Painting light greens.

[landingshortly]

Hi there.

Actually my first post...

Got a question for you pros. I'd say that I'm not too bad at painting myself, it's just some colors I have a slight problem with.

Like green, as I mainly use GW paints and the green range is not to my liking. Maybe I am using it with the wrong techniques. I do what others would call glazing, painting with paint thinned down x10 with water.

The problem I encounter with greens ist that I have no solid clue how to make it stand out. Like a fresh, acid looking light green. Scorpion Green would be the color, actually, but I just cannot pull it off. Glazing it is not a problem at all but what would be the optimal shadow and highlight color in order to have it pop out?

For the highlight I tried mixing-in P3 white which is OK but I feel that it makes the finish to cold and flat. Then I tried Golden Yellow for quite a few times but it was not to my liking as well, as the consistency of the color is just trash for me. So what would you recommend fot me to highlight?

When shadowing, I tried working it up from greens like the traditional route via GW Dark Angels Green - Snot Green - Scorpion Green but it just looks off. Then I tried shadowing with blues which did not work that well ... strangely enough, a strong violet shadow works wonders. Do you think that's the right way to pull off aggressive, acid, light green?

Thanks & cheers!
landingshortly.

[mahon]

why would violet shadows be anything wrong here? actually adding a complementary color to your green would be a good and quite realistic approach.

complementary color for green is red. your Scorpion Green is a yellowish kind of green, so your red would have to go into the blue tint a bit - and there you have violets

dark violet + your yellowish green should give you nice muted shadows, which will make more highlighted parts of the green stand out.

and what about highlighting? you can use yellows or ivory colors (nice because they highlight well and don't make colors look chalky) in mixed with your green. or just apply them on top of the green (or highlight it up to ivory or white) and then cover the whole area with layers of green glazes. similar method is often used with reds - another difficult color - highlight it very much and then cover the whole thing with glazes to avoid making it pinkish.

and if you want a striking color - don't flat varnish it, or you're going to get your saturation dulled down...

I hope it helps or at least inspires some more ideas

[Maru]

a help from color whell
https://www.colorjack.com/sphere/?LoadJa ... ev:0.52705

end ike Mahon sed dont shade with black - use opisite end dont make highlights with white - use cold yellow (ice yelow) or ivory
black end white thats brightnes not colors so let that to mix not for sole usage

[PollutedWisdom]

Hi there.

Actually my first post...

Got a question for you pros. I'd say that I'm not too bad at painting myself, it's just some colors I have a slight problem with.

Like green, as I mainly use GW paints and the green range is not to my liking. Maybe I am using it with the wrong techniques. I do what others would call glazing, painting with paint thinned down x10 with water.

The problem I encounter with greens ist that I have no solid clue how to make it stand out. Like a fresh, acid looking light green. Scorpion Green would be the color, actually, but I just cannot pull it off. Glazing it is not a problem at all but what would be the optimal shadow and highlight color in order to have it pop out?

For the highlight I tried mixing-in P3 white which is OK but I feel that it makes the finish to cold and flat. Then I tried Golden Yellow for quite a few times but it was not to my liking as well, as the consistency of the color is just trash for me. So what would you recommend fot me to highlight?

When shadowing, I tried working it up from greens like the traditional route via GW Dark Angels Green - Snot Green - Scorpion Green but it just looks off. Then I tried shadowing with blues which did not work that well ... strangely enough, a strong violet shadow works wonders. Do you think that's the right way to pull off aggressive, acid, light green?

Thanks & cheers!
landingshortly.

If you have any pics available, post them so we can get a visual of what may be wrong.

[Muskie]

I have painted a lot of green. Are you using GW Rotting Flesh or are you trying for more of an olive? I'm not the best with GW paint names, especially the new new GW paint names. Regardless of what green you want, try blending/mixing in something other than white. Try beige (bleached bone) or a light grey (fortress). The other option is to not use any green paint at all, instead paint the area grey. From dark grey even black, up to pale pale grey just below white. Then tint with either a really thin wash or a green glaze. This will work for blue, purple too if you want that pale ghostly sickly look.

I do this sometimes on my Nurgle models.


Horde of 40 Nugle Plaguebearers by Muskie McKay, on Flickr

Lots of different experimental plaguebearer skin colors.