LPW31 - Ochre Liquid Pigments Washes

Ochre — a basic earth tone in a liquid pigment

Ocher is among the oldest and most used earth pigments, and in the Liquid Pigments Washes range by Lifecolor it fills the role of the universal tone. Unlike the shades named after a particular effect, it is not meant for a single job — it is a plain color with which you put the procedure together yourself.

Use it as a building block

Laid on by itself it gives a surface a warm earthy cast. It works even better from a palette, though: lay it on the palette, let it stand a while and then treat it as a pigment base — weakly as a veil, more strongly as sediment in corners, or layer it with the other shades of the range and you get a transition from light dust to dark grime. Shake the contents thoroughly before every pick-up, as the pigment settles at the bottom.

Layering gives more than mixing. When you let one layer dry and lay the next over it, the lower tone shows through and the result has depth. Mixing them into a single shade loses that depth.

The difference from a classic wash

A wash is built to flow in and bring out detail. Ocher in a liquid pigment, by contrast, behaves as a colored deposit on the face: wiping can thin it, repetition strengthen it and a dry brush rub it out to nothing. It is a material for modeling a surface rather than a finished effect.

Use

• A warm veil of dust on vehicles, cars and diorama elements.
• Settled soil in corners, around the running gear and on lower edges.
• A base under darker deposits, so that the patina is not of one color.
• Toning areas that are too cool or too clean toward an earthy shade.

Who the color is for

For modelers who like to put a patina together their own way and do not want to depend only on finished effects. Ocher is among the shades that cannot easily be replaced in a modeling workshop.

Keep out of the reach of children. Stir the contents before every use and close the bottle after work. Try a new procedure out off the model.