help?

[ipaintminis]

I recieved this mini from Shawn R.L. for ME4 and couldnt wait to start painting it...only problem...Black is the \"hated color\"

this is the kind of black i want to do it in...

how do i do black? it always comes out to grey. ???

 

[provoke_me]

*waits for the answer too*

 

[QuietiManes]

Lets see here. I can regurgitate some stuff I\'ve read about doing blacks.

Keep the highlights minimal. Your eyes play a trick on you, if you put a thin light coloured line across the upper corner of a black square, it can actually make the square look darker. As long as it\'s majority is solid black it should look decent.

Try to avoid highlights with whites. Causes the whole grey issue. Blues, greens, reds, browns or even greys can be good choices depending on the effect you\'re going for. Greys often give the impression of other colours, like blues, because that\'s what they\'re made with and that can be used to advantage.

I\'m sure someone will have something more specific to suggest.

 

[green stuff]

I think your picture says it all. Major highlights are mostly in red/browns (warm color) and specular/shiny highlights are made up of gray/blue (cold color).

That would constitute an additive solution. A substractif solution would be to start with a gray or blue base coat and apply thin and controled black washes on the mini.

Here\'s a gray additive solution (but it might have sharper highlights than what you may want) :

 

[frenchkid]

Take your pic in photoshop and use the select tool to see what the colors on this guy are.
As for the theory I believe on black there is an acceleration of light wich means that the highlight will only be on small parts as opposed to large area.
The best way to see is to look at black things and try to really see how the light falls on it. Good luck

 

[Legacy Account]

Forget about shading and concentrate on highlighting up from a black basecoat.

Shadow Grey (Sombre Grey) is a fantastic highlight colour for black - nice and blue. Use a black/S. Grey mix to establish the first highlight. Don\'t overdo it. Use pure SG for the next highlight. I then use Wolf Grey for bright highlights and spots of white for really bright relections.

If you go too far, glaze back with black ink.

Once you get the hang of it, it\'s a pretty simple colour to paint as it looks best \'underdone\' when compared to how you paint other colours. It\'s easy to use other colours to get warmer, leathery style blacks - just use terracotta/black mixes and bone...

 

[Shawn R. L.]

The Egyptians did ALOT of sculpting in blond sand stone so dont feel confined by the black. Do a Google search on the namd Karnak, Thebes, and Luxor. If you want a real jet black (why is it called \'jet\' black?) try an artists oilcolor black. Look,smear the paint a bit in the store. Some black\'s are darker (more \'jet\') than others. I know it goes aginst convention but nothing makes black go REALLY black like a gloss coat.

 

[Shawn R. L.]

One other thing I tried on an Anubius was to take it, paint it black, then take a tooth brush with grey in it and speckle it. Alot of Egyptian sculpture was done with granite, some of it even pink granite.

 

[supervike]

my guess....

Originally posted by Shawn R. L.
(why is it called \'jet\' black?)

Would be that it has something to do with this (definition from M-W online)

1 : a compact velvet-black coal that takes a good polish and is often used for jewelry


@becca....is that the picture of the mini? Or something else...I\'m a bit confused.

 

[cookster]

wait. Thats a mini???

 

[Shawn R. L.]

The picture shown is not the mini I sent her. MINE\'S BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!