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Gearing up for my Space Marine project and I wanted to bounce some ideas of the Dakka crowd.

Current 'working name' is Kodiak Lords, and initial fluff idea Raven Guard Successor chapter, most of the army is built around sniper scouts and 'hunting' targets with 'big guns' (I.E. Devastators) . And then closing on wounded prey with assault marines, and terminators. As they move around a lot they don't have tanks, but they do have the variety of Stormtalon, Stormraven, etc. And Land Speeders. So scouting, stealth and brutal ambushes are their thing. They don't play the 'noble' stalwart defender thing or care about 'honorable' combat. They fight as dirty as the codex allows. And then dirtier still if no one is looking. Not sure yet if I want them to have a home world or make them nomadic.

So this is the general idea I'm debating between color schemes and these shoulder pad icons I got from Pop Goes the Monkey.


The brown color is going to be more of a reddish brown copper metallic (as it's what I got the most of to utilize) It's the complementary colors I'm having the hardest time with.

The red one and the white legs ones I think are the most aesthetically pleasing where the copper/black is the 'toughest' look. Add to that I'm not sure what the icon color should be. The inside area is lower so I was thinking a dark green, or red, with gold trim or gold inside and black trim to match the shoulder pad edges.

But honestly I'm not sure. Anyone got an idea for what might be the best mix of icon color and marine colors? And colors that go good with copper?

I love the idea, and the strategy behind it. I'm actually quite partial to the top left, with the cream and copper. A nice 'dull' khaki would look great with the more metallic copper, and kinda fit into the hunting/"woodsy" aesthetic in my opinion.

I also like the top left. Good choice there.

For the emblems, I'd suggest going with a lighter colour "face" darker colour shadow, like the green and black... though not necessarily those colours.

The shadows are inverse, if you go dark for the "face", and then light for the shadowed areas.

Cool I'm glad that one's getting some positive feedback. And yeah 'woodsy' and more down to earth is what I was going for.

And so a lighter color high and the darker color for the face and teeth on the icon?

The green and black icon, where the ears, teeth, forehead and sides of the snout are lighter... that's what I'd suggest if you want it to look like a "normal" creature. For example, the eyes would be in shadow, the teeth would be brighter compared to the inner mouth.

The inverse ones were hard for me to figure out, because they're reverse-lit. Looks more like a "ghost" bear. They look like light is coming out of their eyes and inner mouth. The light source is "backwards".

You don't have to go with black and green... just have the eye / inner mouth sections be darker than the other sections... if you want a normal-lighted critter.

To aid in complementary color selection:

Brown is made from mixing green and red together.
Will get warmer brown by mixing more red into it, and cooler brown by mixing more green into it.

Therefor, green and red are both Analogous colors in relationship to brown.
I would pick one, red or green, but not both!

My art teacher, from years ago, told me this, and it stuck with me "There are only 2 types of people who use many many colors on the palette, the ones who know exactly what they are doing, and those who don't have a clue"

Tonal variation of dark and light versions of the brown (like beige, ochre, raw unber, burnt siena, ets) are also Analogous to general brown and will work quite well!

That is the Analogous route!


You can also go opposite route, by pick a color that is opposite on the color wheel from your brown base.
Reddish dark brown is pretty much ether very dark orange or very dark and muted red.
For dark orange your opposite would be light blue
For dark muted red opposite would be light teal

hope this makes sense and helps




Automatically Appended Next Post:
So, the purpose of the Analogous and Opposite breakdown is not to say, THIS IS HOW IT IS DONE!

These types of color combinations create max amount of color contrast.
And contrast is your best friend when dealing with very small and detailed things.


ps - find a better color wheel, I just realized that one is bit off...

greatbigtree wrote:The green and black icon, where the ears, teeth, forehead and sides of the snout are lighter... that's what I'd suggest if you want it to look like a "normal" creature. For example, the eyes would be in shadow, the teeth would be brighter compared to the inner mouth.

The inverse ones were hard for me to figure out, because they're reverse-lit. Looks more like a "ghost" bear. They look like light is coming out of their eyes and inner mouth. The light source is "backwards".

You don't have to go with black and green... just have the eye / inner mouth sections be darker than the other sections... if you want a normal-lighted critter.

I think what might be making it hard is the ears are on the same raised area of the icon with the red and green are in the recesses of it.
Uncolored version: https://www.shapeways.com/product/M4TAYJDZH/60x-iron-bears-shoulder-insignia-pack?optionId=153725310&li=shops

Mothsniper wrote:To aid in complementary color selection:

Brown is made from mixing green and red together.
Will get warmer brown by mixing more red into it, and cooler brown by mixing more green into it.

Therefor, green and red are both Analogous colors in relationship to brown.
I would pick one, red or green, but not both!

My art teacher, from years ago, told me this, and it stuck with me "There are only 2 types of people who use many many colors on the palette, the ones who know exactly what they are doing, and those who don't have a clue"

Tonal variation of dark and light versions of the brown (like beige, ochre, raw unber, burnt siena, ets) are also Analogous to general brown and will work quite well!

That is the Analogous route!


You can also go opposite route, by pick a color that is opposite on the color wheel from your brown base.
Reddish dark brown is pretty much ether very dark orange or very dark and muted red.
For dark orange your opposite would be light blue
For dark muted red opposite would be light teal

hope this makes sense and helps




Automatically Appended Next Post:
So, the purpose of the Analogous and Opposite breakdown is not to say, THIS IS HOW IT IS DONE!

These types of color combinations create max amount of color contrast.
And contrast is your best friend when dealing with very small and detailed things.


ps - find a better color wheel, I just realized that one is bit off...

That helps though. think this is why the teal eyes on the space marine helm are growing on me too.
Maybe with the color wheel and some looks at decoration magazines came up with this:


Maybe sea green/teal for the inside of the bear and either black or cream/tan for the raised part to match the trim?

KingmanHighborn

cant see the image.

Maybe sea green/teal for the inside of the bear and either black or cream/tan for the raised part to match the trim?

Honestly, the colors can be anything at all, as long as the contrast worked out.
You can have pink on green with some blue, but it matters what kind of pink (warm or cold) and is it (dark or light) and is it ( muted or saturated) Same thing for green and blue.
So, as long as your tonal contrast is working, the colors are a bit irrelevant.

Best example of how irrelevant what colors go where is in the art by (Xiao Pan - Benjamin)
He uses the entire rainbow of colors, but the tonal range is spot on, and images do not lose the coherency even with full rainbow crazy colors.
(meaning that if his image is gray-scaled it would still read well, and be a normal black and white drawing despite the crazy colors)

So, as long as your tonal range and contrast is present, your miniatures will read well even if only in black and white, and then the colors is just a bonus.
But it is much easier and more fun to pick nifty colors to enhance the contrast.

In conclusion, A) use contrasting colors to boost the contrast effect of the paint job.
or B) rely on tone alone for the contrast and experiment with weird color combinations without sacrificing the contrast.


Sea green and teal will work well with black, because black and white works well with anything. lolz
Sea green and teal should work well with cream/tan, like terquise on leather.
Do a test
I paint one guy, usually a sarge, and keep adjusting colors and see what Iook I like, once I am happy and my "test" guy is locked in then i jump to rest of the squad.