Painting Red In Acrylics

[Anders Heintz]

Hey Guys!

What do you use for red uniforms in acrylics? I want to make them look like red and not pinkish, but at same time have some depth to it. All input greatly appreciated!

 

[Uruk-Hai]

One can start with a very dark basecoat and leave the pure red for the final highlights.

When you lighten red, use yellow not white. Its the white that usually makes the red turn pinkish. The yellow can do the same if its a secondary yellow and not pure.

Last one can try with using sand colour as highlight. This looks good and worn and faded red uniforms but doesnt perform well on larger areas.

 

[gforceman]

I use orange to hgihlight and yellow for the extreme highlights if I need a warm red. Sunny skintone for the highlights, light flesh for extreme highlights when I need a cold red. I always finish with a couple of very diluted highlights of pure white on the realy extreme high hihglights. to shadow I use dark green, royal purple, different colours of Brown and/or pure black for the final shadowing.

I hope this helps at least a little.

greetings,

Gino

 

[slaj]

Anders , I don't use anything to highlight red except red. That way the final product looks red. Obviously you vary a little the approach depending on subject , ex. faded red. I always start with a rather dark shade and biuld in the highlights gradually. A colour I like to use for this is Vallejo vermillion. Since the base coat is rather dark not much work will be needed on the shadows. Only the deepest ones need to be tackled.

Stephen Mallia

 

[Richard E]

Hi Anders

I agree with Stephen, the only way I've found of getting realistic reds, is to use lots of different shades of red (apart from dark shadows, where it can go to a purple colour)

I tend to use watercolour, but I think these shades are availabale in acrylic.

basecoat of Cadmium Red,

highlights starting from cadmium scarlet to vermiliion hue to pyrolle red

shadows starting from cadmium deep red to alazarin crimson.

Hope this is of use.

Richard

 

[Anders Heintz]

Thanks Guys! It will sure help me on my way