I'm a female artist and paper crafter with tons of art and craft supplies - who also plays tabletop games. 4 years ago, I decided to paint my 100-piece army from 'Mechs and Minions' game that hubby gave to me for Christmas. Fast forward 4 years...THIS week I fell down the rabbit hole of videos about mini painting. Starting with airbrushing and spray painting. Then I found videos on Slapchop, then zenithal. Neither are options for me (respiratory and climate issues). I need a method that I can do inside without fumes in my crowded studio. That's when I had the bright idea to just go ahead and paint my horde because the army is already gray with shadows... But I kept searching. Then I found videos about Primers. Then videos about Brush On primers. Which led me to Gessos - which I have in great supply. Gesso's main job is priming. Instead of using black primer plus gray primer on top, I had the bright idea to use Clear gesso over my nekked gray minions, then dry brush white gesso over the clear. And that's the story of how I ended up at your video about 'Rawchop'. Now back into the rabbit hole to learn about DIY Wet Palettes... BTW, I also learned that I have all the brushes I need in my craft stash already! Mops and makeup brushes, sable rounds and liners, #0, #1, #2, and stencil brushes. I even already have plastic texture plates I can modify from dry embossing techniques! I liked and subbed. tfs!

@trisbane4086

6 ай бұрын

What respiratory problems would prevent you from using a paint booth with ventilation, a mask with a filter, and non-toxic paint?

I really appreciate the return of the stock footage inserts into these videos.

I honestly burst out laughing at step 2.5. I needed that. Well done.

@DanaHowl

8 ай бұрын

heheheee

I've been doing the "glaze chop" with thinned oil paints and really like the results. Going to have to try it with the Pro Acryl. Great video as always.

I airbrush my figures in darker gray and then drybrush in white. Less work and they turn out fine. I'm a big fan of the Army Painter Speed Paints. I like the 2.0 because they don't bleed and just a light drybrush over the paint helps. I will have to get some super bright white to use.

I love teaching Slap Chop to the new hobbyists in my paint club. The way I explain it to them is that this isnt an end-all be-all process, but it does teach a lot of important techniques including thinning and mixing paints, drybrushing, and proper priming. I then explain to them that using washes and drybrushing with layer colors work as easy ways to take their paint jobs to the next level. I think its a great tool to make sure is in every mini painter's tool chest

A tip from the Artis Opus team if making your own texture palette was to not make it too high because high bump y objects collect dust and dust isn’t something you want in your dry brushing

@bobgone7865

7 ай бұрын

yeah, I picked a large 'to-go' plastic box, so I could put a lid on it when not using it.

@trisbane4086

6 ай бұрын

Flip the texture palette upside down when you're not painting.

Thanks Dana! In my opinion, this is the best video of the year for those who, like me, are approaching the world of painting. I have little time, very little space, but with these suggestions I will be able to significantly improve the quality of my miniatures. Greetings from Italy and we'll see you again in 2024!

Cool as always. Thank you for the tips.

Thank you for this amazing painting video!

I just wanted to thank you for showing this off. I had to stop painting due to escalating chronic health issues making it too much for me to be able to follow through. But the method with painting on airbrush primer has me hopeful I might be able to use it to skip a lot of stuff and be able to paint again!

i just love that randomly i was doing some of these techniques. and already noticed a better look. and tehn this video cements those processes with other awesome techniques. Thank you Dana world.

Dana coming out with another banger of a paint scheme. Great job!

Love the idea for scramblin’! Gives it a nice painterly texture, its so cool. Def gonna try that one out!

Awesome video! Will definitely try these out soon! 🔥 🙌

I LOVE the scramblin’ technique :O it looks sooo good!! Thanks for the video!!

lol that wink at the end. Thanks for the tips!

I’ve naturally been scrambling a bit but needed your permission to do more, thanks! Makes a ton of sense

Love your work!

Hooray for Scramblin’!!! Haha! I love using that for adding nice texture!

when doing your slapchop prep, have ever did a prime/zenithal prime with odd colors rather than using the typical black/grey/white? I sometimes do black/brown/cream or black/forest green/pale yellow when painting certain creatures that like a warmer under tone. Also black/navy/baby blue for ice themed

@nuvoclassic

7 ай бұрын

I'm a newbie mini painter. Great tip!

@Grooty6226

6 ай бұрын

Best tip here!

