All about colour pt.1

Issue 016

Welcome back new readers and veterans of the Miniature Palette! It has been wayyy too long since I’ve last sent out an issue and it’s getting a bit tiring to say I’m sorry, but I honestly miss writing my thoughts down and sharing these insights into our wonderful art form. There will be some changes shortly to the Miniature Palette as soon enough it will be published on my very own website! Yes, after several months of development; designing and filming a new painting course, and more to follow. These articles and past issues will be made available for you all without sifting through your inbox! The email will still be going out with future issues but will contain more content and still be driven on the principle of sharing my knowledge and being open about our wonderful art form. So without further ado, let’s get lost in colour with part 1!

So for anyone who remembers a little while back on the 4 Pillars of Painting #010, colour was one of those pillars that were labelled Temperature. We classified it as such because, at the root of determining the hue, it first falls under either a “warm” or a “cool” colour. Going back to colour, let’s dive into some useful tools, tips, and knowledge that we can pull into our own miniature painting. Creating an interesting and exciting colour palette presents us with a unique creative challenge that when executed correctly often brings results of, “WOW”, or “That really pops!” You know those sorts of reactions. Because our eyes are the most developed sensory organ in our body, (11 million bits per second). A LOT of that information is encoded with colour alone, a healthy 3 million-plus colours in the visible spectrum. So with colour being so rich in information, we as painters should make it a life’s goal to master and wield colour to the best of our imagination will allow us.

Like I’ve said in the past, “Shape and Value give us the overall structure of our painting. They are essentially the spine or the framework of the painting. Without them, the painting crumbles as we struggle to make out strong shapes and values. But it’s the colours of the painting that really get all the credit! It’s the most visually exciting part of the painting that conveys lots of noticeable information.”

So what kind of noticeable information you ask? We use colour to illustrate various objects on the model. Illustrate light and temperature of various sources both direct and indirect. Associate colours with other senses such as emotions to convey topics like anger, tension, ease, sadness, despair and so forth. Also using colour to group things, like a uniform or flag with a common colour to unify many under a single value or faction. Relating to groupings, we can classify colours with a hierarchy on the model. For example, the colour red being of high importance and is being used to shift our attention to items painted in that colour, and others being used on less important items on the model. With those various ways to use colour as I listed above, it’s those kinds of key questions I’m asking myself through the whole process and most importantly at the start when I’m creating my colour palette.

Now you maybe asking yourself…. How the hell do you pull this stuff out, and how can I convince that from colour alone especially on more emotional levels?

Well, the answer is you can’t always win with everyone that sees your work, and it’s actually have to do more with yourself than the viewer. You see in any fine art form such as miniature painting, it’s essentially being refined over and over again. As painters or even yourself improve, creating more detailed effects that can but not exclusively be realistic. Styles emerge and branch out more variations and groups of those people that like that particular style. And to be a good painter among your peers, you need to have contrast! Because if you all have a general style of painting, you want to be the one that stands out. So going back to your miniatures, you should consider giving it a thought. As it’s easier paint the subject when you have a very detailed and vivid visual picture of what you are painting. Utilize the strength that colour brings to a miniature, and refine your perception of it.

And without further ado, here is a way to help keep your colours more vibrant, and information you can take to your next painting session

To get a rich colour to stand out on your miniature, we have to consider a few factors to achieve this. First is the value of the 3 primary planes we are working with (Shadows, Midtones, Highlights). If we are looking to create a vibrant red for example, we need to figure out what our red looks like in shadow, what it looks like in a neutral good exposure (daylight), and what it looks like highlighted. 2 common ways miniature painters are accustomed to shading and highlighting colour is by either painting it red, throwing a wash over the whole area, and then highlighting with a light red, pink or orange. OR another would be to mix black into the red for shadows, and mix white in for highlights. The problem with the wash is that we are sacrificing the strong red first laid down by corrupting the midtone & highlights (washes stain the whole area, but gather its strength in the shadows). Already we are lowering the saturation of the red. And second with mixing both black and white, we are taking colour away from the red. Think of colour in an area as a percentage. If we take our red for example and we use a pure Cadmium Red or Evil Sun Scarlet/Blood Angels Red from GW. We can put that gauge at 100% colour. Now if we mix black or white into our red, we will now lower the percentage of colour total since black and white are NOT colours. Adding 30% black and 30% white for our shadows and highlights, we would then be left with only 40% red. Ok with that being said, don’t take that as absolute math! Because what I’m looking to illustrate is the fact that you are reducing colour in the total area, and even throughout the total of the model.

