Texture Painting Practice Palette

Texture Painting Practice Palette

A material sampler (texture atlas) designed for testing paints and miniature painting techniques before applying them to your final model. This board features a cross-section of surfaces: from organic textures to hard-surface materials.

Print Settings

Due to the micro-details of the textures (fabric weaves, skin pores), high-precision printing is recommended to capture the relief:

• Nozzle: 0.2 mm (Highly recommended for detail)
• Layer Height: 0.06 mm
• Material: PLA
• Only 26g filament

🎨 Technique Guide & Applications

1. Drybrushing

The king of techniques for high-relief textures. It involves grazing raised details with a nearly dry brush loaded with light paint.

• Bricks & Stones (Bottom row): To bring out sharp edges and rocky textures.
• Dragon Scales (3rd row, 2nd from left): Instantly highlights their three-dimensionality.
• Wood Planks (Top left): Perfect for catching knots and wood grain splinters.

2. Wash / Inking

The opposite of drybrushing. Diluted paint or specific "shade" flows into recesses, creating natural contrast and shadows.

• Herringbone Pavement (2nd row, 2nd from left): The grout lines will practically paint themselves.
• Fabric Weave (3rd row, 3rd from left): A wash darkens the spaces between threads, adding depth to the material.
• Stone Walls: A dirty, brown-green wash gives them an ancient, mossy appearance.

3. Glazing

Applying very thin, semi-transparent layers of color to tint the surface underneath without obscuring details. A test of patience.

• Leather/Skin (2nd row, 1st from left): Skin is never uniform. Glazes of reds, browns, and purples create the effect of "living" tissue.
• Scales: Use glazing to achieve iridescence (shifting colors), e.g., transitioning from deep blue to green.

4. Stippling (Dabbing/Sponging)

Striking the surface perpendicularly with a brush or using a sponge to create random noise and texture.

• Plaster / Concrete (Top right): These surfaces are flat but rough. Stippling with various shades of grey and beige "tricks" the eye into seeing a sandy texture.
• Rust: If you imagine the planks or bricks have metal fittings, stippling with orange/brown is the best method for corrosion effects.

5. Edge Highlighting

Precise painting of only the sharpest edges with the brightest color.

• Flat Tiles/Bricks (2nd row, 3rd from left): To separate elements in a clean, almost comic-book style.
• Cracks in Stone: A thin, bright line painted just underneath a dark crack makes the fissure appear deeper (illusion of a light-catching edge).

6. Wet Blending

Mixing two colors directly on the surface while the paint is still wet to create smooth gradients.

• Smooth Surface (3rd row, 1st from left): Resembles smooth concrete, rubber, or stretched tarp. There is no texture here to hide mistakes. You must manually paint the light gradient to prevent the surface from looking flat.