painting white in oils

[megroot]

A while ago there was a great thread about painting whites in acrylic.
Now i have to paint white with oilpaint and i cleaned the piece that i am doing now for the third time.
Also i have a Napoloentic figure with a white trouser that i cannot get it wright.
So i now it is a hard colour painting white, but i am very sure there is someone on the planet who paint great white's..
So if someone could explain it.

Marc.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

I mix white with flesh and a little bit of black.
Youll get an greyish off-white.
(In fact Im painting Stricklands heraldry and the S:t George banner right now, Im only at the computer to let the layer dry

For highlights add more white, white pure white for definite highlight.
For shadows add more flesh and black. Experiment with different ratios of black and flesh mixed with the white.

Though Im using Humbrol the basics should be the same.

Cheers

 

[Kisifer]

Well my friend marc, i recently painted white trousers on my RHA officer. I used titanium white with a little bit of black to get an off white color as basic. I applied everwhere and wipe it as much as i could. It really helps to have white undercoat.Then adding more black i made my shadows. For highlights i used straight white. Always wet on wet. When complete dry i added more highlights and shadows (but that's not 100% neccessary.)

 

[Roc]

Hello Mark, white is not as difficult as you think.

White:
Base= Titanium white + unbleached titanium.
Medium shadow= Mussini warm gray + base
Deep shadows = Raw umber + Medium shadow.
medium highlight = Base + more titanium white
High highlights Titanium white.
Extreme high lights = Titanium white + a very tiny amount of cereleum blue.{the idea is white closest to the body is warm and it cools off as it reaches the extremities]
The trick is not to over shadow white.
Just my two Liras.

Cheers
Roc.

 

[Cicero]

Hi Marc,

Here's another method (which I got from Hardy Tempest's site): use pure sepia on a plain white acrylic undercoat. Let the sepia set for a while so that it creeps into the white. Then wipe the sepia as much as possible with a flat brush. The result will be a dirty looking grey/brownish surface. Next you start to highlight wet on wet with titanium white. After this let it dry. When the paint has dried you can add more highlights with (again) tit. white, and shade with tiny bits of sepia. Real dark shades can be painted with ivory black. In the end this will give a brownish tinted white.

On the other hand, to simulate a blue/greyish white, I started to experiment myself following much the same method. In this case I use Paynes grey from W&N instead of the sepia. Again highlighting with tit. white (WOW and dry), but ultimate shading with lamp black instead of ivory black.

Both sepia and Paynes gray are semi transparant colours which IMHO are very convenient for the painting of white cloth.

Remember the end result depends upon the undertone of the oil colour!
So use sepia in combination with ivory black and Paynes gray with lamp black.

Ciao buddy

JoHaN

 

[Einion]

Hi Marc, these trousers were almost certain not to be a very clean white so I would first start from that idea, the base should be a cream or buff so if you work over an acrylic basecoat use somethig like this, not straight white.

One of the general methods for shading white is just to use a mix of black and an earth colour to shade them; black alone almost always look wrong, it makes greys that are too blue, but using umber helps counteract this. You might find that the best results are with mostly brown and only a small dot of black or blue (Ultramarine for example). You can use Burnt Umber or Raw Umber for this, but red earths also work okay although you would use less of them.

I don't know what paints you have but Titanium White would be the best white to use in oils as a starting point because it is the most opaque, if you are using another white that will usually make the mixtures a little transparent which is harder to paint with in general.

Try this:
Highlight: Titanium White and a little Burnt Umber.
Shadow: Titanium White, Burnt Umber and a little black or blue.
Midtone: same colours as for the shadow but with more white and more umber.

If you want to highlight further you can just add a little more white to the highlight mix, possibly with a very small addition of ochre.

Or this:
Highlight: Titanium White and a little Raw Umber.
Shadow: Titanium White, Raw Umber and a little black or blue.
Midtone: same colours as for the shadow but with more white and more umber.

Or this:
Highlight: Titanium White with a little of the midtone mix.
Shadow: Titanium White, a little black or blue and just a touch of Venetian Red (add carefully).
Midtone: add white to the shadow mix.

Einion

 

[megroot]

Oke Guys,

I really wanted to thank you all for the input in my question. i am very sure that my white's are white with a lovely shade and highlighting.
Great to have so many answers. Now i have to try on some pieces plastic sheet what works best for me.
Thank you all.

marc.

 

[Roc]

Mark, my friend my advice to you is to experiment on your own untill you come up with someyhing that is pleasing to you, the important thing is that you are pleased with the results.
Cheers
Roc.

 

[megroot]

Thanks Rocco,

I'll keep that in mind. And you are absolutely wright. It must please me and i must be satisfied. But it was difficult to paint white. Now i have some solutions for my problem.

Marc