I am doing a new Dark Eldar army which is my first real time to take painting seriously and I have several vehicles that will have large portions of black on them and want to know a good way to shade black. I want to steer away from the "extreme highlighting" where you go around the edges with a color that is a shade or two lighter. I was hoping to find a way to kind of break apart the black to give it a kind of buffed look..(?) if that makes sense... Any suggestions and pics would help!
you can't really shade black. you'd have to start with black and blend up, or start with a dark color and blend to black. It's a pain. especially if you're wanting to stay away from hard edge highlights.
I know it is going to be difficult. Right now I am playing around with the idea of adding 1 part grey to 4 parts black then trying a light, very light dry brushing of that mix over the black... does that sound worth a shot?
I usually do my black by starting with a black base and blending up from there. I don't like how sharp grey highlights look, so I had to find another way to do it. I generally highlight with a blue and black mix with a tiny bit of grey to lighten it up. using blue to lighten your black makes a much more natural highlight, as grey is not really a good way to highlight it.
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excellent idea, I think I will highlight with a black/blue then wash with a dark blue
I think the sharp highlight over black will work well for DE vehicles. If you look at a lot of them on the GW site it is just plain black and then two contrasting edge highlight colors for around all the plates and seams.
The only problem is I am doing black/yellow so I have to be careful what I do or else it will look like a 5 year old did it. If you are going to be at DL tomorrow Jim I will bring my vehicle so you can take a look at it and give me some hints if your down with that..?
Your best tip is Iyanden Darksun as a base for the yellow.
Thats what I am using and then 2 different shades brighter for highlighting
Generally (as was said earlier) you cannot shade black. You can choose to use dark gray but it doesn't leave you much room to shade anyways. At Adepticon, one of my favorite entries in the Crystal Brush was this Tau vehicle. It was all black and highlighted in grays. It was so subtle and well done that it looked like the natural lighting, but all the grays are painted.
Unfortunately the photographer for the Crystal Brush flooded it in this photo and it no longer looks black. I have a personal picture that shows the effect off better, but you get the idea.
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