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I'm painting the cape on the Space Marine Commander, and am struggling to understand how I can get a nice white that's shaded and looks good, as the shady areas aren't deep enough to make really obvious shadows.

So far I've:

Primed black
Based with fortress grey
Layered with white
Shaded with reikland flesh shade
Got clueless where to go next.

I think I need to go back to grey and highlight up to white without any washes, though I'm seriously struggling to see which bits I need to highlight. If it were armour plates I think I'd have an easier job of it, as the edges would give me a guide 'zone', these wavy cloak lines are killing me though!

Thanks in advance.

Kitch

First stick thread is to not post requests here bud

But just to help you out quick see this

1600+ posts in over a year, and yet you can't be bothered to read the VERY FIRST post in this forum that says no requests. You don't even have to read the post, it says right in the title "NO REQUESTS".

For newbies it's one thing, you've been here long enough to know better.

I'm not trying to be mean, but at least put forth a modicum of effort to know the general rules of dakka.

 Aerethan wrote:
I'm not trying to be mean, ....

Then I would recommend just hitting the Mod Alert button and letting us deal with it, rather than putting on the kickin' boots.


Moving to general P&M.

Start by not priming in black. That alone will make it so much brighter. You can also try shading with a deep green-brown (or any color, really... don't be afraid to try something new) instead of boring old grey. To make it look the best, try wet blending or if you use an airbrush spray from the sides.

 kitch102 wrote:
I'm painting the cape on the Space Marine Commander, and am struggling to understand how I can get a nice white that's shaded and looks good, as the shady areas aren't deep enough to make really obvious shadows.

So far I've:

Primed black
Based with fortress grey
Layered with white
Shaded with reikland flesh shade
Got clueless where to go next.

I think I need to go back to grey and highlight up to white without any washes, though I'm seriously struggling to see which bits I need to highlight. If it were armour plates I think I'd have an easier job of it, as the edges would give me a guide 'zone', these wavy cloak lines are killing me though!

Thanks in advance.

Kitch

It can be done with starting with black, but the process is grueling.

First of all, what kind of white do you want? A warm one? A clean, neutral one? A cold one? Each white will use different colors for their shadows but will use the same color for the highlight which is, in no surprise, white.

This has been painted starting from black using the ff. technique


Prime Black,
Layer Scorched Brown
Layer Bestial Brown
Layer Snakebite Leather
Layer Dwarf Flesh
Layer Elf Flesh
Layer Bleached Bone
Highlight with Skull White
Wash with Gryphonne Sepia and/or Devlan Mud as desired, and retouch highlights.

Notice that I used multiple transitional layers of different colors rather than applying a light basecoat again and again in thin layers. Make sure than when you do this, you don't cover up the last color you painted entirely: leave some of it in the recesses and blend it a bit on parts where the shadows are not that stark.

Robinson92 wrote:First stick thread is to not post requests here bud

But just to help you out quick see this

D'oh! Dropped a bollock there! Thanks for the link

Aerethan wrote:1600+ posts in over a year, and yet you can't be bothered to read the VERY FIRST post in this forum that says no requests. You don't even have to read the post, it says right in the title "NO REQUESTS".

For newbies it's one thing, you've been here long enough to know better.

I'm not trying to be mean, but at least put forth a modicum of effort to know the general rules of dakka.

Mods, can I have permission to snap back at this guy please? PLEEEEASE?! Oh come on, you know I'm the peaceful one on Dakka, it can't hurt just once can it?! Just a little bit then? Can I hit him with a digital stick instead then? OH COME ON MAN! BE REASONABLE! Let's get some perspective here, this guy's acting like I drowned the cat or something, and I'm not even allowed a little retribution?! But he's one of those guys! You know, the ones that swoop in, crap on everything and leave without even washing their hands? Right final offer, let me throw a small bar of soap. I only have a ballistic skill of 2 so the chances of me missing are high. What? It's a fair suggestion if you ask me!

Fine, I'll drop it. This time.

(that was actually really fun and kinda therapeutic to write!)

insaniak wrote:

 Aerethan wrote:
I'm not trying to be mean, ....

Then I would recommend just hitting the Mod Alert button and letting us deal with it, rather than putting on the kickin' boots.


Moving to general P&M.

Dankeschon mein freund

ScootyPuffJunior wrote:Start by not priming in black. That alone will make it so much brighter. You can also try shading with a deep green-brown (or any color, really... don't be afraid to try something new) instead of boring old grey. To make it look the best, try wet blending or if you use an airbrush spray from the sides.

Grrr, wet blending... I don't get how to do that technique on little bits of plastic! I've watched videos on youtube and all that but can't get the approach right at all!

heartserenade wrote:

 kitch102 wrote:
I'm painting the cape on the Space Marine Commander, and am struggling to understand how I can get a nice white that's shaded and looks good, as the shady areas aren't deep enough to make really obvious shadows.

So far I've:

Primed black
Based with fortress grey
Layered with white
Shaded with reikland flesh shade
Got clueless where to go next.

I think I need to go back to grey and highlight up to white without any washes, though I'm seriously struggling to see which bits I need to highlight. If it were armour plates I think I'd have an easier job of it, as the edges would give me a guide 'zone', these wavy cloak lines are killing me though!

Thanks in advance.

Kitch

It can be done with starting with black, but the process is grueling.

First of all, what kind of white do you want? A warm one? A clean, neutral one? A cold one? Each white will use different colors for their shadows but will use the same color for the highlight which is, in no surprise, white.

This has been painted starting from black using the ff. technique

Spoiler:

Prime Black,
Layer Scorched Brown
Layer Bestial Brown
Layer Snakebite Leather
Layer Dwarf Flesh
Layer Elf Flesh
Layer Bleached Bone
Highlight with Skull White
Wash with Gryphonne Sepia and/or Devlan Mud as desired, and retouch highlights.

Notice that I used multiple transitional layers of different colors rather than applying a light basecoat again and again in thin layers. Make sure than when you do this, you don't cover up the last color you painted entirely: leave some of it in the recesses and blend it a bit on parts where the shadows are not that stark.

I'm looking for a clean white, as the majority of the model that it's going against is black so I have to have it contrast nicely. The best example I can find is this (have PM'd the poster for a tutorial before anyone asks!), any thoughts you might have on achieving this would be ace:

With that it's really easier to start with grey or white.

But you can get my tutorial and replace the colors I used with different shades of greys. But don't use 50 shades of them.

 heartserenade wrote:
With that it's really easier to start with grey or white.

But you can get my tutorial and replace the colors I used with different shades of greys. But don't use 50 shades of them.

You know, I probably shouldn't admit this, but I've only just got the 50 shades reference having looked back at your post after 2 days... Dag-nab-it.

I'm getting close to the result I want, having just layered on watered down skull white, and when there's eventually none left on my brush, I just wet it again and push it around some more. Leave it to dry and repeat. I think I've done about 3 layers so far (on top of the stuff listed in my first post) and it's looking close. I had a (admittedly quick) look at your tutorial, though could only find stuff on White Scars iirc, do you have anything specific to shading cloaks when there aren't the hard edges of armour to play with?

Cheers