@RaptieFeathers

2 ай бұрын

What's ironic is that one of the most important fundamentals when painting or illustrating is to _avoid_ using pure black/grey/white-they make colors feel much more dull and lifeless. What you're doing is what more people should be doing-it makes things look much more lively and real. (Also, anytime you might want to do a default black, go instead for an extremely dark purple. When contrasted with other colors, it'll actually look more like "black" than actual black will)

The paper towel will wick more of both water and medium than paint, the texture pallet doesn't change the moisture to medium to pigment ratios, it just removes the amount...with your greasier colors doesn't change much but with anything with a white in it is a game changer. Another great way to make a texture pallet is a bed of air dry clay with random hunks of sprue and broken models pressed into it, also leave a smooth area for paint mixing and checking transparency so you don't have to leave the texture pallet for anything while you are doing drier painting techniques.

For a super easy and cheap texture pallete, just prime some cork board/tile. Once it's primed, it'll take paint the same as the primed plastic as far as I can tell.

@serials11

2 ай бұрын

I've been eyeing the Artist Opus one but the price is a little too high for me. This tip is amazing! Thank you for sharing

I frikking love Scramblin' Dana why are you so cool.

More great work!

The brushing-on of air brush primer is really cool and something I def want to try

scramblin' baby! love it, been using this technique on my ravaged star and now i have a catchy name for it :)

👍👍Great tips. Thanks, good show!

Watch all of your videos! You are a go to teacher on mini painting!

oh shit Dana these are great tips! Like, several of them are ones I already knew, but they're also ones I know are the ones I'd really wanna know if I didn't already and the others (especially that last one) absolutely Slaps. I am pumped to try that one out!

Mini canvases from the art supplies store work as lightly textured texture palettes without treatment, but if you want a bit more texture, just glue on some sand and put another layer of glue over that ( or a layer of artist's texture paste if you have that) and then the dark paint layer. Before unwrapping them, the plastic wrapper makes them nice dry palettes for Speed Paint or other thin inky paints & metallics that you don't want on your wet palette. Then when that is grotty with dried paint, unwrap and use as a texture palette.

@nuvoclassic

7 ай бұрын

great tips - tfs!

Love the use of classic purple carapace on synthwave/toxic sludge theme, makes em look like walking chemicals weapons, great video, keep on keeping on

@nuvoclassic

7 ай бұрын

I'm a newbie mini painter. Great tip!

I did the same thing last night painting my first miniature! Didn't have any spray-on primer so I just grabbed my friend's airbrush primer and just went with it. Then I see your video in my feed and was like, "Ha! Great minds!" 😁 Works great! I'm still learning but your vids are really helpful, thank you!

My favorite was glazing + slap chop. I love the idea of speedpaint, but as an artist, I love painting my minis. It's relaxing. I have been doing glaze + slap chop for some time and am glad someone else has thought of it too!

The scrambling idea is really cool. Great idea that I'll have to steal ... (uh) ... borrow.

On point 1, Brent did some testing a while ago on priming and varnishes (or was just an excuse to pig out on funyons :P ), and on small plastic minis you CAN get away with not priming at all, so not much danger there, while on metal minis you want to varnish them at the end anyway so again there should no issues, so rawchop is a go! :D On point 5, I'd say that while i don't disagree, this is absolutely contrary to the idea of slapchop, it works *because it's mindless*, that way you can recommend it to a brand new newbie who has no idea about highlights and light positioning and whatever, and it'll work decently for them. Same with a more experienced person with a too huge backlog that just wants to see the minis painted and in the table while spending as little time and effort as possible on them (my case, my backlog constantly taunts me). On the other hand I feel that at least for newbies this would be the next step *AFTER* they're already used to slapchop and wanna get better though, the whole slapchop process should have given them some decent minimal skills and switching to glazing should polish them a lot more.

For a texture palette that costs basically nothing, I actually just glued an old empty sprue onto a piece of cardboard. Primed it black. Way quicker & easier, and you can see exactly how the brush is gonna behave on the plastic.

I think that before you waste plastic terrain you coud just try to glue a sheet of grit 40 sandpaper on a plank for your texture pallette ;) It;s way cheper and faster to do.

@JValerianS

8 ай бұрын

I think the reason people like having different plastic bit on their texture palettes is that it gives you a really precise simulation of how the paint will behave on different shapes on the actual miniatures. But I do agree - I'm currently using small cleaning sponges both as my dampening pads (soft side) and texture palettes (coarse side). :D

Interesting video, lots of great tips for this annoyingly newly named painting technique. Thank you!

