I thought that I would ask here since my google fu is weakened by my works firewall and this forum has a proportionally high number of great painters.
Does anyone have a good picture and print tutorial of how to paint achromatically on miniatures (black, gray, white)? I’ve looked online for hours and don’t want to waste my browsing data on my phone thanks to an overly strict firewall (that I will get in trouble for disabling again!)
The effect that I am after is in the vein of Sin City, Schindlers List ect.
Something like that has been shown here, a couple of years ago. He/she did it with a hobgob but memory of who fails me at present. I’ll look through stuff I’ve saved to see if I can find anything
Hmm, I don’t want to sound like a smartass, but as far as I know you just paint the same as always. Same techniques when it comes to highlighting etc, except you only use black and white and all the greys in between.
If you’re lazy then the easiest way would probably be undercoat white and then wash with black. Do lighter washes for white/light grey areas and heavier washes for dark grey/black areas.
That kind of stuff is all about lighting direction, it works well if you choose your moon position relative to the whole army and keep that direction. If you spay them all grey or even black first, then rank them all up into units and position the whole army on your work bench in its desired fomation and spray from say top right downwards at a 45 degree angle, to the whole army, keeping the same height (about 18 inches off the ground) and direction the whole time , with a white spray, then you get a nice highlight basis to mimic the moon, you can then work in layering and highlights based on that as a guide and starting point, or with a quick wash it will already start to feel better.
Thanks for your insights guys, I have managed to find something on colour theory so I can attempt to convert colours into shades of grey, I’m going to need to research a lot of different textures so skin looks different to cloth etc.
Yeah I just need to saturate this image to give me an idea on where I am going, the Sorrows and Poltergiest aren’t too bad but it is the more human miniatures that I am struggling with the transition between skin and cloth is bothering me a lot. On the plus side if this goes well then the spot colour/s is really going to make the mini’s pop
Yeah I just need to saturate this image to give me an idea on where I am going, the Sorrows and Poltergiest aren't too bad but it is the more human miniatures that I am struggling with the transition between skin and cloth is bothering me a lot. On the plus side if this goes well then the spot colour/s is really going to make the mini's pop
Thanks for your help Doombeard, I have ordered myself an Airbrush and Compressor which I hope will make the painting of these models a little easier as some of them (Baby Kade) is tiny, 7mm from base to top of head!
You have choosen one of the hardest painting style in the world. Gray scale is its more common name. The only way to really make it work is to make sure each layer of subtle change is truly noticeable. Which as said above is all about lighting and to achieve that effect with painted toys means tons of high lights in small tight areas that lead to a major over all effect.
I did 5 plastic space marine termies in gray scale. The main way it worked was bodies were grey super grey. Joints black super black, blades red or blue some color to draw the eye. Detials and preccsion are the key in this. If you get sloppy it will show. Takes forever and a real pain. Done well looks cool.
Good luck and you might want to drink a pint before you start work.
You have choosen one of the hardest painting style in the world. Gray scale is its more common name. The only way to really make it work is to make sure each layer of subtle change is truly noticeable. Which as said above is all about lighting and to achieve that effect with painted toys means tons of high lights in small tight areas that lead to a major over all effect.
Geist
I am well aware that I have chosen a very complicated scheme for the miniatures but I wanted to push myself and improve as a painter, I already have the Dettol that I am sure is going to be required to be able to rectify the mistakes that I am going to make, I have also chosen my spot colour to be a bright blue (GW Ice Blue I believe it is called) and also will have a few splashes of red on certain parts of the miniatures (Candy's Candy Canes for example, Pandora's Lips, Blood Effect of Kade's Knife). I am now wondering what I am going to be doing with the bases, one problem at a time though.
Good luck and you might want to drink a pint before you start work.
Geist
That`s good advice for painting any style Wink
TheHoodedMan
I'm with TheHoodedMan, I thought it was an unwritten law of painting?
I am well aware that I have chosen a very complicated scheme for the miniatures but I wanted to push myself and improve as a painter, I already have the Dettol that I am sure is going to be required to be able to rectify the mistakes that I am going to make, I have also chosen my spot colour to be a bright blue (GW Ice Blue I believe it is called) and also will have a few splashes of red on certain parts of the miniatures (Candy's Candy Canes for example, Pandora's Lips, Blood Effect of Kade's Knife). I am now wondering what I am going to be doing with the bases, one problem at a time though.
Miasma
Coincidently, this is pretty much exactly the colour scheme I'm working with at the moment.
cool mini r not has the best painters and advice on the forums, I would record your efforts there and post them on a p-log, and the senior guys will offer advice and help you more than I can. There’s also stacks of useful reading there you can go back and search through