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Pretty new to painting currently painting tyranids. The purple I'm using seems too dark (druchii violet) I want to go with either a blue or purple for the small crevices. Could use whatever tips anyone has. Also can I just water down a layer paint to get the wash effect? https://imgur.com/gallery/B4WN8 - link is same as image attachments

Yes you can. Lahmian medium works better than water when you thin right down though.

You can. You want to make sure you use distilled water (NOT purified). Purified water still has some minerals in it. Distilled is pure water. You want to go for at least a 50/50 mix of water to paint for a wash but might be better to go a little higher. What you are trying to do is both dilute the pigment counter and get the paint to flow more.

Looks pretty decent so far. The direct compliment of green is red. So getting a nice deep violet purple heading more in the red direction than the blue is a good way to get the colors to stand out from each other and really pop.

Might want a more yellowy brown bone color for the talons and teeth and other spikey bits. Gold compliments purple very well and so heading in that yellow direction could also help a lot to make each part really be distinct on the table.

If you want to make a wash from paint, you might want something to kill the surface tension of the water. A tad bit of flo aid will work, but I find just a touch of liquid dishwashing soap (like just touch your brush in it) mixed in with the paint/water mix really helps if you don't have that. If you don't do that, and you are using a pretty heavy wash, you will get bare spots in the recesses and tide marks will be more noticeable.

 Lance845 wrote:
Looks pretty decent so far. The direct compliment of green is red. So getting a nice deep violet purple heading more in the red direction than the blue is a good way to get the colors to stand out from each other and really pop.

Might want a more yellowy brown bone color for the talons and teeth and other spikey bits. Gold compliments purple very well and so heading in that yellow direction could also help a lot to make each part really be distinct on the table.

would you be able to recommend a gold, violet and a better yellow? I currently have genestealer purple and my yellows (bone) skeleton bone, buff (ushbati bone) and underhive ash.

I don't know the exact colors but something like this



or this



They key in these is to get some kind of yellow that is pretty muted. kind of greyed out. Pretty white. Not a super vibrant yellow. Then wash it pretty heavy with agrax earthshade to muddy it up and brown it.

Your purple that you have it good in my opinion.