Shading and highlighting red

[braxat2000]

Hi,
I have a question regarding painting red.

I'm planning to paint the PiliPili Geisha, and one of the options is red which I find a difficult color to paint.

I would be grateful for some advice on how to highlight it without it turning to orange or pink, and shading it.

Paint of choice will be oil, possibly with some humbrol enamels.

Many thanks in advance!

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Hello again Eyal!

Nice to see the results with the black highlighting.
Id suggest that you once again use flesh for highlighting the red.

Cheers

 

[Arminous]

Hi there!


Well,red is one of my favorite colors and I would say it's easy to paint!It alwsyas depends on which red you'd like to paint...If it's not Vermilion,no need of pink or orange highlights(I hate them!).I guess you want to paint a deep intensive red (close to Crinson),which relfexes like silk,right?(We're talking about a Geisha,so...).Give it a basic coat of Carmine rec and Alisorin Crimson and a little Ivory Black.Shadows with Ivory Black and some deep purple(I paint with acrylics so I don't know the exact names of the oils,sorry...).Highlight first with Alisorin Crimson and last highlights only with Carmine red.

Instead of purple,you could use different browns,but this will give you a less deep red result.(I wouldn't recomment it for a Geisha...)


Hope I helped!I wish you good luck and happy painting!

Cheerz!
-Kostas.

 

[Roc]

Kostas. the methods above for paintind red are all good.

This is my way of painting reds:

A- Base = Cadmium Red + Cadmium Red Deep.
D- 1st. shadows = Cadmium Red Deep.
2nd. shadows = Allizzarin Crimson.
3rd shadows = Dioxide purple { Any purple will do}
Very extreme shadows a little black.
C- Medium highlight = Cadmium red
D- light highlights = Scarlet.

If you want a matte finish put in the oven at a warm temperature of 140 degrees
usually over night.

I hope this helps.

Cheers
Roc.

 

[Einion]

Hi Eyal, most people have trouble painting reds convincingly when they start out so you're not alone.

Originally posted by braxat2000@May 29 2006, 06:36 AM
I would be grateful for some advice on how to highlight it without it turning to orange or pink, and shading it.

Which red paint will you be using as a base? Because paints aren't simply colours two different red paints don't react exactly the same when you're mixing so you can't use a single formula and get the same results all the time.

But the easiest way to avoid the problem of the mix going orange or pink is just to use both white and yellow - simple Using a flesh mix to highlight red does the same job pretty much since fleshtones generally contain white and yellow.

For shading the common advice is to use a little green to mix the medium shadows but again this depends on the exact red you're using, for some red paints (scarlet shades mostly) the best colour to use might be a blue!

Personally I'll almost never use a tube colour like red without dulling it down slightly for painting a fabric so just for the base colour I'll usually dull it down slightly with something.

Einion

 

[bonehead]

Red. I have seen so many models with this color over painted. The trick is to know that you cannot highlight red much without making it look like a color other than bright red.

The other problem is that adding black or other such colors to shade it will just turn it brown and muddy.

So, the solution is to make your base coat slightly darker than your intended basic red color. Highlight it with pure red, then one single highlight tone with a little white and yellow added. NOT MUCH!!! Flesh will work as well since it is basically red yellow and white mixed together.

For shadows, use a maroon color. That is a deep, dark RED. Do not mix black in. If you need to darken it add alizarin crimson and then purple for the darkest tones. Avoid bright highlights and keep the shadow colors limited in volume. Less is more in this case. The trick to making red look like red is to leave more RED showing than anything else. The less alduterants the better........

 

[PJ Deluhery]

Here is an excellent article on the subject... all you need to know.

Painting Reds

 

[KeithP]

Good posts....

Pyrol Red can be shaded with cabazole purple
Cad Red can be shaded with Phtalo green.

I agree with the comments about Red needing a bit of mod for the base coat. Add a bit of the shade color if you need to tone it down.

I avoid using white when highlighting red as that tends to pink. Try a little naples yellow or even jaune brilliant instead if you like. I have used Lukas Flesh 1 and 4 added to the base for wet on wet highlight. I used a bit of Cad scarlett + Cad red med to the highlander tunic in my bench.

Try experimenting different mixes. That, for me, is half the fun. I spent a couple hours last night trying to find a good blue gray for a confederate tunic! ha!

Keith

 

[braxat2000]

Thank you all for the wonderful tips and ideas.

I actually messed a bit the first post, the painter is going to be my wife, and I'm doing the leg work .
I'm going to advice but not to hold the paintbrush ,myself but its going to be fun.

I'll post some pictures when we get there.