Painting help needed: black, white, hair...

[Sandwich]

There's a few things that I really struggle with when painting, that I think could be done better, and I was hoping people could give me some tips?

1. Black
Specifically: black cloth, or shoes. I can do black armour easily enough (paint black, highlight with something shiny), but that doesn't work for clothes or shoes. I've tried a few variations such as grey highlights but they don't seem to look right to me (maybe its just my grey not being dark enough or something?). I've got plans for a couple of BB teams to use black cloth in their uniforms so want to figure out how to do this.

2. White
Kinda opposite to above... I can sort-of do white cloth (got some tips a few years ago when I started my pro elf team), but struggle with white metal. I want something white and shiny but am not sure the best way to do it.

3. Hair
Bit of a trickier one maybe... I can do brown hair - paint with dark brown, highlight with lighter brown. Easy enough. I can even do silly hair colours like blue and green (again, pro elves ). But I sort of struggle with black hair (again, how do you highlight it so it doesn't look grey?), blonde hair, or red-heads (I've got ok results here with painting a brown base-coat then shading and highlighting in reds and oranges, but wanted to know if anyone has better ideas?)

Thanks for any help!

[Madsherman]

I don't paint a lot of black, but I believe that it's important NOT to use neutral grey and to make sure that 50% of the models black parts are still actually black. IFRC this article is pretty good http://handcannononline.com/blog/2011/0 ... ck-armour/

[Rolex]

I find that the best way for me to paint black is to use dark grey and then use as many strata of black wash as needed.

The effect is quite good and easy to archive.

[horekim]

The secret to painting black well is to keep the highlights sharp and to a minimum. You could try using blues og browns as highlight colors, but they should still be sharp. I usually paint the whole area black, and then highlight it with a very dark grey. I make sure to blend this dark grey with the black. Afterwards I take a medium grey and do some very sharp highlights on the raised areas. This works very well for me.

[hissa-lives]

for black I tend to use blue mixed in to highlight taking it up slowly in stages.
white metal haven'tdone

hair i tend to use a base, wash dry brush approach, for blonde a light brown drybrush with yellow, red tuskgor fur i think then orange drybrush
light drybrush obvioesly

[lauth81]

I find that the best way for me to paint black is to use dark grey and then use as many strata of black wash as needed.

The effect is quite good and easy to archive.

Exactly what I´m doing, works quite well.

[Norse]

a quick and effective way to paint black is to start with a very dark gray/grey color. I use one by P3 called Greatcoat Grey. Then I do a very fine highlight on edges with codex grey, especially around rips and tears in fabric. Then I do a black wash over the top to blend everything together and make it look "blacker". Very quick and effective... my take on Glart below...





with white I start with a just off white color, then I highlight up to a bright white leaving some light grey in the recesses... not my best work, but here's an example...

[Regash]

Just becasue we're talking about washes...

Wouldn't thinned down black work as well as black ink/wash?

[Norse]

in theory, yes - the reason I use an ink (coat d'arms) is because I want to know it has the same consistency every time. My concern about diluting black paint to use as a wash is that I wouldn't be able to dilute it exactly the same way each time.

[Regash]

Makes sense, thanks for the quick answer.

[axia]

If I can give an advice the Andrea colors set for black and white are awesome! Personally for the black I go in this way: base with base grey of the set plus 50% second shade, after a layer of 2nd shade pure for the first shadows, second shadowsa with pure black. For the lights add a little bit of blue and proceed with a pair of highlights adding beige. Now the important thing: coloured glazes! Purple, blue, green, red go with any of these! The black is never only black but has always a small coloured component! Glaze it over the shadows and you will achieve a Great result! For the hairs paint them like clothes: don't think about single elements but do the basic light and shadows and go over with some washes from light to shadows and refine with extreme highlights the single elements! Hope can. Help!

[axia]

About the diluition of the washes go with an 80% of water!

[Regash]

Aside from painting hair:
I just realized that all the details are better to be seen when you lightly drybrush your mini with a light gray after the black basecoat is dry.

Don't know if this also works with white basecoat and drak gray brushing.

[Steam Ball]

Don't know if this also works with white basecoat and drak gray brushing.

It will if you basecoat grey and drybrush white, otherwise you are going to have extra work when doing shadows/highlights later (and sincerilly, for first view of details it could be even worse, as you made the deep parts lighter, so all surface could become one even surface). Or if you basecoat white and wash grey/black.

And related to this, there is the method of basecoating dark, then spraying lighter paint from above (maybe with some dark wash next). It will work as quick guide for shadows and lights (the wash will help with lining everywhere, if you keep the deepest parts untouched while painting).