How to highlight white?

[Brother Valerius]

Hey guys,

 

This is something I've been pondering as I've been working on my ven dread, which has the helmet showing (so naturally, that means white helmet). How do you highlight white? Or if not highlighting, when you have a big white area, what do you do to break it up and make it pop a little? I'm just wondering if having the helmet pure white with red lenses will look too plain, and how to avoid that.

[slmellon]

you could try adding a laurel

[templarboy]

Try green lenses with the white helm. I like it better than red. It you want the white to pop, start with an off-white or light grey and throw on a heavy white highlight. Just plain white is boring.

[Solid Zaku]

Though it sounds a little too late, a trick is to not paint things white, but slightly off white. Like 6:1 dilution off white. But, if your army is already THAT white, then there is no highlighting to do. Only shading. just do what you would do for a highlight on a dark color, but in reverse.

[ImperialReaper]

Highlighting white is in the same way impossible as shading black is.

 

The only way to "make it pop a little" is to make it the other way around - shade white areas and highlight black areas.

 

Take a close look at the veterans in the Space Marine Codex - especial the sternguard with the white helmets. You will notice that a few areas are painted in a very bright grey to add some depth.

[Gurth]

Highlighting white is in the same way impossible as shading black is.

If you're talking about pure white and pure black, then yes, you are right. However, you will very likely not find a single "high standards" painter using pure white and pure black for anything other than the highest highlights and the deepest shadows — like Solid Zaku says, paint "white" areas off-white and then highlight with even lighter shades of that.

[ImperialReaper]

Highlighting white is in the same way impossible as shading black is.

If you're talking about pure white and pure black, then yes, you are right. However, you will very likely not find a single "high standards" painter using pure white and pure black for anything other than the highest highlights and the deepest shadows — like Solid Zaku says, paint "white" areas off-white and then highlight with even lighter shades of that.

 

Sorry but I have to disagree here.

In the codex spare marines there are a lot of helmets, robes and clothing which look pretty pure white to me.

In the Codex Black Tempar there is lots of both - pure black and pure white to be seen.

And I have watched many "how to paint" videos on youtube where a lot of pure colors were used.

Of cause there are likely as much painters who thin or mix colors to fit it to their individual taste or to achieve a special effect or look and create some impressive models.

 

But in essence to say that no good painter would use pure white or black is shurely wrong.

[Gurth]

In the codex spare marines there are a lot of helmets, robes and clothing which look pretty pure white to me.

The pivotal word here being "look" … the trick is to make things appear white when in fact they aren't truly white. Not to mention photographs in books can be tweaked in more ways than you have probably even heard of to adjust the colours. Never use photographs for accurate colour references.

 

to say that no good painter would use pure white or black is shurely wrong.

I am not saying no good painter uses pure black or pure white — I said, you will very likely not find a single "high standards" painter etc. — and with "high standards" I mean the kinds of painters who win prizes at major competitions, or could do so if they were to enter them.

[winterdyne]

Gurth speaks the truth. Pure white in my work is reserved for spotting gems. Pure black I do use a lot, but I use Vallejo black thinned (it goes translucent) and blended.

 

Going back to the original question - if you have pure white as a base coat (man I bet that took some work), your only option is to shade down using very thin glazes of an appropriate tint over the large area.

[ImperialReaper]

Gurth speaks the truth. Pure white in my work is reserved for spotting gems. Pure black I do use a lot, but I use Vallejo black thinned (it goes translucent) and blended.

 

Going back to the original question - if you have pure white as a base coat (man I bet that took some work), your only option is to shade down using very thin glazes of an appropriate tint over the large area.

 

Hmm questions on that:

 

1. With what do you mix your white then? And does it cover better that way?

 

2. There is a white primer from vallejo - I guess he used this one. It this pure white?

[Stolid Fox]

The trick I've found is to paint pure white as a really light shade of ice blue, then highlight up to white. The blue, I find, keeps things looking crisp -- if I use a gray it doesn't have the brightness anymore. I will say that in the case of a pure white the highlight is heavier than another color, but it looks really sharp.

[winterdyne]

I have 4 'white's that I use as a basic for pretty much anything white or whiteish. I actually use a mix of VMC and GW paints, but I'll use the GW names here.

