At this time I have reason to believe that Broken Anvil the company might not be able to fulfill their promises to their consumers. I would be wary of investing into their products until they prove to the community that they can keep their commitments.
I went to a local store, and there were some guys playing 40K. I wandered over to look in on it. I was talking to one guy, having a good conversation, and mentioned that while I build 40K frequently, I don't play. One fellow, who was playing Ultramarines, kind of sneered and said "Why would you build them and NOT play?" I shrugged and said "I guess they're fun." Then I looked wide eyed at his army and said "Cool! You're playing the Colts!" He got a bit red faced. Everyone else fell out laughing... :)
So, coming from a portrait-painter: there is a much simpler solution. Just make sure that if you do go the yellow-purple route, that in one of the yellow tints, you mix in just a tiny bit of the purple (or vice versa). This creates a cohesive whole to the eye, because it subconsciously detects that the two colors exist in the same environment. Second reason this combination might look a little harsh on the eye to some is nothing to do with the colors, but with their saturation. Saturated mid-tones are some of the harshest colors around, and if you pair two of them up, that gets you into trouble. Like the videos, but I'm not entirely getting how the second figure you're painting connects to the first?
Paints space marine like Minnesota vikings quarterback. "This scheme looks more like a sports team than a work of art." Yes. This would be the perfect color scheme for a space marine chapter that specializes in opening strong, then letting everyone down at the end of each match.
@@wingnoot048 Yup. Unfortunately it's to appease the youtube algorithm overlords. I mean I dont blame the youtubers, it's a hard platform. What gets more clicks "How to paint for beginners part 1" or "TOP 10 SECRETS TO GETTING YOUR UNPAINTED SMURFS ONTO THE TABLE, EVEN A BEGINNER CAN BE A PRO IN UNDER AN HOUR" (and some big red arrows, maybe an emoji face somewhere)
and dingus, dont forget dingus, the title is just clickbait (It worked I looked but I dont feel like it was for the right reason,the video didnt teach me anything other than miniacs opinion, which is his own, (ironic considering his strawberry syrup vampire army).
@@artycharr What? A mini painter giving an opinion about how they like to paint? No way... I forgot that art was objectively measurable and opinions were worthless.
I agree with what you are saying but I think this was a bad example due to the different model, differed model (theme and style), I'd be interested to see another blade-guard for comparison. That said, the second model did end up looking great!
I agree with you. Two different models and including colors not used on the first model is a bad example. Next time, use the same models and same colors (purple and yellow). Of course you can use different hues/shades and more importantly apply them to different parts.
@@skipgiblets I mean, he kind of did use purple and yellow? Just played a lot in the purple-to-blue-green range, then integrated a tiny, desaturated bit of yellow for emphasis.
@Grimnir there is yellow in the mix. The bones are pale yellow. The whole point of the video is that you can leverage complementary color without using them in their default high saturation and brightness! Yes he could have used more, made the bones older looking, used gold highlights instead of copper, but his more subtle approach is just as valid.
@Grimnir well yes, because color theory is a set of loose guidelines rather than hard rules. hot and cold colors are basically complementary color families. and indeed there are other schemes than complementary ones (similar, triadic quadriatic, etc...). using a hue as part of a blend rather than as a pure color is still relying on the relationship between complementary colors. Incidentally it creates a warm/cold opposition, as all complementary sets do.
A cool tip for purples, add more red to the mix for the highlights and add more blue to the shadows, that way you are using hues to complement the piece and add contrast whilst also playing with the warms in the highlights and colds in the shadows
The term you are looing for is analogous. Blue and red are analogous of purple. Analogous colors are often key to figuring out your shadow and highlight mix if you don't want to just use tints and shades.
@@OmegaShadeslayer Because people are allowed to share their opinions on what they think looks good and bad while also being OK with people doing whatever they want. It's called "tolerance". Maybe I didn't push all the right buttons to make you think that, but that's the intention.
@@Miniac The clickbaity thumbnail and "football" team comments didn't help, and looking at the rest of the comments it seems this is a pretty common theme. Try harder next time.
@@OmegaShadeslayer I mean, if my goal was to create a "clickbait" title, looking at views (the purpose of clickbait) would suggest that it was largely successful. I don't understand your end goal with your comments.
yep ... and the skeleton has so little yellow in it that you need to watch the videos to see that he did use that colour at all ... And that's the basic problem with painting. The talented artists can break as well as apply rules and still create good art either way. The lesser folk (ie : us mere mortals) tend to create horrible results until they 'git gud' (if they ever get that far) ... I do understand what he's trying to say, but I think he needs a better example that shows the effect without making it so sublte that you need to read the recipe to see ...
@@NotTheStinkyCheese That's the point tho. People's default assumption of "how to use the color wheel" is "Two extremely saturated opposite colors on the same model". He's showing that a much smarter way to "use the color wheel" (not: how to paint a good Yellow + Purple mini), is to use the opposite colors to influence the mid/undertones of the colors in your scheme, whether or not both primary colors are present. The purple->yellow blending in the bone colors and the yellow in the copper colors makes them 'pop' significantly more than if he did a reddish copper or blueish bone. Using the color wheel to subtly nudge all of the colors in your scheme in one direction or the other helps create a natural pleasing contrast + cohesion between the colors.
@@NotTheStinkyCheese Yeah that's entirely the point of the video, that you don't have to saturate colors to use them from the color wheel. So I don't know how a better example can be reached when it seems you fully understand what he was trying to tell you except you're taking it as a negative thing.
Your mini's look great an all, but honestly, I do want to buy some Necromunda scale (and style) mini's. A really nice totally-not-Bull Gorg would be awesome. XD
@@Marti3P I'm confused, did you sculpt this mini for the company, or are you actually coming into the comments, replying to the company, stating you'll just find a way to steal this?
@@Elrictwok im replying to the company asking they think about selling the mini for 3d printing in the future not steal you douche bag, you do realise there are tons of companies directly selling their minis to 3d printers, Artisan Guild, Titan Forge Games ect
Not to sound like a pain in the butt cheeks but honestly this video kinda-off missed the point of it in my opinion. The example of the "bad" usage of the color wheels it totally off - the football team style actually perfectly fits Space Marines (Smurfs anyone? or Salamanders?) - fits fluff wise (flashy proud, distinct, bold) and gameplay wise on the table (eye-catching). Would that color scheme fit a D&D ranger? No. Would it fit on a WWII soldier? No. Would it fit a grimdark style? Maybe if toned down a lot. The "good" example also does not speak to me - You did mix SOME yellow to the mix but honestly it's so desaturaded by the white it's basically non existing and any desaturated color (volume) works good with any color so... The metallics make a better accent role than the bone. I get it that You wanted to touch on the topic and give a video shoutout for the sponsor (which is cool and fine) but I would like a much more complex approach to this topic by You which You allready have proved many times You are capable off. Thanks for the video nonetheless.
I'm pretty much in agreement with this. The yellow can be a wide range of colors, it doesn't have to be day-glow yellow (deep, cool purple vs acidic, neon looking yellow...bleh!). You could have made the accent color gold and it still would have fit the purple/yellow theme and looked better. Plus, the choices where the yellow was added to the mini don't scream "accent" to me. You basically painted half the model purple and the other half yellow (the yellow shield is pretty much the same size as his body). I assume this was done to make the point of how much it stands out, but on a space marine it doesn't look that ridiculous (based on the previous comment's reasoning). I also agree that the skeleton model seems very grey and drab in comparison. While still painted beautifully and looking great, I feel like there are two different styles of painting being displayed here, not two different color schemes getting you to a different conclusion. Contrasting accent colors can be done well, as long as they are either minimal in comparison to the main color or knocked back in some way like with shading or choosing a color in the range that isn't starkly opposite of the main color. You could do fire engine red and kelly green and it would look like a christmas tree. Or you could go with a deep scarlet and a hooker's or deep forest green and it would look pretty bad ass.
