Painting red pants, opinions needed

[jcichon]

OK, this is my first real attempt on painting reds. It's a color I have avoided like the plague!! I know I am not really happy with the shading, mainly I think my oils for the shadows are to translucent. THis isnt a paint job I plan to keep more of a practice run than strip it down and do it over again but wanted some honest opinions on progress. I am not wild about the appearance either. I think my oils went on to thick, to much texture but let me know what you think. Here is my oil mix:
Base: Grumbacher red + ultramarine
Shadows: Ultramarine + Allazarin purple
1st highlight: Grumbacher red
2nd Highlight: Grumbacher red + naples yellow
Final highlight: red + orange

 

[jimias]

Jason its not all that bad. The color seems ok to me.No built up from the pics. I paint in oils as well. Well i used to until recently. So my suggestion whould be this: undercoat with andrea red or enamel color to have a good grip for your oil paint. Then basic mix dark cadmium red + a bit prussian blue. First highlights with dark cadmium red, and second with light cadmium red and if u wanna go even more with your lights a mix of light cadmium with a bit of a flesh color.Shadows with more prussian to the base mix, and deep for deep shadows put some black in it. Warning cadmium red needs alot of time to dry up so keep that in mind before applying your highs or shadows so you dont and up builting up color with no actuall effect. The mix also tends to dry with a bit shine so you might wanna use a matt varnish in the end. Hope that helps. Let me know of your progress.

 

[Major_Goose]

If you also want to speed up your drying use some Essence of Petrol as dissolving medium and put the piece under an office lamp to help it

Costas

 

[Einion]

I know I am not really happy with the shading, mainly I think my oils for the shadows are to translucent.

That's not an uncommon problem when painting reds and the paints you list are all relatively transparent.

If you want to paint red fabrics with true reds I always recommend cadmiums, since they are the most opaque reds available to us (ditto with yellow). Another advantage is they typically have tints that are not very brilliant, so they work better with white for highlights than organic pigments which tend to have 'bright' tints.

Even with a grey primer rather than white, it can be a good idea to undercoat reds in an acrylic or enamel red although it's not absolutely necessary, particularly if you use a higher-quality oil brand than Grumbacher. If you would prefer to use oils alone then Light Red or a similar red earth is worth trying either as the first layer or mixed with the red as they are typically very opaque indeed and will improve the covering power of the midtone (Light Red will also dull the mixed colour down somewhat which is usually desired, if you don't then use it only as an undercoat).

Einion

 

[jcichon]

I forgot to add that I undercoat in red acrylic. I am wondering if undercoating in a really dark color would help also. I have not tried it but am thinking about it.

 

[Einion]

Try it, see how it works for you. Some people like working over a dark base, even black (long tradition of priming in black for fantasy minis) other people prefer white or grey. You'll probably find it's much easier with truly opaque colours.

Einion