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Hey guys and gals,

How do you make reds really 'pop'? Specifically, how do you make reds on cloth brighter. I'm doing a squad of fire dragons bathed in gloss black, 6 coats of orange getting progressively brighter, and pure red on their tabards. Ideas on making it bright without making it pink?

Multiple thin layers of red always works for me.

The most important part is the basecoat. Use some kind of brown, you can always shade down the deeper parts using inks.

For the parts that are supposed to "go pop", use multiple layers of thin red (as fifty said), then start adding yellow to the red but watch out not to get everything too orange-y. After that, start mixing a peach-y tone using yellow, red and white. If the colour gets too pink or too orange, try using glazes of red to redden it up again. Takes some practice but this should be the way to go.

Also consider using the foundation paints. The Mecharite Red has very nice coverage over the black primer. You'll still want to paint several layers of lighter reds, but the foundation makes a good... foundation... for the rest.

I'll second Kolath's recommendation here too. I'm painting Crimson Fists using Mechrite as a base coat, followed by a few coats of Blood Red and it's very bright. I finish it off with a 3:1 Blood Red and Blazing Orange mix on my hard edges.

nono, red is like yellow - you don't make the primary color brighter by making it brighter, you make it brighter by making everything else around it duller.

For example, in this ever-classic mini, the bright colors are using the brightest colors available - the same ones you're using. In order to make them look really bright, the shadows were made super dark, and even the regular colors were dulled down in order to make the brights look like they have just that much more pop.

As such, if you want to make the red redder, make everything else less saturated and darker by comparison.

Don't use black primer.
(For general purposes why is this so prevalent with GW?)

Base colour depends on what sort of red you want.
I think Ailaros is correct.

Adding orange highlights will dilute the overall effect.
Also mix some green in the shadows (practice first if in doubt)
Green is the complimentary colour and will help intensify the red.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Don't use black primer.
(For general purposes why is this so prevalent with GW?)

Because it's easier to shade, and gives a deeper colour.


Red over black is fine, you just need to work down to it. Do a layer of a darker red or Bestial Brown before going onto the bright red.

Well mixing yellow in with red isn't something I've tried before. I have been doing black with a foundation coat of brown and then several thin layers of red. It's just the hue I don't like with what I'm doing...

@Chibi: i paint red over black primer all the time...
works fine...
it's really a matter of preference, not a hard rule...

@GFC: what effect are you going for???
there are so many way to paint any one color...
i've tried adding yellow, and it looks good...
i've tried just highlighting with orange, and that can look good...
i've tried highlighting with a ruddy fleshtone, and that works...

i prefer to shade with blue instead of greens on red, but that's just me...

one main key thing i've learned is to glaze over your highlights with very thin Red Ink (or Baal Red wash) after you've done any extreme highlights, to bring all the layers together...

hope that helps...

cheers
jah

my recipy for sucsess -
Black undercoat
Machanite Red
Blood Red
Shade with purple ink (not brown)
Highlight up to Bright Red
The a couple of coats of watered down red ink.
That wikll give you a really rich colour

I never get prescriptive over these things.
If it works for you then fine and good but...
you are always fighting against the black undercoat.

If there are no hard and fast rules try something other than black primer.

bubber wrote:my recipy for sucsess -
Black undercoat
Machanite Red
Blood Red
Shade with purple ink (not brown)
Highlight up to Bright Red
The a couple of coats of watered down red ink.
That will give you a really rich colour

This is what I was looking for. I just want to try something new. I've tried white primer, black primer, etc. I'm looking for that fiery red that is bright in contrast, hue, and brightness. I'm currently using Baal red which really does a lot, but after that it still doesn't pop like I want it to. It's not the undercoat that's the problem. It's exactly what I want. It's what comes after inking/glazing (i.e. finishing colours) that isn't giving me what I want.

yeah, i'm not a fan of the dull finish of the GW washes...
i prefer the finish of the P3 inks...

@Chibi:i don't ever feel like i'm fighting the black undercoat at all, but I use P3 paints, which cover black incredibly well no matter how light the paint is (even yellows)...
i have used white and grey undercoats as well...
white is good for "juicing", but grey doesn't do anything for me...
in my most recent experiment of red over a white undercoat i found that it did't save me any time or cut down on the # of layers I had to use...

cheers
jah