I'm w you-- it's a nice paint job (in terms of technical skill, esp, it's WAY better than what I can do right now!) but too far in the other direction for me! Though I do agree w this vid in that I think people can misuse colour theory, or at least are mistaught it and just learn what colours compliment what & going on to use those without understanding other types of colour combos, what connotations certain colours have, learning abt value differences, etc. I think the important thing w colour is to think about what your specific project needs, and work from there, instead of just making something look "classy" (not all paint jobs should be as subtle & desaturated as the final paint job here, esp w how subtle the yellow is) or just picking two complimentary colours! Both kind of fall short in that they look for a certain aesthetic a little arbitrarily, if that makes sense? (eg: a bright, fun colour scheme- even one that's tacky or ugly- might suit a court jester, and a cold , desaturated scheme might fit a strict knight-in-armour Paladin-- no matter how "classy", a desaturated subtle scheme wouldn't fit the jester, and no matter how adherent to rules of complimentary colours, a bright red and green wouldn't suit the Paladin) Once you think about the nature of your project, then you can use colour theory to make it look nicer / more unified as a final project! The final paint job here does, I think, look way nicer than the example one, but it doesn't get away from the problem of just using colour theory because you "should" without thinking about the specific project. (My 2 cents anyway; obv it's art & there's no only one right way to do things, it's just how I think abt a project)
I have to agree with this as well. I feel like the bone itself should have had a more aged bone look, which is more towards a yellowish tint. But the end result seems more a pale white. Theres so little yellow in it, that it straight up doesn't read -as- yellow. Though I did like the tip about adding purple into the other colors to kind of try to keep it sorta consistent. But the main concept of the video seemed to get lost entirely by the end.
Football team is just a smidge away from Medieval Heraldry, which is probably the inspiration. Still, the example model is a little stark, I agree. I also agree that the yellow is a bit lost on this one. Check out regular art/illlustration twitter/instagram and there are a lot of good tutorials on making cohesive color palettes using more modern tools.
I very much agree on how color theory directly applies to the subject being painted. That's why I was disappointed with the video, color theory is a lot more than "Purple doesn't work with Yellow".
Not really. He's saying it's fine to apply colour theory like a dingus if you're happy with the model. The point of the video being that's it's more nuanced than people treat it.
If you make the conscious decision to pick those colors and are fine with them, that's fine. But if you blindly picked them from the color wheel using only the first step of color theory, you used color theory like a dingus (i.e. wrong) and if you are unsatisfied with the result you have only yourself to blame. That is what he means. If YOU picked the color, that is fine. If the color wheel picked them and you blindly followed it, you are a dingus.
Firstly I don't think a person's first thoughts are "yellow and purple" when looking at that skeleton. And secondly, the main reason people go with striking and contrasting colour schemes such as the one on the space marine is visibility on the tabletop. When you view your miniatures from at least 2 feet 90 % of the times you'll want something that's much more noticeable. And since most miniature wargames have a competitive aspect to them, the football jersey feel plays rather well into this. With that being said despite the clickbaity title the video was very educational (as always).
I think that what didn't get communicated clearly was that he wanted to paint with those colors, but not necessarily have a purple and yellow model when he was done. He did that here, incorporating those colors in ways that many painters might not try (largely because most paint lines don't really encourage that level of experimentation).
it's also, for GW miniatures, very close to how the original colour schemes were designed. I mean, ultramarines were moved away from being blue-yellow to blue-gold just because the original version seemed that bit too gaudy (also yellow was/is horrible for new painters (if you just have the standard old yellow paint, it'll take 3-4 coats to come out well, which is very depressing if you are 13), and smurfs are supposed to be the 'starter' army,
@@reganator5000 This is so true. I mean look at some of the original Space Orcs/Orks from 40k .They looked like a Crayola Factory exploded! Today even Bad Moons or Evil Sunz 'generally' rely on far more muted color combos. That isn't to say you shouldn't paint hyper neon bright minis (especially for something cyber punk or high tech).
@@arkurianstormblade4109 it's why the new noise marine model was so divisive when announced, people forget that contrast that physically hurts to look at is basically slaanesh's shtick
Jokes aside, The yellow and purple works because it's a dark desaturated purple that serves a s base color, enhancing the contrast with the bright yellow. An equally saturated and pght purple would have clashed. I still would jave chosen a more gold/fire like yellow, and maybe used some oranges and red to create a gradient to trasition, but the scheme of desaturated base color/ bright saturated complementary color is tried and true, if a bit bold. All this to confirm that camo green with bright magenta highlights could actually work fairly well. case in point, many illustrations of green jungles that highlight the pink of the tongue and gums of some feral beast.
@Lee Shackelford Nah, keep it at night. Enemy has to choose between seeing you with reflected light from the moon, OR turning their flashlight to look at the ground and slowly burning their eyes from the fluorescent retroreflective space marine in the distance.
tldr: use colors next to each other on the color wheel for multiple large swaths of paint next to each other, use colors opposite the color wheel just for smaller eye-popping highlights, and make sure your colors don't just vary in hue, but also saturation and brightness.
I just wanted to say that the "wrong color" model in the thumbnail looks WAY more interesting. Color theory is like music scales. There as a guide, not to be dramatic about following it to a T
You can also work with complementary colours the way you did for the space marine and get good results. The thing to keep in mind is the colours are going to fight each other, unless you use one of them sparingly. On the space marine if you had painted the shield purple you would probably have had a better ratio between the 2. I think another thing that might cause issues is the amount of gold on the mini. I would be interested to see how painting this as silver would have changed the over all look.
I was thinking like you... silver instead of gold would look great and be way more subtle than crazy bright yellow with gold edging everwhere... I know nothing of colour theory and would never paint a miniature the way that Space Marine was done... EVER... it's way too gaudy for my tastes. But I do know someone who was a tailor for a long time and liked to mix colours in the most offensive manner possible, such as bright neon pink socks with tartan yellow pants and a bright blue shirt with a red jacket and green strippy tie... Eww.
You say that the purple and yellow are both attention-attracting colors but the purple is too dull for that. It seems like its a perfect combo of the dull main color of purple and the highlight of yellow.
The theory behind it and all seems nice, but I gotta say, I still prefer in the end the "sports themed" bladeguard.. Thought from first look he was really cool. I'm guessing he is a Black Templar with the yellow on him being a tribute to their gene fathers legion. And I just ended up thinking he looked cooler for that reason
As a noob, been painting for less than a year, and have slowly moved from the $0.50 Walmart paints, to Vallejo, and Citadel. I have ordered my first airbrush, and I am gonna start learning that because the brush though intimate, takes forever. I have used your videos for tons of tips and lessons. Thanks man!!!!
I've only really been enjoying the brush because for me it's kind of meditative at night after being a 32yo dad and nursing school student that is 3 months from grad, sometimes after studying for hours a paint sess with the brush and a mini is just mellowing, I don't have to think hard on any one thing, just go with what my gut and heart tells me should be painted.
@@TheKidnappedOne I am a 43 year old Father of 3, and a 16 year Paramedic in a very busy, urban, poor, 911 system. I agree that brush painting is very, very therapeutic. It makes me focus on the mini, and lock out everything else, it really does quite some of my demons. Glad you found this earlier than I did. I wish I had found this 10-12 years ago. Good luck in Nursing School.
@@timandshannon03 it wasn't until this passed semester with Covid stress and then slammed with 5 plus exams a week that I came to the realization of how therapeutic it was, before I didn't even notice I was sinking into that sort of "unfocused" focus. 6 years as a home health aid, the decision to become an LPN has been a long one that took some of my patient's literally forcing me to apply to the trade school I'm attending, 8 months down 3 months to go until I get to take my licensing exam, sadly some extra stress is not being able to practice skills on anything other than sim dummies, which is fine and all, but not the same a actually doing a Foley or IV on a living, breathing, moving patient, but clinical sites aren't letting us in, so we are going to have to learn fast and hard in the field. I don't envy you, the things you've likely seen as a paramedic I'm sure has left its mark, I've been considering volunteer work as a medic with my local fire hall after I'm done with school, put some of my knowledge and skills to to work to help others, but I need to talk to them to see of thats an option for an LPN or if I need to be an RN. EMT training is another option there too.
