Chest of Colors forum

so far the brightest/shiniest part is the fur on his leg

Sophie 2010. Looking to work with black more. I am having a bit of trouble with highlighting black.

Thoughts?

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as for me - instead of highlightning try to glaze the black with diluted black ink: should give more depth to shadows
that's what I'd do of course

Black is one of the more difficult colours to get right. On your fig, the stockings are too grey and the reflective surface is too big. Try shading it all back down again, and highlight only the most reflective spots.

When I paint black I usually start from a mid colour. A mid tone blue or grey mixed with a bit of black, then I start shading towards black, but I almost never end up with pure black unless it's armour or something similar. When you look at black stuff in real life it's a very dark blue/green/brown etc.
Also when you place highlights, you need to keep in mind what material you are painting and look up some references:

Glossy hard surface:
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Matte hard surface:
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Black leather:
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Dark stockings:
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Just practice and experiment. It really is a hard colour to get right.

I like eyes, lips and whole face. It looks that you had fun painting it. Shorts also look nice. But black parts (boots/stockings) need some more love. Now I don't now if it should look like stockings, leather boots?

I like the last pic...

well TomaZ coverd mouust of rhe problem part ..
i would add - if you paint black - dont use black ... (ye i know thats sounds stiupid but thats true)

Thanks for the kind words guys.

I figure that she was wearing boots rather then stockings. Stockings didn't look like they would fit the mini because of the short shorts. I only really painted black once before and wanted more of a dusty black then. I will need to play around with the recipe more. Again thanks for the help guys.

Definitely boots...

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Keeping them matt might help your colour choice but a black ink glaze would really make them pop

Foo Dog