The imperial status of purple is fascinating. Tyrian purple, btw made from a mucus the murex snails secrete to protect their eggs, is absurdly difficult and time-intensive to make. A Roman senator would need about 1.5 grams of purple to dye that inchwide strip on his toga that he was allowed. For that you need about 12’000 murex snails ... which means diving into the sea, searching around, collecting the snails, crushing the shells to make the snail vomit the mucus, collect said mucus and isolate the dye, less than a mg of purple per snail. Now multiply that by the number of senators and all the members of the imperial family that were allowed togas fully dyed purple. Luckily the dye is fast, not fugitive, it doesn’t fade in light and when washed. So those clothes did not need to be replaced regularly. You can still get true murex purple today, at about US$ 4’800 per gram. Chemically it is rather easy to make, as 6,6’-dibromoindigo. But art conservators occasionally need to use the true natural stuff. There is a similar snail in Mexico, around the coast of Oaxaca IIRC. There they rub the snail on the fibre they want dyed until it vomits the mucus, then release the snail back into the sea. Again a colour reserved for nobility. Japanese purple, with similar ideas of social status, is more of a Wisteria-pink, and plant-derived, but also very expensive. The punishment for wearing purple when not of sufficient social status to do so was usually death ... The imperial craze for purple extended into building materials. Porphyry is a purple granite. In the entire Roman Empire there was one (1) quarry for that, in Egypt. Porphyry from there was used to clad the Imperial Birthing Chamber, so imperial princes and princesses could claim to be ‘porphyrogenitos’, born into purple. Porphyry was also the main stone for imperial sarcophagy, from Romans to Napoleon Bonaparte, who was buried in such a porphyry sarcophagus in the centre of the Domé des Invalides in Paris. Lots of other statues in Porphyry, especially during the Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople. A good number of whuch are now in Venice due to the sack and plundering by them amongst many others of Constantinople during the 4th Crusade. Sorry about the info-dump, but colour chemistry and dyeing are interests of mine. Also in self-isolation due to that virus, so need something to do.
This is amazing, I knew it was really expensive, but I had no idea that it was that expensive, this is wonderful knowledge especially for someone like me that loves ancient Rome, thank you for taking the time to share. :)
Vince Venturella , you should be glad that they have found other pigments for purple to use in acrylics. Imagine your love of purple on miniatures at the price of murex purple ...
The counter-intuitive tip of mixing in yellow is fantastic and something I've started using regularly - particularly on models like Ogors and Skaven were I want to incorporate some purple, but not have it being super saturated and clean looking, like I'm painting a bunch of dark elves. Thank you again for the great content and super helpful advice!
I think I have watched every HC video you've done, but I always find it useful to revisit some of them as a refresher when undertaking a specific project that features something that you've covered. EG my generstealer cultists colur scheme is teal/turquoise and purple so this stuff really helps. Thank you again Mr. VV!
What a fantastic video! Loved the brief history of purple and cultural influences of the color. Not often do I laugh aloud at tutorials, but "fan of layering" bit did it for me. Thanks for that! Wanted to also say that I just painted a tunic-thingy purple for a Reaper model. Tried to highlight it by mixing sky blue with lighter purple, and ended up going back with pink to mix in, followed by several purple glazes. *Then* I discovered this video. :) will likely go back and touch up a few things. Thanks again Vince! These videos are always my top recommendation to anyone asking.
I've had a purple dragon that's been a wip in progress for years because I couldn't find a way to highlight without getting too cute with pinks. After experimenting for a while it's been on the back burner while I got absorbed in things like Zombicide. I saw you going through different colors I knew I would find some inspiration when you got to purple. Thanks for this and all you do.
Purple is so fascinating, it has so many nuances... the vocabulary used to described them is huge. Even when I speak to another french-speaking person, I'm never sure that we are talking about the same nuances of purple. Some canvas painters I talked with consider purple as a violetized red (but still a red). Globally I noticed that the major difference between english and french when it comes to define what is purple, is where we draw the line between purple and its neighbouring colours (red and violet). For example, during your presentations I often think "wait, this isn't a purple nuance, this is a violet". I think that, in french, a violet-purple, especially when it's a light or desatured nuance (lilac, mauve) tends to be categorized as a violet while in english it's still a purple. On the other side, purple-red nuances tends to form a very important subcategory in french : grenat, bordeaux, lie-de-vin (dregs of wine), bourgogne. Some (like myself) consider them as a colour on it's own, between red and purple. I personnaly love them, warmer than purples and less garish than reds.
Whatched your purple videos over and over again. I think I finally made a product I’m happy with. So thankyou MH for the great paints espescially a certain signature range), but really thank you for the confidence and knowledge to achieve beautiful emperors children armor! Hope to show you what you helped me achieve one day.
Thank you very much for this video. I'm currently building, basing and painting my first set of miniatures ever and planning to paint my army of Space Marines armor that lovely Royal Purple from Vallejo. While for this very first painting of an army, I'll most likely skip trying to do highlights and shadows this go around (I really just want to get them on the tabletop for now.). With that said, I'm sure I'll be using this information in the future, and who to that I won't revisit painting this army again.
Wow, this whole series is awesome! I am a fantasy illustrator who appreciates good miniatures. The advice in these videos is wonderful, and I am super excited to try these ideas and color strategies in my own illustrations and paintings. Thanks, Vince! :)
Great vid as always Vince, I'm working up a majority purple scheme and needed some inspiration on the lowlights/shadow and that yellow/ocre idea is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks
I love your exploring Colors series! They helped me out a so much more that just a simple tutorial, like to understand how a color acts and all that. That combined with the "practical lesson" you give while you talk about the color is so instructive... I really want to say Thank you! And I hope that you will continue the series even if it doesnt get that muchs likes (btw i have no clue why...allmost all of your vids deserve so much more likes) Sorry for my bad english in advice! Greetings form Germany PS: what you showed for purpe in european area does fit. What you said US folks see as purple we call grape id say.
