"How do you prefer to highlight black?" Topic

So I'm painting some 28mm WW2 Polish 10th Mechanised figures. They wore black leather jackets and black high boots. OK, so I prime them black and I'm almost half way done.

How do you prefer to highlight the black to give an illusion of depth? I'm thinking dark blue or dark gray-black. But I don't want a "dusty" look. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

With black I dry brush a charcoal (a very dark grey) but leather is tricky, being so reflective. I'd consider dry brushing in gunmetal and very carefully high lighting with a touch of silver.

Good question. Why not highlight slightly and paint on some gloss at the end? I would avoid gunmetal.

I use a dark blue, then a blue wash, back with a light light drybrush of gray

I paint with Ceramcote Charcoal and then dab on the Dip with Minwax Tudor Satin.

Dark blue to darker purple drybrush will give a more shiny, liquid black look.
Silver or white drybrush will give a worn look.

I undercoat with a black and than repaind with a "glossy" black. Done.

I add some flesh color into black paint to create a black highlight. I got this tip on TMP.

I sometimes use a black ink over a black base. It can look a bit plastic if not matted down sufficiently.

I paint black using Ceramcoat Paynes Gray.
Wash in black and you are done.

Black with highlight of Delta Ceramcoat Charcoal grey for a subtle highlight, or Storm grey for more contrast.

For me matt blacks are highlighted in dark grey if I want a shiny black I highlight with dark blue.

A friend of mine – a real master painter – did the highlight with dark sea green (on a matt black basecoat): this made the Black Brunswickers look awesome.

If you want to achieve a look of shiny reflective leather without using gloss you actually need to be quite brave and add very slight but high contrast highlights. Vallejo Silver Grey is a good colour to use added to the black.

I tend to use Paynes Grey acrylic in most situations where" black" is needed. Diluting this and using wash technique, with several layers, tends to give the highlights. I find it works particularly well on proper black (not dark bay) horses. The shadows can be darkened with a true black if needed.

Paynes Grey works very well and GW's 'Shadow Grey' (or whatever it's called thesedays) also works well. I find it's just a little bit lighter than Paynes Grey when painting smaller scale figures where you want the contrast to be a bit more obvious.

grenadier corporal: dark sea green, I'll have to try that!!

It depends on the material I want to represent and the scale of the figure I am painting. I try to find pictures of the original material and then see how it fades. For leather I would use the base colour mixed with medium brown, and perhaps some ochre for last light. For gaming miniatures I exagerate the lights a bit, as they are going to be seen from a distance (1.5 to 2 meters, usually). For other materials, like cotton, linen or metals I use american blue, medium grey, ecc. A system I've found works well with smaller figures (15mm or smaller) and it is fast to paint, is to use grey as base colour and then wash the area with black ink (the new GW inks give a matt finish).

Wow, thanks everyone……there is some good advice here. I want to try something Combatpainter mentioned. Once I get the highlighting down I think I'll brush on some diluted Future onto the leather coat and boots. That should give a nice shine to the leather. Anyone think that will look too over the top, parade ground shiny? I guess I could use a Krylon spray that is semi-matte after?

Here is how I usually highlight black:

Its a black base coat highlighted with Privateer Press Coal Black. I mix in a little turquoise for the final highlights.