Acrylics Help with highlighting blue?

[Jon Metters]

Hello Everybody,

I am working on a figure of Marshal Ney and I am having a bit of trouble highlighting his dark blue jacket.

Any basic tips for highlighting blue would be most helpful!!! Most basically - what color(s) do you like to add to your base color to bring out highlights?

Best,

Jon Metters

 

[Edward]

I've just finished painting a dark blue Napoleonic jacket in acrylics.

For the base coat I used Vallejo Dark Prussia blue mixed with a small amount of black (with more black to shade). If you simply add white to this to highlight I find the black dulls the overall colour so you avoid the brightness that sometimes occurs when highlighting dark blue.

Hope this helps!

Edward

 

[Einion]

Any basic tips for highlighting blue would be most helpful!!! Most basically - what color(s) do you like to add to your base color to bring out highlights?

Normally I'd suggest simply adding white as the first thing to try but for blue uniforms of this type this will tend to give colours that are too bright (in contrast to the usual complaint using white alone where the highlights end up too dull).

Most people use something like a flesh colour, a light sand or tan to subtly highlight this kind of blue, which is essentially white + an earth of some kind. Basically this is the same as adding white then counteracting the brightness with a little mixing complement. Alternative you could use a light grey.

Obviously personal taste plays a big part when it comes to the final 'look' of the piece, but highlights should be subtle if you want it to look like the real thing - less is more here.

Incidentally, for the base I'd use a near-black mixture of French Ultramarine and a black (i.e. Payne's Grey) or even a mix of French Ultramarine and Burnt Umber.

Einion