Help with shading Skull White

[Vorlon]

Greetings BoLS painting gods. For the last two weeks I have attempted to find some decent way to add shadowing to my Cadians (Skull White base coat, grey/black camo). So far I have attempted the following...

-Watered Down Black Ink....result...the mix found its way all over the model resulting in a dirty grey tone
-Watered Down Codex Grey...result...see above
-Badab Black Wash...result...looked great but smeared over time.
-Chaos Black Shadowing with White Dry Brush....result....almost worked but paint shadows looked almost cell shaded.

So I am officially out of ideas. I would say I am an intermediate level painter and annnyyyy advice you could offer would be much appreciated. Thanks!


- D

[Ashwarawu]

Ahoy. Try starting with some light browns. For example if i am painting an actual skull i may use a kommando kakai or darker then work up to bleached bone THEN a white from there, that way the white on top is still pure white but you get some not to extreme shading along the way. This may not be as strong an effect as you want but it may not look as comical or dirty as the ways you said you tried out. The only pic i have is kinda hard to see, but i almost never use whites. I used what i described on the servo skull in the pic. The eye sockets ate black but the shading around the skull i base coated with a light brown or kakai Good luck mate!

[Aldramelech]

Bleached Bone.

[VekortheBlack]

The badab wash would work fine.you just have to take your time and wait till it dries completely,then give it a matt varnish spray.
unless your going for a bone like effect,use greys for your shading.
if you want the quickest way,use a fortress grey wash 50/50mix with a tiny drop of liquid dish soap,if pre-mix this in a spare pot it will benefit you greatly!

or if you have the time just do a layering of 50/50chaos black,codex grey,fortress grey,skull white.
Happy Painting

to Ashwarawu that techpriest looks GREAT!!!

[Súil Dubh]

Like Vector recommends one post up, instead of washing try layering.

I usually do a Fortress Grey basecoat, then layer 1:1 Fortress Grey / Skull White, then finally Skull White.

The pigment in a wash tends to sully the "purity" of a white basecoat even after you drybrush or highlight the white back on.

[Vorlon]

Great information! thanks alot! As I currently smell....maybe reek is a better term....of simple green and my fingers are really pruned....I will be giving the layering a try tonight.

Ive tried bleached bone but the result wasnt a clean enough shade of white.

What im really going for is skull white base with very small, yet sharp dark gray or black shadows.

Thanks again for the information! keep it coming!!

[emperorsaxe]

It depends really on how you want your white to look. For a warm look you can use the fortress greys/codex greys. For a cooler look you could use the space wolves grey/shadow greys. Although just my 2 bolter rounds worth tho'.
Respects, Emperorsaxe

[AnthG]

I would recommend that you keep experimenting to find the shades that compliment or contrast the primary colours of the mini you are working on. IE how does it fit in your visualisation of the piece? Is it a dusty trophy from a belt or does it have more pride of place?

Below is a simple method that can stop after the Stone/Wash/Stone step for a dusty trophy or can go on for the pride of place item.

Start with a base coat of Dheneb Stone. I find this is better over a Skull White base if I want a brighter finish.

Once dry, wash with any of the following:- Chaos Black/Scorched Brown (use 1:1), Devlan Mud, Badab Black or even Chaos Black / Liche Purple! (2:1). Remember the wash does not need to cover the whole skull!

Let wash dry (if you are in a hurry borrow the nearest hair drier!)

Then highlight with Dheneb Stone followed by Skull White. If you want to lighten it further you can add a further step of Dheneb Stone/Skull White before the final Skull White.

[Aegis]

In addition to the advice given (I like using Dhenab stone myself as a base), I would also recommend watering down your skull white a bit. I find this reduces lines appearing from brush strokes, and just makes it appear much more smooth.

Now, having said that, I avoid working with white as often as a I can... Rarely even use it to drybrush these days, preferring Bleached Bone to highlight.

[Psychosplodge]

I've only painted white once, on my lone apothecary, and the method I used was to paint the model gray and then aply bleached bone leaving a visble gray shading, and then the skull white over that again leaving the shading...