The wash in our first example works much in the same way, but instead of just shades of black and white, we are adding other colours in substitution. Yes we get colour, but if we want a vibrant red, we need to make sure that the red gets the large majority of the total percentage of colour on the subject.

What we can do to combat this to make a little lap around the colour wheel, watching our values, and how much each area is being taken up. Our first principle is we have to understand that the majority of our colour lives in the Midtone. Our colour meaning the red we’ve chosen to be our Root colour.

**Root colour is in reference to what single colour we’ve chosen to paint the item. Shadows and highlights are added to give value to a 3D object in space that changes accordingly to the orientation of the light(s) on the subject.

A general rule is to keep the mid tone to 60%+ of the total area while leaving 15/15 for shadows and highlights. Doing this will ensure that the majority of that beautiful red is exposed and we aren’t removing too much red from the subject. To shade, we will look at our colour wheel and move counterclockwise going “cooler” as we create shadows. We end up in Magenta with a smaller jump of only a few spaces, purple with a decent shift, and going even further to blue if you want a real push! To highlight we can use the same principle as we did with shadows, but this time going clockwise to keep things warm. A small jump is going to Vermillion, then to orange, and over to yellow. Now if we were to just take this trip on the parameter of the colour wheel, we would get something pretty funky and possibly a bit Psychedelic with all those saturated colours competing against one another. The red would still dominate due to the total area covered which is 60%, but it’s not enough to really establish a good key colour. Introduce a nice bell curve in the final rendition! With shadows, mid-tone and highlight running along the horizontal X-axis, and saturation running top to bottom on the Y-axis. We start in the shadows very low on the Y meaning the colour is low in saturation. It then travels and peaks in the mid tone at full saturation (Our awesome red!), and then dips back down in the highlights. This establishes more separation between the 3 areas, and leaves the red very vibrant in contrast of the desaturated shadows and highlights while still working to keep as much colour in our work! Because our shadows, even being magenta or purple still have red in them, as we can also say that for the highlights!

So you might say that I’m contradicting myself in regards to the total of red being visible by adding other colours like in the wash example. But what I’m giving here is a strategy to use what’s going on, and for you to make more educated decisions to recover as much colour back into your subject as possible! Every bit of colour helps to retain that wonderful vibrant colours we want!

And there we have it! Taking this to any colour is simple, just look at the neighbour of the root colour and move either to a cooler or warmer spot on the wheel. Adjust your saturation (value) and pay attention to the total coverage of each area shadows, mid tones, and highlights. I hope that gives you painters a little bit of insight into making your colours stronger, a new tool to have to mix on our palette, and to really have fun with it. Take 15min from your session to put some paints down on the palette, mix some shadows and highlights and create a quick gradient map on the palette itself or on a surface of a spare shoulder pad or a piece of paper and see what you come up with. The painters who take that little extra time to experiment on combinations end up being those pieces of work that make those elements jump out at you and type in the comments, “I love what you did on that _____, can I have your recipe?” Soon enough you will have those in your DM’s and not the other way around and feel great as you develop your own colour signatures friends and followers can identify you with.

I hope you found something in this issue that resonates with you, and you start to explore ways in making bold colour choices and vibrant pieces that jump off the model. Remember, these guides are all tools and be varied in their use. Most importantly experiment and be fearless in their applications. Just like any exercise, push till failure, study the results, rest, and come back again stronger with greater understanding! I hope to see all of you on my new website soon! The next email will include the links and something special for all you subscribers as a thank you for lending me your art.

All the best & happy painting!