Thanks for this Vince, it's always fascinating listening to you analysing the component parts of the colours we use. Purple is my favourite, but haven't been brave enough to use it yet. That will now change!
I've come back to watch this video a couple of times while trying to work out a scheme and specific colours for a planned marine army. 8 purples later and I've not found the perfect one yet, but the Purple Hex looks beautiful, will have to try the Nocturna range. I come with a question though, and a hope you still see comments on older videos: how would you recommend pre-shading or zenithal priming for purple? (Currently no airbrush, but hoping for one in the future) In your yellow video you suggested underpainting in light rust/sunny skintone/ice yellow. In your orange video you said your Seraphon (which are stunning!) were zenithal based brown/rust/ivory. Would something similar work for purple with say a dark blue for shadows and an orange/red or fleshtone for highlights? If so what would you recommend as the 'under' midtone? Sorry for the questions, but thankyou for the videos!
So honestly, purple can work with a standard black-white zenithal pretty well. If you want a warmer purple with mroe red tones, then a deep hull red underneath up to an ivory will warm the whole thing up.
I’d been thinking about your review last night of the purple silk on the ... stormcast? ... models. Your comment was that the silk was too high up to white on the fabric. I spent some time this morning looking at portraits of people in silk from 18th- and 19th- century artists. This is a great follow-up! Thanks!
One of my favourite uses of purple is when painting green skin. After blending from green to blue into the darker areas of skin adding blotches of purple really make an amazing effect.
Vince, I’m painting enforcers from necromunda and my base color scheme is black, paynes grey, royal purple, steel blue and red orange all from the pro acryl line. I have the black for pants weapons and belts, as well as tubing as well as some of the under armor. Paynes grey is the tunic and straps, and purple is the armor plating on ches shoulders ankles and shins. With orange red for knees, forearm panels, chest circle and masks. The steel blue highlights buckles and shoulder and shin ridges. It’s a really striking combo and I love it but I’m worried about layering up the purple Armor plates. Purples warm, red orange is warm so I think I should be leaning toward a warm purple highlight, but a decent ammount of each mini is also black and paynes grey with the very cold steel blue being pretty prominent. What would you recommend for figuring out what way to go? So basically half the models are purple orange, the other half is paynes grey and steel blue. So how do you decide what way to lean? The purple armor plates are the most visible part of the model. Like if it was a topographical map black is the low points up to orange/steel blue being the peaks, with dark blue and purple being the middle heights Am realizing this it probably TMI but I want to make the best choice
Its tough to see without seeing the models. I would say that the warm purple is probably your safer bet. I would mix in some sunny skin tone or something into the purple to get your highlight.
Great video! I was recently painting quickly my Gitz for Underworlds, and decided to paint their robes purple. I mistake was to jump up to too desaturated highlight color. I feel displeased with how they look, highlights are too stark. At this point I don't want to repaint them, but I will definitely keep your tips in mind next time. I really like purple color and it's a shame to not learn how to paint it better. Love "Exploring Colors" series, keep it going! Have a nice day!
Suggestion - Would you be able to move all these Exploring Color videos into their own playlist for ease of finding them? I find these are amazing resources and coming back to them all the time!
@@VinceVenturella You also have a handful of "how to paint color X" videos. I'm guessing you differentiate them as practice vs. theory? Potentially could be good to also include those in that playlist, but not sure how you're distinguishing them. For me, the way I'm browsing is I decide I want to paint mini X with a heavy purple cloak. Then I check through your videos on the colors and which ones seem relevant and rewatch them to make sure I remember the relevant points, and try something new from them. (no detailed explanation needed, just throwing this out there). Thanks for all the awesome tips! ruclips.net/video/28jNUzsN7Hs/видео.html ruclips.net/video/YH02hqBzuqM/видео.html ruclips.net/video/2-3Fnfs9AUo/видео.html
This video just saved me. I started out with a base coat of Naggaroth Night, which dries way darker than I expected, and I love the color but it left me completely clueless about what to do next. Now I have a direction!
At 25:23, the only purple I see is the leftmost color, but it is dark purple. Center is pink, and magenta on the right side. (Greetings from Germany :))
Hey Vince. I tried highlighting some purple with light, pastel green, and I actually managed to mix a similar colour to Miscatonic Grey by S75. I definitely learned something, purple doesn't mix like you'd expect it to.
Please do a video on fixing mistakes. There are a lot of tutorials out there but I can’t find any on fixing mistakes. For example, “Man this blend is sick! This is my best work ever! One final highlight right here and it will be perfect! Wait?! No! My brush flared?! Highlight color everywhere?! Guess I will be starting this armor plate all over from scratch now. 🥺”
Another fascinating video! Thanks. I am French, and for me purple is like the Warcolour you showed, more on the red tone. Also , except in art or history, we do not use this name anymore. We use a similar color bordeaux, like the wine , which I think is burgundy in English.
Hey Vince I hope you continue with these technical examination of colors. Looking forward to more videos. Have you happened to have seen the video on painting with yellow by goober town hobbies. He recommends using purple as base coating to layer yellow. over. Again thanks for your amazing contribution and passion.
