Status update: Best thing since sliced bread!

This will probably not come as a surprise for a lot of you veteran painters out there. But it was really an eye opener for me. Hopefully a couple of beginners read this and don't have to wait some twenty three years before finding it out ;-)

Its paint thinner!

GW calls it Lahmian Medium, and i Guess its their take on paint thinner basically. Stopping by the store to pick up a couple of new pots on Thursday one of the staff gave me the tip to use this instead of water when diluting wash for shading.

I gave it a try for when layering brown and literally a new world of highlighting opened up.

The big difference for me is the way the paint behaves when applying it. Using water it gets runny and gets a lot of surface tension. The result often being "stripy" due to the way water dries (think of rain spots on car paint). To me the medium keeps the original attributes of the aryl paint but diluted making it perfect for shading.

Wach out for the drying time though, as thinner is more volatile than water the paint will set quicker in the brush. My way of getting around it is to clean the brush often.

If you don't want to purchase GW paint i know that Vallejo and Privateer Press has similar products under different names.

Finally don't be afraid of the pot saying "Technical". I I thought water was "good enough" for me, at the same time i was struggling getting good results layering.

Remember trying new stuff and stepping outside the box is essential to improve.

Happy easter everyone!