How to paint a good purple

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doombadger

New member
Hi !! its my first post so slap me down if you\'ve recently covered this..

I have a bit of trouble painting a nice deep purple (no pun intended) I\'m just at a bit of a loss where to start.. I must admit I just normally avoid the colour completely.. \"purple ? nah !! I\'ll do a nice blue instead\"

I wondered with your collective Knowledge you could show us how its done ?

Thanks

Doug
 
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Gypsy

New member
I did some purple robes on my Dirz Drummer although nobody but myself seems to really like the purples.

I went all the way from black to a 1/3 Sick Blue + 2/3 Hexed Lichen (both Vallejo) mix. For a final highlight I added just a little bit of Hideous Blue (GW).
 
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supervike

Super Moderator
now now...

Originally posted by Gypsy
I did some purple robes on my Dirz Drummer although nobody but myself seems to really like the purples.
Click to expand...

That is not true! I like the purples quite a bit, in fact I gave the whole mini a 9!

welcome doombadger! Glad you decided to come aboard. Are you looking for a Deep Purple (smoke on the water.....PUN INTENDED) that is more bluish or more reddish in color??

Not that I can help you, but hey, just curious!

lol
 
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Gypsy

New member
Originally posted by supervike
That is not true! I like the purples quite a bit, in fact I gave the whole mini a 9!
Click to expand...
Oh dear, did I really come across as a whining brat?
What I meant to say was: \"...although nobody but me and vike seem to really like the purples.\" Better?
;)
 
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doombadger

New member
Thanks for the replies people..

I\'m glad its not just me who fears the purple..

Well I\'m looking for a sort of vampire Gothic velvety look.. I\'m probably gonna freehand some stuff over it.. so not too much contrast tho\'

Willy Wonka eh? Gene Wilder in Miniature with a load of Oompa Loompa\'s...

Now that is an idea :eek:)
 
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darthfoley

Active member
I\'m working with purple on my Sister of the Blade atm.

Hating it. :)

It can be such a striking color when it\'s done well, but it\'s a pita to deal with imo. Especially for a \'lighter\' purple.

Jericho did an article about some difficult to deal with colors, you might want to have a look at it. Purple is one of the ones he describes.
 
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Grey Mouser

New member
Black to purple to white ... Hmm doesn\'t work very well had to strip a mini just yesterday when I tried this combo... LOL too much black and white. I\'m adding a Light Grey .. not as stark.
 
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Trevor

Brushlicker and Freak!
I\'ve been doing a LOT of purple (check out my gallery link below).

Basically what I do is black undercoat, cover most of this in purple, wash with neat undiluted purple ink (lots of it), go back over with the base purple leaving the recesses out using a layer/feathering technique. Then I just add bleached bone or khaki or another \"off\" white and continue highlighting. Highlight up as far as you like, I\'ve done both subtle and extreme (up to white).

The paints should be very thin, I use extender, not so I can wet blend but to thin the paint and make it transparent, then I do lots of layers, I will sometimes use the same colour 2-3 times covering progressively less area each time and using the transparency of the paint to get a smooth highlight before lightening the paint for the next highlight.

Hope this helps.
 
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vincegamer

Active member
Well, for this one
Witch King
I based black then did a couple graduated layers of GW nauseating blue followed by a couple layers of Poly S worm purple. For the boots and gloves I simply didn\'t take the color quite as high.

For this one
Black Knight
I started with a shade of Armory red (#6 I think - but it\'s close to Vallejo cavalry brown) then washed with Citadel liche purple tainted with a hint of chaos black then highlighted with liche purple/worm purple mix.

In both cases you can see I was trying to recreate an existing color. They aren\'t my best work but they were quick gaming prototypes and they show two very different examples of purple. Sorry that I use colors that may not be in production any longer.
 
Jubilee

Jubilee

New member
I ran into this problem last night when I was trying to paint something purple.. I was trying to go for a much bluer purple than the majority of the purples I have, but all I\'ve got for that (without mixing my own color), is royal purple from vallejo game color. I tried highlighting it by adding reaper\'s imperial purple to it gradually but then it ended up too reddish. I finally gave up and did the surfae in a base pf imperial purple (reaper), and added some of reaper\'s liche purple (maybe 50/50) to highlight, then I added a bit more liche purple, eventually straight liche purple, and then I added a bit of the vallejo game color pale flesh (it\'s very pinky) to do a final highlight. Turned out fairly okay..I also did a few washes inbetween layers of the original imperial purple to smooth the transitions a bit.
 
Jubilee

Jubilee

New member
Just remembered another purpley I\'ve done--it\'s more blue, and it\'s the skin tone for my frost elves army.

It\'s vallejo model color oxford blue as a base, with vallejo game color sombre grey as a middle color, and vallejo model color azure as the highlight.
 
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Warpcreature

Guest
There are three purples I know from historical miniature painting.

reddish purple:

purple followed by a carmine red glaze or you mix it

highlights are done with flesh colors gradually mixed in

dark purple:

paynesgray followed by a glaze of purple

highlights are done with a light slightly reddish blue gradually mixed in

standard purple:

alizarin crimson and purple, glazed or mixed again

highlights with naples yellow dark mixed in
pure white used sparingly for extreme lights

Purples are generally hard to pull of because when mixed with white purple shifts into the blues thus obtaining cool highlights and warm shadows. In natural sunlight the direct opposit is the case.

Thats why you see purples highlighted with flesh colors or parts of yellow/red, to battle this shift in hue towards blue.

Paynesgrey is a grey consisting of of red earth (pr 101), ultramarine blue dark(pb 29) and carbon black (pbk 7). Its almost like the mixing complementary burnt umber and phthalo blue but more reddish,
almost a violet grey (used for green shadows for example).

Silvio
 
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