Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I suspect I might be in a hiding to nothing with this, but I'll ask anyway.

My painting is getting to a reasonable level from a technical standpoint (my recent reveal of my new army at my club actually drew a crowd, which was very gratifying!) but there is one aspect which I still struggle with, and making errors slows my painting, even if it doesn't necessarily ruin the ultimate result.

Hi, I'm Azreal and I have a hard time choosing colours.

I don't mean choosing a scheme, I mean actually translating the colour I intend in my head onto the model, selecting or mixing the right shade for a highlight or shade, the actual, technical process of selecting the right shade of paint.

I'm familiar with at least basic colour theory, and what colours need to be added to what to arrive at other colours, that isn't what I'm driving at, but I appear to have the visual equivalent to being tone deaf (without being actually colour blind)

So I ask, am I alone in this? Is there a technique that I'm unaware of, or some exercise I can practice to improve? Or am I just handicapped with a poor eye for colour and will I have to adjust and adapt as best as possible?

So what your saying is you have a colour in your head and have a hard time deciding what paint and in what methods you use will produce the correct colour?

I'm sorry here but in my experience, the skill of getting colours to work as you imagine them takes practice. Lot and lots of practice.


There are some things you can do to help- looking around can help. Look around various galleries like Dakka and CMON and if you find something that matches what you are looking for, ask the owner how they did it. Youtube tutorials are good ways too. After painting serveral models you eventually learn how each paint interacts with each other paint and what colour is produced and you learn by experience.

Sadly I agree with the above, I have a select few colors that I know I can paint, shade and highlight in a method that mirrors how I imagine it in my head and tend to focus alot on those colors in whichever army I do as it can most accurately translate my vision of the army to how it appears on the table top. Over time the colors that I have used as secondary to my "favoured" colors have gotten better and become larger focuses on my models but only when I know I can do them well enough to match up with my expectations.

IIRC Army painter has something on choosing colours.

One thing I tend to do that gives a lot of control over colour shades is to apply 2 paints in separate pudles/blobs to a mixing palette, possibly with some thinner/water if they are a little thick. Then, you slowly drag across one paint to the other, and essentially create a gradient across the palette with the solid colours at both ends, and the various shades in between. You then get a good idea of how much of each paint is needed for a certain shade, and can mix the rest to this shade. You then also have reserves of each colour for when you want to darken/lighten the paint for shading/highlighting. It's not the more precise technique, and still needs a little practice, but is fairly easy to pick up and ensures you get a clean transition of colour, and you can always access one or the other paint to change the shade if you aren't happy.

I don't know if that's helpful at all, but hopefully it is.

Maybe you could try to work with predetermined triads instead of coming up with your own. I know I've seen a gw triad guide somewhere around here. And most of the paint companies sell paint triads or list them at least. Then you just find the middle-high color/tone that comes as close to what's in your head as you can get and work with the shade/color/highlight that they've already worked up to work together. I'm not an expert paint mixer by any stretch so that's probably where I would start too.