So you want to paint miniatures? Great!

This series aims to be an introduction to painting miniatures to a higher standard. Not simply slapping on paint, but doing so and making it look nice. It does make the assumption that you have basic knowledge of painting, you know what the right end of a brush is when painting, you know to clean your brush with water etc.

First things first, equipment.

There's a multitude of brands out there, so in terms of specific recommendations look elsewhere, however, these are the things you'll need to get started:

1. A wet-palette. 
2. A kolinsky sable brush.
3. Miniature paints, or acrylic artists paints.

1. A wet-palette

A wet-palette keeps your paints moist and makes it easier to mix colours, as well as properly dilute them. A wet-palette consists of three things, something to hold the palette, like a box, something to hold the water, like a sponge or paper towels, and a semi-permeable membrane that the paint rests on.

-A what-now?

Don't worry, it's not as complicated as it sounds, it simply means something that'll let water seep up into your paints to keep them moist, but will also prevent the paint from running down into your water-holder.

Container: A low box of some kind, the bigger the box the bigger the palette will end up being. Word of advice, I find it easier to work with a low palette, since you have to reach to the top every time you want to use it.

Water-holder: The best thing I've found is a sponge cloth, one of these. Beware, leaving the sponge or water-holder moist for extended periods of time will cause growth, which is disgusting. So keep it clean!

Semi-permeabFUCKIT: Baking parchment. The thin version that's not covered in wax or silicone, one-use. Just cut it to size and put it on the water-holder. That simple.

How much water should I use?

The best way I've heard of testing this is called the DJ-test, mostly because of the name. After saturating your sponge with water, put your baking parchment on top and try to gently move it, like a disc-jockey. If it moves it's about right.

2. A kolinsky sable brush
Although a kolinsky sable brush isn't strictly necessary, it's a very responsive and pointy brush, great for detail and control. That said, you can still paint masterworks with whatever brush you choose, it just might be comfier with some of them ;)

Word of advice: If you're getting a finer brush it's worthwhile to invest in brush cleaner and conditioner, since these brushes are made from natural hair. If you dipped your hair in paint you'd (hopefully) want to clean it properly afterwards.

3. Miniature paints, or acrylic artists paints
You'll need paint if you want to paint miniatures, it's that simple. Most of the miniature brands are good to great quality. If you want to use something different you can use artist grade (important to not have too small pigments or too diluted pigments from the start) acrylics.

Whatever brand you choose someone will have a different opinion, and you don't even need to stick to one brand! (As much as GW would want you to believe otherwise).

The best advice I can give you is to be open-minded and try things out.

The basics of colour theory
"Ugh, but mister, this is soo boooooooring, why do I have to read theoSILENCE!"

Theory is important for pushing yourself further, for without knowledge, how would you know what to paint?

You have already amassed some knowledge, and (hopefully) you've seen a lot of colourful things in your days, now it's time to understand some more baseline stuff, and then move on to converting that knowledge into actual paintjobs.

First, colours have certain properties, the most important ones (for right now anyway) are temperature, saturation and value. They also have relations to each other, we'll only touch on complimentary colours in this piece though.

A simple colourwheel

As can be seen on the above colour wheel colours belong to either the cool or the warm side, this is of importance for multiple reasons, amongst others contrast and atmosphere. This is what's known as temperature.

Colours opposite each other on the colour wheel (indicated with some very helpful arrows) are called complimentary colours. Complimentary colours can be used for contrast, and they're excellent to use for shading and desaturating colours.

"What's desaturation?" 

Well, I'm glad you asked (this is not a forced segway, shaddap). Saturation refers to how colourful a colour is, or, how grey it is.

A saturation gradient

The above picture shows the difference between a very desaturated red (on the left) and a saturated red (on the right).

Using too many saturated colours on your piece can give it a very clown-y feel, whereas only using desaturated colours can give it a dull, grim, boring feel. The best is a balance, experiment and find out what you like. Maybe you really like lots and lots of bold colours, then more power to you! This is not exact science, it's very subjective, so do what you like. :)

"Alright, so what's value then?"

Well... value is how light or dark something is, usually represented by a black/white gradient. White is the brightest colour you can paint, and black is the darkness, this stands true for every colour. 

The easiest way to see the value of your paint is to take a black/white photo of it (most smartphones can do this) and look at them. A lighter paint has a higher value, and a darker paint has a lower value.

Value is very useful for shading and highlighting, or describing form by suggesting light and shadows with different values.

A rendered sphere

Here you can see an object that looks three-dimensional, despite your screen only being two-dimensional. This is due to the use of values to describe shape. Every shape consists of surfaces that have their own behaviours when exposed to light, so look at objects around you and see how they behave!

Converting knowledge to painting

Well, this is the part you've been waiting for. Sorry, but you're gonna have to do a lot of work yourself from hereon out.

Understanding something means that you can apply it practically. Understanding addition means you can calculate 3+3 without the help of a computer or calculator, understanding what end of the brush to use for painting means you won't stab your subject with a handle etc.

Understanding colour theory means you'll look at your given subject, you'll choose a colour and then reflect upon how it will interact with other colours, lightings and shapes. 

This is something that comes with practice, in the beginning it might be helpful with a cheat-sheet, a colour wheel, or similar. After some time you'll remember these things and not look at a colour wheel as often, and when you're really good you'll know these things by heart. Instinctively almost.

So next time you pick up a paintbrush, try thinking an extra round before applying paint. :)