"Trying to paint faded red or purple" Topic

I am painting some Dark Age/Medieval 28mm peasant or commoner and normally I paint their clothing an off-white, grey, pale green, or brown, but for variety I wanted some in very faded red or purple clothing. However everything I try turns out looking either pink or periwinkle or violet, not the faded color I am looking for. How do I avoid a pale red looking pink – is it the base color, or the highlight that I am doing wrong? Should I be mixing the red with a more light grey or tan color? Thanks for any advice you have!

I am painting some Dark Age/Medieval 28mm peasant or commoner and normally I paint their clothing an off-white, grey, pale green, or brown, but for variety I wanted some in very faded red or purple clothing. However everything I try turns out looking either pink or periwinkle or violet, not the faded color I am looking for. How do I avoid a pale red looking pink – is it the base color, or the highlight that I am doing wrong? Should I be mixing the red with a more light grey or tan color? Thanks for any advice you have!

Mix the red with a grey/taupe and drybrush taupe lightly.

Try using Ceramcoat Adobe Red or Georgia Clay. Or FolkArt Autumn Leaves.

I do what rmaker suggests, using either Georgia Clay or Brick Red or a suitable looking craft paint. It looks the part.

I've also done as Rich suggests, and this also did the trick.

Helpful, I know, but there you go.

As above mix grey into your colour. The best single colour that I have found for this is Vallejo Stone Grey but you need to experiment to find what works for you. Many acrylic paints are far too bight and saturated to give the effect of wool based clothing.

Great thanks for the tips everyone! I happen to have some Stone Grey (Reaper) so I am giving that a try. The models (some Frostgrave soldiers) are in process right now.