additives, like ultra gloss additives, mixing colors, and other things to experiment. If your "experimental" figure doesn't look like a rainbow of random colors and messy effects by the time you're done, then you're not doing it right. 6. Try applying the paint somewhat wet. You can add it dry (not talking about the dry brushing technique, just regular dry painting on), but be careful of "pulling" the paint off a still wet undercoat, creating a weird spot of bright colors, then revelaing undercoat. If I see this, I paint it again with a base color, completely dry with a hair dryer, then slowly add more color fades underneath it. Takes practice. 7. The biggest issue is fine details like eyes, which can be smaller than a millimeter on some figures! For this, I suggest a very tiny brush (20/0), or these "Colour Shaper Royal Sovereign" rubber brushes that allow for extreme control of paint application (but unfortunately usually only one solid color application, and not blending). So applying freckles is easiest with something like this. Best of all, you can use an exacto knife to cut apart an old one, making even smaller tips for finer details. Thanks for explaining the pigment contents and other details like the opascity square. Good stuff.

About time mini painters learn this. If they learned to mix paints with RBY/CMYK white and burnt sienna would make every natural color they would need and save money. Hell if they want matte paint tell them to use liquitex acrylic gouache the pigment build in those paints are awesome too. Great Video.

I've slowly learned to embrace the satin finish as I get to paint on larger scale and busts, places like hair and skin when satin just bring more life to your piece!

This is an incredibly helpful video. Thank you for explaining why you used certain colors and painted using certain techniques. It's exactly what I was looking for!

This is the exact information I was looking for! Thank you!

Thank you for this video. I'm looking at beginning my journey into miniature collecting/painting, so it's nice to know the paints I already have and use will work here as well. A lot of answers online for if you can use regular acrylic paint for minis seemed to assume craft paints, so seeing Liquitex at work was very helpful to me. I appreciate it!

You can add flow aid and matte medium to those heavy body paints to get something that more approximates most purpose made mini paints.

Im just glad theres still painters that use paints other than Citadel, speed paints, etc.

Thanks so much for this video - I just bought heavy bodied single pigment acrylics for almost all the exact reasons you point out, but was so nervous as I’m really not an expert on paint. Seeing you go over it all was SUPER helpful, and I feel way better about my purchase now. All the best!

Awesome video. Thanks for going through this!

Been binging your channel. Thanks for the great content and tips!

I've been moving more and more to artist grade paints. I just like the consistency in color. I know that from one batch of Liquitex or Golden is going to be IDENTICAL to any other batch and that goes a long way, in my book.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience with real paints. Color theory and paint mixing could count as their own hobby so your insights are invaluable. That and it irks me to no end that companies hide paint info to prop up their proprietization of art. Go ahead and make named paints and sell the ease of paint by number, but don't hide critical information because it threatens your hold on a market.

Oh man, you deserve more subs.

I have bought and tried to many paints. I wish there were more useful guides like this. I too weary of shaking tiny bottles of paint. I also find that I prefer a more satin finish, and I noticed an increased durability to the finish on a mini I had painted with heavy bodied acrylics. I think I'm switching to just the heavy acrylics for the future. Now...what to do with all my OTHER paints lol. Edit, also I subscribed👍👍

I thin my Liquitex Acrylics In Clead Plastic Jars with Distilled Water And a Glass Marble. I sometimes mix them with Acrylic Craft Paint Like Folk art

Thank you for this video. Have you tried not thinning and painting at tube consistency? There's enough pigment that you can really work the paint and it doesn't flow into unwanted areas. I like to use a flat brush (maybe a bright) and can either skim surfaces or work the bristles to fill crevices.

Re lightfastness "Since most of these are based on hundreds of years, other than fluorescents, it's not something we have to worry about." I mostly paint with art supplies these days (mostly in oils) and I'm starting to get pretty familiar with nitty gritty of pigments and I'm gonna warn you about one specific common pigment that you really do need to worry about PR83 Alizarin crimson. It's lightfastness just sucks. There has been some pretty interesting testing on it. The short version is basically that if it sees daylight for an hour per day for just a year, it's going to noticeably fade. The pigment is especially fugitive when it's used thinly in tints and washes, which tbh, is exactly what we're most concerned with in the miniature painting world. Admittedly, this is probably less of an issue if you just keep your miniatures in a dark box when you're not using them. However, this pigment is a real problem if you're ever going to put them on a display shelf that gets exposed to *any* daylight. Unfortunately, it's a wildly popular pigment in the art supply world. It's a pretty traditional choice to use as a primary red and older painters teach newer painters that it should be used so the art supply companies supply it. Just don't use this one. These days, there's better alternatives that are meant to cover this specific problem. Look for pigments named 'Permanent Crimson', 'Permanent Alizarin', 'Alizarin Crimson Hue', or some other variation on those naming themes. Also, I'm going to drop a quick note here. When an art supply is talking about 'centuries', it means in museum conditions. That means *no* sunlight exposure. A century of museum conditions is *roughly* equivalent to about 3 months of outdoor sunlight exposure (sunlight varies by location, season, etc). What it means in practical terms inside your house is *highly* variable by the amount of sun the particular room gets and what lights you're using and etc and etc.

Mix your own thinner with flow improver and drying retarder: In one litre or quart of distilled water, mix ~ 7 drops (to taste) each of rinse aid (used with dishwashers) and vegetable glycerin/glycerol (it's used for making soap, on "smoke" machines, and for other uses, you can buy it at any chemist's in litre/quart bottles, or you can get a much smaller bottles).

This video was way too good for the amount of views it has. I've been searching for a video like this for a long time. Also, have you tried the liquitex soft body paints? I can't decide which I want.

also if you feel comfortable blending, you don't even need as many colors. artist paints are versatile (i can paint other stuff with them too), consistent pigment qualtiy and not as overpriced. you can even share them in old model paint pots or fotofilm tubes. i don't get people buying miniature colors other than they have been drinking the industries coolade.

Have been in the hobby since 1971; have painted with Artist oils, acrylics, craft paint acrylic and most lines of hobby paint: there is no issue with durability with craft paint (especially) or Artist acrylics or oils - especially if sealed/varnished correctly.

I have been looking for pp who are using artist paints for models or mini, ty for your video. Would you recommend heavy or soft for base coat ( not spray), im also using oil for parts.

Hello, great video. I have been looking into getting artist acrylic paints for miniatures, out of curiosity for liquitex heavy body do you use a medium or water to thin the paint before use?

Awesome channel AND you're a Canuck 🥳

Nicely done! I get around the satin finish by mixing some matte medium into my paint, which keeps me from getting the 'matte haze' that can happen with an all over spray finish. Edit for clarity.

I'd love to see you do a video on jo Sonja paints. I feel like these paints are one of the best kept secrets in the hobby, but you can run into some pitfalls using them. But it seems like more people are trying to move away from the hobby paints (see what James wappel is doing on twitch with oil paints for example) which I don't think you need to get good results, and I think a lot of people are coming to this realization too.

I’m using heavy body paints and I’m finding it very difficult to have them at the right consistency. They are either too thick and show brush marks or are very dusty or they are too thin and just seem to form drops and disperse over the model. Any tips?

so glad i found you! subscribed whenyou have 999 subscribers so does that mean im 1000th?? :P thanks for the videos looking forward to many more

Commenting for the sake of the Algorithm.

is the same for the Basics line?

try scale 75 artist range.

Citadels recent marketing push via youtubers in relation to their new "single pigment" contrast paint is gross.

In other words, Artist acrylics are for adults! 😂