Painting Miniatures with Oil Paints

Miniature painting with oils isn't a new thing, but it does seem to get a lot less coverage in the you-tube-o-sphere/blog-o-sphere. That said, I came across an awesome video last week that made me go buy some oil paints. I found a beginner set at my local art store with 8 colors for only $8, more excitingly, they were made in the Netherlands, (it's not even Chinese garbage!). I figured that for a buck a tube it was probably worth a go. The line is called "Art Creation" and is one of many art products made by Royal Talens.

The colors are titanium white (what it says), yellow (non information, some kind of bright yellow, maybe cad-yellow), carmine (this is a red), ultramarine (obviously blue), burnt umber (what it says), permanent green (duh it's green, dunno what "permanent" is, at first I thought is said peppermint lol, it's a fairly bright green maybe an emerald or forest green), yellow ochre (what it says, sort of a mustard yellow brown), and ivory black (carbon black?). Each tube contains 12 mL; more than enough.

Oil Paints

To thin oil you need either some kind of oil, or thinner, depending on what you're trying to do. The thinner at the Art store looked expensive, too expensive for a mixture of hydrocarbons. Basically its higher hydrocarbons, and I figured that there would be something suitable in the garage...

Cheap Thinner

 This old bottle of odorless BBQ starter fluid did the trick and it only cost $3 (IDIOT ALERT, it's obviously highly flammable, so if you mistake your ashtray for your thinner pot you might have a problem on your hands).

 Anyhow, since the surface tension is super low the washes you can maker are amazing. They readily find all the all the crack and require no coaxing. Also, if your get a little too crazy you can always wet your brush with thinner and just pick it up. It's like having an "undo" button. Truly awesome. The other thing you can do is mix your paint with powders and thinner to make mud and grime. This is where the advantage is huge. Below are my initial trials, I think they look sick.

Grim grime

War is hell

Awesome filth

Next I'm going to try and paint some kind of big figure exclusively with oils. I'll be sure to keep you all posted.

HMP