Painting Denim

[Er1k]

~Hi

I'm looking for a good method for painting denim using GW paints but I can't seem to find anything online to help me. Does anyone have any good methods

Thanks

[LoboStele]

I'm interested in this as well. Was going to try it on one of my Steampunk Abominations. Was thinking about going with a light blue, and then dry-brushing a white on top of it.

[TheOneWhoFell]

I like to use Enchanted Blue for a base coat (it is more periwinkle than some of the other blues; I find it works best, personally).

Then I usually wash the pants with Badab Black (wash).

I follow this with a dry brushing of Bleached Bone, to lighten up the wrinkles (more wear and tear).

You can use Devlan Mud instead of the Badab Black, to give the pants a dirtier, more dusty feel. I've also used Snakebite Leather on a dry brush on top of the Bleached Bone to make the dirt looked caked on.

[sephiroa]

hmm, maybe try to powder your blue with a white primer?

[Kaane Feinwong]

I've not tried this yet, but you can start with a real light color, like a tan or white (assuming blue denim), then cover it with a light blue and while it's still wet, use a hard bristle brush to create streaks. then make some parallel streaks.

Honestly though, I just paint'em blue. you're not going to get much "denim" detail at that level. You could do a gray with a black wash to get a decent gray denim look. A light blue with a dark blue wash would be good as well.

Here is a really old thread on the subject I found: http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showthread.php?t=12007

This mini has some really good denim which I got from the thread above:http://www.coolminiornot.com/241104

Concerning the jeans on Perdita: I used Bleu Abyssal from Rackham Color as base color. It is a very dark rich preussian blue (darker und more intense than regal blue from gw, but that would be the closest of their range) and I used bleached bone or something similar to highlight that color (might have been as well a mix of fauve and jaune parchemin - somewhat darker than bleached bone with a bit more of a yellow touch in it). I didn't bother too much with very clean blending (this created parts of that slight texture to the jeans), however I didn't do any 'drybrushing' - as you mentioned it tends to lead to somewhat 'random' results, instead I painted fairly thin lines with the tip of the brush and used a second slighty wet brush to smudge the start and ending points of these lines (you can usually somewhat erase paint if it is still fairly fresh ~ 1min). However the paint below should have been left to dry for ~5 minutes

Edited March 3, 2011 by Kaane Feinwong

[AntiZombie]

ultramarie darkened with black to storm blue works well add a little white to the storm blue for the highlights.

[MunkeyKungFu]

Click mine below and there is a nice easy method.

Any blue colour you want depending on the darkness and then highlight with that colour + Bleached bone

[Er1k]

~Hi

Thanks for all the helpful comments. I did a bit of messing around tonight and came up with something I'm quite happy with. The model is still very much a WIP but for the denim I went with an Enchanted Blue basecoat and a wash of Asurmen Blue. I then mixed up a 50/50 mix of Enchanted Blue and Astronomican Grey and highlighted using that, finally a very light drybrush of Astonomican Grey and I was done.

Here is what I ended up with

[Andy_B]

Looks excellent Er1k!

Certainly looks like denim to me.

[Omenbringer]

I generally used GW Shadow Grey and then GW Space Wolves Gray. Here is what it looks like

If you wanted to you could go 50/50 with GW Space Wolves Grey and either Skull White or Kommando Khaki (the khaki gives it a warmer more worn in look).

I have another recipe for Faded Black Denim.

[TheOneWhoFell]

Er1k: Looks really good!!

[AvatarForm]

Cant wait to try this on my guild...

To expand, can anyone share colour recipes for the brown leather overcoats?

[Er1k]

Cant wait to try this on my guild...

To expand, can anyone share colour recipes for the brown leather overcoats?

~Hi

I usually use a basecoat of scorched brown, highlighted with bestial brown and finally given a drybrush of snakebite leather. You can then add extreme highlights with either straight bleached bone or a mixture of bleached bone and snakebite leather

Hope this helps

[AvatarForm]

~Hi

I usually use a basecoat of scorched brown, highlighted with bestial brown and finally given a drybrush of snakebite leather. You can then add extreme highlights with either straight bleached bone or a mixture of bleached bone and snakebite leather

Hope this helps

Thanks. I will try this... then try the Mercenaries starter paints from P3 and compare.

[Omenbringer]

I paint leather similar to er1k, however I add a wash after the Snakebite leather. The wash is dependant on the effect I am going for, GW Chestnut Ink for freshly tanned leather, GW Brown Ink for older leathers (you can also use the newer GW Gryphonne Sepia or GW Devlan Mud which work really well also). After that I go back and add some more highlights of the Snakebite leather.

[AvatarForm]

If only those Inks were still available...

[Deputy David]

Shadow Grey is a nice light blue gives the worn blue jean look with a light grey and/or white dry brushing to highlight it

[Omenbringer]

If only those Inks were still available...

Very true, I have been hording mine since they went off the market...Vallejo though makes very similar inks in their Game Color range.

[TheOneWhoFell]

To expand, can anyone share colour recipes for the brown leather overcoats?

DEVLAN MUD.

I like Devlan Mud over almost everything (makes everything look dirty and dark). Our LGS owner likes to do a base of Snakebite Leather with a wash of Devlan Mud.

Devlan Mud is worth its weight in gold. Period.

[Uncle]

To add to what's been said:

There are three GW colors I am finding myself using more and more often in virtually every situation, and which I think any paint set would be remiss in lacking: Kommando Khaki, Graveyard Earth, and Devlan Mud (of course!).

To do Denim, a fairly simple way would be to mix your preferred blue shade with Graveyard Earth (to muddy it up a bit) and apply as a base coat. Wash with Asurmen Blue and Devlan Mud, then start highlighting with the original color + Khaki until you are happy with the results. If the highlights seem a little extreme, use another layer of wash to tone them down.

Leather's even simpler to do, although it depends largely on what type of leather you want. Graveyard Earth + Khaki works well for distressed leather garments, Bestial Brown + Khaki does a good job of making newer, more supple garments, and Scorched Brown + Khaki does an excellent job of making dark leather.

In all cases, do a basecoat of your starting shade, wash with Devlan Mud, then highlight by adding more and more Khaki to the mix. A final wash of Mud will tone down the highlights and make the jacket look much less dried-out.

The same thing works with black leather if you want a natural, non-shiny-semi-PVC look (ie, not Lady Justice or her ilk).

Start with Black, highlight up by adding Khaki, wash with Badab Black. Astronomican Grey can be used as well to make the process faster.

For shiny black leather, I would start off with a flat coat of Black, do minimal extreme highlighting by adding Khaki or Ice Blue or the ilk to the mix (and make it fairly noticeable), and then add a layer of Gloss Varnish to the model. But I admit, that's more a theory than a practice at this point.

Hope this helped!

[EvilGinger]

Originally Denim was brown best use a Khaki base and lighten by mixing in pale flesh or cream for highlights & blend with a dark brown ink wash in gloss varnish. Then matt it down with you favourite matt varnish. do blue in the same way but start with a blue grey instead of Khaki all the other steps are the same.

[Omenbringer]

There are three GW colors I am finding myself using more and more often in virtually every situation, and which I think any paint set would be remiss in lacking: Kommando Khaki, Graveyard Earth, and Devlan Mud (of course!).

I defeinately have to agree with the Kommando Khaki it is such a great highlight color.