@@TheKidnappedOne if you're in the U.S. you'll have to be an EMT, but EMT school is usually just a Semester. If you're interested in giving back to.your community, I highly recommend EMT, or Medic. It's stressful, and heartbreaking sometimes, but it truly is the most rewarding career on the planet. I am 20 years on my Ambulance, my first 5 were as as an EMT. I absolutely loved it, and worked with fantastic Paramedics who inspired me to become a Medic. If you're thinking, I highly recommend doing it.
@theboldbear Biggest issue with an airbrush for me is space, I do not have the area to even put up a temporary spray booth. There may come a time when I own a place thats big enough that I have a small workshop that isn't just my closet of an office, but that won't be anytime soon.
The key to contrasting color is restraint you can't use a ton of it, I've been painting my tau models with main color of Kantor blue, I use stormvermin fur gray for cloth and certain other parts to break up the blue, then I'm using troll slayer orange as my high contrast color very sparingly, specifically to draw your eyes to the next part of the model. I try to use 50/40/10 as a basis for ratios.
"Complementary" colours because they make each other more powerful and vivid when placed next to one another. Just like what happens when we upvote each other's comments. Jokes aside, the colour theory is valuable in realism because a warm colour will usually have a cool shadow and vice versa. For fun, try and pin-wash the armour plates of an Imperial Fist with purple ink. The yellow will become incredibly strong.
Color theory is valuable in all aspects, not just realism. I use it all the time in design. Color theory is not just using complementary colors, in full color theory there's a ton of depth. That's like saying don't use music theory when writing songs because the I-IV-V-I chord progression is overused
That's the comment I was looking for... Complementary are by definition is a "two strong colors "fighting" for attention". In art they are used to complement each other. For example you painting a red apple and want it to not to stick to the background. Use several strokes of green on a background near the apple to move red apple forward. Th green will make red "more powerful" in this case. In a second attempt with skeleton mini it was almost used tetradic color scheme (most popular in art) - main color: purple additional color: orange additional color: dark azure accent color: yellow colorscheme.ru/#4N42Pw0w0w0w0 And it worked better, but instead of painting crack on the skull pink... it should be painted yellow (gold?) in order to be in color scheme
"Q: What's wrong with you, that space marine looks just fine. "A: It's totally fine if you like, I don't." But you still couldn't resist the clickbait thumbnail.
I'm getting a lot of comments implying that people aren't watching the whole video, so I've decided to make an FAQ. Q: Don't you know that color theory is so much bigger than just using complementary colors? A: Yeah, I know: ua-cam.com/video/Ha2Bp-futL8/v-deo.html This is not a comprehensive color theory guide. It was never advertised as such, quite the opposite. This video is specifically about the idea of incorporating complementary colors (i.e. colors that are on opposite sides of the color wheel) into the same scheme in a way that I personally like. Q: Why are you focusing exclusively on complementary colors? A: This is a concept VERY often used by beginners who are just starting to look into color theory. It's seemingly so easy to understand which makes it so easy to abuse, in my opinion. Beginners make up the majority of people in every single hobby, so I thought I'd start here with a simple, digestible video. Q: What's wrong with you, that space marine looks just fine. A: ua-cam.com/video/Ha2Bp-futL8/v-deo.html It's totally fine if you like, I don't. That's what makes art wonderful: we all have different opinions and they can all coexist. Q: Don't you know that space marines are SUPPOSED to look like sports teams? A: Every single one of the major space marine factions do not use 2 complementary colors LIKE the example shown. Of course there are a million tiny little chapters so at some point you're going to make some decisions that look like sports teams but every single chapter that GW decides are their big ticket sellers (Ultramarines, Blood Angels, Black Templars, Dark Angels, Deathwatch, Imperial Fists, Iron Hands, Raven Guard, Space Wolves, White Scars) use 1 saturated main color (if that) surrounded by desaturated tones and if there is a 2nd saturated color, it's in very small quantity eg. green eye lenses with red armor for Blood Angels. C: Your space marine looks bad because you used too much yellow with your purple or vice versa. A: Yes, amount of visible color is also an important consideration, but it is not the only one.
I would argue that Dark Angels have red guns and green armor and that Ultramarines often have enough gold trim to count as complementary. Templars are B&W which while not complementary is maximally contrasty.
1) Than maybe the video title is off? And the general message is wrong? Again You IMO fail to underline what is right/wrong in the two models in scope of color theory/Complementary colors. It's even the opposite - the marine shows good usage of complementary colors as they make him "pop" and are really eye catching. The other figure is bad as It's what You said in question 4 about SM chapters - thats 1 strong saturated color and a desaturated color (so where is the complementary in that?). To prove You could paint an Imperial Fist marine and use purple for shadows - that would prove the point and I would love to see more examples like that on other figures (like painting capes, cloth, metals, etc). 2) That's fine although I would argue that most beginners opt to use the triad of colors. 3) Sure. Still I like it/don\t like does not prove a point of using a technique well/bad. 4) Good point. Still it all came from the argument "it looks like a football team and it does not fit an SM" which is not true as it fits them perfectlty in my opinion. 5) Maybe next time try a topic on how to use color theory to enchance a mood/style/effect? Becouse as stated previously that SM looks fine UNLESS You wanted to make him look murky/dirty/less eye catching then this painting failed to deliver. Otherwise it fits the general idea of a SM gaming figure.
To counter argue, color theory is as simple as complimentary colors. Let's look at a different art theory, like music theory. You have plenty of songs that sound great that are just 3 chords. Not every song has to be, nor should be, as complex as Beethoven"s 5th symphony. You are calling your audience wrong and dinguses for wanting a simple color scheme.
@@panwall1327 I think you're a bit too defensive here, he was clearly calling HIMSELF a dingus with the title, HE painted the first mini after all. And lets be real, that second mini looks 10x better than the first mini. Worse than that, it's not like he was trying to paint a garish sports team color scheme. If that's you then more power to you. He was trying to make a PURPLE space marine, and he completely failed. That marine SCREAMS Yellow, with the Purple as a secondary color even though most of the armor is painted purple. This is the essence of "Using Color Theory Like A Dingus". The video is about breaking out of the naive way of using color theory and using it to achieve subtle, effective results. To your example, while there are lots of songs with 3 chords that sound great, there are even more combinations of 3 chords that sound like utter garbage. The goal is to put together a song that sounds nice. Sometimes that's flamboyant, sometimes it's subtle. It still has to be put together correctly to sound good. Same with color.
It is funny you mentioned the Vikings as I picked Space Marines as my 40k army specifically because they look like football players and paint them after my favorite team the Vikings. GO PURPLE PEOPLE EATERS!!!
'I'm not here to tell you what's wrong or what's right' - Maybe you should tell your thumbnail? You know, the one that says one colour scheme is WRONG and one is RIGHT?
when using pruple + yellow, i only use golden details and keep the rest some accents of purple or other fitting colours like whipe for markings or steel grey for small non-gilded bits.
_I would love to know not _*_what is,_*_ but_ *when* _to use a particular color scheme._ _When is it interesting to use an Analogous scheme. What is the feeling you get when you use a Complementary, or a Triadic, Tetratic, Square, Split Complement. Why are you using this and not that? Etc... That would mean the world to me! Thank you so much!!_
Hey Scott, I’ve just finished a redemptor dreadnought (ultramarines) if you’re stuck for one for Nova due to someone not being able to manage it. Let me know if you need it
Honestly, that yellow-and-purple combo would've worked if you'd restricted the yellow to just the kneecap, the mouth visor, and the stripe on the tiny kite shield. Maybe even paint an identical yellow stripe on the storm shield.
I really like the miniature, reminds me of the PS1 Game "MediEvil" and the purple highlight with blue, definitly trying that out...hmm...i know exactly the miniture for that
This is the EXACT video I needed this week! An employee has asked me to paint an Aasimar Paladin for their DnD campaign and they want two colors...PURPLE AND YELLOW. Thanks for the motivation my dude!
You are right about the yellow and purple of the space marine beeing in conflict, but I think it's because the entire shield and helmet are yellow, the Kneepad and the yellow stripe on the small ornamental shield are looking great. I suggest adding purple to the shield in a heraldic pattern, the helmet might be fine at that point. And perhaps you will have freed up some "space" for yellow details on the body.
