Sorry, another beginner question. I have not heard of any method of shading that makes sense, except for this one. I found it on another web site and wondered if it is a good idea.
Wash the figure
Paint all upper surfaces white
Paint all lower surfaces black
cover with actual color (i.e. olive drab)
By upper and surfaces, it means the top of a curve, the part you would see from above the figure, and viced versa for the lower surfaces.
Any feedback/suggestions are greatly appreciated, I’m just trying to make sense of proper figure painting.
Here is what I do, others might disagree.
1.) Mix a batch of the colour.
2.) Mix 2 new colours by brightening/darkening the overall colour.
The darker colour can be thinned and used as a wash.
The lighter colour can be used for dry-brushing the raised areas.
Depending on the figure and scale I might mix multiple shades of the “colour” and apply them in layers.
IMHO, I have seen many figures where the shading was too overdone and distracted from the figure.
It depends a lot on what medium you are painting in. Acrylics, Enamels & Oils all use different techniqes for shading. The process you describe is equivalent to the Pre-shading on aircraft. It can work OK, but if you lay on a heavy coat of color the effect can be easily lost. I try & paint using the inside out technigue. Darker shade on the inside, lighter shade on the outside, with the darker to lighter blended so that it looks natural.
Regards, Rick
Thank you for your answers. Do you know of any sites that outline this process in detail? Thanks.
Go here: http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/ Choose English by clicking on the Union Jack the choose model color from the drop down menu. Scroll to the bottom and there’s an excellent tutorial which is printer friendly.
A good way of determining where the shadows should be is to hold the figure under a strong single source light. Look at where the shadows naturally fall and appy the shading colors there.