Purple

[JoeGKushner]

When looking at some of the purples on the market now, is it just me or do they go from a really dark, almost black purple to an almost pink purple with few transitions in between?

 

When doing purple, I find I have to use a few washes to 'blend' the colors a little more as the highlights always look too pale to me.

[ixminis]

I do alot of 1/4, 2/4, 3/4 mixing with colors that have large differences in intensity. At the same time, the purples I use are very transparent, so the difference seems to make blending easier to me...

 

What brand are ya using?

 

Rgds,

[Vaitalla]

Remember also that, even with the Master Paints triads, you will often get smoother blends by doing a 50/50 mix between shadow and midtone and midtone and highlight. As a company, it's really impossible to put out a color for every layer; we'd go bankrupt, because people won't be thrilled with the concept of having to buy five or even more paints to do a single color. Buying three paints is a lot more accessible. With most of the Masters, however, if you thin the shadow color quite a bit and apply it layered or as a wash over the midtone you should not need to mix a color in between the two.

 

As for why you'll notice so much of a transition difference between darkest and lightest in colors like purple, it's because if companies did a series of darker purples and then a series of lighter or pinkish purples, the lighter purples invariably wouldn't sell nearly as well, becoming a financial burden to the line. Light colors--pastels--and pinks, oranges, and variant yellows are among the worst sellers in any paint line. This is why it's good to get over reluctance to mix paints--because the paints available pre-bottled to you as a consumer all too often aren't dictated by art, but by economics.

 

--Anne

[JoeGKushner]

I have Reaper, Vallejo Game Color, and even some Adiken. In most cases, it's a near black purple, a medium purple and a light, almost pink purple.

 

But I see that mixing is the way to go.

[Vil-hatarn]

In the show off forum, I've got a mini that I did using MSP purple. I didn't mix, but at the end I had to use a mid-tone glaze (? not sure that's the right term) to blend them a bit better.

[ixminis]

Glaze sounds right: Paint thinned to the point that it's translucent. When painted on a surface it influences rather than dominates the other colors... how's that for an artsy-fartsy definition?

 

MG

[Vil-hatarn]

That's right, ixminis. Thanks for the definition; I've never really needed to use a glaze before so I wasn't quite sure what it was called, though I remembered the technique (and it worked pretty well, too)