Lahmian Medium (Citadel Technical) Review

As someone who uses several different acrylic mediums already I was sceptical as to whether Lahmian Medium from the 'technical' section of the new Citadel paint range would be of any use to me. I'm quite sure now that I was mistaken - it's extremely useful - but this might be because of the specific paints I use.

I love to use Daler Rowney acrylic inks with my miniatures, I find everything about them a joy: the range of colours, their flow... everything. But the trouble with using artists' acrylics as opposed to paints made specifically for miniatures is that the finish can very often be too glossy. This is where Lahmian Medium steps in! It's perfect for adding in small doses to the Daler Rowney inks for achieving a matt finish - just a small brush-load mixed through the ink completely alters what you can achieve.

Using a medium when painting is a very wise move in all cases of course, but if you've ever thought about using artists' inks then this might give you a good opportunity to go ahead and do that. A note of caution to end on though, I wouldn't personally try this with regular artists' acrylics as they're totally the wrong consistency for miniatures work. 

Punk, Steam And Cyber - New Artwork

I have an art project in mind for my brother that will entail working in the most part with black and white acrylics tempered with splashes of matt medium. So today I created the following two pieces as studies in working with these materials - I just allowed both to develop as I applied the paint, and I suppose I must have been in a characteristically punky mood judging by the results. With no aim in mind other than to work together differing mixtures of the paint and medium I ended up with these (both on A5 acrylic paper, amateur psychoanalysts start your engines...):

Experiments in Colour and Viscosity (With Thanks to Albert Wick Esq.)

A good friend of mine is an artist. He also plays the halfling Albert Wick in WFRP, so for blogging purposes I'm going to call him Albert. Last week I popped round to Albert's studio and while taking a look over his latest works-in-progress (all fabulous, as always) he suggested that I might like to take a few sample supplies with me to help with my miniatures painting. Never one to shy away from a goodie-bag I gratefully walked away with a generous batch of artists' materials.

An alternative colour wheel

So this week I'm putting work on all the monsters on hold to undertake some experiments in colour and viscosity. For my canvas I'm using a Chapel that I base coated about six months ago - it's a good excuse to get it finished and it doesn't really matter if I make some mistakes.  

Winsor & Newton Acrylic Fluid Matt Medium - Review

Today I experimented for the first time with some Winsor & Newton Acrylic Matt Medium. GW have started selling a medium of their own along with the vastly over-priced 'Eavy Metal Brush Set, but if a painter wanted better brushes and a superior medium, W&N are the perfect company.

Fluid Matt Medium

What was interesting for a first time medium user was the way it mixed through the paint without diluting the colour at all - this matt medium doesn't take from the depth of the colour in the way that thinning with water can. It also increased the flow of the paint (and it's sheer volume, obviously) while making it more transparent: an attribute I'm really starting to appreciate in my paints.

I worked up a 50:25:25 mix with Dark Blue (Model Color), Chaos Black and the medium to add shading to roof tiles based in Ultramarines Blue. It worked so well that I'm finding it hard to imagine using regular acrylics without some sort of medium mixed through in the future - but I'll hold off giving too much of a glowing recommendation until the end of the week, when I'll have had the chance to try some other shading/blending approaches.