Using a better white paint is definitely a top tip. Made such a huge difference for my painting since I made the switch

@nuvoclassic

7 ай бұрын

I'm a newbie mini painter. Great tip!

@derpstick5467

2 ай бұрын

I’m just wondering what video she’s referring to from her friend. Because I have that Vallejo cold white paint but if it’s not good enough for the slapchop method then welp guess I need to buy some artist white paint.

If you are super lazy, a piece of cardboard works about 95% the same as an artis opus texture pallet. Once I painted out all the texture on my AO pallet, I ended up using cardboard. The ability to control paint in the brush, as well as blend, is basically the same. It doesn't even need to be primed. It also works better for using metallics, since they don't play nice on a wet pallet. Downside is it doesn't weigh much so it slides around. Some double sided tape on the bottom is usually good enough to fix that.

Something I've been experimenting with (with varied results) is to use multiple shades of grey with a bit of color mixed in throughout each shade. For example; I'm currently painting a dozen wights- I start with black and then add a cerulean blue, and bring that up to a icey grey-blue before going in to a blue tinged white (like snow that is too wet). The wights are like White Walkers from GoT, so I'm trying to get that cold and dead vibe without having to paint them too much. The two frost giants add enough color to the battle board, as is.

Yea, Texture Palette sounds cool. When I’m rubbing the drybrush off in a paper towel, I’m probably getting off more than I’d like, not because I’m looking to get the right kind of effect, but because going for a slight transition looks better than a heavy one. With the texture palette, I probably swipe a few times with the desired effect before it gets applied to the target.

I've tried a few different variations on the slapchop method. Nuln oil over a white primer so it settles in the recesses works OK. Or white primer, painting base speedpaint then white highlights then lighter color speedpaint (which works nice), and I'll definately be trying some of these. The problem I've had with a normal slapchop is some models are way to delicate and I break pieces off trying it (looking at you Adepta Sororitas Novitiates) so an alternative method is needed.

"The slapchop of websites" I cracked up lol I love the very specific type of humor in your videos!

we've come full circle with slap chop. Right back at the original Grisaille

Yeah I don't have a situation where air brush is doable and rarely can spray can, so I usually do brush on primer. I might start skipping the gray dry brush and just white dry brush to see if the colors still come out bright enough.

@nuvoclassic

7 ай бұрын

same here!

So i think i did the airbrush primer thing on accident, i was using an acrylic medium with my painted on acrylic primer, before learning “proper slap chop” from a friend. I liked the look but couldn’t replicate it consistently because I wasn’t doing it intentionally, but after your explanation i think i might be able to consistently recreate the effect!

For a texture palette you can use the leather pieces sold at craft stores. They are usually textured and fairly cheap 👍

I have to stay Scrambling looks more like smudging. You smudge the paint to increase the area without being overlay precise. I have to say smudging gives a more natural look to non metallic things. Does the smudging idea blend well as an undercoat? Love the information you put out here. I just got back into painting the past year off and on. Been watching a the how to's to refresh my painting skills. Everyone I have watched has helped bring my skills u p to a high standard then what they once were and wanted to thank you for the information you have put out to help me.

Thank you so much for the Scrambling Idea! I was wondering, how i will paint my Borderlands: Mister Torgue's Arena of Badassery Minis to get the Borderlands Videogame look. I think i will go with Scrambling and then Edge-Highlighting with a black pen.

just wanted to throw a recommendation for Monument's pro acryl glaze medium - it doesn't replace the method explained in the video, it adds an option of a really cool surface tension that makes for fascinating filtering like their glaze medium is what I thought glazes were supposed to tactile-feel like when I was a kid reading about them in white dwarf it's a very neat bottle of goo to play with

Hey Dana, thanks for this great content on youtube. I discovered exactly the colour scheme in this video that I would like to use for my LUST Daeomons. Could someone please tell me which colours were used here? Thank you very much and please keep up the good work. sunny days

am i the only one that says 'squuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuare spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace' along with Dana?

@gregmccormack5709

8 ай бұрын

Depends...... in your head or out loud lol.

@KABModels

8 ай бұрын

@@gregmccormack5709 out loud lmao

I know this is not related to the video but I just found your channel and wanted to say I love your hair

that's slap chop baby

I think slapchop is best when applied over proper zenithal highlights and even colours base coats through the airbrush, with the slapchop to give a crisp top colour or some chaos on big smooth surfaces

"Scrambling" is an existing technique, it's called Overbrushing.

@DanaHowl

8 ай бұрын

Thanks for letting me know!! I thought there was probably a term for this but I couldn't find it!

@radicalpaddyo

8 ай бұрын

I use a flatbrush for overbrusing though😅

@Ricstroh

8 ай бұрын

The term is scumble

@7nineofspades5

8 ай бұрын

@@Ricstroh scumbling is different, it's a wet blending method used with oils

@Ricstroh

8 ай бұрын

@@7nineofspades5 scumbling can be done with acrylics

If you're quick with speed pains you can do the same thing as your second step of glazing... i like to have a second stiffer brush i keep damp so i can wipe away a little of my contrast where i want highlights or quickly "erase" when i spill over with the speed paint on a section i didn't mean too.

I really like the look of pale chop. I start with vallejo primer 74.601. it is a very light gray. next I use vallejo templar white xpress color directly on the primer. then I dry brush GW corax white over that. then I paint with the xpress colors. this form of pale chop has very smooth transitions with enough contrast that it shows through the xpress color. but there is not enough enough gray/black to mute the color in the recesses.

I have to say 10 out of 8 hobbyists is a lot.

I can see a texture palette helping drybrushing as it helps remove paint more effectively while not absorbing all the moisture out of the paint/brush, but I'm not convinced the gravel and sand is beneficial to your brushes. It's basically the equivalent of heavily rubbing your brushes on coarse sandpaper.

@AnZsDad1973

7 ай бұрын

(I know I'm a bit late to the party, but...) Drybrushing is well-known to be rough on brushes to begin with, so any sort of textured tool to assist is likely only intended to help the technique, not the brushes. Most of us are probably already using cheap makeup brushes or ratty old brushes for drybrushing anyway, aren't we?

That airbrush primer is a very cool hack

Ngl that Tyranid color scheme is awesome.

What you call scramblin i have used for a few years for highlights on organic areas. I call it damp wiping... 😂😂😂. Not quite painting not quite drybrushing

@nuvoclassic

7 ай бұрын

I'm a newbie mini painter. Great tip!

This is really helpful to learn, since I can't spray prime in the winter where I live. I don't own an airbrush, so this never would've occurred to me. Edit: paper towels are bad for drybrushing because the paper towel will soak up the paint medium.

honey wake up, new slapchop just dropped

I've been using air brush primer with a brush for ages, never had a problem with it rubbing off.

The rawchop seems to have much more of a 90's comic feel, super bright highlights with no transition to the shadows. It looks great on models that are supposed to be dark.

Scramblin was my fav tip

"squuuaaaaare spaaaace" "teehee she did the thing :3" Literally gives me joy

Hah Rawchop. Nice name for it. This is basically how I've been doing slapchop since that slap chop video. Except I've being using Vallejo black Matt or black gloss as my primer. Watered down and brushed on in two thin coats. Then white over the top. I was just starting so didn't use rattle can and don't have an airbrush... Balls I should have done a vid haha.

I think you need far less texture on your texture pallet than when I see them made at home. For mine, I just close the lid on my Masters Wet Pallet and use that. (It has raised wording, a lip, and some general dimpling)🤷‍♂ YMMV

I like to use fast drying matte white oil paint for "slap chop". "Grainyness" effectively does to zero and a little goes an insanely long way without having to go back and forth between paint, palette, mini. Would be interested to see if you get similar results. Great video as always, thank you!

@TheHipHopapotimus

8 ай бұрын

I’m definitely going to try this. Thanks! I’m assuming once dry it works okay with speed paints and normal acrylics? Any tips when using like diluting the white to a certain ratio?

@bobgone7865

7 ай бұрын

that's an interesting idea. I only have one 'basic set' of oil paint I use for making washes... do you have a link/brand you use for that?

@nuvoclassic

7 ай бұрын

But doesn't oil paint have an odor?

@TheHipHopapotimus

7 ай бұрын

@@nuvoclassic yeah, the mineral spirits do.

I used a rough, plastic cutting board for a texture palette.

A McDonalds takeout pancake tin makes a good texture pallet.

