Help with Painting Black

[mirlo101 26xp 3]

Two methods for army painting black I use.

1. Vallejo black grey and minimal edge highlighting. Avoid washes.

2. For small areas on a model, boots, pouches, gloves etc just use plain matt black with no highlights/shading, nothing. This is surprisingly effective and worth trying.

[onlyonepinman 18115xp 3]

For clothing and other soft surfaces, you can use dark grey (like a charcoal grey) highlighted with a lighter shade and then given a black wash.

If you are painting a hard surface such as armour plating you need to master edge highlights.  Start with a black base, you can optionally wash it first which can help deepen the colour if you are starting with black primer spray.  Then edge highlight using a mid grey with a finer highlight of a very light grey

[captainventanus 5097xp 3]

I have 3 ways I do it depending on the purpose.

1.) Black dry brushed up with dark grey for a standard black look. slightly worn. Then washed down with a black wash – tend to prefer enamel wash, but Nuln Oil or AP Dark wash if thats all I have. Sometimes I will used a NATO black/charcoal black base for a more matt finish on things like weapons.

2.) Black dry brushed up with GW Dark Reaper and then Thunderhawk blue. Washed down a bit if necessary. I use this for material surfaces or webbing. Or if I want a more night/covert armour finish.

3.) The monochrome approach. For a particular style or just for speed painting. Black base, zenithal NATO black, heavy white drybrish, heavy black wash, selective white drybrush on top surfaces, light black wash.

[shingen 13941xp 2]

I on the other hand try to limit colours I use while painting black. I usually use black and one highlight colour which varies depending on the material I paint and environmental light. I also use as simple technics as possible.

Some examples for you.

1.      Black undercoat, white zenithal highlight, white drybrush, thick black wash/glaze. I believe this method is more suitable for reflective materials.

 

2.      Armour (on his back) – black basecoat, highlights with sky blue (Valeyo) – just layers of mixtures of black and blue up to edge-highlight of pure sky blue,

T-shirt – black basecoat, some highlights of mixture of black and dwarf’s skin and finally black glaze

3.      I get best results with oils (just due to how easy blending is with oils).

Armour – simply lamp black with white edge highlight (blended in),

Coat – lamp black with drop of magenta with white highlights.

Recently I also experiment with chromatic black (by mixing all primaries or dark green with purple, again highlighted with white), it gives cool effects, but unfortunately I have no pictures that I could show).

[yoshi 3197xp 1]

A recipe that works nice for me is to highlight black with Vallejo Luftwaffe  Uniform (70.816), then Grey Blue (70.943) or Dark Blue Grey (70.904) and  even higher with Pale Blue (70.906).

But the Luftwaffe Uniform really works great as a base highlight on black. I always mix a little bit of the Luftwaffe Uni. into the black for a sublte effect and to soften the black.

Here is what it kinda looks like highlighted to dark blue grey.

[panzerkaput 34066xp 1]

I like that recipe @yoshi and thanks for sharing

 

[Lovecraft2020 3082xp 2]

Here is a very interesting approach to painting black:

[Wolfie65 1281xp 1]

I stopped using acrylics many years ago and now use primarily water colors over white gesso, which kinda works similar to contrast paints insofar as it creates its’ own shadows and highlights, often with just 1 coat. If I want something VERY black – without any grey tones – such as a Nazgul, perhaps, I use calligraphy ink.

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