Highlighting black

[Thunderchicken]

Hi all,

I was just wondering what you use to highlight black? I use a rather predictable dark grey, does anyone use anything different?   

[Tom Reed]

I also use a very dark grey. Sometimes I use a very dark blue, like the comic book colorists use to highlight characters hair, etc.

[Malamute]

I like the idea of dark blue, good idea that. I use a very dark grey. Vallejo, but can't remember the code or name.
The Foundry three colour black einds up far too grey for my liking.

[Auton]

I mix some flesh colour into some black (varying the amount for how light I want it) If you use flesh rather than white it comes out looking less 'chalky' and more even

[keeper]

Very dark anything, depending on the end result I want.  I've found dark blue highlights give a black leather type effect and dark grey gives a flatter look that is good for equipment or sci-fi guns.  Highlighting by adding an off-white to black, such as an ivory or bone colour, gives a slightly more organic feeling black and can look less stark than adding just white.  I've not found anything that looks good with very dark red, hightlights, yet.

[Pil]

Usually a drybrush with VMC German Grey followed by a drybrush with P3 Ironhull Grey. This ends as a rather greyish black, sometimes I just use only one (which one depends on the effect I want). For (worn) leather I add khaki into the mix instead of using grey. I hardly ever use blue because I feel this makes the black look like a very dark blue rather than black

[dodge]

I usually use dark grey , adeptus battle grey, then I hate the effect it gives and apply a balck wash to tone it down a bit 

Dodge

[Aaron]

I use VMC German Grey just like Pil.

[Lowtardog]

I mix some flesh colour into some black (varying the amount for how light I want it) If you use flesh rather than white it comes out looking less 'chalky' and more even

I use this method with varying degrees of success

[The Black Rider]

I generally use shadow grey by games workshop. Makes a good leather colour when layered up well. I do use greys but i normally end up shading them back down again like dodge

[Thunderchicken]

Some good advice there, thanks.

The reason I ask is I'm painting some British Grenadier Guards for my VSF yarns. When I highlight the trousers with a grey they look..... grey. When I try to be more subtle I cant even notice the effect so I wonder why I bother. I'm going to try some of the ideas suggested and see how I get on.

Thanks again. 

[revford]

I usually use blue to highlight black, if I'm painting a model with lots of black, or black clothes and black hair, I'll use sand colour instead to break up the blocks of same tones.

[Argonor]

Hi all,

I was just wondering what you use to highlight black? I use a rather predictable dark grey, does anyone use anything different?   

Now, I don't do this myself, but artist colour theory states:

• To make black, mix blue and brown - this will produce a 'natural' black
• To lighten/highlight anything: Mix plain yellow (never white) into the colour you want to lighten/hightlight

For black/almost black leathers, you could experiment with more or less blue to the initial mix (some old black leather jackets look vaguely brownish, while new ones are shiny blueish)....

[JollyBob]

Depends what I'm going for really.

If its old leather, then dark brown highlights, same for hair etc. in most cases. Sometimes blue looks better if you want it to look shiny, newer, or more sinister. If it's a suit, for example, I'll usually use a dark grey, then wash over with black again.

Actually, I find in most cases a black wash over the highlights makes it look a heck of a lot better.

[Gluteus Maximus]

I mix some flesh colour into some black (varying the amount for how light I want it) If you use flesh rather than white it comes out looking less 'chalky' and more even

I use this method with varying degrees of success

I also like using flesh It seems to work very well for figures like Almoravids or Wringwraiths. It also helps to differentiate black cloth from leather etc highlighted with greys.

I've tried using other colours like blue or green to get different black effects, but keep coming back to flesh.