Help! Suggestions for brighter colours for Baron's War figure painting.

[Johnny Boy]

A very good morning to you one and all. After seeing  the beautifully painted offerings on the Baron's War here on the forum I was looking for some help in "livening" up my paint palette with some brighter yellows, greens, reds, blues etc. Having for many years been more focused on more modern projects my paint stock being mainly Vallejo Model Colour is more muted to suit the world wars and more recently Early Imperial Romans which was mainly red. I prefer triads where I can but mix when numbers are fewer. If anyone has suggestions I would be mighty grateful.
Many thanks in advance
Johnny Boy

[fred]

Certainly worth a look in the Vallejo Game Colour ranges - lots of brighter colours. They don’t come in triads though.

[Hu Rhu]

TRy some of the Foundry Triads.  I found that the Ochre, Sky Blue, Bright Green and Scarlet certainly are brighter and yet still believeable as medieval colours.

[Atheling]

I could tell you about colour spheres but I won't. It makes my head hurt just thinking about it!  I had six weeks of solid lectures and practice of Colour Sphere Theory at Art College and that is obviously way, way too much to discuss on a forum.

I'll try to make things as simple as possible.

Buy a colour wheel. You want one with Primary, secondary, tertiary colours and the "greys" (ie. not greys at all, but colours). Primary, secondary or tertiary colour sand indeed the "greys" can be shaded with it's opposite in the colour wheel. Simply add a mix of that exact opposite colour into what you are going to use as your main colour, then add successive layers of the main colour until you get to what you are aiming at. You will bet very vibrant results. If it was good enough for the likes of Kandinsky and Matisse then it is good enough for the wargaming table

When you see all those beautifully painted Fantasy miniatures in Golden Demon etc they are working from the Colour Wheel and have quite a deep set knowledge of how colour works etc.

The one thing to remember outside of the Colour Wheel and mixing is that Heraldry, which you will certainly be using, had very specific rules.

There's a pretty good article on the Scottish Clans website which explains the basics.
https://www.scotclans.com/tracing-your-scottish-ancestry/scottish-heraldry/rules-of-heraldry/

EDIT: If you have a good gander at YouTube I'm certain that you will find an artist or two who explain is with some imagery that will make it much clearer.

[Johnny Boy]

Many thanks for all of this. Good call for the Vallejo Game Colour and the Foundry suggestions help massively as the range is so large. Thanks to you Atheling I actually begin to understand what a colour wheel is for and how it works. A far cry from the Khakis, Feldgrau and drabs that I've been used to!!

[Atheling]

You're very welcome.

A far cry from the Khakis, Feldgrau and drabs that I've been used to!!

Well, not really as they are all part of the same wheel/sphere.

From Wiki:

[FreakyFenton]

Great advice Atheling! Thank you!

[Atheling]

Great advice Atheling! Thank you!

No probs. I love talking painting

[Tonhel]

...
Buy a colour wheel. You want one with Primary, secondary, tertiary colours and the "greys" (ie. not greys at all, but colours). Primary, secondary or tertiary colour sand indeed the "greys" can be shaded with it's opposite in the colour wheel. Simply add a mix of that exact opposite colour into what you are going to use as your main colour, then add successive layers of the main colour until you get to what you are aiming at. You will bet very vibrant results. If it was good enough for the likes of Kandinsky and Matisse then it is good enough for the wargaming table
...

Great advice! I just finished another mini the way I paint, which is basically block in the colours, do an Agreaxearthshade mixed with lahmian medium wash and than highlight the colours again with adding an off white to it.
But I am not happy anymore with the results.

So I am going to do exactly what you advice for the next mini's I will paint. 

[Atheling]

Great advice! I just finished another mini the way I paint, which is basically block in the colours, do an Agreaxearthshade mixed with lahmian medium wash and than highlight the colours again with adding an off white to it.
But I am not happy anymore with the results.

So I am going to do exactly what you advice for the next mini's I will paint. 

It will take a little practice; but I am very interested in seeing the results

[abu iskander]

Yes - thanks Atheling for sharing with all.  Also worth a look at the Scale 75 Fantasy range. Where color science meets themed boxes of paint. I think they're great for imparting dynamic and bright colors but without overdoing it. Largely because they work well with the kind of approach Atheling is suggesting, rather than applying them as layers/triads. I've found their reds/yellows from that range to be very useful on my own BW project.

[Atheling]

Yes - thanks Atheling for sharing with all.  Also worth a look at the Scale 75 Fantasy range. Where color science meets themed boxes of paint. I think they're great for imparting dynamic and bright colors but without overdoing it. Largely because they work well with the kind of approach Atheling is suggesting, rather than applying them as layers/triads. I've found their reds/yellows from that range to be very useful on my own BW project.

I'm not very familiar with Scale 75 ranges (I do use their undercoat over a black primer). Not really though design more by choice; I've gathered so many paints by so many different manufacturers over the years that it's not practicable for me to buy too many more unless they really serve a particular purpose.

Miniature painting is a very broad church and we have a great deal that we can all learn from one another. I'm lucky to have some close friends who are heads and shoulders above me in terms of skill and results. I have often over the years, borrowed from them and visa versa.

[Johnny Boy]

Many thanks to you all, plenty of food for thought there. Just got to work out what's best for me. Footsore are lovely figures and I wanted to do them justice...

[dbsubashi]

I recently rewatched the Adventures of Robin Hood. It is an amazing Technicolor masterpiece. My copy is the Anniversary edition, which has an extra feature on Technicolor, which helps to explain the movies’ color choices. The film is full of amazing counterintuitive wardrobe choices, with plenty of teals, turquoise’s, mustard yellows, and more. It is worth watching just with an eye towards the costuming.

There is also an extra feature with pages from the original costumer designer’s notebooks. One of the very interesting things is how Milo Anderson envisioned the knights, and how he paired a standard heraldry shield with a matching surcoat without heraldry. Well worth checking out, as most of us can find a good shield transfer, but replicating that design on a surcoat is difficult. Milo Anderson gives an interesting way to overcome this difficulty.

[Atheling]

If you're interested in the basics of colour theory there are plenty of books out there; watercolour. gouache, acrylic painting which, if any good, should all give a decent basic overview.

There's really no need to get overcomplex about Colour Theory when it comes to painting miniatures. The basics will do for an effective result.