Miniature Painting Techniques - Jargon Buster

Following a recent IG conversation with a new painter I thought it might be a good idea to write a post to help those who are new, with some of the technical terms they may come across in their painting journey. I know some of these confused me when I returned from a 15 year hiatus over a year ago. 

I'm only going to go over briefly each technique as there is quite a few and other artists on all social media platforms have covered each and everyone of these in greater detail than I need to go into here. So if you find one you want to look into further you need only do an internet search and you will have a vast swathe of resources at your fingertips.

So let's begin!

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Blending - there are several techniques that fall under this main heading, but this is the general term for mixing two or more colours together creating a gradient from one to the other. 

Contrast - I think this is probably the most commonly espoused technique there is at the moment. With newbie painters going; huh?? Well, I know I was. This is where you have a vast difference between shadows and highlights, something greatly needed for NMM (see below). There are also the contrast paints which have nothing to do with this and, I personally think, a bit of a misnomer. We paint small 3D models and if they were full sized then we wouldn't have to worry about adding shade or highlights as the sun or artificial light would do this for us, however, at the scale we paint this gets lost, therefore we paint it in. Without it (bizarrely) a mini can look flat and lifeless, with it, and with it done well, it brings the miniature to life.

Decals - another name for transfers. Pre-printed images that can be transferred onto your miniatures for an instant logo or anything you want. There is also a medium available to help transfer these onto your models. 

Desaturated - you'll hear this term used where an artist has used colours that are intentionally dull or have had mainly white or black added in order to tone down the strength of a colour, so less pigmented. 

Dry Brushing - there are specific brushes you can use for this technique as it is not something that is particularly kind to brushes! It involves dabbing your brush in some paint (do not water it down) wiping most of the paint off on a paper towel or specific dry brush palette and then lightly brushing over the model using the residue paint to pick out details. You can do this several times and is great for using on buildings or other model terrain. You can then apply some glazes over this to smooth out the highlighting. 

Feathering - this is where you take your paint ladened brush and in a quick zig-zag (or back and forth) motion pull the paint down the area you want to paint, enabling you blend in the transition of paint applied in a smooth way.

Glazing - I struggle to differentiate between glazing and layering, as to my mind they kind of mean the same. Glazing however, uses very thin layers (heavily diluted paint with water or medium) in order to build up colour, or use to smooth out layers, or transitions between blends. This is usually my go to painting technique. 

Grisaille - I don't see this used often in miniature painting and tends to be something that has adapted to be a zenithal prime, (see below). But it is a technique I like to use. It is a way of underpainting, or pre-painting the model in order to pick out in a neutral colour (usually grey to white, or sometimes sienna - I still want to try this one!) where the light is hitting the model. Most people tend to go down the zenithal route as you can do this easily with an airbrush or rattle can. As a good Grisaille can take a good 10-15 hours. However, I am a firm believer in putting time and effort into your base coat as this can save a lot of time in painting. Contrast paints and probably translucent inks work very well over both Grisaille and zenithals.

Highlight - there are various stages for highlighting, generally it is a point on the miniature, like the edge of a sword or top of a shoulder pad where the light is hitting in a single point that gets the final edge highlight. You can use layering to build up to a highlight. This is a good technique for drawing attention to areas of the model. 

Layering- as I mentioned in the glazing section, these two are pretty much the same, only layering is done with opaque paints in order to build up light or used for blending/transition between colours. Just make sure the paint you are using for this isn't too thick otherwise it will show on the model. 

Loaded Brush - this is where two or more colours are loaded onto a brush, generally with the darker colour first with the lighter on on the tip. 

Mediums- alternatives to water. Water has a tendency to thin paint and the pigment contained therein. Whereas mediums are designed to dilute without doing this. I have a previous post where I review several mediums, so if you are still unsure I would recommend you take a look at that first. 

NMM - non-metal metal, this is where you are using ordinary paints in a way to mimic metal on a model. This is a very advanced technique and one I'm still trying to figure out myself. I would always suggest collecting plenty of reference material and images of metal statues, cars and what other artists have done. If you're interested look up Julie Bell, she was one of the first masters of this and her images of the Silver Surfer are pretty awesome. 

OSL - object source lighting, this is where you have a focus point of light, say a model is holding a torch, and you paint the reflective light of that torch on the miniature. Or it can be done very subtly. I recently tried this on my dryad bust, where I had the colour from the flower on her dress reflecting on the back of her hand. @MJGpaints does some fantastic tutorials on OSL as well, so I recommend you check out his feed.

Saturated - where pigment in colour is strong, bright and vibrant, so rather than a faded blue that looks dull or tired, you have a bright, bold blue that you can see for miles off. 

Single stroke - wasn't sure if this is the technical term for this or not, but I couldn't think of anything else to call it. This is something where you are painting very fine lines on a model to represent fur, for example. It's a very time consuming technique and really needs the precise consistency of paint in order to do it effectively. This is a final step technique and can be used to add highlights to the model. 

Stippling - as an art student (many moons ago) I tend to think of this technique as pointillism, a technique that was developed in 1886 by two Impressionist artists. It is the use of tiny dots to form an image. I know some artists who only use this in their model painting, to great effect mind you, as it can create mind-blowing smoothness. It is something I have tried but haven't got on very well with and I don't like the thought of ruining my brushes!

TMM - true-metal metal, similar to NMM but using metallic paint instead. I have tried this and quite like the technique, and I tend to apply a metallic base build up the shadows and highlights with normal paint before then applying a thinned down metallic wash.

Washes - pretty much what is says. You apply a generously thinned down wash of paint, in either a controlled or uncontrolled manner

Weathering - a technique mainly seen on vehicles or armour to represent chipping or mud or dust, for example. You are creating the feeling that the vehicle has been travelling through the desert or that space marine has been in many a battle fighting those pesky 'nids. 

Wet Blending - this is where you are mixing one colour into another whilst they are both still wet. Acrylics don't tend to stay wet for very long and there are mediums that can help extend the drying time of paints, personally I don't like them, but you might get on ok with them.

Wet-in-wet Blending - I'll admit before I wrote this post I hadn't heard of this one, so I learned something today too! This is where you wet the surface of the area you want to paint before applying any paint. As I'm yet to try this out I cannot say if this is best done with water or medium, my instinct would be to say medium, but that's just my preference. As far as I can tell this method helps for very smooth blending and transitions and some people even prefer this over wet blending. 

Zenthial - this word is actually in the dictionary despite my word checker putting that oh-so-annoying red dotted line underneath it! OED says: "pertaining to, situated or occurring at the zenith: the point of the heavens directly overhead". So basically, if you have undercoated your mini in black or dark grey then take a white or bone colour and use your airbrush or rattle can and spray from the top of the mini, it will then pick out all the parts of the mini that light would hit as if they were standing outside in the sunshine. You can also do this by dry brushing. 

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Well I hope that has helped. If there is anything I've missed you've come across that you think would be a good addition then let me know!

Lisa