A Couple of Questions About Using Purple

[Olaf the Stout]

Hi all,

I\'m looking for some advice on using purple. I\'m painting up an Orc Blood Bowl team and planned on using purple as my primary colour. My secondary colour will be red with yellow as a contrasting colour for some minor details. Obviously the Orcs will be green, which will contrast nicely with the red. I am using Games Workshop paints.

Now for the questions. Firstly, how does the colour scheme sound?

Secondly, what is the best way to darken purple? The purple I want to use is an old GW colour called Imperial Purple. Royal Purple is the equivalent Vallejo Game Colour. It is already quite dark but I really want to use it as my mid colour, rather than my shade colour. Do I add some black? A dark blue maybe?

Finally, actual paint colour choice. If I use Imperial Purple as my base colour (which is a relatively dark purple), would Liche Purple be an appropriate highlight colour? Or is something like Warlock Purple better as it has a greater contrast?

Thanks in advance,

Olaf the Stout

 

[Shawn R. L.]

Depending on the paint you\'re using layering will give good controlled tones and retain the richness. Avoid black unless you want a much more dull color. Personally, I try to avoid using black for almost everything.....more pleasing and varied results are possible using color. Even black will have some color to it. Restricting myself this way, when I do use black it has a lot more punch.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I plan on using layering rather than blending (rather than wet blending). I am using GW paints.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Dragonsreach]

I\'ve got to disagree with Shawn as I\'ve found that GW\'s Liche Purple is one of the every few colours that will not look \"muddy\" if you add Black to it.
Admittedly you have to add tiny amounts but you can adjust the colour depth to end up with a very nice deep Blackberry Purple.

 

[laurence]

Purple

Hi. I just finished painting some purple hair last night in honor of my friend Purple Girl.

I found that black worked really well as a shade color. For highlights I added Space Wolves Blue and then some white. After that I had fun glazing with Dark Flesh and Bestial Brown very watered down. Also I added final highlights using a mixture of Basic Skin tone, Bleached Bone & Skull White. Pure white can be a bit harsh! After this I just glazed with very watered down purple to smooth it all out. Don\'t over do it on this last stage as you want to keep the light and shaded areas strong in contrast.

Of course, there are zillions of different ways to paint purple. I think next time I paint purple I\'ll shade with Oxford Blue (a dark blue) and black mixed in with the base color. Just to experiment and make it interesting.

Hope this helps!! Try it out, it\'s cool!

*edit* I\'d be inclined to start with a mid-tone purple color then you have more room to shade and highlight. Also, (I\'m not sure of your level so I\'ll add this) water the paints down considerably (roughly 5-6 parts water to 1 part paint) when shading, don\'t overload your brush and drag the shade color towards the area where the deepest shadows are needed.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Dragonsreach
I\'ve got to disagree with Shawn as I\'ve found that GW\'s Liche Purple is one of the every few colours that will not look \"muddy\" if you add Black to it.

Ditto (not to beat up on Shawn or anything ). Lots of darker colours don\'t go dull when black is added, it\'s just a matter of trying stuff and seeing where it works and where it doesn\'t work (for the kind of results you\'re looking for).

Einion

 

[squig hunter]

Got to agree with Einon here, I find that

Liche purple + a smidge of chaos black
Highlight everywhere but the deepest folds/recesses pure liche purple
Highlight by adding a small amount of warlock purple to the liche purple
Keep highlighting by adding small amounts of white to the liche + warlock mix

Works well, at least, I think so. The graveguard in my log are a good example of this method.

SQuig

 

[Shawn R. L.]

sheesh.................think I\'m going to go paint over here in the corner..........................: )