Painting with metallic powders

Tutorial Tuesday is one of NaMoPaiMo's best and most enduring traditions. This year's first how-to comes from everybody's favorite Canadian, Shauna McDaniel, who is famous for her glittery, rainbow creations. Thank you so much, Shauna, for allowing us to peek behind the curtain!

How to Paint a Rainbow Horse With Metallic Powders

 

by Shauna McDaniel

One of the questions I'm asked a lot is how I get even metallic coats. Most people assume I airbrush them, but they're actually all hand applied.

I start with a black glossy base. This can be done by priming with a gloss black or by lightly glossing a matte finish. There's some science behind why it gives a better finish, but I can't remember it.

The next step requires a clear gloss medium. You can use whatever and gloss at the end, but I like to see the more finished look as I work because the light plays a lot of tricks. The medium needs to be thin, similar to the consistency of milk. This varnish by Green Stuff World is a terrible finishing gloss but ideal for this purpose.

Colours!! Any Micah powders will work for this. These are by Solar Colour Dust, but it works just as well with Pearl-ex. Other products might just need more nice thin layers.

I apply both the medium and powder with a nice, soft, wide brush. This mop is phenomenal for a tidy even finish. I'll use a smaller one for details.

I apply my gloss medium to the horse in a nice thin layer. I'm not useing any retarder or blending gel as I'm going fast, but I'll add some to the gloss when I'm doing the final back and forth. If I see a milky sploot, I'll spread it until it just looks wet.

I then take the same now only damp with gloss brush and dip straight into the powder and smear it in there, being sure to spread it nice and thin watching for streaks or bubbles.

Here I've applied all my blocked in sections. I haven't worried at all about blending just getting nice colour blocks in.

Next, I add a few drops of blending gel. This slows my dry time so I can fiddle. In this photo, I've dipped the tip of my brush in the gel/gloss and straight into my pigment. It's tiny amounts, I hope you can see that.

Then I just slide it down the crevice. If I'm putting it in the low areas, I do them all the same colour and make it the high areas on the other side. These paints are shifters, so they're helping make the blend smoother with minimal effort. Well, except for orange because someone always has to complicate life.

So here's our friend, his mane is only blocked in and I'll likely fiddle more with the tail tomorrow when I have daylight.

Thank you again, Shauna. This is every bit as fabulous as I'd expected!