Hello, What would be good highlight and shadow colors for the following Vallejo acrylic paints: US field drab,US olive drab,yellow ochre,khaki,and buff.
Thanks.

Try adding Black or Black Grey to those colors for shadows and White or Off-White for highlights. Thats usually what I do with Vallejo paints- I find this gives better control over the color.

Thanks for help.

NO! Do not use black for shading, nor use white for highlight colors. Blacks muddy the color and whites generally don't work as well.

If you email me at [email protected] I will send you a copy of Vallejo's highlight and shading card. (I feel comfortable in doing this since it was a ffreebie from Vallejo through Colorado Miniaures

Otherwise, try finding a color wheel and look up what colors you should mix with the originals.

Thanks for help. I did not see field drab and olive drab, but that did help, thanks again

Steven,

Try using Sunny Skintone to highlight the OD and FD, Pale Sand also works well to highlight the lighter Buff colours.

Darker tones to shade could include German Camo Black Brown, maybe English Uniform or Burnt Umber for the lighter tones - never use black.

Another trick is to add some of the highlight and shadow colours to the base mix to start with, (creating a 3 colour mix) you can then add more of each to the mix to lighten or darken it whilst keeping that overall tone or colour harmony.

Welcome to the dark art of figure painting (pun intended !),

Andy

In small quantities it works fine for me. If you use too much it does muddy the color as you've said- and too much white can bleach out the color if you use too much.

I never use black with facial colors though, its just too overpowering.