Scooby Doo Modelling Tip #2

January 2001

Pastels, Down and Dirty:

Scooby Recommends having:

Set of artist's pastels

Artist's charcoal pencils or mechanical pencil lead

Camel hair (2) brush

And a satin, or flat/matte overcoat

Welcome back, it's another Scooby Doo Modelling trick, for January 2001, aka the Apocalypse! Today, I'll be talking about the use of pastel and charcoal to enhance your models, to make them weathered, or for highlighting certain colors.

Well, first thing's first. Keep this one neat, and tidy. If you like your results, record the paint ratios and the techniques you used exactly so that you can try this technique over again. This technique is very versatile, using pastels as a substitute for drybrushing/airbrushing, and to create a weathered or highlighted effect. It's simple, fun, and easy to do, and in the end, it looks _great_!

What you'll want to start doing is mapping out in your mind where on the model you want it highlighted and the direction of the highlight. This technique is usually used to bring out the detail on edges or curves, but can be used to weather around verniers or firearms. A tip is to go upward with the highlights when doing sharp edges, and to go down on curves. Once you have a general idea of what you want to do, spray the areas with overcoat, then grind out some of the color you want into a modeller's tray. If desired, you can take a half teaspoon of acrylic thinner and mix it with the ground up tray or pastel to the color you desire to change consistency. Usually for aqua suits, you'll want to coat with a light green highlight line, with land suits a beige brown sand color, and space suits a black or red color. Once you're done mixing, apply with the camel hair brush. If you're using ground pencil lead or charcoal, try and put on small amounts and add more to your taste. When you're finally done, spray with your overcoat again and let it dry. This effect is useful as a drybrush partner, as they both achieve similar effects, but the pastel is slightly more accurate, and blends over paint better.

This should make your model great looking under no light at all, but if your are going to use lighting when photographing a pastel piece, be sure to have the lamps on LOW HEAT, or risk having the laquer overcoat fade/melt, depending on the overcoat. Hope it turns out great, and mail me some pics of your results @ [email protected] . Good day, and Scooby peace!