25:24 Hi Italy here, I will go with the leftmost, as I think of purple as a really deep color. The centeral one would also be a valid pick, the rightmost looks borderline magenta to me
Really interesting video. I never knew the difference between purple and violet, my language has only one word for both so I used them kind of interchangeably. I use purple a lot, especially as a shadow colour for browns and reds. My whole beastman army has mostly brown skin with purple wet blended into the shadows, and then shaded with purple wash, for example. It helps add a lot of visual interest and life to the skin! I also recently started priming with it. Army Painter Alien Purple, and then a zenithal layer of Army Painter Leather Brown. Haven't gotten around to painting anything primed that way yet, but I think it will help with bringing out the purple tones more. Also, I don't have to compete for black primer at the FLGS anymore in these days of limited supply...
I throw a thinned down pro acryl transparent blue over my pro acryl dark purple & it gives it a really nice look & highlight with a neutral grey. The neutral grey doesn’t mix very well with my purple, getting a colder tone would be a better idea!
Good moring Vince, as you have asked I'll answer the question what purple means to me as a german. A Valejo Violet Red is similar to what we see as purple, and it is Purpurror, literally purple red in German as such it is always red tinted. Happy to help. :)
Hey so I'm planning on painting my shadow spectres dark purple and yellow-green to give em a very ghostly color scheme. I'm thinking of zenithaling grey over choas black and shading the black parts with paynes grey, and then just painting purple over the model. Think that'll be OK or should I push for a warmer zenithal like wraithbone/ivory?
Hey Vince, thanks for the video! I can't seem to find that nocturna paint set anymore, and I was wondering what you might recommend for an intense violet paint? I figured you'd be the man to ask!
Hey Vince, penny for your thoughts on Emperors Children. I was looking at doing a purple -> pink-ish effect via glazing (similar to your house devine, though much simpler for troops). Specifically, pro acryl purple and then magenta glaze. I feel that effect would look okay on the pauldrons, but if I'm doing lighter areas as the magneta glaze, their head would be nothing but magenta. My thoughts was a 30k scheme with a nod to 40k with the pinker highs, but kept much more refined with the Vince Gold Blend (tm). This is going to be across an army, so just going to be airbrush and touch up - they're just beakies, as you said. Will give special things more love, as always. I guess I'm stuck between "highlight with skin tone and purple" or go for a somewhat transition effect with magenta - but both will look weird on the beaks of the beakies. Absolute worst case I could just go for reddish -> white zenithal and glaze purple, but I want it to have more richness and life than that. And yes, asking for advice on beakies is a new low. I struggle a lot with paint concepts - deviating from box art isn't my strength, and theirs seems monotone purple. I'd love to blame Aphantasia but that's weak.
Very fascinating video! I am French, and when you have pointed about the cultural difference about what is a purple...I have totally agreed with you xD It's strange, and a bit funny. Thank you for sharing this! Be safe!
From Belgium : I think here for most people purple ("poupre") is definitely on the red side. I found it odd in the '70s that Deep Purple was in the blue hues... Anyway, great video! Gives me plenty of ideas to test and incorporate in my Tyranids (purple body and blue "armor" plates).
In the imperial purple paint set, what paints are the "neutral purples" purples? Because judging from using them, imperial purple and purple hex are the neutrals, with even red blue mix, then amethyst, witch and lipstick are the warm red purples, then voilet vamp, blueberry and orchid are the blue purples/violets.
@@VinceVenturella thanks for clarifying. Your videos on colours helped me alot, I bought the Vallejo imperial purple set and some of the warcolors range paints, like the purple, pink and violet paint sets, all of their inks, some mediums, etc.
Hey Vince, I had a question about purple. I was basing a squad of Bladeguard Veterans tonight, I like to vary my squads, like Power Rangers, a different accent colour each, and a slightly different contrasting base earth colour to go with it. Anyways, while making my different base earth mixes, I noticed that purple REALLY absorbs brown, as in if you mix the two, brown just disappears. No other colour ate up the brown quite like purple did and I'm curious to know if there is any reason that might be? Sorry for the long-winded colour nerd question, but I love this series you keep making. Please keep making more. It changed the way I think about painting.
It's generally because of the orange in the brown and Oranges relation to purple. Purple will generally overwhelm orange and hence brown derivatives orange.
Wouldn't using the Vallejo light flesh colour (itself being some sort of orange added with white) desaturate the colour with the yellow present in the orange component in addition to the white? wouldn't it be far better to use a light pink colour (red with white) to tint and highlight neutral and warm purples than light flesh?
It does destaruate it, but in a good way. White/grey, light colors always desaturate, but using the complimentary colors, we still get the destauration, but it's more natural and rich. THe overall desaturation is appropriate because bright lights/highlights, naturally desaturate. That being said, your highlight is perfectly fine as well, nothing wrong, it will just also shift the color some in a different way.
Very helpful video as always . I have a bust I'm going to paint pretty soon, and I was curious on how to paint translucent skin? Where you can almost see muscle tissue under the skin. Any suggestions or videos I should check out? Thanks for your time take care.
Translucent skin is really hard, but effectively, you want to paint the muscle structure and then glaze the thin, pale grey/caucasian skin color over top (assuming it's Caucasian you're doing).
I’m working on a grim reaper figure on a horse. It’s mostly payne’s grey, some blue. My gut feeling is that purple would be a subtle and interesting shadow color. I don’t trust my instincts just yet but it seems like a compelling idea. I welcome your thoughts.
