The trials and tribulations of YELLOW!

[Brandlin]

Ok, I\'ve mebarked on a bit of an odd project. I\'m painting a Vor-Growler \'army\' for use as monsters in a rpg i play. Thanx to ebay i have 50+ of these criters (of various sizes)!

So, I\'ve been painting a lot of yellow monster skin recenty (understatement of the week).

I started out with one of the larger models, and here\'s a list of my screw-ups so far...

1) I undercoated it black (yes i know very silly, but i thought it would help to make the look grimer) and getting good coverage has been a nightmare. 6 coats of yellow to get anything remotely smooth

2) I washed it with \"dark yellow\" - ok, so i mixed some small amount of black in with the yellow, then when i dried in daylight I noticed it was quite green.

3) I\'ve highlighted up with yellow, lemon yellow and white (I use foundry paints) in various mixes, cilminating with a full white sparing highlight. Although i\'m fairly happy with the highlighting it has made the overall look a bit washed out.


so, here\'s the question...

Is there a way i could make this \'pop\' a bit more and perhaps take away the slight green tinge.

On the pic below the \'scales\' are going to be green, and i want a good contrast to the yellow skin.

I thought about glazing with a yellow ink... would that work?
Never glazed before and never used inks. So would appreciate a bit more than \"yeah, slap some ink on...\"
How would i do this to make the overall skin tone more yellow, without just applying an ink wash that sits in the recesses - i\'m particularly worried about this as the yellow ink would be lighter than some of the surrounding highlights.

Thanx in advance for any help you can offer...

 

[Dragonsreach]

Best way I can think of to make the yellow more pronounced is to use it\'s complemewntary colour in the shadow areas.
You\'ll need a colour wheel to identify which colour is the right one.
Thinly wash the colour into the area you want to darken and then you could improve the highlights by careful application of Yellow ink as a very dilute glaze only one the highlights.

Hope this helps.

 

[XeO3]

Well purple is the main complementary color, but other primary colors work really well with yellow too. A dark red or blue sets yellow off nice.

But the main problem was basecoating in black. Yellow and red can be incredibly had-to-work-with colors, and I always basecoat in white for those. Even then, it takes several coats to get a smooth color.

Inks and glazes will do a lot to help even out the color. You\'ll want to paint it on in a thin coat to smooth out the color, don\'t use too much.

 

[Modderrhu]

Yellow is like red, it pays to follow a recipe with variations depending on the effect you want to achieve. Here\'s an easy one.

Base with Bestial Brown (optional)
Straight Golden Yellow
Wash with a very thin Flesh Ink (optional)
Touch up again with Golden Yellow (don\'t skip this if you did the wash!)
1:2 of Golden Yellow and Sunburst Yellow
Sunburst Yellow

That\'s the base done.

Now if you want a bright and vibrant yellow;
1:1 Sunburst Yellow and White
1:3 Sunburst Yellow and white

If you want a duller yellow, that\'s a bit dirtier;
1:1 Sunburst Yellow and Bleached Bone
1:1:1 Sunburst Yellow, Bleached Bone and White

Bleached bone is a very versatile highlighting colour, it\'s just so damn useful. Good for purples and greens too.

 

[vincegamer]

Here\'s a very basic thing that works for me:

basecoat with a light brown - vermin brown or snakebite leather work, and you can go lighter but not darker than those.
Highlight with a parchment or bleached bone color.
Highlight further with white.
Glaze with yellow ink.

I vary it quite a bit of course, but that\'s the basic skeleton.

 

[DrEvilmonki]

Also if you have any more you are doing put a coat of white over the black where the yellow is to go.

 

[Brandlin]

Thanx for the initial help guys.

Now here\'s the pic i forgot to add! Doh!

dunno whether that helps with the question....

a...actuallly i\'m beginning to convince myself that it looks ok...

I\'ll add this to the WIP thread also - just realised i should probably have put it there in any case...

 

[Astonia]

I would wash some scorched brown and/or flesh wash into the recesses of the model to give it a warmer tone of yellow.

Also, when painting yellow over a black undercoat I would recomend to start with Bronzed Flesh as a basecoat, and then paint Golden yellow over that. If you want a brighter yellow over black, try Fortress Grey, then Skull White, and then yellow over the white.

Good luck!