Hi all,
I remember reading somewhere that a shade of grey was used to highlight dark blue, but I'm blowed if I can find it now!
Can anyone remember which thread it may have been?

Steve

Here's some info I found on the web once. It's about oils, but still useful for acrylics as well:


ULTRAMARINE BLUE: A warm, transparent blue, used mainly in mixtures. Blended with browns and white, it produces a range of warm and cool grays. With yellows, it produces rich greens. Do not mix with Cadmium Reds; the result is an unattractive, muddy tone, though with Crimson, Ultramarine Blue produces attractive violets.

PHTHALOCYANINE BLUE: Usually called Thalo Blue, this colour is cool, transparent and brilliant. Mixed with transparent reds and crimsons, it produces dazzling purples. If mixed with white and browns, the result will be a blue-gray.

COBALT BLUE: A soft, cool blue, yielding delicate greens when mixed with yellows; pearly grays with browns and white.

Cheers,
Adrian

Thanks for that Adrian,

The problem I'm having is highlighting a very dark blue, using a different blue alters the tone too much and simply using white doesn't seem to look quite right either.
What looks fine on smaller scale figures looks completely overdone in 1/9 scale! Perhaps it's a case of "less is more" and rely on simply shading.

Steve

With oils if you mix in pink with the base colour it will lighten the colour without washing it out.
Don't know if it works with acrylics

Try this post:
http://www.planetfigure.com/threads/shading-and-highlight-help.73000/
In reply #2 there is another link to a PF post by Mike Good, which is very useful for dark blues and reds.

Cheers,
Andrew

Andrew, thank you so much for the Mike Good link, it's satisfying to know other folk struggle with this "easy" colour!

Steve

Julio Cabos used Khaki Grey or Olive Gray to Highlight dark blues. It's been a few years since I took his painting class.

Ive used Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue+black as a shadow, Prussian Blue as a base with Prussian Blue+medium blue as highlight. Seemed to work OK

Here's the rest of it - I think I copied it out of a Campaign magazine originally

http://dclough.org/hom/?p=29

The accepted wisdom is to use a brighter blue to highlight instead of white. I've used Payne's Grey sometimes when I want a more muted effect.
Generally I find proprietary blue grey shades of paint really useful

Hi chailey.
I use to ligh dark blues with turquoise, to bring saturation and light ant the same time, and then i can add any type of blue with whites, (napoleonic blue, like blue) for last lights