sarge Posted March 1, 2012 Report Share Posted March 1, 2012 Hello chaps. I'm not to displeased with my painted stuff....but I do seem to have a problem in painting any larger areas of black, like clothing for example. Any ideas on how I can shade/highlight black would be appreciated. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mako Posted March 1, 2012 Report Share Posted March 1, 2012 The first thing I'd suggest is to not paint stuff black, but use a very dark grey, brown or blue. Then shade with black, and highlight by adding cream or white very slowly. That should make it easier to get large areas looking right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyespy Posted March 1, 2012 Report Share Posted March 1, 2012 My secret cheating method for black is Vallejo German Grey, a coat of GW Badab Black, followed by a drybrushing of German Grey, a very mild drybrushing of PP Ironhull Grey, and then another coat of Badab Black. It gives a deep black-grey colour with plenty of contrast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hjelmen Posted March 1, 2012 Report Share Posted March 1, 2012 Depending on you ambition level, there are a lot of different ways to go about it. For a quick job, you can start with a basecoat of a very dark blue (P3 Coal Black is excellent), shade that with black, and highlight it with some Coal Black mixed with a cream-ish colour (I use P3 Menoth White Base). Blue is a good base for a pure black, while brown or olive makes it more dirty. You can even go with purple or red if you're feeling adventurous. The most important thing is to start out with a very dark shade, and then highlight by adding more of the same base colour. Another method is mixing black and grey in successive highlights over pure black, but I don't particularly care for that ... it looks wrong somehow. If you have the time though, I'd go with the recipe "Paint it Black" near the bottom of the page from The Brushthralls tutorial. It's amazing, but it also takes quite a bit of work and time to get right. I learned to paint black from this, and the results can be staggering if done right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarge Posted March 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2012 Thats great.....I didn't think there were so many ways to paint black. Appreciate all the help and will give it a go and see how it turns out. Thank you all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osoi Posted March 2, 2012 Report Share Posted March 2, 2012 I use either Vallejo Black Grey or P3 Coal Black whenever I am painting black and like the results of both. Heres My Bete Noir with the grayer black being the black grey and the blue black being coal black. Also try and keep you highlights minimal in area, it helps immensely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarge Posted March 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2012 I use either Vallejo Black Grey or P3 Coal Black whenever I am painting black and like the results of both. Also try and keep you highlights minimal in area, it helps immensely. Wow, just the look I'm trying to get. Nice work, Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LonelyPath Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 I tend to start with a black basecoat, then paint a very dark black over, building up a gradual (wet blended) grey highlight to a mid dark grey. After that I will glaze the entire area with a heavily watered down black to darken the highlights and seal the colour as together. Always found it to work well on areas of all sizes, but the smaller the area the more careful you have to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustcrusher Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 Nice- been wondering how to make black look good recently. Cueing the Rolling Stones now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LonelyPath Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 Cueing the Rolling Stones now... Which should always be played when painting anything black Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viruk Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 As far as painting black is concerned I can definitely suggest using Andrea Black set. It is really easy to work with and allows you to quickly get very decent results. Here are some examples black painted using colors from this set (just a few to show different shades of black/grey you can get): Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backno Posted March 8, 2012 Report Share Posted March 8, 2012 P3 Coal Black base coat, wash with Badab Black, drybrush of 50/50 Coal Black + dark grey, lighter drybrush of 25/75 Coal Black + dark grey. I find this is my favorite way to knock out good looking black fabrics in a timely manner. Also the rough look by drybrushing makes it look more natural. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q'iq'el Posted March 8, 2012 Report Share Posted March 8, 2012 The harder the color to paint right, the better results you'll have with an airbrush. Black, fleshtones... all those airbrush like a wonder. Follow very simple rule: airbrush shade, then the base at the lightning angle (slightly wider) and then highlight at the same angle (narrowly). Results are always better than tabletop quality and as a bonus you can give a stroke to a purist or two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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