I'm trying to take a poll. I am new to mini painting and was curious to find out if you prefer to paint the mini disassembled or assembled. Some of the space marines look like they would be a pain to paint once they are put together. Thanks for the help.
@@Jormyyy Well, in GW's marketing strategy, you're paying for power. But that still doesn't make it right, lol. I think 20 bucks for a single heroic scale mini is pretty nuts. I can get two large 3d printed minis from Artisan Guild $20 on Etsy, sometimes with extra bits / weapons.
@@harkejuice and yet while already pretty good, 3d prints are still not at the same level of quality. I do love me some 3d printed etsy minis, but a comparison with their quality and price is lacking
@@MrStatistx While the quality varies with the skill of the printer, Artisan Guild, Duncan Louca are all fantastic 3d models that have come out fantastic in my experience. The level of detail you can get even in smaller miniatures its crazy. Now, this is not including GW and similar companies that can afford to design push-fit multi-part models on a single runner.
The tone of yellow also makes a big difference. On the first example an ochre yellow would’ve looked totally different than the lemon yellow you used. Like you said every color has endless variations in brightness, saturation, undertone etc. Knowing which to use is an art in and of itself. Nice topic for a video.
I've been watching this channel for YEARS and this has been one of the most challenging subjects for me (color selection). Love the video and I'm glad I finally got to see it. Thanks!
I love playing with colors, one day I did a bloodletter (just one for testing) starting with a dark angel green mixed with black as undercoat, then a base coat of a red with a little bit of dark angel green, and build the color progressiviley going brighter go to less covering and more highlighting with a bit of normal green instead of dark gern mixed with red and each time less green and more red and the miniature looks beautiful. The darker parts are a vwry dark green and the final highlight is pure red and apperence quite as fluroescent because of the contrast it gives. I love it and will do all my army this way.
"I used purple and yellow together on this mini..." Bro, literally where? "I coulda used more" You mean like... Any? At all? Are you seriously saying that mixing the brown counts as using yellow?
The skull as well. I don't know if it came across too white through the camera or whether he just needed to use more, but imagine the yellow parts on the space marine being bleached bone instead and it'd probably look way better.
I agree 100% that too strong tones makes the minis look like a sports team. I often try to stay on a more somber side and since I started using oils I get a lot of pigment out of the tiniest blotch of paint. Then it's just a question of how much I want to tone it down.
I usually use complimentary colours in small amounts, as spot colours on some areas, mix them into the flesh tones(if the model has any) or incorporate them into the base. These are ways to get the pleasing combinations of colours, without having them in big blocks next to each other.
You could also use a split complement, so pick one colour off the colour wheel and take the two colours that are adjacent to its opposite. Or a triad, or a quadratic complement. Lots of options!
I'm just getting into the world of mini's and bought a few Necrons to paint up. I got the 1st 2 painted up in a similar fashion of what GW provided in paints and got bored so I went with my own creation... It must've been fate because my scheme is very similar to the "right" miniatures paint job.. I always feel like I'm in over my head so I'm glad I have channels like yours and Squidmar's to keep me focused... Learning so much!! Thanks for sharing Scott!
I watched the video where you painted that purple SM and there was something off about that paint scheme but I couldn't tell why. Glad that you made this video to explain why.
Have you heard of the Abbott Color Wheel? It was designed for tattoos but I've found plenty of other applications for it. Basically it's your typical color wheel but what it does differently is places a bunch of colors on a value scale so that not only can you find proper color contrast but proper value contrast in those colors. It's an epic tool.
What I tend towards is keeping note of whether my primary colour is bright or dark, and pale or stark. Then I make the secondary and tertiary colours each disagree with the main colour on one of those axes. But then, I'm usually working with split-complementary schemes.
At this time I have reason to believe that Broken Anvil the company might not be able to fulfill their promises to their consumers. I would be wary of investing into their products until they prove to the community that they can keep their commitments.
Knew there was a reason I raised an eyebrow when I heard that name, forgot about that whole debacle
I mean, space marine chapters aren't that far from space football teams :P
I love this comment and hate it at the same time
Hmm ... True
@@sillylilguyproductions hate these sad truths..
I went to a local store, and there were some guys playing 40K. I wandered over to look in on it. I was talking to one guy, having a good conversation, and mentioned that while I build 40K frequently, I don't play. One fellow, who was playing Ultramarines, kind of sneered and said "Why would you build them and NOT play?" I shrugged and said "I guess they're fun." Then I looked wide eyed at his army and said "Cool! You're playing the Colts!" He got a bit red faced. Everyone else fell out laughing... :)
Yup... "This is wrong, except that in the example used it's literally correct and the entire point".
So, coming from a portrait-painter: there is a much simpler solution.
Just make sure that if you do go the yellow-purple route, that in one of the yellow tints, you mix in just a tiny bit of the purple (or vice versa). This creates a cohesive whole to the eye, because it subconsciously detects that the two colors exist in the same environment.
Second reason this combination might look a little harsh on the eye to some is nothing to do with the colors, but with their saturation. Saturated mid-tones are some of the harshest colors around, and if you pair two of them up, that gets you into trouble.
Like the videos, but I'm not entirely getting how the second figure you're painting connects to the first?
I know, it felt like just started painting a figure, with a tutorial, as if the intro had never happened.
Agree I wouldn't say the second has a purple yellow colour scheme
Paints space marine like Minnesota vikings quarterback.
"This scheme looks more like a sports team than a work of art."
Yes.
This would be the perfect color scheme for a space marine chapter that specializes in opening strong, then letting everyone down at the end of each match.
I am glad I scrolled down, because as a fellow Minnesotan, I was just about to make the same joke.
It hurts 😭😭 real funny tho underrated comment
Dude.........
Just because it’s true doesn’t mean it hurts 😭😭😭
As a Vikings fan I'm hurting inside as I read this...
That fits my last game tbh
All these people saying the space marine looks like a football team.......pffft. It's clearly 1980-88 LA Kings scheme.
Definitely getting some Gretzky vibes from him!
Lakers?
Lakers?
I actually wanna get a bunch of space marines and paint each one as a different hockey team. Haha
All hockey, all the time!
"Im not here to say any color scheme is right or wrong."
Thumbnail literally says "Right and Wrong"
That's clickbait for you
Yeah that was a pretty douchey line, considering the thumbnail.
@@wingnoot048 Yup. Unfortunately it's to appease the youtube algorithm overlords. I mean I dont blame the youtubers, it's a hard platform.
What gets more clicks
"How to paint for beginners part 1"
or
"TOP 10 SECRETS TO GETTING YOUR UNPAINTED SMURFS ONTO THE TABLE, EVEN A BEGINNER CAN BE A PRO IN UNDER AN HOUR" (and some big red arrows, maybe an emoji face somewhere)
and dingus, dont forget dingus, the title is just clickbait (It worked I looked but I dont feel like it was for the right reason,the video didnt teach me anything other than miniacs opinion, which is his own, (ironic considering his strawberry syrup vampire army).
@@artycharr What? A mini painter giving an opinion about how they like to paint? No way... I forgot that art was objectively measurable and opinions were worthless.
"I'm not here to say any scheme is right or wrong"
But, the thumbnail...
I agree with what you are saying but I think this was a bad example due to the different model, differed model (theme and style), I'd be interested to see another blade-guard for comparison.
That said, the second model did end up looking great!
I agree with you. Two different models and including colors not used on the first model is a bad example. Next time, use the same models and same colors (purple and yellow). Of course you can use different hues/shades and more importantly apply them to different parts.
@@skipgiblets I mean, he kind of did use purple and yellow? Just played a lot in the purple-to-blue-green range, then integrated a tiny, desaturated bit of yellow for emphasis.
@Grimnir there is yellow in the mix. The bones are pale yellow. The whole point of the video is that you can leverage complementary color without using them in their default high saturation and brightness! Yes he could have used more, made the bones older looking, used gold highlights instead of copper, but his more subtle approach is just as valid.
@Grimnir neutral would be grey. Yellowish off white is not neutral, even though it's close.
@Grimnir well yes, because color theory is a set of loose guidelines rather than hard rules.
hot and cold colors are basically complementary color families.
and indeed there are other schemes than complementary ones (similar, triadic quadriatic, etc...).
using a hue as part of a blend rather than as a pure color is still relying on the relationship between complementary colors.
Incidentally it creates a warm/cold opposition, as all complementary sets do.
A cool tip for purples, add more red to the mix for the highlights and add more blue to the shadows, that way you are using hues to complement the piece and add contrast whilst also playing with the warms in the highlights and colds in the shadows
The term you are looing for is analogous. Blue and red are analogous of purple. Analogous colors are often key to figuring out your shadow and highlight mix if you don't want to just use tints and shades.
I apply the Chief Wiggum Color/Colour Theory: "If it feels good, do it."
I'm totally down with that
@@Miniac Then why make a ten minute clickbait video on why you're not.
@@OmegaShadeslayer Because people are allowed to share their opinions on what they think looks good and bad while also being OK with people doing whatever they want. It's called "tolerance". Maybe I didn't push all the right buttons to make you think that, but that's the intention.
@@Miniac The clickbaity thumbnail and "football" team comments didn't help, and looking at the rest of the comments it seems this is a pretty common theme.
Try harder next time.
@@OmegaShadeslayer I mean, if my goal was to create a "clickbait" title, looking at views (the purpose of clickbait) would suggest that it was largely successful. I don't understand your end goal with your comments.
Okay but here’s the problem:
The bladeguard vet still looks good
I really want to see a paint challenge video where people replicate "horrible paint schemes" but with pro techniques just to see what happens!
yep ... and the skeleton has so little yellow in it that you need to watch the videos to see that he did use that colour at all ...
And that's the basic problem with painting.
The talented artists can break as well as apply rules and still create good art either way.
The lesser folk (ie : us mere mortals) tend to create horrible results until they 'git gud' (if they ever get that far) ...
I do understand what he's trying to say, but I think he needs a better example that shows the effect without making it so sublte that you need to read the recipe to see ...
@@NotTheStinkyCheese That's the point tho. People's default assumption of "how to use the color wheel" is "Two extremely saturated opposite colors on the same model". He's showing that a much smarter way to "use the color wheel" (not: how to paint a good Yellow + Purple mini), is to use the opposite colors to influence the mid/undertones of the colors in your scheme, whether or not both primary colors are present. The purple->yellow blending in the bone colors and the yellow in the copper colors makes them 'pop' significantly more than if he did a reddish copper or blueish bone.
Using the color wheel to subtly nudge all of the colors in your scheme in one direction or the other helps create a natural pleasing contrast + cohesion between the colors.
@@NotTheStinkyCheese Yeah that's entirely the point of the video, that you don't have to saturate colors to use them from the color wheel. So I don't know how a better example can be reached when it seems you fully understand what he was trying to tell you except you're taking it as a negative thing.
Is it bad to say I prefer the bladeguard!
Purple, blue, yellow skull head....hmmm sounds familiar. YOU'RE PAINTING SKELETOR
MYAAAHH!!!!
EAT THE PIZZA HEMAN!
I actually laughed out loud.
Thank you, and damn you!
"WAT"
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who noticed that!
“I’m not here to say any scheme is right or wrong”
*thumbnail intensifies*
Thank you for doing such an amazing job painting up our Mini!
Send him something of your game to review. It sounds pretty good so far!
I like the mini, think about selling the STL in future for 3d printing, I print all my mini's now so its a shame to see good sculpts I'll not buy. :-)
Your mini's look great an all, but honestly, I do want to buy some Necromunda scale (and style) mini's. A really nice totally-not-Bull Gorg would be awesome. XD
@@Marti3P I'm confused, did you sculpt this mini for the company, or are you actually coming into the comments, replying to the company, stating you'll just find a way to steal this?
@@Elrictwok im replying to the company asking they think about selling the mini for 3d printing in the future not steal you douche bag, you do realise there are tons of companies directly selling their minis to 3d printers, Artisan Guild, Titan Forge Games ect
Not to sound like a pain in the butt cheeks but honestly this video kinda-off missed the point of it in my opinion.
The example of the "bad" usage of the color wheels it totally off - the football team style actually perfectly fits Space Marines (Smurfs anyone? or Salamanders?) - fits fluff wise (flashy proud, distinct, bold) and gameplay wise on the table (eye-catching). Would that color scheme fit a D&D ranger? No. Would it fit on a WWII soldier? No. Would it fit a grimdark style? Maybe if toned down a lot.
The "good" example also does not speak to me - You did mix SOME yellow to the mix but honestly it's so desaturaded by the white it's basically non existing and any desaturated color (volume) works good with any color so... The metallics make a better accent role than the bone.
I get it that You wanted to touch on the topic and give a video shoutout for the sponsor (which is cool and fine) but I would like a much more complex approach to this topic by You which You allready have proved many times You are capable off.
Thanks for the video nonetheless.
I'm pretty much in agreement with this. The yellow can be a wide range of colors, it doesn't have to be day-glow yellow (deep, cool purple vs acidic, neon looking yellow...bleh!). You could have made the accent color gold and it still would have fit the purple/yellow theme and looked better. Plus, the choices where the yellow was added to the mini don't scream "accent" to me. You basically painted half the model purple and the other half yellow (the yellow shield is pretty much the same size as his body). I assume this was done to make the point of how much it stands out, but on a space marine it doesn't look that ridiculous (based on the previous comment's reasoning).
I also agree that the skeleton model seems very grey and drab in comparison. While still painted beautifully and looking great, I feel like there are two different styles of painting being displayed here, not two different color schemes getting you to a different conclusion.
Contrasting accent colors can be done well, as long as they are either minimal in comparison to the main color or knocked back in some way like with shading or choosing a color in the range that isn't starkly opposite of the main color. You could do fire engine red and kelly green and it would look like a christmas tree. Or you could go with a deep scarlet and a hooker's or deep forest green and it would look pretty bad ass.
I'm w you-- it's a nice paint job (in terms of technical skill, esp, it's WAY better than what I can do right now!) but too far in the other direction for me! Though I do agree w this vid in that I think people can misuse colour theory, or at least are mistaught it and just learn what colours compliment what & going on to use those without understanding other types of colour combos, what connotations certain colours have, learning abt value differences, etc. I think the important thing w colour is to think about what your specific project needs, and work from there, instead of just making something look "classy" (not all paint jobs should be as subtle & desaturated as the final paint job here, esp w how subtle the yellow is) or just picking two complimentary colours! Both kind of fall short in that they look for a certain aesthetic a little arbitrarily, if that makes sense? (eg: a bright, fun colour scheme- even one that's tacky or ugly- might suit a court jester, and a cold , desaturated scheme might fit a strict knight-in-armour Paladin-- no matter how "classy", a desaturated subtle scheme wouldn't fit the jester, and no matter how adherent to rules of complimentary colours, a bright red and green wouldn't suit the Paladin)
Once you think about the nature of your project, then you can use colour theory to make it look nicer / more unified as a final project! The final paint job here does, I think, look way nicer than the example one, but it doesn't get away from the problem of just using colour theory because you "should" without thinking about the specific project. (My 2 cents anyway; obv it's art & there's no only one right way to do things, it's just how I think abt a project)
I have to agree with this as well. I feel like the bone itself should have had a more aged bone look, which is more towards a yellowish tint. But the end result seems more a pale white. Theres so little yellow in it, that it straight up doesn't read -as- yellow. Though I did like the tip about adding purple into the other colors to kind of try to keep it sorta consistent. But the main concept of the video seemed to get lost entirely by the end.
Football team is just a smidge away from Medieval Heraldry, which is probably the inspiration. Still, the example model is a little stark, I agree. I also agree that the yellow is a bit lost on this one. Check out regular art/illlustration twitter/instagram and there are a lot of good tutorials on making cohesive color palettes using more modern tools.
I very much agree on how color theory directly applies to the subject being painted. That's why I was disappointed with the video, color theory is a lot more than "Purple doesn't work with Yellow".
This should have been titled “Stop Using Color Theory Like a BONE HEAD”
Hahahahaha
Hahahahhahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahhahahahahahagahahhahahahahahahhagahahahahahahhahahaha
I got that one
Sad spaghetti skeleton noises
Zing
“It’s 100% fine if you want to use this color combination”
Also: “Stop using color theory like a dingus”
Getting some mixed signals there, man...
to be fair the main point is to use off colors instead of bold ones and pick a main color and use the other color as a light trim
Not really. He's saying it's fine to apply colour theory like a dingus if you're happy with the model.
The point of the video being that's it's more nuanced than people treat it.
@Hoolio Iglesias lol indeed. Can't argue against that
If you make the conscious decision to pick those colors and are fine with them, that's fine. But if you blindly picked them from the color wheel using only the first step of color theory, you used color theory like a dingus (i.e. wrong) and if you are unsatisfied with the result you have only yourself to blame.
That is what he means. If YOU picked the color, that is fine. If the color wheel picked them and you blindly followed it, you are a dingus.
@@ShiningDarknes ...Who even does that?
I love the purple and yellow space marine 🤷♂️
In fact, I think I might paint a few of mine with that scheme
Firstly I don't think a person's first thoughts are "yellow and purple" when looking at that skeleton. And secondly, the main reason people go with striking and contrasting colour schemes such as the one on the space marine is visibility on the tabletop. When you view your miniatures from at least 2 feet 90 % of the times you'll want something that's much more noticeable. And since most miniature wargames have a competitive aspect to them, the football jersey feel plays rather well into this.
With that being said despite the clickbaity title the video was very educational (as always).
I think that what didn't get communicated clearly was that he wanted to paint with those colors, but not necessarily have a purple and yellow model when he was done. He did that here, incorporating those colors in ways that many painters might not try (largely because most paint lines don't really encourage that level of experimentation).
it's also, for GW miniatures, very close to how the original colour schemes were designed. I mean, ultramarines were moved away from being blue-yellow to blue-gold just because the original version seemed that bit too gaudy (also yellow was/is horrible for new painters (if you just have the standard old yellow paint, it'll take 3-4 coats to come out well, which is very depressing if you are 13), and smurfs are supposed to be the 'starter' army,
@@reganator5000 This is so true. I mean look at some of the original Space Orcs/Orks from 40k .They looked like a Crayola Factory exploded! Today even Bad Moons or Evil Sunz 'generally' rely on far more muted color combos.
That isn't to say you shouldn't paint hyper neon bright minis (especially for something cyber punk or high tech).
@@Nevets1073 Thats the problem, the bladeguard owner wanted a purple and yellow fucking model, kinda voids the point of the video
@@arkurianstormblade4109 it's why the new noise marine model was so divisive when announced, people forget that contrast that physically hurts to look at is basically slaanesh's shtick
That purple yellow combination works because you can't shoot what you averted your eyes from! Neon Pink and Green Chapter has 0 casualties!
Lol, my brother wants to paint his a mix of bubblegum pink and aquamarine. He calls them the "Spite Marines".
Ahh yes the Nerdsmarines, Wild Cherry and Watermelon Chapter.
Jokes aside, The yellow and purple works because it's a dark desaturated purple that serves a s base color, enhancing the contrast with the bright yellow. An equally saturated and pght purple would have clashed.
I still would jave chosen a more gold/fire like yellow, and maybe used some oranges and red to create a gradient to trasition, but the scheme of desaturated base color/ bright saturated complementary color is tried and true, if a bit bold.
All this to confirm that camo green with bright magenta highlights could actually work fairly well. case in point, many illustrations of green jungles that highlight the pink of the tongue and gums of some feral beast.
@Lee Shackelford Nah, keep it at night. Enemy has to choose between seeing you with reflected light from the moon, OR turning their flashlight to look at the ground and slowly burning their eyes from the fluorescent retroreflective space marine in the distance.
tldr: use colors next to each other on the color wheel for multiple large swaths of paint next to each other, use colors opposite the color wheel just for smaller eye-popping highlights, and make sure your colors don't just vary in hue, but also saturation and brightness.
I just wanted to say that the "wrong color" model in the thumbnail looks WAY more interesting. Color theory is like music scales. There as a guide, not to be dramatic about following it to a T
Well it’s about how the yellow hurts the eyes. It’s like a Brazen Claw, emperor’s children, and imperial fist.
Now I love it. But I love all of that.
“A small company...a miniature one” i snorted at that, thanks lol
"the cape is purple"
Normal people: cool blue cape.
"How do you do that in a way that doesn't make your mini look like a clown?"
Proceeds to basically paint Skeletor. *lol*
not, Sir Dan from Medievil?
Haha, I thought about skeleton as well as soon as I saw blue and purple together.
SKELETOR IS NOT A CLOWN YOU BONEHEAD! (I wrote this in skeletors voice)
@@therealwinston3634 people still remember him? He's like 20 years old now
This mini reminds me of MediEvil in a great way. love it.
clayton leal agreed!
0:39 "I'm not saying any scheme is right or wrong"
laughs in thumbnail
Can we all just stop bullying Scott? xD
"Pretend this is a crystal ball, please" , can't you tell he's on the edge of breaking? xD
Without making it look like a clown?
Joke's on you, I'm painting Harlequins! CHEKMATE Mr. Mini Painting man! ;P
You can also work with complementary colours the way you did for the space marine and get good results. The thing to keep in mind is the colours are going to fight each other, unless you use one of them sparingly. On the space marine if you had painted the shield purple you would probably have had a better ratio between the 2. I think another thing that might cause issues is the amount of gold on the mini. I would be interested to see how painting this as silver would have changed the over all look.
I was thinking like you... silver instead of gold would look great and be way more subtle than crazy bright yellow with gold edging everwhere... I know nothing of colour theory and would never paint a miniature the way that Space Marine was done... EVER... it's way too gaudy for my tastes. But I do know someone who was a tailor for a long time and liked to mix colours in the most offensive manner possible, such as bright neon pink socks with tartan yellow pants and a bright blue shirt with a red jacket and green strippy tie... Eww.
You say that the purple and yellow are both attention-attracting colors but the purple is too dull for that. It seems like its a perfect combo of the dull main color of purple and the highlight of yellow.
I feel personally attacked by this but damn did I need to hear it.
The theory behind it and all seems nice, but I gotta say, I still prefer in the end the "sports themed" bladeguard.. Thought from first look he was really cool. I'm guessing he is a Black Templar with the yellow on him being a tribute to their gene fathers legion. And I just ended up thinking he looked cooler for that reason
such a good scale for painting, ive been 3d printing minis at that scale because its much more enjoyable to paint
"I'm not saying any scheme is right or wrong..."
*sweats in thumbnail*
As a noob, been painting for less than a year, and have slowly moved from the $0.50 Walmart paints, to Vallejo, and Citadel. I have ordered my first airbrush, and I am gonna start learning that because the brush though intimate, takes forever. I have used your videos for tons of tips and lessons. Thanks man!!!!
I've only really been enjoying the brush because for me it's kind of meditative at night after being a 32yo dad and nursing school student that is 3 months from grad, sometimes after studying for hours a paint sess with the brush and a mini is just mellowing, I don't have to think hard on any one thing, just go with what my gut and heart tells me should be painted.
@@TheKidnappedOne I am a 43 year old Father of 3, and a 16 year Paramedic in a very busy, urban, poor, 911 system. I agree that brush painting is very, very therapeutic. It makes me focus on the mini, and lock out everything else, it really does quite some of my demons. Glad you found this earlier than I did. I wish I had found this 10-12 years ago. Good luck in Nursing School.
@@timandshannon03 it wasn't until this passed semester with Covid stress and then slammed with 5 plus exams a week that I came to the realization of how therapeutic it was, before I didn't even notice I was sinking into that sort of "unfocused" focus.
6 years as a home health aid, the decision to become an LPN has been a long one that took some of my patient's literally forcing me to apply to the trade school I'm attending, 8 months down 3 months to go until I get to take my licensing exam, sadly some extra stress is not being able to practice skills on anything other than sim dummies, which is fine and all, but not the same a actually doing a Foley or IV on a living, breathing, moving patient, but clinical sites aren't letting us in, so we are going to have to learn fast and hard in the field.
I don't envy you, the things you've likely seen as a paramedic I'm sure has left its mark, I've been considering volunteer work as a medic with my local fire hall after I'm done with school, put some of my knowledge and skills to to work to help others, but I need to talk to them to see of thats an option for an LPN or if I need to be an RN. EMT training is another option there too.
@@TheKidnappedOne if you're in the U.S. you'll have to be an EMT, but EMT school is usually just a Semester. If you're interested in giving back to.your community, I highly recommend EMT, or Medic. It's stressful, and heartbreaking sometimes, but it truly is the most rewarding career on the planet. I am 20 years on my Ambulance, my first 5 were as as an EMT. I absolutely loved it, and worked with fantastic Paramedics who inspired me to become a Medic. If you're thinking, I highly recommend doing it.
@theboldbear Biggest issue with an airbrush for me is space, I do not have the area to even put up a temporary spray booth. There may come a time when I own a place thats big enough that I have a small workshop that isn't just my closet of an office, but that won't be anytime soon.
The key to contrasting color is restraint you can't use a ton of it, I've been painting my tau models with main color of Kantor blue, I use stormvermin fur gray for cloth and certain other parts to break up the blue, then I'm using troll slayer orange as my high contrast color very sparingly, specifically to draw your eyes to the next part of the model. I try to use 50/40/10 as a basis for ratios.
"Complementary" colours because they make each other more powerful and vivid when placed next to one another. Just like what happens when we upvote each other's comments. Jokes aside, the colour theory is valuable in realism because a warm colour will usually have a cool shadow and vice versa. For fun, try and pin-wash the armour plates of an Imperial Fist with purple ink. The yellow will become incredibly strong.
Color theory is valuable in all aspects, not just realism. I use it all the time in design. Color theory is not just using complementary colors, in full color theory there's a ton of depth. That's like saying don't use music theory when writing songs because the I-IV-V-I chord progression is overused
@@jacksonsingleton its also quite flawed
That's the comment I was looking for... Complementary are by definition is a "two strong colors "fighting" for attention". In art they are used to complement each other. For example you painting a red apple and want it to not to stick to the background. Use several strokes of green on a background near the apple to move red apple forward. Th green will make red "more powerful" in this case.
In a second attempt with skeleton mini it was almost used tetradic color scheme (most popular in art) -
main color: purple
additional color: orange
additional color: dark azure
accent color: yellow
colorscheme.ru/#4N42Pw0w0w0w0
And it worked better, but instead of painting crack on the skull pink... it should be painted yellow (gold?) in order to be in color scheme
I mean, the purple and yellow actually looks pretty good
I agree with you however space marines are usually bright and gaudy so it works:/
They Kinda sports teams killing xenos in space. So yeah, it works
Cop out: silver or gold. Always works. Don’t use gold with yellow or silver with white to often, but otherwise it works.
Great vid and great looking skeleton but... you know... Jon painted a whole army of skellies in one weekend... (sorry, I felt I had to do it)
That yellow needs some shading/washing. Maybe blend it with a bit of grey, too. Then you're good.
That is by far the coolest skeleton miniature I've ever seen, I might use one as a replacement for some board games characters.
I really appreciate that you keep the paint job rolling during the ad read
"Q: What's wrong with you, that space marine looks just fine.
"A: It's totally fine if you like, I don't."
But you still couldn't resist the clickbait thumbnail.
Not sure whats clickbait about it, hes explaing why painting the marine how it is, is the wrong way to apply colour theory.
Color theory is for dinguses in the first place paint it how you want. Fight me.
I'm getting a lot of comments implying that people aren't watching the whole video, so I've decided to make an FAQ.
Q: Don't you know that color theory is so much bigger than just using complementary colors?
A: Yeah, I know: ua-cam.com/video/Ha2Bp-futL8/v-deo.html
This is not a comprehensive color theory guide. It was never advertised as such, quite the opposite. This video is specifically about the idea of incorporating complementary colors (i.e. colors that are on opposite sides of the color wheel) into the same scheme in a way that I personally like.
Q: Why are you focusing exclusively on complementary colors?
A: This is a concept VERY often used by beginners who are just starting to look into color theory. It's seemingly so easy to understand which makes it so easy to abuse, in my opinion. Beginners make up the majority of people in every single hobby, so I thought I'd start here with a simple, digestible video.
Q: What's wrong with you, that space marine looks just fine.
A: ua-cam.com/video/Ha2Bp-futL8/v-deo.html
It's totally fine if you like, I don't. That's what makes art wonderful: we all have different opinions and they can all coexist.
Q: Don't you know that space marines are SUPPOSED to look like sports teams?
A: Every single one of the major space marine factions do not use 2 complementary colors LIKE the example shown. Of course there are a million tiny little chapters so at some point you're going to make some decisions that look like sports teams but every single chapter that GW decides are their big ticket sellers (Ultramarines, Blood Angels, Black Templars, Dark Angels, Deathwatch, Imperial Fists, Iron Hands, Raven Guard, Space Wolves, White Scars) use 1 saturated main color (if that) surrounded by desaturated tones and if there is a 2nd saturated color, it's in very small quantity eg. green eye lenses with red armor for Blood Angels.
C: Your space marine looks bad because you used too much yellow with your purple or vice versa.
A: Yes, amount of visible color is also an important consideration, but it is not the only one.
I would argue that Dark Angels have red guns and green armor and that Ultramarines often have enough gold trim to count as complementary. Templars are B&W which while not complementary is maximally contrasty.
1) Than maybe the video title is off? And the general message is wrong? Again You IMO fail to underline what is right/wrong in the two models in scope of color theory/Complementary colors. It's even the opposite - the marine shows good usage of complementary colors as they make him "pop" and are really eye catching. The other figure is bad as It's what You said in question 4 about SM chapters - thats 1 strong saturated color and a desaturated color (so where is the complementary in that?). To prove You could paint an Imperial Fist marine and use purple for shadows - that would prove the point and I would love to see more examples like that on other figures (like painting capes, cloth, metals, etc).
2) That's fine although I would argue that most beginners opt to use the triad of colors.
3) Sure. Still I like it/don\t like does not prove a point of using a technique well/bad.
4) Good point. Still it all came from the argument "it looks like a football team and it does not fit an SM" which is not true as it fits them perfectlty in my opinion.
5) Maybe next time try a topic on how to use color theory to enchance a mood/style/effect? Becouse as stated previously that SM looks fine UNLESS You wanted to make him look murky/dirty/less eye catching then this painting failed to deliver. Otherwise it fits the general idea of a SM gaming figure.
To counter argue, color theory is as simple as complimentary colors. Let's look at a different art theory, like music theory. You have plenty of songs that sound great that are just 3 chords. Not every song has to be, nor should be, as complex as Beethoven"s 5th symphony. You are calling your audience wrong and dinguses for wanting a simple color scheme.
@@panwall1327 Well, I didn't take offense. "Dare you call me a dingus!" I just think the example was an over-correction and kind of missed the point.
@@panwall1327 I think you're a bit too defensive here, he was clearly calling HIMSELF a dingus with the title, HE painted the first mini after all. And lets be real, that second mini looks 10x better than the first mini. Worse than that, it's not like he was trying to paint a garish sports team color scheme. If that's you then more power to you. He was trying to make a PURPLE space marine, and he completely failed. That marine SCREAMS Yellow, with the Purple as a secondary color even though most of the armor is painted purple. This is the essence of "Using Color Theory Like A Dingus". The video is about breaking out of the naive way of using color theory and using it to achieve subtle, effective results. To your example, while there are lots of songs with 3 chords that sound great, there are even more combinations of 3 chords that sound like utter garbage. The goal is to put together a song that sounds nice. Sometimes that's flamboyant, sometimes it's subtle. It still has to be put together correctly to sound good. Same with color.
It is funny you mentioned the Vikings as I picked Space Marines as my 40k army specifically because they look like football players and paint them after my favorite team the Vikings. GO PURPLE PEOPLE EATERS!!!
'I'm not here to tell you what's wrong or what's right' - Maybe you should tell your thumbnail? You know, the one that says one colour scheme is WRONG and one is RIGHT?
I don't know what color theory is and I've been painting miniatures for 10 years.
Here’s how to use purple and yellow: Barely use any yellow, and mix it with something else so you can’t even tell there’s yellow there.
Vallejo 70.878 Old Gold is one of my fav gold tones for plated or "natural-looking" gold, brass, or bronze on darker schemes
Wrong - Right
Me, an intellectual: "Jokes on you, i dont see any difference"
when using pruple + yellow, i only use golden details and keep the rest some accents of purple or other fitting colours like whipe for markings or steel grey for small non-gilded bits.
I get what you're going for, but I feel that yellow is way too desaturated to be noticeable.
Putting the topic aside it Still looks amazing though
I will always stick around to the end for that riff/motivational growl, no worries 😅
I really dig this video, quality stuff as usual man.
_I would love to know not _*_what is,_*_ but_ *when* _to use a particular color scheme._
_When is it interesting to use an Analogous scheme. What is the feeling you get when you use a Complementary, or a Triadic, Tetratic, Square, Split Complement. Why are you using this and not that? Etc... That would mean the world to me! Thank you so much!!_
Hey Scott, I’ve just finished a redemptor dreadnought (ultramarines) if you’re stuck for one for Nova due to someone not being able to manage it. Let me know if you need it
Honestly, that yellow-and-purple combo would've worked if you'd restricted the yellow to just the kneecap, the mouth visor, and the stripe on the tiny kite shield. Maybe even paint an identical yellow stripe on the storm shield.
I really like the miniature, reminds me of the PS1 Game "MediEvil" and the purple highlight with blue, definitly trying that out...hmm...i know exactly the miniture for that
I thought Sir Dan as soon I saw it too!
Ngl this guy has probably one of the best miniature channel names
To be fair, spess mehrines ARE sports teams yelling for attention... :P
This is the EXACT video I needed this week! An employee has asked me to paint an Aasimar Paladin for their DnD campaign and they want two colors...PURPLE AND YELLOW. Thanks for the motivation my dude!
Turnip is funnier. :P
You are right about the yellow and purple of the space marine beeing in conflict, but I think it's because the entire shield and helmet are yellow, the Kneepad and the yellow stripe on the small ornamental shield are looking great. I suggest adding purple to the shield in a heraldic pattern, the helmet might be fine at that point. And perhaps you will have freed up some "space" for yellow details on the body.
HOW DARE YOU CRITICIZE MY COLOR SCHE-
Oh...he made a comment disclaimer...shoot what am I supposed to do with all this trigger energy now?
Paint something?
TheKidnappedOne Shoot why didn’t I think of that??? U RITE
I'm trying to take a poll. I am new to mini painting and was curious to find out if you prefer to paint the mini disassembled or assembled. Some of the space marines look like they would be a pain to paint once they are put together. Thanks for the help.
$20 for one mini? That's a big yeesh from me dawg.
Zooms in on GamesWorkshop.
I paid 30 bucks for a single AOS Khorne Slaughterpriest.
@@Jormyyy Well, in GW's marketing strategy, you're paying for power. But that still doesn't make it right, lol. I think 20 bucks for a single heroic scale mini is pretty nuts. I can get two large 3d printed minis from Artisan Guild $20 on Etsy, sometimes with extra bits / weapons.
@@harkejuice and yet while already pretty good, 3d prints are still not at the same level of quality. I do love me some 3d printed etsy minis, but a comparison with their quality and price is lacking
@@MrStatistx While the quality varies with the skill of the printer, Artisan Guild, Duncan Louca are all fantastic 3d models that have come out fantastic in my experience. The level of detail you can get even in smaller miniatures its crazy.
Now, this is not including GW and similar companies that can afford to design push-fit multi-part models on a single runner.
@E Lowe Don't like the my opinon, don't reply, move along.
The tone of yellow also makes a big difference. On the first example an ochre yellow would’ve looked totally different than the lemon yellow you used. Like you said every color has endless variations in brightness, saturation, undertone etc. Knowing which to use is an art in and of itself.
Nice topic for a video.
I've been watching this channel for YEARS and this has been one of the most challenging subjects for me (color selection). Love the video and I'm glad I finally got to see it. Thanks!
"How do you do that in a way that doesn't make your mini look like a clown?"
What if I'm painting Harlequins?
I totally agree in taste, *be subtle* -- become consistent, and rock your painting skillz to the top.
I love playing with colors, one day I did a bloodletter (just one for testing) starting with a dark angel green mixed with black as undercoat, then a base coat of a red with a little bit of dark angel green, and build the color progressiviley going brighter go to less covering and more highlighting with a bit of normal green instead of dark gern mixed with red and each time less green and more red and the miniature looks beautiful. The darker parts are a vwry dark green and the final highlight is pure red and apperence quite as fluroescent because of the contrast it gives. I love it and will do all my army this way.
"I used purple and yellow together on this mini..." Bro, literally where?
"I coulda used more" You mean like... Any? At all?
Are you seriously saying that mixing the brown counts as using yellow?
The skull as well. I don't know if it came across too white through the camera or whether he just needed to use more, but imagine the yellow parts on the space marine being bleached bone instead and it'd probably look way better.
I agree 100% that too strong tones makes the minis look like a sports team. I often try to stay on a more somber side and since I started using oils I get a lot of pigment out of the tiniest blotch of paint. Then it's just a question of how much I want to tone it down.
Purple and Yellow !?
I See Chapter Master Kobe Bryant !
Or is IT Lieutenant Shaq O'Neal ?
I usually use complimentary colours in small amounts, as spot colours on some areas, mix them into the flesh tones(if the model has any) or incorporate them into the base. These are ways to get the pleasing combinations of colours, without having them in big blocks next to each other.
The sports team analogy at 0:46 is spot but personally see it as a positive, like the idea of miniature army as a sports team.
That's a really bright yellow on a dark purple, of course he'll end up looking derpy!
You could also use a split complement, so pick one colour off the colour wheel and take the two colours that are adjacent to its opposite. Or a triad, or a quadratic complement. Lots of options!
I loved the Kujo reference. Thanks for sharing, please stay safe!
I'm just getting into the world of mini's and bought a few Necrons to paint up. I got the 1st 2 painted up in a similar fashion of what GW provided in paints and got bored so I went with my own creation... It must've been fate because my scheme is very similar to the "right" miniatures paint job.. I always feel like I'm in over my head so I'm glad I have channels like yours and Squidmar's to keep me focused... Learning so much!! Thanks for sharing Scott!
The gigantic size of your “detail” brush was giving me anxiety.... but you are good with it, props, bro.
"You don't complement someone by trying to shout over them", good advice for more than just painting!
Small challenge for you: choose a color you love and a color you hate, and make those the main colors on a miniature.
We have achieved zen Scott
Petition for Scott to buy a set of God Hands precision nippers
What's funny is that you also used the blue orange complimentary color scheme.
It's all good, larry boy's been wearing that scheme for over a decade
I watched the video where you painted that purple SM and there was something off about that paint scheme but I couldn't tell why. Glad that you made this video to explain why.
I wonder if part of this problem is reaching for a high-pigmentation premixed colour instead of mixing it up oneself
Dude, this is one of my favorite paint jobs on the channel.
Have you heard of the Abbott Color Wheel? It was designed for tattoos but I've found plenty of other applications for it. Basically it's your typical color wheel but what it does differently is places a bunch of colors on a value scale so that not only can you find proper color contrast but proper value contrast in those colors. It's an epic tool.
What I tend towards is keeping note of whether my primary colour is bright or dark, and pale or stark.
Then I make the secondary and tertiary colours each disagree with the main colour on one of those axes.
But then, I'm usually working with split-complementary schemes.
That is a great scheme for Space Marines because they paint their armour to stand out on the battle field as much as possible!
Me, agriculture engineer: "Color WHAT? You don´t just start painting and complain later?"
I love the brown from purple/yellow being used based on your comments about strict yellow/purple looking ugly.
Resourceful!
im totally colorblind and i like to say that your video is very informative, it helped me a lot thanks man