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Here’s something I’m struggling with - getting the shading right on flowing capes and cloaks. So many minis
have them. I can do something that looks half decent but I’ve got two problems;

i, how to get those sharp contrasts right where the cloaks fold under and you get those nice deep shadows. I always end up with an abrupt line between light and dark which just isn’t right.

i, knowing where to put all the different highlights. It just seems that the texture of a billowing cloak is so complex it’s just difficult to get right.

Anybody have any useful tips or tricks or, maybe even better, know of a video showing how to paint cloaks?

I find the best way to paint cloaks is to start with the darkest colour as a basecoat, then apply the lighter colour in (very) thin glazes over it, the higher the area the more glazes it gets.

Use a specific medium to thin the paints, rather than water.

It really does work wonders, patience is the key.

Edit: the abrubt line on your cloaks is caused by your paint being too thick. When you thin your paints right down you will see the difference (and become a better painter in the process).

Good luck

Many thin coats, many hand-mixed intermediate shades. It sounds like you have the concept right, you just need to work on refining your technique and adding smoother transitions between light and dark. General practice on hand-mixing 5-10 different intermediate shades between two colors and blending them is what will get you there and improve your models in general.

You really don't need intermediate shades if you are using thin glazes.

For example, from a terracota basecoat I can make the transitions as smooth as required using only a bright red paint and plenty of glazing medium.

I use oil paints to make surfaces like this blend smoothly. They're so easy to blend on surfaces that I have completely stopped using wet blending and glazing.

 Freya wrote:
I use oil paints to make surfaces like this blend smoothly. They're so easy to blend on surfaces that I have completely stopped using wet blending and glazing.

QFT. I've been using exclusively oil paints on minis for just over a year now, and recently had to use acrylics again at a paint-and-take event at a con, and totally fought with it.

Generally, though, smooth blends is important on cloth surfaces. They don't reflect light as harshly as metallic or harder surfaces, so you need transitions to be smoother to sell the effect. Whenever you're painting, it's important to consider where your light source is to help you place highlights and shadows. One really simple trick you can do is to hold your model and look at it from an angle where your "light" would be (e.g., top-left over shoulder or whatever). The bits of the model you can actually see at that angle would be where the highest brights should be. If you have a little penlight, you can shine that from your light source angle, too (this works really well for helping with OSL, by the way).

For acrylics, getting smooth blends is most often accomplished with glazes, though you can wet-blend, too, with practice.