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Not to be confused with undercoating, I have really been experimenting with this technique and am surprised how many people (including myself up until recently) do not use this to their advantage.

The key to this is realising the difference in the final Result you get from going from one colour to another. So imagine primed Black.

Black > Red = Muddy Red

Black > Pink > Red = Bright Red



It's really obvious when you see it and think about it.

Examples :-

Using a Brown / Leather colour to give better Golds.

Using a Grey / light Grey to give a better Blues.

Using White to give much brighter results.

http://www.lonebrushman.net/underpainting.htm

I've probably missed some is there any other Examples painters use?

I've been using this on my leathers and my metallics for a while. I realized pretty early into it that painting solid gold wasn't going to be a great idea because my brush would die by the second week of painting, and my gold would be bone dry and used up by then.


I just wasn't paying close enough attention to realize I really could do this better. The problem though? How exactly would you get this to work for yellow

Yellow might work better over a yellowy brown like Vomit Brown?

I've been using tau sept ochre.... it needs less color and it's decently bright, but it's not the same as underpainting. I suppose though that white and pink would have the same kinds of issues, and so too would any bright color now i think of it........

I've recently started priming things white (as opposed to black) and it's been a dream.

The colors are all so bright and vibrant now.

I use a lot of Bad Moon Yellow over Tau Sept Ochre for the yellow cloth on my Cadians, as you can tell from my avatar of Pask. I like that combination.

I've also had good results using Blood Red over Vermin Brown.

The problem I find with priming white is the lack of shadow, especially in natural shadow area's (like arm pits or under arms etc).

A Compromise of priming black, then painting any brighter area's white in a composite approach rather like this.



Resulting in this..



Could be a better way.

I did try to use Grey Auto Primer, but I have found that it has the draw backs of both and the advantages of neither.



So i'm going to stick with Black, with a white layer of primer on brighter bits.

He is off to a great start!

I start with Vallejo GC white primer and then block out the areas that need a black undercoat before using a light wash to delineate details. I try to keep the wash away from areas that will need to be very bright on the finished model.

Examples below:




I'm still experimenting with techniques which is why your thread caught my eye.

I like the Colonel Model it looks like a John Blanche Painting turned into a model. I need to finish mine.



And the Major..

The IG Commander is a great model. Hopefully you will find time to finish him. The Kasrkin models are also outstanding. Take a look at the IG advisors set as well. They are very nice sculpts.

from the thread title I was expecting to see some sort of shading before the top colour; akin to how airbrush painting works.

Following what you've already talked about, try doing some shading work within the base colour that will come through on the top colour

Much like mwnciboo's minotaur figure.

 JB wrote:

I actually was looking through "How to paint Citadel Miniatures 2003" and there is a variation of your technique in there, where they wash a White primed Eldar and it really pops. I think I might start to use a combination or Black priming with white, and then a wash.

Last year, when I got back into painting after an extended break, I began priming white and washing with black, and have been very satisfied with the results.

I think perhaps a lot of people do this without realising it's actually a 'technique' per se, and in my opinion is one of the areas where GWs 'Base' paints really stand out.

When I started re-painting my orks, I would prime black, then give all the reds a good coat of Mechrite Red, then basecoat with blood red (rather than using the mechrite as a basecoat) to give it a really strong vibrant red.

Browns make for some really nice, rich golds:



And some deep, ruddy reds:


I can't say I've tried "underpainting" with any other colors, but brown is really lovely.

I use tin bitz to as a base coat for golds.

I accidentally did this to my Golden Helmets on my Tau Firewarrior Shas'ui.

I did my prime Chaos Black, first coated Gore Red, then when I realized I wanted his helmet pure gold I went back over it with Shining Gold a few layers.

The result was really.. I don't wanna say Bronze but its a nice reddish tint to gold compared to the others I just put Gold on Black.

I'm a fan of tin-bitz for gold or bronze colors. Or Vallejo Tinny Tin to be exact. Also have used browns.

I've been keeping this up for a little while now.

Blues get a grey underneath, golds get browns, etc.

Saw a comment about priming grey? Eh, I like it. I should do some more testing for how it would effect the colors I've chosen...

I'm personally a fan of white undercoat -> basecoat -> shading -> highlighting. So rather than starting dark and working my way up, start bright and go down to the basecoat colour and then further down to the shade before going back up to a highlight.

It gives really vibrant colours in a short period of time (no need to do multiple layers and such). I was always taught to use a black undercoat when I started, but these days I barely touch the black spray and most things I start with white.

 poda_t wrote:
I've been using this on my leathers and my metallics for a while. I realized pretty early into it that painting solid gold wasn't going to be a great idea because my brush would die by the second week of painting, and my gold would be bone dry and used up by then.


I just wasn't paying close enough attention to realize I really could do this better. The problem though? How exactly would you get this to work for yellow

For yellow, Averland Sunset actually works great. The old foundation yellows were more browny and dull, Averland Sunset is much closer to yelloww and more vibrant than the old foundations. Recently I've been doing yellow by just doing Averland Sunset -> shade brown -> bright yellow highlight. Each layer goes on easily and smoothly and doesn't need to be layered heaps to get a solid colour.

I know a lot of people are hating on the new GW paints. But a few I can really recommend are Averland Sunset for painting yellow and Balthasar Gold for painting gold, they've both made my life so much simpler for painting yellows and golds.