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SHAP00PI
05-24-2009, 11:32 PM
Hi! Lately I've become, once again, really interested in art rage, but am, once again, limited with my blending options, the palette knife is fine for some circumstances but for details etc. it is obsolete.

Are there settings I can use to blend efficiently with the oil brush? without if being a hit and miss sort of scenario.

I seem to only sometimes be able to blend, and other times the brush keeps it original colour no matter how many times I run over the paint I want to blend :)

Someonesane
05-25-2009, 04:10 AM
Hi SHAP00PI,

I've experimented with a number of the tools and settings and found a couple of methods that I could use to mimic the style of oil painting I had done while in college. The way it's done isn't necessarily spot on when it comes to how the "paint" is moved around or used, but I personally like the effect and it also allows for a good amount of control over the blends.

Below is an image I was experimenting with, along with some detail shots. The Oil Brush was the main tool used here, with the only real deviation being my use of the Crayon Tool on a "Cell" preset layer to do the hair.

28128

28129 28130

28131 28132

I used two methods to blend in this image. The first one is used to do area blends and is done by doing a sort of wash with the Oil Brush. To do it, I set the Oil Brush options as follows:

Pressure: 50%
Thinners: between 95% - 98%
Loading: 50%
Insta-dry: ON (this option makes a big difference in how this works)
Auto Clean: ON

This effectively creates a transparent brush stroke that can be used to build up color over an area. I tend to leave the Insta-Dry option ON here, because this way the texture of the thick brush strokes beneath it will remain intact. The real key here is to remember to pick up the blends that appear between the color one places down and the color beneath it. Doing so will create the color fading or blend. For a visual of how this works, I made a short (30 second) video to demonstrate it. You can download it at the following site: http://www.mediafire.com/file/jzmmwzfenwf/colorwash.wmv

My other method is using the Oil Brush with the following settings:

Pressure: 50%
Thinners: between 25%
Loading: 1%
Insta-dry: ON
Auto Clean: ON

This works pretty much like the last method, where you first put down your base color, then go over that color with the second color, except these settings pick up the texture of the canvas grain (unless you're using "Cell" preset).

Flynn_the_Cat
05-25-2009, 01:44 PM
I seem to only sometimes be able to blend, and other times the brush keeps it original colour no matter how many times I run over the paint I want to blend :)

This may be a stupid question, but check whether you have autodry on or off? :D Otherwise, it mostly depends on how thick the paint that's already there is, and the colours...

yachris
05-25-2009, 02:47 PM
Hey Someonesane, THANK YOU for the tips! I'll try them out tomorrow... I also struggle with blending, those ideas sound great. Again, this community is awesome!

Oh, and by the way, excellent painting!

SHAP00PI
05-25-2009, 05:20 PM
Someonesane, thanks for taking the time for such an informative reply, and for the video, I will download and keep it for a rainy day..

After experimenting with the settings you listed, I find blending is a sort of hybrid between photoshop's opacity blending, and painters pigment blending, just for comparison, once again, thanks, I'll continue practising and experimenting..

Cheers.

Someonesane
05-26-2009, 07:13 AM
Hey Someonesane, THANK YOU for the tips! I'll try them out tomorrow... I also struggle with blending, those ideas sound great. Again, this community is awesome!

Oh, and by the way, excellent painting!

Thanks, Glad I could help :cool:


Someonesane, thanks for taking the time for such an informative reply, and for the video, I will download and keep it for a rainy day..

After experimenting with the settings you listed, I find blending is a sort of hybrid between photoshop's opacity blending, and painters pigment blending, just for comparison, once again, thanks, I'll continue practising and experimenting..

Cheers.

I don't know if the video is worth hanging onto for a rainy day, as it's only about 30 seconds long, lol. It's just a quick demonstration of how I used the brush with those settings. But yes, it does work a lot like photoshop's opacity blending method. This is why it works similar to a wash, where one uses thinned down paint to tint over already painted areas. By adding extra strokes, one builds up the color in small amounts within that area until the full color is created.

wschweizer
12-17-2015, 02:05 AM
thanks, exactly what I was looking for! Works very good.

EllaJohnson
12-17-2015, 03:35 AM
As what I understand when it comes to blending Flat brushes are best and rounds the worst.