Painting Blood Effects!

Finally got to the blood effects I promised months ago. There are different ways of painting blood, the most basic way is to layer three colors of red and then apply a gloss varnish over the top to give it a wet appearance. I will sometimes do this to a model that has been ripped in half, or has a limb torn off. But in the case of the Mechanithralls, they have skin torn open to reveal muscle tissue, ribcage, and bullet wounds. Instead of the three color method for blood I used this method for the muscles and pipes (Intestines) that wrap around the body, and used Liquitex Fluid Mediums for the blood effects.

What you need:

Paint: Scab Red, Red Gore, Blood Red, Jack/Bleached bone.
Liquitex mediums: Gloss Medium, Flow Aid.

Getting Started:

Paint all the pipes and exposed muscles scab red, then drybrush the tops with red gore, leaving the scab red in the recesses and at the edges. Then drybrush blood red as a highlight only where the light hits. 

Once that is complete it's time to add the blood! If you don't have access to paint mediums you could use fluid retarder as a substitute it just may have to be applied in a few layers. For thicker pooled blood I use "Liquitex: Gloss Medium and Varnish" and for runny/sticky blood I use "Liquitex:Flow Aid" all of which can be purchased from any art supply store.

Grab the gloss medium and mix 1:1:1 gloss medium/paint/water, and mix it all together. One thing I should mention is the glossy wet look is going to disappear once the model is sealed with a matte varnish. We are more interested in the way the medium/ paint mixture applies to the model in terms of its effect rather than the shine the medium creates.

Now were gonna drop this mixture into any wound areas. I used a 3/0 paint brush for this because when you drop the paint into the wound you want to pull the brush out of the wound, and pull the paint down in a line to simulate the wound seeping. Any areas where blood wound be dripping onto a leg or foot, you want to create a small pool and pull that down where you think it would drain off. Half way down each wound I also placed this mixture along the edges of skin. Should look something like this:

There were a few models in the unit that looked like the skin had been torn right off the ribcage so I painted that area like the muscles a then came back in and painted the bone areas of the rib leaving the scab red in the cartilage areas. I then used a 1:1 mixture of Flow Aid and red gore and applied this all over the bones. as it was drying I used a damp brush and removed some of the flow aid off the bones in a few random places. you can also add this mixture to the aras around the wounds to simulate a watery pussy blood that would also seep from the wound.

Final step is to highlight any of the bone areas that aren't bloody. (The camera on my phone didn't really pick up the differing colors on the rib cage and the rotting flesh. In person you can see the divide more clearly)

Once the model is sealed, you will have to go over all the exposed muscle and blood again with "Gloss Varnish" medium you can get fro GW stores with a paintbrush to restore the wet shiny look. Or you could mask off these areas with blue tack before you spray your second layer of varnish. Don't do this before however you start sealing because the blue tack may remove your paint job.

Until next time, happy painting!