Painting fantasy orc clothes

[Tolinwiz]

I\'ve been painting for about 4 months now. Initially my painting consited of base coating something, throwing on devlan mud and calling it a day. I decided I\'d like to finally learn how to paint, and have really been taking my time lately, trying things like \"overbrushing\" or highlighting the raised parts of minis etc. Using thin layers of paint to blend shadows in recesses of clothing.

The problem I\'m having now, is on things like the Orc Boyz in fantasy. They have large flat areas of cloth on their back. How do you highlight or shade these areas? I can\'t seem to wrap my mind around what to do.

The same goes for the leather pants, or browns in general. When people talk about highlighting browns, or paints, I can\'t see what they\'re doing. I mean, I see the transition, but I\'m not sure how they\'re \"highlighting\" a large flat surface of fabric/leather. Is it just doing a hard line on the edge? Is it painting smaller and smaller areas of flat cloth with lighter and lighter colors?

Please help!

(p.s. I\'ve been reading tutorials for months, and honestly can say I\'ve yet to find one that goes in depth about painting flat surfaces)

Thanks!!

 

[Ritual]

Originally posted by Tolinwiz
Is it painting smaller and smaller areas of flat cloth with lighter and lighter colors?

That\'s one way to do it, yes.

 

[Tolinwiz]

I guess Ritual the big thing for me, is, I have an idea of what to do, but transitioning that into something on the model just seems like a mystery.

 

[Ritual]

The principle is as simple as how you expressed it. Just add a small amount of a lighter colour to your base coat and paint a big part of the flat area you want to highlight. Then add some more of the light colour and paint another layer, but make it slightly smaller. Continue this until you\'re happy. It can be a good idea to use thin paint and paint several layers of the same colour, as well, rather than doing it too thick.

The important thing is to not just sit and think about how to do things, but to actually do them. Maybe it won\'t be that good the first time you try, or the first ten times you try. Sooner or later you\'ll get the idea, though.

 

[Aliengod3]

I have the same issue with flat areas. It can be very difficult and frustrating figuring out how they should be highlighted and shaded. What you can try is place it under a light that is directly above the head so the model is being lit from above and see what areas are receiving highlight and what is receiving shadows.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Tolinwiz
I\'ve been painting for about 4 months now.

Welcome to painting minis then!

Originally posted by Tolinwiz
Is it just doing a hard line on the edge?

Some people do paint that way to some extent; this is an aspect of style more than a true how-to thing.

Originally posted by Tolinwiz
Is it painting smaller and smaller areas of flat cloth with lighter and lighter colors?

That\'s highlighting (and shadowing) in a nutshell, yes.

Originally posted by Tolinwiz
(p.s. I\'ve been reading tutorials for months, and honestly can say I\'ve yet to find one that goes in depth about painting flat surfaces)

If you haven\'t seen this old article, now reproduced on the Vallejo site, yet it might be of some help.

The other links I posted in this thread on planetFigure might be worth looking at too:
http://www.planetfigure.com/forums/showthread.php?p=315160#post315160

Originally posted by Ritual
The principle is as simple as how you expressed it.

Originally posted by Ritual
The important thing is to not just sit and think about how to do things, but to actually do them. Maybe it won\'t be that good the first time you try, or the first ten times you try. Sooner or later you\'ll get the idea, though.

Reading about techniques and methods is certainly important, but particularly if you try to pay conscious attention when painting to what\'s going on (right and wrong) you can learn many things better, and faster, from doing rather than just thinking about it.

Einion