@@VinceVenturella ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=lilla Wow! Dead on. " from Italian purple or Spanish lilac 'lilac, lilac color', of an Indo-European root meaning 'radiant, shiny'"
I Love this series of Video ... Perfect. I'm not sure, but I think that one of the reason that Purple is not the same everywhere is because of the langage difference. I speak French (mother tongue), and We have those 3 words for the colors you show Mauve Violet Poupre So, Violet is Violet but Purple is Mauve and Poupre, I thik, is kind of the Crimson color for you. As you can ear Purple sound more like Poupre and Lots of people think That Purlpe is poupre where I live. So it may explain the difference in tone for those colors. Just my 2 cent.
I really enjoy this series. Looking forward the next colour! Purple is the right one where I live rvb(158, 14, 64). 2 questions: I think you commented once that in doubt one can use purple as shadow for anything, do i remember right? Anything thoughts regarding the Druchii violet shade?
Yep, purple is sort of your universal shade if you aren't sure what else to use. It's a little cold, and a little warm (depending on it's mix and what it's set against). Druchii violet is fine, though perhaps a little weak, but good as a pre-wash.
I personally use ivory to highlight purple but as u say I am Italian and for me purple is really a magenta. We call it "purple red" in fact and it's the colour of cardinals. Bishops wear a purple that corresponds to US purple. We call this one "porpora di Tiro" (a cheaper purple imported in antiquity from a Phoenician city in Lebanon, Tiro). After all cardinals are princes of the church and bishops are not: what you say about royalty still applies but in theory only to "purple red".
Excellent info, the thing I loved most about this video was being able to understand all the different perspectives on this color, it's been wonderful.
RadioLab did an interesting podcast on purple a couple of years ago, going through historical references and showing how it appears we did it even really see purple until recently.... maybe your right maybe it was blue..
Yeah, it was blue that has the history of not being seen, purple has a really interesting history going back quite a way. I will check out the radiolab though for sure. :)
Hello Vincy V Since this video is quite old i dont know if I'm getting a reply but you seem to answer to every single comment so here goes: sort of theoretical question but why use a light skin colour as hightlight for warm purple if it should desaturate it? Light skin tone is desaturated orange (orange + white) and orange contains red sure but it also contains yellow which is opposite purple on the colour wheel and by that principle it should also desaturate it right? And yet it kind of works. You glazed with purple over warm hightlight but still even without the glaze it looks good. Why? Shouldn't we use pink (red for saturation and white for making it lighter)? Hopefully I've not made it too convoluted. Love your content. Cheers
Yes, there is a bit of desaturation, but all highlights desaturate, in this case, it's a softer transition that makes the purple both transition into the highlight more naturally, but also captures warm light well.
Just wanted to say thanks. This series of exploring colour has suddenly become massively useful; I'm referring back to it all the time for recipes on how to highlight / shade without losing saturation. Would it be too much to ask for you to put a couple of your favourite highlight / shading colour recipes in the video description? Eg for this video highlighting purple with a flesh tone for warm, or a violet-blue for cold?
Sure, I can add that in the future where appropriate. In general, my advice is always more general tones than any specific recipe, but I'll see what I can do. :)
I really enjoy the colour series 👍. Colour physics has lately started to fascinate me, do you have any recommendations for in depth study in that topic?
Awesome stuff as always! Vince, i find that as soon as theres some sunny skin tone in, it gets really tricky to glaze. Any tips? Do you think i should just whack down the highlights and then glaze back DOWN with my mid purple to level it all out?
I love how you work your purples and violets, I've said it many times (actually, you are my girlfriend's favorite painter because of the way you use your violets and pinks), so thanks for the awesome tips and information about the color, Vince. Actually, I'm gonna take this chance to ask a question about the wire you put on your palette. I heard is to prevent rust or something? What material is it? btw, I'm from Spain, and for me, the model color purple is the true purple hahaha.
Good note on the Purple, there really is a strong cultural difference on that color, which is amazing. :) The wire is copper and there for anti-bacterial purposes. :)
Purple is a unique color because my colorblindness prevents me from ever realizing what is violet, purple or some blue tones XD When you show the violet ones, I was just like "Those are also purple to me"
@@VinceVenturella sure is. Blue red mixes are especially horrible and in the other side you got brown and green tones as an issue. In school I always mixed up what colors on trees the leafs have and what the wood should be for example. That's also why I'm always asking in tutorials for specific colors, cause I can't pick replacements myself really. Working with apps and hex color homepages as well as conversion tables between brands
Great video, I've always used icy blue highlights, this has opened my mind on it. Do you think the purple fits the warm shadow, cold highlights and vice versa? Or warm or cold for both shadows and highlights.
I think it can honestly be any. You can use warm or cold highlights and opposing shadows. You can use cold and cold and I think that would certainly also work.
Amazing video again. Thank you so much for all your work. I've noticed from a few of your videos that you've used the Crimson and Purple sets from Vallejo's Noturna line and seem to like those quite a bit. Do you like their two flesh sets, Fairy Flesh and Malefic Flesh, as well or would you recommend something like the Scale 75 Flesh Set you talked about in another video over them?
Haven't tried their flesh sets yet, but I am sure they are quite good. I generally use a bunch of different flesh colors, I am a gadfly when it comes to flesh colors.
@@duckfilms3662 They work well together, in general, you're better off with a brighter purple, either go hard into the lilac or bright red influenced purple. But they work well together in general.
@@duckfilms3662 That can work, though the transitions are very harsh as I said in the video, using a softer color like sunny skin tone will give you softer transitions.
