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I have been using some GW shades on my ogre army and am pretty happy with how they came out – it has given them a kind of dirty look overall (with darker colours in the recesses).

I was wondering in situations where you wanted a cleaner look overall whether there was a technique to make sure close to none of the shade rested on areas that weren’t recesses (i.e., so that it wouldn’t give an overall look of being dirty). In particular when paint hairy/furry troops I am not sure if the “dirty” look would be that appealing (in that I think that it would detract from the look of it being hair/fur).

I was thinking about applying the shades more thinly (or doing multiple thin coats), trying to aim the shade only into the recesses (as opposed to applying it to the whole model) or adding detergent or something to further reduce the surface tension to the shade?

Suggest you try painting the shades directly in the recesses. When diluting the shade, though, add a touch of dishsoap into the water - that will help break up the surface tension.

Becareful thinning the wash if its too thin it wont grip. Brush size is important also. I usually use a small brush like 10/0 or a 000 detail brush and have a dry brush handy to clean up raised areas or drain recesses if they get too full. Repeat if needed. Then i go back over raised areas with a highlight.

This is very easy to achieve. Simply apply gloss varnish to the model and allow to dry fully. You can cover the entire model with a rattle can or just paint it on the area to be shaded with a brush (acrylic varnish can be thinned the same way as paint). However you choose to apply it, make sure it cures fully per the directions on the bottle or can.

Then apply your wash as normal. If any wash gets where you don't want it, just wipe off the excess with a damp cotton bud.

Yup second for glossing.

I like applying shades directly to the crevices, the only problem is its hard to avoid a hard edge between the washed area and the unwashed area.

One trick is to use 2 brushes, one to apply and keep the other one clean, apply your line of wash to the crevices then before it dries grab the clean one and run it over the edge to try and blend it. Doing this is obviously a lot more time consuming though.

But I will say, the reason I swapped to largely using oils and enamels for my washes was because that's harder to get right with standard acrylic washes. With an oil or enamel if you mess it up you can usually dab a bit of thinner on your brush and clean it up, doing that with acrylics often just makes life harder.

Another way to avoid the hard edge is to feather it out with medium of some kind. If you're patient and willing to do your washes of recesses in sections that are friendly to gravity, you can lay down some clear, thin medium first - this will tend to fall into the recesses. Then, very lightly paint the recesses with your shade, before the medium dries. The same capillary action that makes washes work will at all make the wash stick mostly to the recesses, but bleed away a little more (because of the medium), giving it a more diffused edge.

I find that I have success with this technique when used on things like muscle or cloth, which don't fare well with overly exaggerated shadows.

All previous suggestions are great. You could just simply apply the wash and then reapply the base colour avoiding the recesses once the wash has dried for contrast and then highlight up as necessary.

But +1 for oils and glossing too

theres nothing stopping you applying washes to specific areas. you dont have to coat the whole thing. in my experience learning how to use washes effectively went hand in hand with learning to highlight well. for example when i do a face, i will give it an overall wash of reikland, then once this is dried i will use agrax in the eye areas to make them more gaunt. then red washes in wounds, nuln oil to darken the inside of an open mouth etc. get a fine brush and use your washes for details.. thats what theyre for.

I'm totally sold on gloss varnish and pin washing. I do it on nearly everything now just to help quickly define details or separate colours. If you've got an airbrush it takes seconds.