Blending is the technique of transitioning one color of paint to another, with wet blending being a particular style that involves adding layers while the paint is still wet. In today’s Watch This, I feature AG Productions’ video on wet blending.

While the hot thing lately is to use airbrushes to create super smooth blends and highlights, wet blending has been around for a long time. It works great for those who like to use brushes or in tight spots that an airbrush would be difficult to get in to.

So check out the video below or skip to my notes where I break down his steps and tips for making the most of your wet blending.

Watch How to Do Wet Blending

Wet Blending Overview

Here are my notes from AGP’s video on how to do wet blending.

He is painting a Carnosaur with a fade from white to yellow to purple that looks incredible.

1. Focus on small sections of the model at a time
   1. Use features on the model to break up where you apply paint
2. Go from lighter colors to darker colors before moving back down
   1. Helps to start with a white primer
3. Add a very small amount of paint to the palette
   1. He doesn’t use a wet palette, but it would help as well
4. Add a puddle of water near the paint – not in the paint
   1. 
   2. Then slowly pull a tiny amount of paint into the puddle
   3. Pull more of the paint drop in until it has a smooth consistency
5. Load your brush with the watered down paint and touch the ferrule end against a paper towel
   1. This pulls out some of the extra water from the bristles, leaving more pigment
6. Apply to the model, it will be thin and very subtle, but that’s ok because we will add more layers
   1. 
   2. Hold the miniature so that the pigment will flow downwards towards where you want it to lay
7. Add additional layers to build up the color you want for the base coat
8. Water down the highlight color (white in his case) and add it over the base color
   1. focusing on the raised areas or where you want the lightest tone
9. Move back and forth between the colors to smooth out the blend
   1. Key is to add the other color while the previous is still a little wet
10. If you get too much color in an area, you can wet the brush and pull the extra off
11. For hard color transitions (he had golden yellow and purple), go back and forth with the thin layers to pull the transitions back and forth
12. The back-and-forth is very subtle and can take a while to complete, but provides a very smooth transition between the colors
13. You can add some layers of non-watered down color to add extreme highlights or solid-colored sections

Wrap Up

If you liked AGP’s video make sure to give him a follow on YouTube and give the video a thumbs up.

What are your thoughts on wet blending? Too much work? Rather use an airbrush? Or love it, want it, and need some more of it? Hit up the comments below and let me know!