Help blending and highlighting black?

[Kris370]

Hi, first time posting here so ill get the usual out of the way. Ive been looking and reading the coolmini forums and gallerys for a while, and have posted a few pics on the site, but decided its about time i posted here to get some hands on advice and try and learn more from people more. Ill apologise now, its been over 4 years since i last used a forum of any kind so i may take some time to get to grips with it all with images and what not again, so sorry lol.

Anyway I used to paint when i was a kid and got back into it a couple of years back after a long time. My painting has improved from my teenage attempts and im trying to convert and sculpt my own little bits now but im still very below average, so baby steps, i appreciate any advice but anything too complex or advanced may just be lost on me lol.

A big problem Im having is with blacks and getting them to still look "black"

Ive started messing around with a spare old space marine standard bearer after reading(getting a little obssessed with) Ice and Fire and deciding I wanted to try a Stark/direwolf theme so its rather dark.

Origionally I wanted this armour alot darker, not black in this case, but not as light as its turned out, but when i try to keep the grey highlights smaller the blending ends up a million times worse than it is now. Im currently using black, adeptus battlegrey, codex grey, fortress grey and skull white here, along with steps in between. Its probably too many but when i used less colours it looks too staggered or even just like ive painted a grey line on. What colours would you recommend, as if i cant get the grey right i have no hope with the black and next im moving onto a squad of deathwatch and id like to get them as clean and sharp as possible.

And the banner, I havent even made a start here yet, as i want to get it smooth but not too light. Where would you stop as far as shade goes? And also would a colour such as a green or blue mixed in help to take away from the grey?


Sorry for the image quality and my prattling on, i tend to over explain myself and go from being helpful to annoying lol. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Cheers Kris

 

[kathrynloch]

Well you're off to a great start!

With black, many folks have their own little tips and tricks in their toolbox so be prepared to get a variety of answers. All fun to try and all very good in their own right. After priming I start with "mostly black" as my base coat. True black, I leave as a shade but my mostly black is either mixed with gray/blue and black or brown and black. It's dark enough to look like black until you get it next to the real thing.

That makes it so much easier to shade and highlight. I use the gray/blue mostly black if I want to highlight with those colors and I use the brown and black mix if I want to highlight with browns. So to answer one of your questions, yes, blue helps with gray and black both. Another thing for dry brushing, I think you'll find it helpful if you thin your paint a little more, you'll get less chalkiness. On the banner, where would I stop? I would stop when it told me to stop. I'm not the one looking at it while I paint, you are. So do a couple of layers of highlights and let it dry. Then go back to it, keep doing that until you like what you see. Eventually, you'll train your eye to know when to stop because you'll know what it will look like when it's dry.

If you're getting a "line" between blends, then you need to feather them. You're pulling a little bit of paint into the other color and vice versa, then you pull through the feather and merge them together. It's a bit hard to explain but imagine each color of paint as a lane on a two lane highway. The feather is the dotted line in the middle but the dude who painted it was drunk so one goes to the left the other goes to the right, back and forth up the road. So after you feather, you take your brush and pull straight down along those funky dotted lines and straighten them out which helps blend them together. Geez, I hope that made sense. lol!

A lot of this just take plain and simple practice of getting the actual techniques down and developing the hand eye coordination. So keep on working, you'll get it!

 

[Kris370]

Hey, cheers for the advice, ill definately try using a bit of blue then, i do try to feather but as you say i think my paints arent thin enough, alot of it is my own laziness and apathy to be fair, i tend to use from the tub as i get frustrated with it drying out but i finally made my first wet palette the other day and cant believe ive put it off so long, its a godsend and im hoping it will help me with blends. Also i do alot under normal electric light, i work most days and my house doesnt get great evening or afternoon sunlight from any of its windows, but i got my arse into gear today and went and bought a posable daylight lamp, hopefully that will help me "see where to stop" on my shading haha, as what seems good when im painting looks horrendous the next morning. I may update this after i do a bit more to get opinions on if im going the right direction.

Anyway thanks for the advice kathryn, much appreciated, ill take heed

Also, like i said im rather rusty with web forums now, if anyone knows, why did my pics appear twice? I just used [ IMG ] around the url, like i used to, and was confused by the bigger pics at the bottom of my post :s

 

[kathrynloch]

No worries! I did much the same thing when I first started. I painted straight from the pot because I used GW paints and those were a pain to transfer and mix. I started buying Vallejo in the dropper bottle. I buy the cheapo paint pots at the art supply store and mix my own colors with water and acrylic retarder. Then I paint straight out of those pots. lol! But it works for me because I'm in the hottest part of the house and I always have to have fans going. I've tried wet palettes and I haven't been able to get them to work for me. I think it's because of the heat and the fans.

Like you, I'm also in a dark area, I have a desktop OttLite and I love it! I also purchased some Reveal bulbs for the ceiling fan overhead. Those help out a ton too and they are nice bulbs! I highly recommend them for the general painting area along with a desk light.

I think you will find thinning your paints more and using the wet palette will help tremendously with blends.

You're pics appeared twice because you "uploaded" them to CMON and attached them, then posted that url in the message. IMG tags are for linking to websites, if you had a website or blog with your pics on it, or something like photobucket, which is what I use. If you don't have any of those, then you upload and do the attachment for pics because you have limited space, and it will fill up, so use it well or you have to start deleting stuff. Try photobucket for the pics, it's very nice.

Cheers!

 

[Kris370]

Yeah i uploaded them to photobucket and used the IMG tags, just i thought that was all id done, i was messing around with the tools when i posted trying to remember everything, but i didnt think id actually uploaded the pics, nevermind lol. And yeah i may have to start looking at other paints, i tend to just stick to what i know but that seems to be contributing to alot of my drawbacks lately with my lighting and thick paints lol.