Jester on Painting Red

PAINTING RED:

I always deal with the issue of my "reds" or as some have called it, "Jester's Red-Fu". Well, as much as anyone will like or dislike painting reds, there is a very specific method to the madness of painting reds: LAYERS!!!

Reds are translucent paints, meaning, that light passes thru the paint and reflects back. With the exception of Game Color Bloody Red which has an opaque-based agent additive, all the reds I use are transparents.

So the key is to layer as many colors as you can to deepen the reds. The more layers, the more saturated the color and thus the richer and better the appearance. Keep your layers SMOOTH!!! And remember you may have to paint one layer a number of times to get the depth you want.

Okay, so I'll stop with the diatribe now and just give you all the layers from my basic 9 layer reds... yes, I said 9 layer reds:

1. Vallejo Model Color Hull Red
2. Vallejo Model Color Cadmium Maroon
3. Vallejo Model Color Cadmium Umber Red
4. Vallejo Game Color Scar Red
5. 50/50 mix of Scar Red and Carmine Red
6. Vallejo Model Color Carmine Red
7. Vallejo Model Color Vermillion
8. Vallejo Game Color Bloody Red (just a tiny bit for edging)
9. Glaze of Transparent Red (thin thin thin!!!)

That's a LOT of layers, but well worth it. Now, you can control the darkness/lightness of the red by manipulating the areas of coverage. If you want a darker red then steps 3 - 6 will be your main areas of color, with steps 7 - 9 being small areas of highlights. Brighter Reds? Then you need to concentrate on steps 4 - 7. But use the Bloody Red very sparingly I would caution no matter what you do... And please, for everyone's sake, throw any red INKs you have lying around in the garbage.

Oh, and thinning? Well, 3:2 works well enough most times, or 2:1 (paint:thinner). You really don't have to overthin the reds because of their transparent nature. So you can do this quickly and easily with a bit of practice.

So, I hope that helps answer some of the questions that I get regarding reds and red-fu. Of course, if you want to change the tint of the reds, use the glazing to do so. You can change it to a red-brown or a red-purple by tinting your glaze appropriately. And if you forgot what I mean about glazing, then check out the tutorial on the Rider of Alahan Standard Bearer.

Remember, the more layers, the better!

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