Highlighting black

[Gluteus Maximus]

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)....

That's very interesting. I might try it. I don't know about using yellow to lighten blue, though 

[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)....

That's very interesting. I might try it. I don't know about using yellow to lighten blue, though 

That's the funny thing - to darken colours, blue should be mixed in - to lighten them, yellow....

But I think that especially those two colours need some leeway for what you do to them (you cannot lighten yellow by adding more yellow, for instance..... but you can darken the blue by adding a little brown instead of black)

EDIT: Forgot: I , myself, would use red or brown to darken yellow.... but as Ironworker showed in one of his threads, green (blue+yellow) actually works as base/shading colour for skin (which is yellow/brown-based)

[Orctrader]

mix in dark flesh working up to light grey or Ivory or Off white.

Example below.

[Argonor]

Yep, that adds the brown 'organic/natural' tone to the black. Very nice effect!

[Gluteus Maximus]

That's the funny thing - to darken colours, blue should be mixed in - to lighten them, yellow....

But I think that especially those two colours need some leeway for what you do to them (you cannot lighten yellow by adding more yellow, for instance..... but you can darken the blue by adding a little brown instead of black)

EDIT: Forgot: I , myself, would use red or brown to darken yellow.... but as Ironworker showed in one of his threads, green (blue+yellow) actually works as base/shading colour for skin (which is yellow/brown-based)

I'm going to have to dig some old figures out of the lead mountain and do some experimenting with this.

It all sounds bizarre, but I'm really intrigued by the concept.

[Faust23]

In my experience, dark blue is the most realistic highlight for black.  Sometimes a grey will work, but it is not technically how black looks when highlighted in real life; i.e. check out a black bird or raven to see how this looks.

Depending on the type of material in question, as well as the strength of black used, some variance is likely.

You can see what I mean on some of the figs on my blog.  Be sure to scroll down to see them all:  http://4sparta.blogspot.com/

Good luck.