The CL series is built on gloss base shades that serve as the ground for the layers above them. The palette covers hair tones from blond to black, flesh and peach shades, lilac and pinkish violet tones and saturated primary colours. A pearlescent clear coat for a soft lustre rounds it out.
This is a range for builders of figures and stylised subjects, where colour is constructed in stages from an opaque base through to the final tone. The notes below cover why the base goes on thin, where the pearl coat belongs and how brush and nozzle divide the work on one figure.
A gloss base has one main task: to give the following layers a smooth, even ground. Translucent and glaze colours laid on a matt surface go grainy and lose saturation; over a gloss base they flow out smoothly. That is exactly why colour on figures and stylised subjects is built in two steps.
Lay a thin, even coat of the base tone, let it cure, and only then move on to shadows and highlights. The base is not meant to be heavy; its job is to unify the surface, not to cover in one pass.
The pearl-effect coat goes on last and gives the surface a satin lustre. For an ordinary seal, products from the clear coats range let you set the sheen precisely.
Large areas and smooth gradients are better handled by an airbrush, while the fine detail of a face and equipment is brushwork with a good point. Both techniques are routinely combined on one figure, and the hair types are in the modelling brushes category.
The series finds its main use on figure kits and busts, where skin, hair and textiles are the whole job. It serves anywhere you need a smooth gloss base beneath translucent layers. The complete system and the differences between its lines are set out in the Gunze Mr.Color category.
