Painting blonde/fair hair

[The Captain]

Thanks to all those of you that helped out with my query on varnishing finished figures.

Another question:

Whilst waiting for my 200mm Napoleonic Guard Artillery Captain to dry, I have started painting the Carl Reid 24th of Foot Rorke's Drift bust - an exceptional figure, beautifully sculpted which should test my painting skills.

All the examples of this that I have seen have dark hair but I want to try something different and paint this with blonde or fair hair - very English (they weren't Welsh as the Regiment only became the South Wales Borderers two years after Rorke's Drift - proves I have at least done my historical homework!).

I am undercoating with Humbrol enamels and painting in oils and need help with how to create a realistic look for the hair as I don't want the figure to end up looking peroxide blonde. So far I have primed and undercoated the hair with medium brown brown enamel - Humbrol 186 Matt.

All suggestions gratefully received!

The Captain

 

[Einion]

You're in luck Chris, in relation to the comments on getting blond hair right in this thread I prepared this yesterday that might be of help:

Note: the brightly-coloured dot outside each sampled area represents its hue.

Despite the colour being so far away from a bright tube yellow you can begin with one if you want, but it's generally easier to start with a yellow earth like Yellow Ochre, Mars Yellow etc. and work from there.

Raw Umber is a useful paint for this too as generally it's a dark, dull orange-yellow or 'deep yellow' colour (not always, so you need to check). Raw Umber plus white with a bit of Yellow Ochre/similar can often be a very good starting point for a blonde mix. You can use the same three colours for all the values sometimes, with the lights mixed from the ochre and white with just a dot of the Raw Umber and the darks maybe done using pure Raw Umber.

Einion

 

[billyturnip]

I don't think you need any more help with blond hair as Einion's just about covered it but if you haven't already seen this on wikipedia on the make up of the 24th at Rorkes Drift is interesting,

Roger.

"While most of the men of the 1st Battalion, 24th Regiment of Foot (1/24) were recruited from the industrial towns and agricultural classes of England, principally from Birmingham and adjacent southwest counties, only 10 soldiers of the 1/24 that fought in the battle were Welsh. Many of the soldiers of the junior battalion, the 2/24, were Welshmen. Of the 122 soldiers of the 24th Regiment present at the Battle of Rorke's Drift, 49 are known to have been of English nationality, 32 were Welsh, 16 were Irish, 1 was a Scot, and 3 were born overseas. The nationalities of the remaining 21 are unknown."

 

[The Captain]

You're in luck Chris, in relation to the comments on getting blond hair right in this thread I prepared this yesterday that might be of help:

Note: the brightly-coloured dot outside each sampled area represents its hue.

Despite the colour being so far away from a bright tube yellow you can begin with one if you want, but it's generally easier to start with a yellow earth like Yellow Ochre, Mars Yellow etc. and work from there.

Raw Umber is a useful paint for this too as generally it's a dark, dull orange-yellow or 'deep yellow' colour (not always, so you need to check). Raw Umber plus white with a bit of Yellow Ochre/similar can often be a very good starting point for a blonde mix. You can use the same three colours for all the values sometimes, with the lights mixed from the ochre and white with just a dot of the Raw Umber and the darks maybe done using pure Raw Umber.

Einion

 

[The Captain]

Einion

Great advice - thanks for that. I'll try your colour scheme and post an image of the result on here when it's finished.