 

Warm white (parchment, skulls, linen cloth):

Start with Khemri brown

Highlight with Kommando Khaki

Highlight with Bleached Bone

Highlight with 50-50 Bleached Bone and Skull white.

VERY fine highlights with pure Skull white. Keep the paint thin.

 

Cold white (SM helmets, marble)

Start with Shadow Grey

Highlight with SpaceWolves Grey

Highlight with 50-50 SW grey and Skull white

Very fine highlights with pure Skull white. Keep the paint thin.

 

Neutral white (limestone / concrete / painted markings)

Start Fortress Grey (Darker for stones)

Highlight With 50-50 Fortress Grey and Skull white

Highlight With thin glazes of 25-75 Fortress Grey and Skull White (add water / glaze medium and white to previous mix, blend highlights to edges)

Very fine highlights with pure Skull White. Keep the paint thin.

For stone, apply thin glazes of greenish colours to shade. I like Knarloc green at the moment.

 

Stone white (granite / older stone)

Start with Graveyard Earth

Drybrush with 50-50 Graveyard Earth and Fortress Grey

Drybrush with pure Fortress Grey

Drybrush with 40-40-20 Fortress Grey, bleached bone and skull white

Very fine edge highlights drybrushed with 50-50 Skull white and bleached bone.

 

If you've started with the white already, then you need to work through the same sort of mixes in reverse order, having a thinner and thinner mix each time. It's tricky with a brush to shade down large areas - if they're nice and smooth then you can drybrush down. Alternatively you can use an airbrush (dual action, with practice!) to blush the centre of the areas darker.

[Brother Valerius]

Gurth speaks the truth. Pure white in my work is reserved for spotting gems. Pure black I do use a lot, but I use Vallejo black thinned (it goes translucent) and blended.

 

Going back to the original question - if you have pure white as a base coat (man I bet that took some work), your only option is to shade down using very thin glazes of an appropriate tint over the large area.

 

Hmm questions on that:

 

1. With what do you mix your white then? And does it cover better that way?

 

2. There is a white primer from vallejo - I guess he used this one. It this pure white?

 

The mini is not primed white. It was primed black, and as I do Ultras it's painted blue. It's merely the helmet that I did with white, GW Skull White to be specific.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I liked the idea to put a laurel on quite a bit, but unfortunately it just looked sloppy as hell (due to no ability to do freehand at all), so I just covered it back up with white. It's not a huge deal, as the helmet will not be super visible on this model anyhow (since it's recessed into the sarcophagus some), but I figured every little bit helps.

[majorpayne327]

Cold white (SM helmets, marble)

Start with Shadow Grey

Highlight with SpaceWolves Grey

Highlight with 50-50 SW grey and Skull white

Very fine highlights with pure Skull white. Keep the paint thin.

 

Do you have a picture of this scheme?

[Hemal]

The Korsarro Khan article in an older White Dwarf gives a great way of painting dirty white, which I have tweaked slightly for my Bhramastras Chapter models.

 

Start on black undercoat

Base coat = 50/50 Graveyard with space wolves - I needed two or three thing coats to cover well, though I can possibly see using Charadon + a bit of kommando Khakhi instead

then blend up to Kommando Khakhi + SW Grey 50/50 mix

then blend up to above mix with 50 % white

then blend up to pure white at the extremities.

 

I didn't use a wash yet, but could easily put a wash of devlan mud in there somehwere.

 

If you look at the whites on the UM models, they have eitehr based off a neutral grey (Codex or fortress) or a cool grey (Shadow/Space wolves). Warmer whites could start at Khemri brown or Dheneb stoe

[winterdyne]

Cold white (SM helmets, marble)

Start with Shadow Grey

Highlight with SpaceWolves Grey

Highlight with 50-50 SW grey and Skull white

Very fine highlights with pure Skull white. Keep the paint thin.

 

Do you have a picture of this scheme?

 

The sternguard tutorial on my blog goes through step-by-step, and the GD finalist dreadnought in the Hall of Honor section uses exactly the same recipe for the U's on the banner, leg plate etc. The freehand is mostly neutral whites.