Orionjp Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 Don't worry, this isn't a medical problem but a paint problem. I have various colors of brown, however they are all the same basic shadish of brown. Yes I make up my own words ;). I have GW paints mostly, with a couple skin tones from MSP. I notice that aside from light and dark, all my browns "leather, wood" are all the general same shade when I paint. I have Bestial Brown, Snakebite Leather, Venom Leather, and one that is darker than Bestial Brown. These colors are all basicly a redish or yellowish tent and are usually used together for shadow and highlight. The only acception is my Graveyard Earth, which is.... different. Maybe more gray or greenish. Anyway, my point is all my browns look the same when I paint with them, just differences in light and dark. I can't afford more paints for a while, so what do I do? Any advice is useful, thank you in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferox Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 You can mix in some greens to get a different shade of brown -- mix in a brighter colour than you think you'll need. Browns tend to be darker, duller yellows and oranges, so mixing them with red (one one side) and green (on the other) will get you different hues, and mixing in purples and blues will get you less saturated, grayer colours. You could also try mixing up your own, starting with yellow or orange and adding black. Keep track of your experiments on index cards, with rough mixing ratios and a sweep of the paint. It'll look different on paper than it will on the model, but it's close enough for a quick reference. If you can't afford more paints at the moment, you probably don't want to drop $30 on a book, but Michael Wilcox's Blue and Yellow don't make Green is a top-notch colour theory book from the perspective of mixing paints. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orionjp Posted September 13, 2011 Author Share Posted September 13, 2011 Thanks, I will keep this in mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dks Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 I paint a lot with browns, so I have a good grasp of the variety I can achieve, whether it's a "standard" brown, more red, more orange, more yellow, grayer, greener, darker, paler, etc. Sometimes I use the different paints that Reaper offers, but other times I just add something to gray. As Ferox said, you can mix other colors in with your browns to get variety. Here some of my miniatures that have several different browns on them. See whether you figure out what you would add to a basic brown in order to get the other colors: http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/schubert/latest/60042#detail/IG_955_1 http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/schubert/latest/60035#detail/IG_1238_1 http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/schubert/latest/60010#detail/IG_367_1 http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/schubert/latest/60003#detail/60003_Amiri_rear_dks http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/schubert/latest/02867#detail/02867_Mattias Good luck, Derek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orionjp Posted September 14, 2011 Author Share Posted September 14, 2011 I paint a lot with browns, so I have a good grasp of the variety I can achieve, whether it's a "standard" brown, more red, more orange, more yellow, grayer, greener, darker, paler, etc. Sometimes I use the different paints that Reaper offers, but other times I just add something to gray. As Ferox said, you can mix other colors in with your browns to get variety. Here some of my miniatures that have several different browns on them. See whether you figure out what you would add to a basic brown in order to get the other colors: http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/schubert/latest/60042#detail/IG_955_1 http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/schubert/latest/60035#detail/IG_1238_1 http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/schubert/latest/60010#detail/IG_367_1 http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/schubert/latest/60003#detail/60003_Amiri_rear_dks http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/schubert/latest/02867#detail/02867_Mattias Good luck, Derek Dude, not cool, you gave me all these awesome examples and told me to figure it out :p haha. Thanks though and I'll work on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MonkeySloth Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 Another issue could be your lighting. I find it hard to tell the difference of some colors, such as browns and tans, unless I'm in a very well lit area that uses a natural light producing bulb. Regular light bulbs, incandescent or florescent, just don't work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dks Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 Dude, not cool, you gave me all these awesome examples and told me to figure it out :p haha. Thanks though and I'll work on it. It's that "teach a man to fish" idea. Or at least "point to a lake where you know fish are". Or something.... The point is: try mixing different colors with your brown, see what happens, and build up a mental library of the possibilities. Derek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orionjp Posted September 15, 2011 Author Share Posted September 15, 2011 Dude, not cool, you gave me all these awesome examples and told me to figure it out :p haha. Thanks though and I'll work on it. It's that "teach a man to fish" idea. Or at least "point to a lake where you know fish are". Or something.... The point is: try mixing different colors with your brown, see what happens, and build up a mental library of the possibilities. Derek I know, I'm just kidding ;). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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