Muted / pastel colors

[Crackpot]

Hello folx.

I have a question about color choice and color mixture.
I mainly paint with GW colors and experiment a lot mith color blends/mixtures but most of my minis still look very \"bright\" / strong. I mean the colors look very unrealistic more like comic-stile. (hope you know what I mean) Sometimes this is fun to paint and match for some minis.
But how can I achieve colors that look more realistic, more pastel-colored?
Should I mix some brown or grey into the base colors, or should I put some brown / grey glazes on top?
Any ideas/suggestions?

Thanks in advance

Crackpot

 

[skarekrow]

i usually glaze to tone down vivid colors, i just started work on some rackham ophidians and want them to be exotic looking with strong colors but still muted so that they dont hurt your eyes.

i can post a pic tonight...

 

[Ritual]

Yeah, mixing brown or grey is a good way to achieve more realistic colours. Shading with dark brown instead of black is good too. Similarily, avoid using white for highlights and use a light beige instead. A mix of Bleached Bone and white is good for this (or better yet, buy VMC Ivory).

You might want to look into the VMC range of paints to flesh out your paint range in the earthy colours department. They have lots of browns, greys, earthy greens etc. Having a few of those means you don\'t have to mix as much.

 

[JaPizzy]

My color wheel says to mute a color a grey is added to the mix.

And I also agree that brown and ivory/beige color will make a much more softer shades, and I also find that white can make things go chalky near the brighter highlights.