"Pool of Blood" Topic

A question for the expert painters – how would you do a good, realistic-looking pool of blood?

Blood actually soaks in to a lot of things, producing a darkened area of earth etc.
Where I have seen pools of standing blood (In Operating Theatres! – I am not a ghoul!) – its remarkably consistent in colour, except where its shallow, where its likely to show some of the underlying material.

Here is a tutorial I found. link

Blood does not act like water. Blood is actually "thicker than water". If a lot is released at one time, it will stand in a pool and even foam if being spilled from a height. It will seep or soak into the ground but if a lot is " spilled" it will begin to congeal before all of it soaks up. It really depends on how gorey you want to be.

The color pallet provided by herky is good for the color scheme.

Depends on how the blood got there

Gravitational flow versus spatter, for example

One thing – blood dries to a darkish red-brown

Agreed, blood darkens as it dries. I think its important to know how long the pool has been there!

All the comments are great observations and advice..I'm certainly no expert on painting, but if by a pool of blood as in some sort of vessel being filled up with the blood of oh I don't know errmm sacrificial virgins I think I would paint the deepest part of the pool a very dark brown..almost but not quite black, follow up with highlights of a red brown highest highlight a crimson red. Finish up with a gloss clear coat for a wet look. I've never painted anything like this but thats where I would start the experimentation.