Aaargh! How to highlight black?!!

[Byteknight]

I can\'t seem to do it right. I used blue, gray, even white. It just doesn\'t look right.

Anybody have a good idea on how to highlight the color black?

 

[markg316]

hi mate,
being new to the game i\'m not entirely sure i\'m right. But i try to avoid pure black, and paint with a vallejo black and cold grey mix adding more grey for the highlights, and it seems ok.

 

[OrkBoy]

It depends on what look you\'re going for - harsh edges like on Space Marines use crisp grey or blue grey highlights, whereas smooth subtle highlights on clothing use more intermediate stages and the highlights are toned down. Jakob has a nice tutorial on his website for painting black here

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Byteknight]

Thanks to you all!

 

[Avelorn]

Rotting flesh is my favourite colour. Sometimes use khaki or bleached bone as well. If you get some slight colour to it transitions will be less visible as we see more details in the monochrome spectrum. And keep the higlights limited, if you overdo them and the area starts looking grey, glaze the areas with heavy diluted black.

 

[vincegamer]

I agree with Avelorn. Rotting Flesh is a great highlight color for black fabric.

For black patent leather, I have used Space Wolf Gray and a final bit of white.

here\'s an example of both in one (plus the metals are black highlighted with gray/white):

 

[uberdark]

i tend to go with rotting flesh and a bit of kommando khaki . the translucency of the khaki works well with wet blending. hope it works for you.

 

[Antnol]

Here is a Dark Elf Witch Hag I did some time ago but all I used was Codex Gray added little by little each layer into my black. I stopped adding highlights once I got to about 25% balck/75% Gray. Some say it isnt highlighted enough but I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. I havent really tried any of the other methods mentioned but I think I am going to have to now. God I love this site. Good luck.

 

[Legacy Account]

You can highlight black with almost any colour you like.

For a nice, bright, clean looking black try Shadow Grey and Space Wolf Grey.

 

[Phaen]

I\'m doing the successor chapter of the Disciples of Caliban from the new Dark Angel Codex, and they have alot more black on them, so with highlighting that i was thinking on going with a grey and maybe mixing in some green to go with the rest of them? what do you guys think?