by Bob Barnetson

One of the simplest painting techniques to learn and use is block painting over a dark primer. Block painting means applying a colour while leaving a bit of the primer showing around the edges of the colour. This creates a natural border that separates the colours you are applying from one another. This border also looks a bit like a shadow, adding visual depth to your figure.

As I mentioned in a previous article, block painting is an ideal technique for beginning painters as it is straightforward and effective. It is also a good technique for figures that do not have significant raised details cast onto their surface.

Block Painting
I normally paint figures in batches of 10-20 and paint a single part of all the figures in a production line manner. I also normally start with the figures’ flesh (see Article 6). This helps define each figure. I then move on to painting from the inside of the figure outwards. So clothes and armour are first up, followed by shields and weapons.

To begin block painting, apply a colour to an area of a dark-primed figure, taking some care to leave a black border all the way around the area being painted. This creates a visual break between colours that would otherwise touch each other. You can see an example of this in the photo below. Admittedly, this figure does not look great… right now. But give the technique time.

While leaving a black edge around the area you are painting may seems demanding, block painting proceeds surprisingly quickly. You aren’t trying to fully cover the primer coat (as you are when using a white primer). Additionally, because an area of black separates the colours, you do not have to perfectly define the edges between the colours. The picture below shows the shadow I’ve left between the flesh and the linen colour. You can also see where I slopped some red on the flesh (left leg); this will be remedied with the application of the magic dip we’ll discuss in a future article.

Depending on the figure, you may also choose to leave areas of black within the borders of a single colour to emphasize, for example, a fold in the cloth (as in the above figure). Using this technique, you can create significant depth (via the shadow effect this creates) on an otherwise flat figure.

Highlights
Many painters—especially those painting 25/28 mm figures, where there is significant raised detail sculpted on the figure—extend block painting by applying highlights. To highlight, you go back to an area you have already painted and add a second coat of lighter coloured paint. This second coat is applied to raised areas of the block paint (i.e., where the light would strike the area and create a highlight). I have very crudely highlighted the figure in the picture below.

You can see on the tunic the original base colour and the lighter highlight colour in the above photo. This technique can be extended by coming back to the area a third time with an even lighter colour. This is applied to a very small area, often at the edge of where fabric has creased or folded.

When painting armies for wargaming, I’m reluctant to do much highlighting. The relatively small amount of raised detail found on 1:72-scale plastic figures means there is little return for the effort. A similar effect can be gained by block painting in a slightly lighter colour than you might normally choose and using an ink wash or the magic dip (see Article 9) to create some colour variation and shadows.

Highlight Colour Palette
If you are keen on highlighting, you’ll need to get or make the colours for highlighting. The easiest way to obtain highlight colours is to purchase one or two slightly lighter shades of the colour you want to highlight. Some paint manufacturers (e.g., Foundry) even sell paints in three-packs specifically designed for highlighting.

Alternately, you can try to make your own highlight colour. When lightening a colour to create a highlight, many painters will add white. This tends to weaken the intensity of the colour. Too much white can drive the highlight colour towards a pastel shade or yield a chalky finish. This may or may not be the effect you’re looking for. I find this works fairly well with blue but not so well with red (which becomes pinkish).

If you are not satisfied with the effect created by adding white, you may want to look at the colour wheel. Find the base colour you want to lighten on the colour wheel, then add a small amount of a lighter colour that is beside (adjacent to) the base colour on the colour wheel.

For example, to lighten red we might add some orange (or a small amount of yellow). To lighten green, we might add a small amount of a lighter shade of green or even some yellow. The more of the adjacent colour you add, the lighter the base colour becomes. Since highlighting is meant to be subtle, begin by adding only a small amount of the adjacent colour.

Some gamers will add some black to the base colour and use this dark shade for the block painting. The regular colour becomes the first highlight. A slightly lightened version of the regular colour then becomes the second highlight. You can experiment to see which approach you like better.

One issue with home-made highlights is that replicating the highlight colour (to repair a chip or add troops to a unit later on) can be tricky. When I paint troops where a uniform colour is required and I intend to highlight, I often purchase two shades of the same colour, using the darker as the base, a mix as the first highlight, and the second colour as the third highlight. This makes replicating the colours easier.

Block Painting Features
There are instances when you will want to leave primer exposed in the middle of an area you are painting. Faces, for example, benefit from leaving areas of primer exposed where shadows naturally form, such as the eye sockets and beneath the jaw line.

You can also highlight a face. When highlighting the face, it is important to consider the face’s underlying bone structure to determine where the highlight should go. Places that typically respond well to highlighting are the brow ridge, the nose, the upper side of the cheekbones, the chin, and (sometimes) the top of ears.

Highlighting these features is not necessary. That said, a bit of extra time spent on these features for important figures (e.g., leaders) is often worthwhile. You can make a similar effort on hands (knuckles) and bare chests (pectorals, shoulders, shoulder blades, biceps and triceps). Some experimentation on a practice figure is worthwhile before tackling your main army; the more slender sculpting of 1:72-scale plastics generally means less highlighting is necessary on these figures than on 25/28 mm figures.

Up Next
Block painting of a dark primer is an effective technique for painting figures and is the only painting technique many painters use. Here is an example of a finished Roman unit with dark primer:

Some gamers, however, prefer to prime using a lighter colour such as white. This results in brighter figures. We’ll examine block painting and washing over white-primed figures next week.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 22nd, 2008 and is filed under Gaming in plastic.

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