Highlighting to Blah

[noctambulist]

I'm currently working on Laurana from LTPK2. Since I only have the RMS paints that come with LTPK1&2, I've been creating my highlights by progressively adding Pure White to my base color (in different wells on my palette) and thinning to about 4:1 with distilled water.

 

The thing is, as I'm working up the highlights on the skirt, it's making the whole thing just look washed out, and the color (Carnage Red in this case) just loses all it's saturation. How do I work up my highlights while still maintaining the nice red color without it becoming washed out? Should I be using a different color than Pure White to create my highlights?

[Ishil]

I'm currently working on Laurana from LTPK2. Since I only have the RMS paints that come with LTPK1&2, I've been creating my highlights by progressively adding Pure White to my base color (in different wells on my palette) and thinning to about 4:1 with distilled water.

 

The thing is, as I'm working up the highlights on the skirt, it's making the whole thing just look washed out, and the color (Carnage Red in this case) just loses all it's saturation. How do I work up my highlights while still maintaining the nice red color without it becoming washed out? Should I be using a different color than Pure White to create my highlights?

Some people apparently can highlight successfully just using white, by using very thin glazes of white. For us mere mortals though, yes, you want to use lighter shades to make your highlights. Which of course is why the triads are so gosh-darn cool.

 

Ishil

[ixminis]

Yup, use other colors to fudge your way up to the point that white may be used.

 

Try something like this progression (the list will be darkest to lightest, but not a recommendation for the order of application).

 

Clotted Red

Carnage Red

Burnt Orange (very little)

Sandy Yellow (very very very little)

Pure White (so small you aren't sure it's there)

 

Okee?

[Helltown]

Red is a tricky one to highlight with white. You either get pink or you get wash out. The key to red is to make the red more intense before letting it 'fade' to the 'pop' of white without it going pink. For reds and yellows (two colors that just wash out from adding white), if I just want to bring them straight up is to add the RMS Clears to the mix. For Red, that's RMS Clear Read. What I do is add 2 drops of Clear Red for each drop of white in the early stages, and then as I get closer to more pure white than my base red, I'll scale back to 1 drop of Clear Red.

 

Basically what you're doing is maintaining a good saturation by adding the Clear Red (or Yellow) and bringing up the color without losing it, which is what it sounds like is happening to you. Another way to layer up red is to bring up with orange or yellow rather than white, but it's a matter of preference because sometimes it can get seriously orange'd out.

[psyberwolfe1]

Ahh red such a great color when done right. Here is what I did from that set. Carnage Red base coat, Walnut wash, carefully reapply red to high points, highlight with thin Phoenix Red (it really is an orange tone), 50/50 the orange with a yellow apply to high points. Then glaze on some red. Ta Da! You have a fantabulous red.

[noctambulist]

Hmm, it sounds like I'm going to have to expand my paint collection from what comes in the Learn to Paint Kits. I knew I would have to do it eventually, but I figured there must be some way to highlight Carnage Red correctly with the paints provided. I wasn't thrilled with the color combos provided in the directions and went my own way. That's probably where I got into trouble.

 

psyberwolfe1: your system is probably how I should have ended up going, except I don't have Phoenix Red. I have Blood Red from LTPK1 and Carnage Red from LTPK2. And Blood Red isn't very orange, but I'm sure it would have worked just the same.

 

What I ended up doing was continue adding Pure White progressively to my mix until I was at 4 drops Pure White and 2 brush fulls of Carnage Red and thinned to a 4:1 water ratio (like 16 drops of water). As Helltown said, I had a series of progressively more pink colors until it was almost white. It looked very washed out at this point. So I made a glaze of 1 drop Carnage Red and thinned it 10:1 with water and laid down a couple coats of this to bring the red back up again. The highlights aren't as strong and the overall look is kind of matte looking, but it's not bad overall. And the glaze helped smooth out some of my transitions.

 

Thanks for all your help. I have a much better idea of what I should be doing now. But I want to finish the last two Learn to Paint Kits before I plunk down money on more paint. I feel like I should finish my schooling before venturing out on my own.

 

Maybe if I'm brave enough I'll post a pic of her when I'm done. I have to say though that I've learned a lot from all the advice I've gained from just searching these forums. You all are a HUGE help, whether you know it or not.

[PurityThruFire]

If you do a search for favorite reaper colors you should pull up a couple of threads dealing with "essential" colors to have. These threads were very helpfulto me in decding what triads I should start out with, hopefully they will be helpful to you too.

 

Red is very tricky and I can say with experience you really are going to need some lighter shades of red to bring the color up. I don't even use white, I don't even play around with orange because for me it really doesn end up taking the color in an orange direction when I'm trying or deep reds. 'Course to this day reds still give me a headache.

[Angorak]

I used to highlight red with mixing in yellow but found that it tended to look more orange than a realistic red. So now I use white to mix in my highlight. Yes it can begin to look pink but the remedy for that is one or two glazes using Clear Red. Not only will it help to tie all the layers together it also will restore a truer red tone to your work.

[ixminis]

The trick to achieving the exact color you are shooting for is all in surface area. If you use orange and yellow to highlight red, consider avoiding this technique in more than 25% of the surface area. That is, 5-25% of the surface area should be in shadow, 50-75% of the surface area should be mostly the mid-tone, and 5-25% should be the base tone moving towards the highlight. This gives the illusion of light & shadow, adds some interest to the area and "looks realistic". Sure, Shadow can be much more dramatic/contrast driven, but the size of the miniature causes some conventions to be necessary vs. mimicking reality...

 

The clear-red techniques mentioned above are covering the red + tint technique plenty fine, so I won't talk about 'em. However, don't forget that glazing is a good thing almost always.

 

If you are wanting to get faster (less-showcase, but still good quality) skip shade or tint levels and use a slightly stronger glaze strategically to smooth the transitions... Once practiced enough it'll speed up your transitions...

[noctambulist]

OK, I'm convinced. Next time I have a little extra money I'll be getting me some new paint and start building up my collection slowly. I guess there's no sense in making things more difficult for myself than they need to be.

 

I remember reading the "Surface Area" technique in Anne's Maria Roseblade WIP. I need to work on making myself look at each surface that way. It makes a lot of sense to me and should really help me with my highlighting/shadowing.

 

Thanks again everyone for all the great advice!

 

Note to self: get some Clears ... and some Liners ... and some better brushes

[Helltown]

Hey! You're in Massachusetts, there's a gathering of Reaper painters in Connecticut in October. There's a thread in Off-Topic Rampancy with all the information, and since the big reason for the gathering is to paint, it'd be an excellent time to come and learn a few new tricks and ask questions.

 

Plus Ladystorm will be there on Saturday, so there'll be speed painting and plenty of Reaper Master Series and Pro Paints to play with!

[Vaitalla]

I remember reading the "Surface Area" technique in Anne's Maria Roseblade WIP. I need to work on making myself look at each surface that way. It makes a lot of sense to me and should really help me with my highlighting/shadowing.

 

/un-ninja

 

Woot! Yes! Red is allll about surface area. Make sure that at least 50% of your surface is Carnage Red, and make your highlights VERY small if you are highlighting up with white. You can "pink out" all you like, but if the highlights are only 20%-10% of the surface the area will still look red, rather than washed-out.

 

And now...back to painting and packing and mixing, oh my!

 

--Anne

 

/ninja