I am using Vallejo brush on primer. Unfortunately raw chop doesnt seem to work here, it does not produce the desired effect. Problem is that the brush on primer doesnt stick to the model very well, it pulls back quite a bit which means I have to use several layers and keep on brushing primer... It does not obscure the details, but it also does not "look like a contrast paint" like the one you used for the video.

Were you winking at me,? Awlright. Giggidy goo

Nice video. Lots of potential there. Also, somehow your nose ring rotated while you were filming. It starts out centered, but by the end it is turned about 90 degrees.

not sure if you can call the last thing glazing (the wet drybrushing with a high pigmented paint than moving the pigment around while its on the model like with oil paints) :D but thanks for trying out all these new teqchnique ideas! its very creative and if you find some fancy shmancy words for it it could become as famous as slapchop :D 1 question though: how can i rate the quality of paint? like i thought vallejo is high quality paint what is a better quality and how do i distinguis? because our artist store sure as hell also sells mediocre paints

OH shit I've been Scramblin' for a while. It felt more natural to me, since dry brushes tend to be hard to control and dusty.

Love this technique but I’m curious if it works with larger scaled models. I would love to see this on the killer screamer.

This. This will save my agonizing mandatory military service. Few hobbies of mine are allowed in army bases, one of them being painting. Of course, any airbrush or rattle cans are prohibited. Every single slap-chop wanted me to spray primers on models. Raw-chop is going to save me hours of agony!

What speed paint colors where used? I can see raging sea for the blue and maybe vivid purple? What about the green and the little yellow parts? I really like this scheme!!

WoW

Thx for the video and this new technic. Question : when you dry brush, the paint you drybrushed with has a sandy/dusty appearance. This aspect doesn't disappear when you add your contrast paint . Is ther a way to smooth that without using the scrambling technic?

@witoldk5597

8 ай бұрын

I’m not sure how Dana sees it, but in my experience: - drybrushing always is at least a little bit chalky / sandy. - still, it gets less sandy when using makeup brushes and watering down drybrush paints / moisturizing your brush with a sponge (making them less dry in a way). I’m sure there are many good tutorials for that, but I myself followed Bohun and Artist Opus (both on youtube)

@shakall-9811

8 ай бұрын

@@witoldk5597 Thx Witold :)

Does anyone know exactly what video of Lyla Mevs’ Dana is referring to? I’d love to get some more info on using those Golden So Flat paints!

@musicfighter282

7 ай бұрын

I was coming to ask that same question. Help! She has a lot of videos

Looking to try the rawchop method as someone new to mini painting, is there something specific I need to look for in the black primer? I'm currently looking at the green stuff world matt surface primer.

I feel there’s a missed opportunity here. Why not name it pork chop ? Also I will be getting me some o that fancy white paint 😊

I use zinc white when painting pictures because it's more transparent than Titanium white. Wonder if it would work for drybrushing.

Is it just me or does the model from the scrambling look great in black and white - if you kept the grey and just used a more vibrant accent color it would be great for a color scheme of nids evolving to blend into a concrete jungle

Texture pallet: skip the plastic parts and glue just sand and gravel to a corrugated cardboard. I liked the last technique the best because it seemed to lead to the best result.

May I ask which orange you're using for the Tyranid details?

I sincerely doubt you'll find problems with paint stripping off the plastic because of the primer. Unless they've seriously changed the formulae of their plastic, it used to bind extremely well to the plastic anyways. Stripping away from the model was only really an issue with things like metal models, because the surface was different. You could likely paint 'directly' onto the surface of the model and never see a problem.

I was wondering about using airbrush primer with a brush, but I didn't want to test it.

A paper towel will remove more medium than pigment, leaving the remaining pigment to clump, get grainy, and otherwise do what pigment does.

Guys what do you think about this scheme on my next Catachan squad: 1. Prime Spray paint zandri dust. 2. Wash agrax eartshade 3. Drybrush white from top (or zenithal white spray) 4. Add Vallejo Xpress colors. Im still beginner level.

@nuvoclassic

7 ай бұрын

I'm a newbie mini painter. Great tip!

@anul6801

7 ай бұрын

@@nuvoclassic Everything looked good when finished besides dwarf flesh. That became way too dark. I mean like dark brown/black skin tone.

6:45 is this considered overbrushing? or is there a variation between the techniques?

What the hell was that wink about at the end?!?!? Lol!

@DanaHowl

8 ай бұрын

😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉

Scrambling Dana Howl strikes again!