So topical. Thanks for a great vid as always sir! I've been struggling with this recently since I don't have any light colors... paint is obnoxious and expensive to get where I'm from. But I recently got the Kimera set, so I'm playing with just mixing everything from there. What I struggle with is that so many people seem to suggest mixing in a flesh tone or grey instead of white on highlights. But as far as I can tell, those colors are just mixes of white/red/yellow or white/black/blue anyway. So how is the answer everyone seems to get using flesh tones or light blues instead of just "white, but less of it" or "white and another color"? And if I mix my own flesh tone or grey out of white then use that to mix my highlight, is it any different?
Hi Ben, I've been looking at Kimera, but I'm concerned they don't have a magenta or cyan. Since playing with true primaries, I've realised how important those two colours are.
Mikey R, they come with a magenta, but yeah... you’d have to mix a cyan with green and the cool pthalu blu. I’ve found I can mix to any color I want, but adding white to desaturate the super intense colors is the hardest part for me so far, which is why I keep asking. XD
So the reason you use a flesh/yellow white/blue white is manyfold. First, it adds more hue and visual interest to the piece (white and black and visually the most uninteresting things you can paint, they communicate the least information). Second, its more "realistic" as the lights in the real world are rarely white. They are more often either yellow or blue depending on Third - it helps set the environment the miniature is in. Someone outside in the sun has a very different set of tones and hue than someone in a cave and so on. Hope that all helps.
@@VinceVenturella, maybe I rambled too much. The main question is, can I mix a fleshtone or light blue using white, then add that to get the same effect if I don't have any lighter paints?
So Vince, shadows for my Imperial Fists... Orange shadows? Is that a thing? Doesn’t seem temperature true. But interesting? Or purple? If purple, do I need to desaturate my purple ink?
Finally everything makes sens ! At school we were always said that "violet" is said purple in English. In french we have the 2 words "pourpre" and "violet" which are completely different color to me. I had already heard people saying "violet" in English without really knowing what they meant, since "violet" was "purple" to me. It is fascinating that those 2 colors have 2 different levels of popularity in those languages. "Violet" is in French the global term for everything purpulish, and it seems to me than in English people use purple more easily than Violet. Weird. Thanks for this amazing lesson ! I've learned a lot !
In my area, the place that carries the fw ink, doesn't have paynes grey ink. Were you able to get yours from a brick'n'mortor store, or did you order online?
Despite your best efforts, I still find it hard to differentiate between warm and cool tones, what would be a foolproof way to identify such differences? Any chance of exploring magenta? i still have no idea how to arrive at that particular colour
Well, the real key is sort of what has blue in it and what has yellow/orange in it. That's sort of the poles of the thing. Yes, we will do a video on Magenta, as it's arguably a primary color in itself.
@@VinceVenturella thanks!!! Real reason why I'm asking this is because I'm trying to make sense of GW's new purples. Phoenician vs Xereus and Kakophoni vs Genestealer. The former comparison is especially mimd boggling since I myself can't seem to see a difference between the 2 colours while Reddit seems to settle on xereus as warm and phoenician as purple
Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, Slaanesh is Sweet and yellow too?! If I was “Undecided” Chaos before the allure of Purple, Sixes, and “hello thighs” just became a tasty 😋 looking pallet. Thanks Vince!
A year late, but a question if anyone can answer: If you're painting a model with purple and yellow as the main colors, would you still want to use the yellow-purple in the the shadows in that case?
The imperial status of purple is fascinating.
Tyrian purple, btw made from a mucus the murex snails secrete to protect their eggs, is absurdly difficult and time-intensive to make.
A Roman senator would need about 1.5 grams of purple to dye that inchwide strip on his toga that he was allowed.
For that you need about 12’000 murex snails ... which means diving into the sea, searching around, collecting the snails, crushing the shells to make the snail vomit the mucus, collect said mucus and isolate the dye, less than a mg of purple per snail. Now multiply that by the number of senators and all the members of the imperial family that were allowed togas fully dyed purple.
Luckily the dye is fast, not fugitive, it doesn’t fade in light and when washed. So those clothes did not need to be replaced regularly.
You can still get true murex purple today, at about US$ 4’800 per gram.
Chemically it is rather easy to make, as 6,6’-dibromoindigo. But art conservators occasionally need to use the true natural stuff.
There is a similar snail in Mexico, around the coast of Oaxaca IIRC. There they rub the snail on the fibre they want dyed until it vomits the mucus, then release the snail back into the sea. Again a colour reserved for nobility.
Japanese purple, with similar ideas of social status, is more of a Wisteria-pink, and plant-derived, but also very expensive.
The punishment for wearing purple when not of sufficient social status to do so was usually death ...
The imperial craze for purple extended into building materials. Porphyry is a purple granite.
In the entire Roman Empire there was one (1) quarry for that, in Egypt. Porphyry from there was used to clad the Imperial Birthing Chamber, so imperial princes and princesses could claim to be ‘porphyrogenitos’, born into purple.
Porphyry was also the main stone for imperial sarcophagy, from Romans to Napoleon Bonaparte, who was buried in such a porphyry sarcophagus in the centre of the Domé des Invalides in Paris.
Lots of other statues in Porphyry, especially during the Eastern Roman Empire in Constantinople. A good number of whuch are now in Venice due to the sack and plundering by them amongst many others of Constantinople during the 4th Crusade.
Sorry about the info-dump, but colour chemistry and dyeing are interests of mine. Also in self-isolation due to that virus, so need something to do.
This is amazing, I knew it was really expensive, but I had no idea that it was that expensive, this is wonderful knowledge especially for someone like me that loves ancient Rome, thank you for taking the time to share. :)
Vince Venturella , you should be glad that they have found other pigments for purple to use in acrylics. Imagine your love of purple on miniatures at the price of murex purple ...
What if the mucus was yellow instead?
@@BrandinZinck what if my grandmother had wheels? Would she be a bike?
The counter-intuitive tip of mixing in yellow is fantastic and something I've started using regularly - particularly on models like Ogors and Skaven were I want to incorporate some purple, but not have it being super saturated and clean looking, like I'm painting a bunch of dark elves. Thank you again for the great content and super helpful advice!
I think I have watched every HC video you've done, but I always find it useful to revisit some of them as a refresher when undertaking a specific project that features something that you've covered. EG my generstealer cultists colur scheme is teal/turquoise and purple so this stuff really helps. Thank you again Mr. VV!
Always happy to help. :)
Perfectly timed with the new Seraphon book. Barney Carnosaur incoming!Thanks for doing these, Vince. They're very helpful.
That will teach people to mess with purple dinosaurs. :)
What a fantastic video! Loved the brief history of purple and cultural influences of the color. Not often do I laugh aloud at tutorials, but "fan of layering" bit did it for me. Thanks for that! Wanted to also say that I just painted a tunic-thingy purple for a Reaper model. Tried to highlight it by mixing sky blue with lighter purple, and ended up going back with pink to mix in, followed by several purple glazes. *Then* I discovered this video. :) will likely go back and touch up a few things. Thanks again Vince! These videos are always my top recommendation to anyone asking.
Awesome, happy to help as always. :)
I've had a purple dragon that's been a wip in progress for years because I couldn't find a way to highlight without getting too cute with pinks. After experimenting for a while it's been on the back burner while I got absorbed in things like Zombicide. I saw you going through different colors I knew I would find some inspiration when you got to purple.
Thanks for this and all you do.
Awesome, happy to help as always. :)
My favourite color got covered! Thank you Vince!
Happy to help as always. :)
Purple is so fascinating, it has so many nuances... the vocabulary used to described them is huge. Even when I speak to another french-speaking person, I'm never sure that we are talking about the same nuances of purple. Some canvas painters I talked with consider purple as a violetized red (but still a red).
Globally I noticed that the major difference between english and french when it comes to define what is purple, is where we draw the line between purple and its neighbouring colours (red and violet). For example, during your presentations I often think "wait, this isn't a purple nuance, this is a violet". I think that, in french, a violet-purple, especially when it's a light or desatured nuance (lilac, mauve) tends to be categorized as a violet while in english it's still a purple.
On the other side, purple-red nuances tends to form a very important subcategory in french : grenat, bordeaux, lie-de-vin (dregs of wine), bourgogne. Some (like myself) consider them as a colour on it's own, between red and purple. I personnaly love them, warmer than purples and less garish than reds.
Exactly, this is exactly what I wanted to show with this and I love this feedback. :)
Whatched your purple videos over and over again. I think I finally made a product I’m happy with. So thankyou MH for the great paints espescially a certain signature range), but really thank you for the confidence and knowledge to achieve beautiful emperors children armor! Hope to show you what you helped me achieve one day.
Purple is color with which i have most problems. Thank you Vince for explaining, this makes much more sense now. You rock Maestro!
Awesome, happy to help as always. :)
Thank you very much for this video. I'm currently building, basing and painting my first set of miniatures ever and planning to paint my army of Space Marines armor that lovely Royal Purple from Vallejo. While for this very first painting of an army, I'll most likely skip trying to do highlights and shadows this go around (I really just want to get them on the tabletop for now.). With that said, I'm sure I'll be using this information in the future, and who to that I won't revisit painting this army again.
Awesome, happy to help as always. :)
Love your "Exploring" series. Thx a lot for your efforts and sharing with us. 👍👍👍
Great video Vince! My latest SoB cloaks are stippled warm purple using the Vallejo Nocturna paints which I hope to base and show in PMP soon …
Awesome, look forward to seeing them there. :)
Fantastic video. Loved the history of purple and the tips in it - especially the use of yellow are really interesting. Thank you.
Thank you, always happy to help. :)
Wow, this whole series is awesome! I am a fantasy illustrator who appreciates good miniatures. The advice in these videos is wonderful, and I am super excited to try these ideas and color strategies in my own illustrations and paintings. Thanks, Vince! :)
Always happy to help. :)
I'm really enjoying your exploring color series, please do more videos like this!
More to come! This series is so fun.
Pounded that like button mate, best colour there is.
Awesome, happy to help as always. :)
Great vid as always Vince, I'm working up a majority purple scheme and needed some inspiration on the lowlights/shadow and that yellow/ocre idea is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks
Glad to help!
Thanks for the video, would never have thought about yellow or even flesh tone, thanks for the new ideas.
Happy to help!
I love your exploring Colors series! They helped me out a so much more that just a simple tutorial, like to understand how a color acts and all that. That combined with the "practical lesson" you give while you talk about the color is so instructive... I really want to say Thank you! And I hope that you will continue the series even if it doesnt get that muchs likes (btw i have no clue why...allmost all of your vids deserve so much more likes) Sorry for my bad english in advice!
Greetings form Germany
PS: what you showed for purpe in european area does fit. What you said US folks see as purple we call grape id say.
Fascinating on the colors, I love learning stuff like that. And don't worry, this series will certainly continue, I love exploring colors. :)
@@VinceVenturella Wow thx for your awnser! Im more than happy to hear that you will continue the series!
Thanks for this Vince, it's always fascinating listening to you analysing the component parts of the colours we use. Purple is my favourite, but haven't been brave enough to use it yet. That will now change!
Awesome, paint bravely. :)
Aaaaah, another very useful addition in what I call "Vincypedia". Thank you Sir - this helped me a lot!
Glad it was helpful!
This was perfect timing for a project I want to start and was wavering on whether I could do a good purple scheme. Thanks!
Excellent, happy to help as always buddy.
Another awesome video Vince . Really loving this exploring colour series 👍
Thank you, these are very fun to do for sure. :)
I've come back to watch this video a couple of times while trying to work out a scheme and specific colours for a planned marine army. 8 purples later and I've not found the perfect one yet, but the Purple Hex looks beautiful, will have to try the Nocturna range.
I come with a question though, and a hope you still see comments on older videos: how would you recommend pre-shading or zenithal priming for purple? (Currently no airbrush, but hoping for one in the future)
In your yellow video you suggested underpainting in light rust/sunny skintone/ice yellow. In your orange video you said your Seraphon (which are stunning!) were zenithal based brown/rust/ivory.
Would something similar work for purple with say a dark blue for shadows and an orange/red or fleshtone for highlights? If so what would you recommend as the 'under' midtone?
Sorry for the questions, but thankyou for the videos!
So honestly, purple can work with a standard black-white zenithal pretty well. If you want a warmer purple with mroe red tones, then a deep hull red underneath up to an ivory will warm the whole thing up.
I’d been thinking about your review last night of the purple silk on the ... stormcast? ... models. Your comment was that the silk was too high up to white on the fabric. I spent some time this morning looking at portraits of people in silk from 18th- and 19th- century artists. This is a great follow-up! Thanks!
Excellent, happy to help as always. :)
Really enjoying this colour series, thanks for sharing.
Thank you, this is a very fun series to do.
One of my favourite uses of purple is when painting green skin. After blending from green to blue into the darker areas of skin adding blotches of purple really make an amazing effect.
That's a great idea! Love it.
I came here to learn about one of the primary colors for my Slaanesh army. I will now spend my day watching all of the hobby cheating videos.
Awesome! Hope you had a good day!
Vince,
I’m painting enforcers from necromunda and my base color scheme is black, paynes grey, royal purple, steel blue and red orange all from the pro acryl line. I have the black for pants weapons and belts, as well as tubing as well as some of the under armor. Paynes grey is the tunic and straps, and purple is the armor plating on ches shoulders ankles and shins. With orange red for knees, forearm panels, chest circle and masks. The steel blue highlights buckles and shoulder and shin ridges. It’s a really striking combo and I love it but I’m worried about layering up the purple
Armor plates. Purples warm, red orange is warm so I think I should be leaning toward a warm purple highlight, but a decent ammount of each mini is also black and paynes grey with the very cold steel blue being pretty prominent. What would you recommend for figuring out what way to go?
So basically half the models are purple orange, the other half is paynes grey and steel blue. So how do you decide what way to lean? The purple armor plates are the most visible part of the model. Like if it was a topographical map black is the low points up to orange/steel blue being the peaks, with dark blue and purple being the middle heights
Am realizing this it probably TMI but I want to make the best choice
Its tough to see without seeing the models. I would say that the warm purple is probably your safer bet. I would mix in some sunny skin tone or something into the purple to get your highlight.
Great video! I was recently painting quickly my Gitz for Underworlds, and decided to paint their robes purple. I mistake was to jump up to too desaturated highlight color. I feel displeased with how they look, highlights are too stark. At this point I don't want to repaint them, but I will definitely keep your tips in mind next time. I really like purple color and it's a shame to not learn how to paint it better.
Love "Exploring Colors" series, keep it going! Have a nice day!
Thank you, happy to help as always. :)
Suggestion - Would you be able to move all these Exploring Color videos into their own playlist for ease of finding them?
I find these are amazing resources and coming back to them all the time!
Done - ruclips.net/p/PLcdsbwBroEmBfSAKcqpwBKIrYyepHtHN9
@@VinceVenturella
You also have a handful of "how to paint color X" videos. I'm guessing you differentiate them as practice vs. theory?
Potentially could be good to also include those in that playlist, but not sure how you're distinguishing them. For me, the way I'm browsing is I decide I want to paint mini X with a heavy purple cloak. Then I check through your videos on the colors and which ones seem relevant and rewatch them to make sure I remember the relevant points, and try something new from them. (no detailed explanation needed, just throwing this out there). Thanks for all the awesome tips!
ruclips.net/video/28jNUzsN7Hs/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/YH02hqBzuqM/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/2-3Fnfs9AUo/видео.html
Thanks for these purple use tips! I use these colors on my Tyranids, and now I have some ideas for improving them!
Glad to help!
Excellent video, it's motivated me to try using the color purple on my mimic, thanks!
Awesome, happy to help as always. :)
This video just saved me. I started out with a base coat of Naggaroth Night, which dries way darker than I expected, and I love the color but it left me completely clueless about what to do next. Now I have a direction!
Awesome, happy to help.
At 25:23, the only purple I see is the leftmost color, but it is dark purple. Center is pink, and magenta on the right side. (Greetings from Germany :))
Hey Vince. I tried highlighting some purple with light, pastel green, and I actually managed to mix a similar colour to Miscatonic Grey by S75. I definitely learned something, purple doesn't mix like you'd expect it to.
