 Hello everybody and welcome to another hobby-cheating video and today we're gonna be talking about layering. That's right a simple technique We all learned at the beginning, but it turns out there's a lot of hidden layers too Let's get into it. Let's strict techno man sir. That is Vincy V. Let us get to the technique and learn it Vincy V style So let's talk about layering and I'm gonna use layering today to paint the skin of this Drake off One of my fulminators in my rat cast army. This is how I do most Organic skin like this of a small area. It's usually with a lot of layering Especially when it's ridged like this. Now what we're really gonna focus on today is the tips and tricks That actually can make layering more effective. I think what a lot of people think of layering and they see it as a very basic Technique it's what we all started doing. It's the basic application of the paint But of course, there's a lot more to it and there is quite a lot of sealing on this skill So let's start with just getting down that good base coat and to begin with one of the things we want to talk about is of course The classic rule now I'm far from the person who made this famous But of course working thinner and working in multiple coats You might even say two of them can often be a good way to go With acrylic paint, it's naturally Transparent it's often most from most models unless you're working with an air brand fairly thick out of the bottle And you want to apply it in a thin controllable way meaning it's mixed perhaps one to one or something like that with water You're then gonna work your way around the model usually at least two sometimes three times In this case, I'm working over black but working up even if you're working over brighter colors It can still be a better idea To reapply because you then get a more true version of that color Now as you begin to jump values, let's talk about what you're ultimately doing when you're highlighting with layering What you're doing is slowly integrating a brighter color into the layer and Building that up and each time you apply the layer you need to cover less and less space That's pretty obvious. Most of you probably already knew that but here's my first tip Cover more than you think you need to cover one of the things I often see new painters do when they're using layering and covering less is they jump too fast They cover too little and they're covering it based on how bright the paint is when they apply it You'll notice that as I put the paint on it looked quite bright But notice his back leg right now see how much more dull that paint is than when I initially applied it That's because acrylic paint dries Some paints. This is quite extreme like whites and things like that reds Some paints drive much much much darker than when they went on the reason for that is simple when they're wet They're also reflecting light because they're glossy as they dry and the water evaporates They become much more dull and much more dark So understand that your color your layer that you're putting on will be less Now let's talk about value jumps When you're jumping values if you're working in dark colors you can actually make some pretty significant value jumps and it will still Look fine because darker paints are more transparent as you move into lighter colors You need to make smaller and smaller and smaller value jumps Light colors tend to have more white more bright colors in them And so the dividing lines between the layers will be more visible if you do not keep your value jumps your brightness jumps shorter The next thing I want to talk about as we move into this next area where you see me working with these brighter and brighter colors Remember cover more than you think you should every time Apply it a couple times, right? We'll get into that more in a second The next thing I want to say is actually about brush control. This is where layering can have a lot more power. I See a lot of painters, especially when they start out use the brush in the wrong way Notice how I'm often having the brush completely sideways. The only time I really turn to the tip is when I'm trying to hit some small detail Notice how horizontal Against the surface the brush is Work with the side of the brush Not only will it preserve your tip and make your brushes last longer, but it will also help you get a smoother layer Because as you apply the paint you're not leaving the dividing line think of a boat Cutting through the water that leaves a wake Whereas if you turned your hand sideways and ran your whole arm in it's not going to be as big of a jump Right, you're not going to create as big of a wake behind So less brush strokes working thinner working in multiple passes and working with the side of the brush Will all help reduce Visible brush strokes when you don't want them there when you want something smooth which often you do but not always There is value to visible brush strokes One more quick simple tip when you get paint on your brush dab it off onto a paper towel or something similar Having less liquid in your brush can also help you control the paint and keep everything smooth One of the challenges with layering is that there's always going to be a little bit of a line of separation when you're just Using this technique and that's because acrylic paint is ultimately built not to blend but to be durable and to dry fast So there will come a point when you need to ask yourself Is it worth making shorter and shorter and shorter and shorter value jumps in my layers Or is it worth just using a second technique like feathering wet blending or glazing to bring it together In the end it can sometimes be the right choice to use a different technique just in the idea of time saving All right So remember when you're applying layers as sam lends the master of painting says it's about shingles on a roof Think of shingles on a roof and how they cover each other each one overlapping the next Remember cover more than you think you should and apply it like shingles and you can get a really nice really smooth result Your next logical question is probably But where do I put the highlights? This is often a challenge for new painters and as i'm getting into the brighter colors here It's going to become very apparent where your highlights go You push them to the top Think of your miniature not as whatever it is not as a little drake off or dragon thing or something like that But instead a bunch of shapes and each of those shapes has a plane a flat surface right And every time i'm pushing the light to the top of that flat surface Now there are some exceptions with different materials things like metal will reflect differently But we're not going to worry about that when we're dealing with organic textures The light is going to fall at the top of the area. This is true for the total volume of the miniature But it's also true for each individual plane So you can see how all the muscles in his feet there and each scale I'm treating it like its own individual plane and always pushing the highlights my shingles are pushing towards the top Just like you start on a roof with the shingles at the lower part of the roof and work your way to the top to the pinnacle of the roof Let's talk about layering with white paint So first of all, I'm a big fan of golden heavy body acrylics and heavy body acrylics for my white in general If you want to see all about painting smooth white, I have a video about that linked up in the top corner right now But once you get up into colors with a lot of white in them The opacity of the paint that is to say the distinction between one layer and another is going to become very very very clear So how do we deal with this? We deal with this by integrating it with another color and working thin This is when we need to have multiple layers And when we're working with that white something like a heavy body acrylic is valuable Because we can smooth it out with a layer a lot easier It's going to integrate and dry and blend into the layer below it with a lot less effort So if you're having trouble integrating white into your highlights, which you don't always do oftentimes There are other colors you can highlight with But if you are trying to use a white highlight as I am here Something like a heavy body acrylic may be what you want to look into The final thing I'll say as we're coming down to the end here of highlighting this dragon Is remember layers don't always have to be something significant and big My final layers you'll note on this drake off are hitting things like the edge of the scales Adding little small lines to the very tippy top part of the muscles or the folds in his skin Right just drawing out those individual areas and not covering all of them But if you see how I'm covering so little space Effectively just adding a little light catch a little line to the very tippy top of the volume Now comes the question of how do we draw it all together? Layers will leave some kinds of transitions And you can of course use things like glazes and things like that But I want to change your thinking just a little here Now I did this whole thing in various shades of blue dark sea blue to turquoise to blue green to white But at the end I grabbed some violet and I worked it down into a glaze Which I know isn't a layer video on glazing linked up above But by running an interference color over it something that's different than the blue very very thin It will disguise the lines between your paints Much more than a thinned down version of one of the previous colors Because it's acting as both hue contrast and bringing together your value contrast So if you can work in a pop color into the shadow give it a try it's a lot of fun So there you go. He's all finished up. I'm pretty happy with how he came out The dragon itself is what I did by layering and in fact the different parts of the model were done with different techniques But I like the overall coherent look. I hope this was a useful Journey through the world of layering and gave you some ideas of how You can better use this technique in your own projects getting smoother and smoother blends without getting into anything too crazy As always give this a like if you liked it subscribe for additional hobby cheating in the future We have new videos here every saturday if you've got any questions about anything I didn't cover Throw that down in the comments. I'm always happy to respond to every comment and question I get But as always, thank you so much for watching and we'll see you next time