Blending reds - Dark to light

[Ghaffasa]

Hello, I\'ve encountered a problem while blending with red, the darkest part always turns out too bright. This is very annoying since i put down a lot of hard work and time on painting it, and then when it\'s done, it doesn\'t even looks blended! My last try looked like dark red highlighted with orange, Please help me!
I\'m using Scab red - Blood red - Fiery orange.

 

[Fizl]

Do you have a picture? I would suggest maybe adding some black to the shade red (or purple) to darken it down a bit.

Shaz

 

[Ghaffasa]

Hmm, that might work. I have a pic of my khorne horse on the WIP thread. But should I start with a basecoat of red and black and then add more red until i reach pure scab red?

 

[Einion]

Part of the problem with how we paint reds is in getting the hue wrong. This will be hard to explain so I\'ll just suggest you use either a mix of orange and white or yellow and white to highlight your reds. For orangey reds (scarlet) use a little more yellow/orange, for reds closer to crimson use more white or only white.

If you find you have lightened too much on red simply glazing with very thin layers of red will pull the highlights back in a very pleasing way usually.

Even though we push highlights a lot in the hobby I think reds should generally be highlighted quite subtly so I would concentrate on getting the shadows dark enough to make it look right.

Einion

 

[EricJ]

reds are funny, if you paint them over black base, they tend to always look dark, no matter how much you highlight sometimes (well not always, just takes a lot more work), but if you paint it over white it tends to look very bright, even where you want shadows. One way to get the contrast you\'re looking for is to blend in black and white before you start using red. Basically basecoat black, then blend grey to white. Once that is done then do your work with reds. A little more work, but I think you\'ll see your shadows looking darker, and your highlights more vibrant.

There is also that one priming technique, which would work similarly, however I don\'t really like it...due to the randomness of the spray (and that I don\'t use spray primer)

 

[Legacy Account]

Glaze back with red ink.

 

[wrestlerguy21]

I have been through this problem before and red is a pain to paint with. After long sittings of layering I decided the following. Paint your mini white, highlight it the brightest red you want. Then use darker reds and paint the shadows and not the highlights. It is much easer to paint dark over red then to make red lighter.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Ghaffasa:
You seem to be using primarily GW Citadel paints so I can give you a suggestion to try.

Mix 2 parts Scab Red, 2 parts Scorched Brown & ¼ part Chaos Black together, this makes a deep red almost the colour of Fresh Liver. ( :|~)

Try this as your first coat of red. I used it on a batch of Sisters of Battle as a step by step guide, which were shown in a White Dwarf.

Reading your initial request for help it seems that you might be saying that the intermediate stage of Red is not strong enough to support the final highlight.
I\'m inclinded to belive that you might be either making your highlights too large or you intermediate stage too small.

A while ago Tammy, was discussing this with someone and she was trying to explain an 80% system. Which is basically that each successive layer of highlight should be 80% of the size of the previous one.
Now this works for high level exhibition standard of painting, but if you want good table top standard then try adjusting the % amount covered something like 80% first, 60% 2nd, 40% third and final.

But it might help us understand what you are trying to achieve if you could put up a WIP Pic.

Hope this helps.

 

[Ghaffasa]

@Dragonsreach: Yes, you\'re right. I\'m only using gw paints and yes, the darkest parts of the reds are too bright. I\'ll try your advice right away, thanks!
@wrestlerguy21: I\'ll try out your advice too, it might work.
@Spacemunkie: I\'ve already tried that, but it dont gives me the finish i\'m looking for, it somewhat looks too shiny?

Anyways, here\'s a pic of the mess

 

[frenchkid]

Red can be darkened very well using green. That\'s actually what you\'re suposed to do if you want to go for a vertical hue of reds on the color wheel. Purple is also an option if you want a \'colder\' red, wich will make it seem more distant, wich might be good inside of cloaks and such.
For highlight, skin colors work very well to highlight, so somthing like bronze flesh or elf flesh. Greys also work pretty good. Or you can use orange, but it will give you an orangy red. If you look at the reds around you (IRL) you\'ll see that there\'s no orange in it. Orange is the color next to red on the color wheel, so for pure red there should be no orange. Of course you can still make red look good with orange, just a bit harder to do.

 

[Ghaffasa]

I gave your advices some tries, and it worked out quite well. I know the shades are pretty rough, but i just wanted to see the look of it. And i liked it! Thanks a lot for your help.
Here\'s a pic:

And now I wonder if you think the khorne dude looks better than the nurgle guy?

Here\'s the nurgle guy: