I need some Blue-fu!

[Kellyn]

I'm trying to do both Arianna and Selmarina in blues, but I'm having trouble with my blue-fu. *has none* Anyone blessed in the art of Blue willing to give me suggestions? Is there anything in particular you've found that makes Blue distinctive, or any tricks to recipes for mixing or something? (I'm using Reaper paints).

 

I'm having troubles combining my blues (like making the skirt dark blue and the bodice light blue) and making them not look horrid together. *hrm* I can pair a dark blue skirt with, say, a purple bodice, but I'm trying for that kind of sea-feel of blues and teals and I just can't seem to mix them or layer them right to get colors that don't clash. *argh* I'm starting to suspect that blue is just a horrid color to work with.

 

I'm also suddenly having trouble with my caucasian-fu. *grrr*

 

Jess

[Vaitalla]

Okie...the best way to get your blues to play together nicely when using a light one and a dark one together is to use the highlight color of the dark blue as the shading color for the lighter blue. As long as they have a shade in common, they should be fine. Also, be careful in using certain blues as highlights or shades for each other; some are more green, some are more purple, and some are more grey; any of the above won't look right used to highlight or shadow each other. To be honest, you're best off to figure out which blue to use as your midtone, the color you want the thing to basically *be*. Then add dark brown, black, or dark grey to it to get your shadow color, and Linen White or true white or light grey to the midtone to get highlight colors. This keeps the tones "all in the family" so to speak.

 

In using blues and teals together, you can get in trouble quick. Using very similar colors which don't have enough contrast isn't generally eye-pleasing. The solution, of course, is to make your own contrast--try using a deep, dark blue next to a pale teal or turqoise, and they should work a little better. If you want to get even sneakier, remember that green and purple work well together, and add purple shadows to your dark blue and a greenish touch to your teal shades--even though the average viewer won't necessarily pick it out at a glance, they'll register that something is pleasing, there.

 

Hope this helps--back to getting ready for ReaperCon for me. :P ;)

 

--Anne

[Cerridwyn1st]

Try this, using Dragon White, Dragon Blue and Breonne Navy.

 

Start with the skirt. Put down a base coat of Breonne Navy. Mix 50/50 Breonne Navy and Dragon blue. Use this to create your mid-tone by applying it to the high spots of the mini. Highlight with dragon blue.

 

On the bodice, start with a base of your navy/blue 50/50 mix. Use Dragon blue as the mid-tone, and highlight with a mix of Dragon Blue and Dragon White.

 

Hope this helps.

[Errex]

Why not just pick a shade of blue and darken/ lighten the appropiate hues using black and white?. As far as I'm concerned, blue is one of the few colors that can be worked that way. Just my two cents.

[pae]

On Telemnar Dawntreader, I did quite a bit of blue. In the link, I listed the colors that I used. Granted, one of the blues was done with Vallejo Game Color, since I don't really have a Reaper paint that matches VGC Ultramarine. Reaper Ocean Blue might be close, though. The white I used was Reaper Dragon White.

[Cerridwyn1st]

That's very cool, Fynn. I really love the woodgrain on the back of the shield and the motifs on the front.

[Death Angel]

I know where you comming from on this and I agree with most of the advice already given.

 

Starting with the highligh of your darker area for the shade of the lighter one is the best advice I can give. But don't limit your self to useing white to lighten you darker colours, experiment with useung a lighter blue as well. You can get some really lovely blues that way. Lighter grey can make some great lighter blues as well.

 

In this pic you can see that I used the high light colours as my shade colours in different areas. I did the same with the pinks on the madam aswell. It is more noticeable on her actually because I did it three times. The darkest set of colours on the skirt, then the final highlight fromt hat as the shade for the bodice, then the final highlight from that for the shade of the shirt.

It is a great technique for making things seem to "fit" better.

 

Hope this helps a little.