Painting Red ? (Blood Angels)

[MoonDark]

Hey guys,

This forum is awesome, so thanks to everyone willing to help a rather new member.

I've been trying to paint red with my Vallejo Model Color Paintings... got a wide range of painting some months ago. Very happy with the quality of the paintings. However it's been hard to obtain the shade of red that I want...

Here I present you my current procedure to paint red and (hopefully soon) my results (pictures!)

So, I want to achieve something close to this shade of red:

At least this is the kind of "toned down" red that I aim to get...

Right now I'm using the following procedure for painting my red: (All in Vallejo model color, diluted 1:1 with water and glaze medium )

1. German Red-Brown primer
2. Hull Red. (if the primer was not enough)
3. Burnt Cadmium red.
4. Mixture between Burnt Cadmium Red and black (1:3) for dark armor parts ( spaces between armor pieces)
4. Burnt Cad Red + Vermillion 3:2
5. Vermillion Layering ( ~ 5 layers )
6. Amarantha red ( quite thinned ) on all the armor, painting to the highlights direction... trying to get it to build up there... ( ~ 2 layers or so )
7. Tan Yellow + Amarantha Red ( 1:2 ) thinned down on armor edges.

This produces a more "orangish" red ... which is nice (haven't even mastered this kind of red yet )

Before this I was basically doing the same but instead of using "Vermillion" which would be closest to GW Blood Red, I was using Flat Red... that gave a different result.

Here are some picts of my own results:

Vermillion Red + Orange to the left , The center is mainly flat red , and the one in the right is flat red + orange

A shot to the one to the left ( it's the last one I'm working on )... it's a shame that my light is so yellowish

Cheers!

 

[Kretcher]

Hi there,

I have seen people use purple in the shadows mixed with some red to give deeper shadows. sometimes I find it easier to add a slightly diffrent colour into the red to give more "life". but red is a difficult colour.

/Kretcher

 

[10 ball]

Hi, I use dark browns / purples for shading with yellows / oranges for highlights.
Great painting, love that marines face - good job

 

[MoonDark]

Hey guys,

I was able to take much more "color accurate" pictures with some natural light + flash...

I was able to take much better pictures with some natural light and the flash...

Feedback is very very welcome ( this is just the marine that I painted using vermillion )

 

[Sionid]

I like the look of that red you've done. I second the idea of incorporating some brown into the shadows, I think it'd grunge it up a bit and bring it closer to the shade of the third example picture you posted. Keep it up

 

[MoonDark]

Hey guys,

Decided to experiment a bit... I'm sort of in the middle of highlighting a model with a more "toned down" shade of red... I shaded the mini with a "purplish" dark ink to mate down the red... and I'm using Carmine red instead of Vermillion to keep it redish. I still have to highlight a lot but I like the shade quite a bit...

This is what I got so far (needs work, but I think it's in the right direction)

 

[Kretcher]

Looking good.

 

[MoonDark]

Update for the latest model

The picture is terrible... will try to get a better one.