Highlighting black - a question

[Brother_Ovis]

This is a problem that I can't really find an answer to since I've started actually facing it on a daily basis with my army painting. Before Raven Guard I used to collect and paint Ultramarines, Crimson Fists and DIY Grey Crusaders chapter (predictably all grey), and I had no trouble whatsoever with standard shading and highlighting techniques - darker wash into recesses, brighter shade on edges and we're golden.

 

However, when I switched to all-black armours things are no longer that simple. My point is - while all other colours look really good, rich and deep when highlighted, black tends to look... unnatural. It hurts my eyes. The edge highlights look like, well, grey lines painted on edges. And that's not all - I've found that after applying this technique the overall velvety, black tone of armour leans towards greyish, dusty perhaps? Dirty, as in sloppy? It is much more difficult to get that smooth transition from base colour to highlight with black - especially that you can't shade it and you're dealing with just two colours from the opposite ends of the spectrum range - that simply has to scream 'wrong', if you know what I mean.

 

I did that edge highlighting to some of my minis recently and while I did my best to do it carefully and clean, the effect was far from pleasing - and not for the lack of skill in my brushwork either. So I started thinking about it and decided that black is such an extreme colour, that it goes quite well with no exagerrated highlights, the very natural play of light on it suffices. Anything beyond that brings the risk of ruining your model.

 

Having said that however I have to admit that flat black surfaces do tend to lose some texture. Of course it is quite conceivable that I'm just made to think that because of years of exposition to standard painting techniques, straying from which screams 'Heresy!' :wub: Anyway, to accentuate these textures up until recently I used just weathering - earthy-dusty wash in all recesses did what edge highlights usually do, kind of as a photograph negative. I can't say it looks bad, really. But - getting to the point, finally - I'm really interested in your opinion on two things:

 

1) Does anybody share my views on highlighting black, or are they just my own idiosyncrasies I need to deal with? :)

2) Does anybody has any idea how to deal with black surfaces without the ubiquitous grey smears on all edges?

[CarbonCopy]

Black can be tricky...

 

There are a couple of concepts you need to wrap your brain around. The most important aspect of painting black (AND white) is that it is really are not black (or white). Black (and white) will ALWAYS have a cast of whatever light source is shining on it, and of any other color that surounds it.

 

Here are some secondary aspects that also determines how black will be perceived

 

1) Light source -- where is it? What color is it?

2) Is the core shadow being filled in with another color? Should it?

3) Materials -- do they rust?

4) What color is black really? Does it have a warm cast? Cool cast?

 

To paint anything miniature black effectively to actually "read" as black, you actually need to paint it completely differently. I paint black as if it is being lighted from a specific direction. I also tend to use edge highlighting in cool grays, up to white, with that light source in mind. Plus I glaze/wash/blend in a complimentary colors (usually iron oxide browns) in the opposite direction. This gives the shape enough color to actually look like something.

 

If it starts to look too bright (or not "black" enough), carefully glaze black back over the top to tone it down, then re-hit any highlights that lost punch.

[AJB2K3]

My recomendations for black is

 

For a harsh highlight use gray, for gental highligh use dark blue.

I noticed that some black cars/vans/lorrys etc had a blue hue in direct light hence the suggestion of using dark blue.

[Hemal]

With black, less is often more.

I'd never paint pure black anyway, use black with a tiny amount of regal blue for a cold black or scab red for a warm black.

 

1) undercoat black if possible

 

2) Base coat black if the undercoat is another colour for ease...

 

3) Add a little codex grey to the above mix or else a bit more of the lighter tone Aim for edge highlights, not like blended armour

 

4) At teh very sharpest edges, blend in the above with a little bleached bone or space wolves greay added...

[gettothegone]

*not including thinner as each person is different in how they like consistency*

 

Try turquoise mixed in with chaos black in a 1:2 ratio as a base, progressivly adding more turquoise in a 1:1 for the next highlight. Final highlight is fortress grey with turquoise. Very minimalistic usage of the final highlights, on the most extreme corners only.

 

Another way I do highlights is to grab some powders and gradually build up highlights by lightly dusting edges with it, it gives a pretty good highlight without requiring the brush control of a surgeon.

[Brother_Ovis]

Thanks for all your advice, I wouldn't have thought of some of the those things on my own.

 

I neglected to say, a little out of shame, that one of the most important factors in my painting is speed. It's not exactly speed painting I'm after, but faced with 50 marines plus 2 tanks and 3 landspeeders I can't really afford to spend 20 hrs on each single one - I really need to get them all painted in the next 2-3 months.

 

After reading what you wrote I realized that one has also to answer one more question - if the painted surface is to be flat and shiny or perhaps a little rough. I looked at some black objects on my desk and saw how light reflects on them - on those smooth and shiny the final highlights are almost white, on those not so smooth - more grey.

 

So what I'm gonna try is to mix black with adeptus battlegrey in roughly 1:1 ratio and apply it to most exposed edges, redoing them with just a splash of codex grey when necessary.

[SCC]

Here's one of my Raven Guard:

Battle Brother Atanas

[clearfloat][/clearfloat]

As you can see I've taken a similar approach to the one you've proposed, the areas where highlights would be sharpest are clean and bright and the less obvious areas have a softer andn duller highlight. The method is pretty simple and, for rank & file Marines, I've got it down to about 3.5 hours per Marine (and bear in mind I'm quite a slow painter normally so I expect others could chop even that time right down if they production lined their army).

1.Spray undercoat black

2.Broad highlights of 'RG Black' (a very, very dark grey I made from approx. 1 part VMC German Grey to 3 parts Chaos black with just a touch of Foundation Adeptus Battlegrey to tie it to the highlights).

3.Badab Black Wash

4.Fine highlight of 50/50 RG Black/ Adeptus Battlegrey

5.Final highlight of ABG

6.Straight Black Ink to the areas I want to be black as black (i.e. areas with no highlights), thinned down black wash where necessary to tone down any over-zealous highlighting

7.Touch up

8.Matte varnish (in this cash Testor's Dull Cote because it kills any shine at all and leaves the miniature a lovely sinister 'stealth' black

[Brother_Ovis]

Thanks SCC, actually your Shadow Force Dragomir is one of my favourite RGs and I've started using Adeptus Battlegrey after reading your very recipe :) I'm just gonna skip on the 'broad highlights' part as it ruins my 'speed painting' concept - I like my RGs mostly because spraying them with black does most of the job and allows me to concentrate on what I like best - details. No long and boring brushing on flat and uninspiring armour plates for me :)