13 October 2011

Tutorial - Using Dayglow Colors

Posted by Raffa, Picster, Capuchin,....

Hey everyone,

as i recently found out about this little effect when i started using dayglow pigments i had some experiences i want to share with you.
At first you maybe never heard about dayglow pigments or colors.
Dayglow - with this term i mean the color somehow glows under light, so with a little light the color is much brighter than normal acrylic paints.

To get such dayglow paints with a good quality i decided to mix my own colors.

First you need dayglow pigments, you can order them online (google for a shop in your country) or you can buy them in artist shops. But inform yourself about the quality of the pigments, in miniature painting you want the highest quality possible.

Here i compared Orange and Pink Dayglow Pigments with the GW Colors .... you can clearly see how much more power the dayglow colors have!

Now you need some acrylic binder (Schmincke in my example) and mix it with your pigments, thats the way to make acrylic colors with any pigments ;)
I like to add a little drop of matte varnish and i put it inside a vallejo styled dropper bottle for easier use. I also add a small steel ball (from a BB gun) to improve the mixing ability.

You can then use the color like a normal acrylic color... if it is too thin, just add more pigments to the mix.


Now for the interesting part... practical use ;)

Normally i just paint the figure with normal colors and add thin glazes of the dayglow color to desired spots to bring in the light effect. In the photo above you can see the effect pretty well.

Another good example for the use of dayglow color... here i wanted to give the balls a mysterious look. I painted them normal and afterwards dabbed some dayglow color on it.
After this step i gave the balls 2-3 coats of gloss varnish to give them a glassy look

Here on my latest project you can see the use of dayglow color to give the fire a glowing appearance :)

I hope you liked this tutorial and you try out this technique!

Cheers,
Raffa

um

29 comments:

  1. MontyOctober 13, 2011 at 4:20 PM

    Thank you Raffa.
    it's very interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownOctober 13, 2011 at 4:21 PM

    Nice tutorial and I have been on the lookout for such vivid colors for some time. Will check it out, thanks for posting ;)

    keep up the good work

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  3. webmaxOctober 13, 2011 at 5:00 PM

    Great advice.

    Could tell us which is the pigment brand ?

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  4. RaffaOctober 13, 2011 at 5:13 PM

    Hey Webmax, i bought the pigments at a online shop... http://kremer-pigmente.de
    I think they have a international website.

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  5. ArsiesOctober 13, 2011 at 5:36 PM

    mmmm very interesting, sure i will try

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  6. KarnsteinOctober 13, 2011 at 7:13 PM

    Okay, so basically we're talking about "Tagesleuchtfarben fluoreszent" from their webstore, right?

    Is the acrylic binder mandatory or wouldn't it be enough to mix them with a glazing medium (like the one you can buy from W&N)?

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  7. RaffaOctober 13, 2011 at 8:47 PM

    @Karnstein: Yes exactly :) You can choose different colors, blue doesn't rock so much ;)

    You can also mix them with a varnish... but it will not be the same as a real color.

    Cheers,
    Raffa

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  8. SlidrOctober 13, 2011 at 9:32 PM

    Great Idea, think i will give it a try after learning object source lightning next class with roman =) Absolutely fantastic

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  9. Tartan Paint StudiosOctober 13, 2011 at 10:02 PM

    Im having trouble find the acrylic binder on the website, there are a few binders. do you have a link for it?

    I have found the website: http://www.kremer-pigmente.de/shopint/index.php?lang=ENG&list=0201

    ReplyDelete
  10. The Painting MageOctober 14, 2011 at 12:01 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  11. The Painting MageOctober 14, 2011 at 12:07 AM

    Really genius!

    Where do you buy the mage mini?

    I need one for my blog :)

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  12. AnonymousOctober 14, 2011 at 12:15 AM

    Is this like Vallejo's fluorescent colors? Stronger? Weaker?

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  13. LycanthropicaOctober 14, 2011 at 2:07 AM

    I have been using Vallejo Paints Fluorescents
    as I am painting a pink eldar army, it certainly doesn't look as strong as these pigments. I might try mixing some with binder and paint :D

    Thanks for such a great article

    ReplyDelete
  14. AnonymousOctober 14, 2011 at 7:53 AM

    Hey Raffa,

    vielen Dank für das Tut, muss ich gleich mal ausprobieren.

    Gruß Dirk

    ReplyDelete
  15. RaffaOctober 14, 2011 at 8:39 AM

    Hey, thanks for all this nice feedback, glad you like this idea :)

    @Painting Mage: This Mini is from Red Box Games :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. AnonymousOctober 14, 2011 at 1:37 PM

    http://kremerpigments.com/shopus/index.php?lang=ENG&list=010701

    This appears to be the fluorescent pigments on their english online store, for people out who speak english mostly/only :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. KarnsteinOctober 14, 2011 at 2:48 PM

    @raffa: Well, don't think I'm gonna mix them with pure varnish.

    Found a store in my hometown that stocks the stuff and grabbed myself a bag of the green daylight pigments. My plan is to use them on heavily rusted cryx warjacks from the Warmachine TTG range, to increase the glowing effect of the engine.

    Which means I'm only using it as a glaze to go over areas that have already been painted with green&yellow colors.

    That's why I asked about swapping the acrylic binder for glaze medium.

    In regard to the mixing process: did you just added the pigment straight out of the bag into the binder solution? Called their hotline today and the told me to use a "netzmittel" on the pigments before adding the binder. According to them that should keep the stuff from clogging together. *confused*

    ReplyDelete
  18. Tartan Paint StudiosOctober 15, 2011 at 7:40 AM

    I'm having trouble finding the correct binder you are talking about. Can you point me in the right direction please.

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  19. AnonymousMarch 10, 2012 at 4:39 PM

    For those looking for the acrylic binder, Dick Blick in the US sells 200 ml jars, though shipping is a bit pricey.

    ReplyDelete
  20. redfox4242June 6, 2012 at 2:09 PM

    That is an interesting tutorial. I may use this.

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  21. mathieuOctober 30, 2012 at 12:30 AM

    Are these the same pigments you sell on your online store, or did you find a better brand since?

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  22. Roman aka jarOctober 30, 2012 at 7:15 AM

    @Mathieu
    As far as I know these are the ones that are sold at ForgedMonkey store!

    ReplyDelete
  23. RaffaOctober 30, 2012 at 7:50 AM

    The pigments are still the same but some weeks ago I still had the colors in the shop, now I changed to the pure pigment.

    ReplyDelete
  24. mathieuOctober 30, 2012 at 11:27 PM

    Cool, thanks!

    Another thing I was wondering: Kremer emphasizes that the lightfastness of these fluorescent pigments is poor. Have you noticed any fading in the colors or loss of the "glowing" effect in the first miniatures you painted with these pigments?

    ReplyDelete
  25. Q0rbinMay 27, 2013 at 6:24 PM

    Hi I just wonder where I can get this acrylic binder, because I'm thinking strongly to buy Dayglow pigment from forge monkey. Thanks for a great site, Ihave used many of you're tutorials.

    ReplyDelete
  26. mcsnead17January 23, 2014 at 8:45 PM

    I have florescence paints from Vallejo can I use them instead of dayglow ?

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  27. Roman aka jarJanuary 24, 2014 at 1:13 PM

    They can be used too, yes. but they won't provide the same power of colour!

    ReplyDelete
  28. galdorMarch 7, 2018 at 6:53 AM

    I know the post is old but is there a place where I can get those pigments?

    ReplyDelete
  29. Roman aka jarMarch 13, 2018 at 2:13 PM

    Check for PK-Pro.de

    ReplyDelete