Colour Theory for Shading and Highlights

[kakita]

Hi guys, a bit elementary colour theorist here, and I\'d just like to pick your brain with a question of mine.

When highlighting and shading, I\'ve heard of highlighting with the colour of the light, and shading with the complementary. This generally means we push towards yellow from highlights and towards blue for shadows, since we assume normal sunlight conditions.

However, I\'ve also heard of people saying to shade towards the complementary of the base colour, ie push towards the greenish side for red shades.

This begs the question, is there a general concensus on which hue to push towards for shadows, or perhaps a line of reasoning/rule of thumb I could use to decide which method to shade with?

Thanks again!

 

[Jericho]

There\'s also some ideas kicking around like Jakob Neilsen\'s classic \"Shade everything with purple\" technique. Many of them work out beautifully, some times these ideas can turn out a bit wonky on a miniature.

With the numerous different styles and whatnot, it\'s hard to come up with any firm rules when it comes to stuff like this. Many times, I simply use a very dark brown color for most of my shading, to tie different parts of a color scheme together and suggest some common dirt/dust/grime on all parts of a model.

I think in the end it has to come down to a case-by-case basis I\'m afraid. Skin tends to benefit from purple shading, regardless of the style you are going for. In some cases though you might be using greys, blues, or greens instead of/in addition to the purples. Cloth can go just about any direction depending on color and lighting conditions. Armor is even more open to influence from environment.

I wish I could be more specific and come up with some handy rule of thumb, but sadly we don\'t get to do that very often except when it comes to \"Thin your paints\" type advice.

Even brushlicking isn\'t something we can all agree upon

 

[Ritual]

Originally posted by Jericho
Even brushlicking isn\'t something we can all agree upon

No, there\'s some stubborn people who refuse to accept the truth! :]

As for the original question, yeah, I agree with what Jericho said... There\'s a lot of different ways to handle this issue. I usually use a colour that I also use on other parts of the mini to shade with. For example, if I paint a mini with lots of skin showing and with one major piece of clothing that I\'ve painted turquoise, I then work a bit of turquoise into the shading of the skin. Just a hint of it, enough to create a harmonising overall look to the miniature. Had I painted the clothing item dark blue instead, I\'d have used a dark blue when shading the skin. But, the basic shading of the skin would in both cases be done with dark redish tones with a hint of purple. The other colour is just to shift things subtly, to harmonise with the surrounding colours.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by kakita
Hi guys, a bit elementary colour theorist here, and I\'d just like to pick your brain with a question of mine.

When highlighting and shading, I\'ve heard of highlighting with the colour of the light, and shading with the complementary. This generally means we push towards yellow from highlights and towards blue for shadows, since we assume normal sunlight conditions.

A lot of neo-impressionist colour follows this basic principle. It\'s not the way lighting works generally (despite opinions to the contrary!) but it can produce attractive effects.

Originally posted by kakita
However, I\'ve also heard of people saying to shade towards the complementary of the base colour, ie push towards the greenish side for red shades.

Just to clarify, it\'s a bit more useful to think of incorporating the complement rather than moving the colour towards the complement, since the second can tend to suggest the hue in shadows should actually be complementary to the local colour.

Incidentally the complement of red is cyan, not green, but these are the visual complements. When making duller versions of a basic colour what actually works is a mixing complement, which is frequently not the opposite hue.

Originally posted by kakita
This begs the question, is there a general concensus on which hue to push towards for shadows...

This part\'s easy: no. Taste rules all - if you like a given type of colouring, go for it.

Originally posted by kakita
...or perhaps a line of reasoning/rule of thumb I could use to decide which method to shade with?

Realistic = lower-chroma versions of the local colour, generally. With minis really anything goes, depending on personal preference.

Einion

 

[Aliengod3]

Really it is whatever you like best. For me I like to use a bit of dark blue or purple for my shadows, regardless of basecoat color, just to add some interest to shadows. However using complementary colors for shading works well since most of the time the color created from mixing two complementary color is a dark browny type color that works well in recesses.

Sometimes I use black and white to highlight and shade, sometimes complementary colors for highlights and shades, and sometimes I use whatever color is offered in a darker or lighter version of the color that I am using. It really depends on what feel you want the mini to have. The joy of freedom.