<<<<<<<Back HOW TOO: Look at you base color, for the shading you want to darken it, for highlighting you need to lighten it. Black and White will be a bit different; you really can't get darker than black or lighter than white so with black you can only highlight, with white you can only shade. You can mix up the shades that you need or buy every shade of paint that is available. I recommend that you try mixing up your shades, buying them will be very expensive and you won't be able to get every variation that you might need. Mixing colors can be the tricky part; you might think that it is only a matter of adding black or white right? You would be wrong. Getting a copy of the color wheel from an art store is a good idea, it is an invaluable tool. Say your base color is red and you want to mix a color to shade, if you add black it will look dirty. Instead of the figure looking like his armpits are shaded it will look like he hasn't bathed in a month. To highlight you add white right?...No, white plus red makes pink, pink will look pretty silly on a macho tough hero. To darken red you add a bit of blue; not too much or you'll have a nice purple. To make a red highlight add yellow, yes red+yellow makes orange so don't add too much. The hardest part will be making the right shades of your color it will take a lot of practice. The sooner you learn the color wheel the easier it will be for you. HOW TO: Remember last month's column on drybrushing? If not, it would be a good idea to re-read it now because you will be using that technique a LOT when you highlight. I find it easier to use an example instead of speaking in general terms. Lets say you have a male super hero figure so he's got a lot of muscles, he is already painted his base color which in this case is a solid blue. You want to detail his chest so that his muscular physique really stands out. After all these hero types don't spend all that time in the gym to wear a baggy sweatshirt. First we need to mix a darker shade of the base color. For blue try adding a bit of red (not too much or it will end up purple), don't go overboard we don't want it too dark yet. Now paint all the recessed areas of the chest: under the pecs, the armpits around the collarbone, etc. Don't worry about keeping all the paint in the recesses, in fact sometimes I get a bit sloppy here (I'm not proud of it), when you do the highlighting it will cover the places where you go over. Look at the figure and remember the light source is coming from above. If he has a cape on the you'll want to keep that in mind and shade any part of the body that is under the cape or that the cape's shadow will fall on. Let this coat of pain dry before moving on. Now make an even darker shade. Here you WILL probably need to use a LITTLE black paint (it all depends on the shade of your original base color. If it is a sky blue than making a regular blue will be dark enough. If it is a fairly dark blue, then you will need almost a black). Use a thinner brush and get the real dark shade just in the deepest recesses (definitely in the armpits, right down the line between the pecks, in the deep "grooves" around the six-pack. You will be painting the same places that you did in the previous step but with a lot more restraint, only in the center of the grooves. Let this completely dry. Now we highlight. Make a lighter shade of the base color. Our base is blue so you can add a bit of white to get a lighter blue, maybe add a SMALL amount of yellow too (not too much yellow+blue=green, the light blue can have a BIT of a greenish hue to it but be careful). Don't make it too light. Now we DRYBRUSH. Remember how I told you to wipe off most of the paint from the brush? Then you lightly "flutter" the brush back and forth over the surface of the figure. You don't really paint it so much as momentarily touch it (with just the TIP of the brush) repeatedly. Concentrate on the raised portions, the muscles themselves. You are applying paint to the opposite places that you did when you did the shading. With the first highlight application you can be fairly liberal with the amount of paint you use and the places you apply it to. If you have a Very LIGHT TOUCH you can even go over the places you shaded too, this makes any places that are raised a bit lighter then the deeper parts. Don't try this the first time, as it is easy to completely undo your previous work. Try it after you are an accomplished drybrusher. Add MORE white to your mixture to make even a lighter shade of blue. Repeat the whole drybrushing process EXCEPT use LESS paint and LESS pressure on the brush. You can do this right after your first application or you can let the first one dry, it doesn't matter. Try to hit only the center of the parts you are highlighting this time. The better you get at this the more natural it will feel. You will eventually get to the point where you just know where to apply more or less pressure and when to switch to a lighter shade like everything else it takes practice. Do it again with an even lighter shade but with even less, less pressure and apply in only the "highest" parts. You can keep it up for as long as you like as long as you use less and less paint/pressure. With blue I even go so far as to use a shade that is ALMOST white but if I do that then I use VERY little. Variations: Keep Reading>>>>>>>>