• There is always paint on the brush. You think it's gone, you want to refill it. Don't. There's paint on the brush.
• Opacity is more important than shades. Don't mix up three shades of paint. You can't duplicate it next week, and it's a waste of paint. One color, thin, and only layer portions of it, will get to whatever shade you want. Remember this when basecoating, as opacity is a factor of whatever color you are painting over. Side note: Always use dark basecoats under metallics.
• Do shadows with the complement (mixed into the basecolor) of the highlight color.
• Saturated, Light, Warm colors draw the eye first. So make the Action part of the mini light, bright, or warm to draw the eye. Warm colors are daylight or sunset. Red Violet - Red - Orange - Yellow. Cool colors are gray or overcast days. Yellow-Green - Green - Blue - Violet. GET A COLOR WHEEL.
• Pick a main color, then the other colors react to that color. Warm to cold, light to dark, complementary, etc. Muted first color, mute the second.
• Glaze = super thin. Drop paint, drop matte medium (glazing liquid currently) 5 drops gunk, more water. It should be translucent over type. Keep crap typed documents around to test washes and glazes. It should run off the side of the palette wall. Glaze has matte medium in it, washes do not. Matte medium makes it act like paint.
• Blow hard on bubbles. They will go away. Don't blow on washes, obviously. Bubbles are preventable.
• Use a larger brush than you are comfortable with. A small brush may look like a needle, but you just need a good tip on a larger brush. If the brush is tiny, it can't hold any paint, and the paint will dry out under the hot lamps you are holding the mini 2 inches beneath.
• Don't use a palette. You have to clean a palette after each session, just use wax paper. A 5 by 5 inch sheet of wax paper holds paint well, and you just let it dry afterwards. You already have to clean brushes and a water cup, why clean a palette too? I use the wax paper several times, both sides, till it's tossed and you break out a new one. I hold them down with coins, and keep a stack of 5x5's on the side. Do use a wet palette, that thing rocks.
• Paint that comes in pots sucks. You can paint right from the pot, but who does that? I add thinner, and slow dri retarder to paint, so I have to have a palette knife around to move paint out of the pot. Good thing most paint comes in droppers.
• Use canvas paint for dry brushing. It's meant to be dry, no need to thin it.

Things to get better at:

I am doing several sample washes over the same basecolor (P3 Menolith White Base.) Bases are made from Souffle Sculpey (300 for 20 minutes at least) and Greenstuff. Primed with Krylon Fusion. Side Note: Paint was super hydrophobic. Paint went on super easy on another K Fusion primed model, perhaps my primer is going bad.

Expected outcomes:
1. Golden paint leaves coffee rings because it has larger pigment chunks.
2. Wet the area first with water to reduce coffee rings.
3. Soap and flow-aid reduce the co verage of high points.
4. Tap water < distilled water.
5. Ink is transparent, and is better for glazing than washing.

The following applies to all below: Armor wash is P3 brand (PIP 93012), VD is Golden Van Dyke Brown Hue #2442-1 (Opaque, Gloss, Thin), flow-aid is Liquitex in my standard Gunk. Dist is distilled water, tap is obvious. Wash to me is a ratio of 1:10 of paint:water. I check a wash over typed print, to see that it is entirely translucent. It should not hold up on a palette wall, it runs back in with little left behind. All pictures are wet then dry.

1: Armor wash, tap

Dirty, wash stained the high points, clear coffee stains in holes after drying. High concentrations and low concentrations look the same shade. Armor wash has adhesion issues. It doesn't shade the walls of the hole, while you can clearly see its on there wet.

2: VD, tap

Dirty, lower areas do look more shaded. Golden at least offers adhesion to the hole wall edges.

3: Armor wash, dist

Dirty, less shade on high spots. You can see shaded areas in the center of the holes, with the edges lighter. Clearly the paint dried in the middle, not on the edges. Ruins the shadow look. Armor wash must have ink as it's acrylic color.

4: VD, dist

Dirty, still some rings. Same issue as 1, with shade equal in holes and channels. Holes should be higher shade than channels. At least it did shade the edge walls of the holes better than 3.

5: Armor wash, dist, wet area first

Dirty, lot of shade on high points. Wash clearly dried in the middle of areas, with almost no shading of edges. Probably too much water involved, it broke down the acrylic binder and the paint ink just fell out.

6: Armor wash, flow in Gunk

Least Dirty so far. Paint clearly fell off the high points and adheared to the edge walls of the holes. Considering what 5 looked like, this is a huge improvement. Flow aid gets a plus one.

7: VD, dist, plus a toothpick tip of Dawn soap

Dirty, looks like the wash covered everything. Really looks more like a glaze than a wash. Look into dish soap vs flow-aid properties.

8: Liquitex Transparent Burnt Umber ink, dist

Very Dirty. Looks like a glaze, with shade just as dark on the high points as the low points. If you are after a wash, this is not what you want. It did adhere to the hole edge walls well.

9: VD, dist, wet area first, plus a toothpick tip of Dawn soap

Golden plus soap makes the wash behave like a glaze. It is the same color high and low. Very little difference only edges and high points.

Stripped off the paint from the previous base pucks. Clearly I am doing washes wrong, however at least I think I understand the chemical composition of washes. I'll be using different colors, with the following set ups: tap water, flow-aid, 10:1 and 5:1. The following again applies to all below: Paints are identified for each trial. Flow aid is Liquitex in my standard Gunk. Wash to me is a ratio of 1:10 of paint:water, but I'll vary that to fit the next sentence. I check a wash over typed print, to see that it is entirely translucent. It should not hold up on a palette wall, it runs back in with little left behind. All pictures are wet then dry. I am doing several sample washes over the same basecolor (Vallejo Heavy Blue Grey (72.144)) Bases are made from Souffle Sculpey (300 for 20 minutes at least) and Greenstuff. Primed with Army Painter Matte Skeleton Bone. Side Note: Paint was super easy, way better than in previous experiment. Base color went on easily, and primer was thin and toothy.

Expected outcomes:
1. Learn to fucking wash