"Painting bright red hair" Topic

How would one go about painting really bright red or ginger hair?

I can do most shades of hair rather succesfully, but all my attempts at making light reds turn out either blond or a rather fetching but completely unnatural electric orange.

Try a base coat of Ceramcote Aged Linen. Then try GW Flesh Wash, or Chestnut Wash. Highlight to taste to acheive Lindsay Lohan, Ann Margaret or Opie (Richie Cunningham in his younger days).

Do you have access to a non-metallic copper? Or some other reddish brown.

Just remember red/ginger hair is just a variation of brown.

I have it easy. I use my kids hair as a model. One is a auburn and the other is a natural "unnatural electric orange."

Cheers.

John, I am unfamiliar with Ceramcote's paints. What colour would 'Aged Linen' be? Would there be any equivalent in, for instance, GW's range?

I used a base coat of Firey orange and then chestnut ink watered down over the orange. My wife said it looked "too orange". So I hit it again with the chestnut...this time not watered down and it came out just right.

J-

Ceramcoat is a cheap craft paint. It is a light color. Equivalent to an "unbleached linen". I do not know what the GW equivalent would be. It is a chalky paint, so takes washes well.

By the sounds, that colour might be close to the PollyScale "Aged White" - something that might be easier to find. It dries a fairly dusty looking (slightly) tannish colour, and lately it has been my brush-on primer of choice.

Ceramcote paints sell for $.85 for a 2 ounce bottle at every WalMart, and at AC Moore's craft store, Michael's Craft store.... That's quite a few more outlets than carry PollyScale. 8^)

GW fiery orange mixed with a touch of bestial brown for your base colour. Mix a lighter colour by adding some light linnen type colour for highlihts and then wash with chestnut ink or thinned chestnut paint. That tends to work for me. You can mess around with the amounts of brown you mix with the orange to give some nice variations. Just using GW Vermun brown as a base looks nice also.

Steve.

Reds drive me nuts too. I have a figure that looks a LOT like a friend of mine. I was painting it as her. She even gave me a lock of her hair for matching. Almost 2 years later and I still can't match her light red hair. Deeper or brighter reds I can manage (but I don't have a figure of Ron Howard) but not hers......grrr..

The closest I ever got was a base of a very light brown, highlight with a copper and brown ink wash. I used the procedure to match another figure to a different friend and it looked great.

O.K, thank you folks, I've given it a try.

Here's how I proceeded upon my hapless test subject (Reaper's 'Finari, female Justicar', by Werner Klocke, as a Templar of Hod for Hybrid):

Basecoat GW Fiery Orange, followed by a Flesh Wash. I then highlited with a mixture of Fiery Orange and Humbrol Matt Flesh, in several successive layers, ending with pure Matt Flesh.

Now the contrasts did look a bit violent, so I applied a watered down coat of Testor Model Master's Leather.

Gave her dark red lipstick and mascara, and she looks really quite cute, in a dark, brooding fashion.

Well, time for a gin and a cuppa tea now, steadies my nerves after all this excitement.

I've seen a couple of women with red hair that actually DOES look like fine, spun copper wire! I keep meaning to try painting red hair with copper metallic paint - haven't tried it yet though, so I can't say if it looks right on a miniature...

Using artists acryllics - base coat of burnt umber, then dry brush with red ochre, then a very thin wash of burny umber.

If you want a slightly lighter shade of red, then a base coat of red ochre and dry brush with yellow ochre.

Base it in dark red or brown, lighten that with red and drybrush, then lighten it more and mix either gold or copper into it and drybrush again. Real metalics give hair a realistic glint. Washes typically just make hair look dirty, I'd stick to drybrushing, unless you want dirty hair (like my barbarians :)

I've never used metallics for anything other than, well, metals. That sounds like an interesting technique, perhaps I'll give it a try as well.

Re: metallic copper for hair - you might try a wash of brown or chestnut ink over the copper; then some slight highlights of gold just over the top of the head.

I've been painting for over 20 years, and I find myself looking at things sometime with an eye as to how I might reproduce them in miniature. As I say, I haven't tried the metallic copper yet, but from the times I've seen really vibrant red hair, I think the above idea might work! Dang, now you've got me wanting to try it out! :)