Yep, especially when they are already a mixture of some kind. :)
Please do a video on fixing mistakes. There are a lot of tutorials out there but I can’t find any on fixing mistakes. For example, “Man this blend is sick! This is my best work ever! One final highlight right here and it will be perfect! Wait?! No! My brush flared?! Highlight color everywhere?! Guess I will be starting this armor plate all over from scratch now. 🥺”
Another fascinating video! Thanks. I am French, and for me purple is like the Warcolour you showed, more on the red tone. Also , except in art or history, we do not use this name anymore. We use a similar color bordeaux, like the wine , which I think is burgundy in English.
That's amazing and wonderful, my favorite part of doing this video was learning about this wonderful cultural nuance in how we view this color.
I was searching hobby cheating for purple color tutorials 2 days ago! Nice one mindreader Vince!
Excellent, happy to help as always. :)
Hey Vince I hope you continue with these technical examination of colors. Looking forward to more videos. Have you happened to have seen the video on painting with yellow by goober town hobbies. He recommends using purple as base coating to layer yellow. over. Again thanks for your amazing contribution and passion.
Absolutely, I am certainly going to continue this series, it's great fun for sure.
25:24 Hi Italy here, I will go with the leftmost, as I think of purple as a really deep color.
The centeral one would also be a valid pick, the rightmost looks borderline magenta to me
Awesome, I love how different people have different answers, it's such a fascinating color.
Thanks for an excellent insight into purple, with a great balance between theory and practice!
Thank you, these are fun for sure, just recorded another for release in the future.
Purple's become my go to shade color for red and blues. Particularly for "richer" minis.
Yep, purple works wonderfully for both of those colors.
I took a class with Jen Gartner (sp?) at ReaperCon 2019 about contrast, and one of her nuggets of advice was: When in doubt, shade with purple. :)
Really interesting video. I never knew the difference between purple and violet, my language has only one word for both so I used them kind of interchangeably.
I use purple a lot, especially as a shadow colour for browns and reds. My whole beastman army has mostly brown skin with purple wet blended into the shadows, and then shaded with purple wash, for example. It helps add a lot of visual interest and life to the skin!
I also recently started priming with it. Army Painter Alien Purple, and then a zenithal layer of Army Painter Leather Brown. Haven't gotten around to painting anything primed that way yet, but I think it will help with bringing out the purple tones more. Also, I don't have to compete for black primer at the FLGS anymore in these days of limited supply...
Awesome, glad this was helpful, this is a really fun series for me to do for sure.
Marvelous Video Vince! The next color to explore can be Yellow? I always have issues about it!
Well, I already recorded the next in the series and it's not yellow, but it's close. ;) (Yellow will come for sure one day).
@@VinceVenturella thank you so much!!!
Pumping out those videos, VInce! Nice!
Have been waiting for this video quite a while - Thanks!
Awesome, happy to help as always. :)
I throw a thinned down pro acryl transparent blue over my pro acryl dark purple & it gives it a really nice look & highlight with a neutral grey. The neutral grey doesn’t mix very well with my purple, getting a colder tone would be a better idea!
Yeah, the Neutral Grey is actually quite warm with some yellow, so that is likely causing some challenge.
Good moring Vince, as you have asked I'll answer the question what purple means to me as a german. A Valejo Violet Red is similar to what we see as purple, and it is Purpurror, literally purple red in German as such it is always red tinted. Happy to help. :)
Awesome!
Hey so I'm planning on painting my shadow spectres dark purple and yellow-green to give em a very ghostly color scheme. I'm thinking of zenithaling grey over choas black and shading the black parts with paynes grey, and then just painting purple over the model. Think that'll be OK or should I push for a warmer zenithal like wraithbone/ivory?
I think that will work fine, no issue, it will make the yellow cold but that works fine
Hey Vince, thanks for the video! I can't seem to find that nocturna paint set anymore, and I was wondering what you might recommend for an intense violet paint? I figured you'd be the man to ask!
Vallejo Game Color has a few that are around, but that Nocturna paint sets were one of the best.
GW Contrast Shyish Purple has become my all time favourite for purple shadows and shading as a whole. Such a great paint
Yep, it's a great color for sure.
literally 3 seconds before im about to try my first slaanesh model this video got posted, thank you!
And I had just painted my first Genestealer test model last night!
Now that's great timing. those spy cameras are really paying off...I mean...nevermind. :)
Hey Vince, penny for your thoughts on Emperors Children.
I was looking at doing a purple -> pink-ish effect via glazing (similar to your house devine, though much simpler for troops). Specifically, pro acryl purple and then magenta glaze. I feel that effect would look okay on the pauldrons, but if I'm doing lighter areas as the magneta glaze, their head would be nothing but magenta. My thoughts was a 30k scheme with a nod to 40k with the pinker highs, but kept much more refined with the Vince Gold Blend (tm).
This is going to be across an army, so just going to be airbrush and touch up - they're just beakies, as you said. Will give special things more love, as always.
I guess I'm stuck between "highlight with skin tone and purple" or go for a somewhat transition effect with magenta - but both will look weird on the beaks of the beakies. Absolute worst case I could just go for reddish -> white zenithal and glaze purple, but I want it to have more richness and life than that.
And yes, asking for advice on beakies is a new low. I struggle a lot with paint concepts - deviating from box art isn't my strength, and theirs seems monotone purple. I'd love to blame Aphantasia but that's weak.
I think it’s fine, you can still keep some purple in the shadows of the helm, you’ll just keep the volume small but present
Very fascinating video! I am French, and when you have pointed about the cultural difference about what is a purple...I have totally agreed with you xD It's strange, and a bit funny. Thank you for sharing this! Be safe!
Excellent, others have agreed, it's fascinating.
From Belgium : I think here for most people purple ("poupre") is definitely on the red side. I found it odd in the '70s that Deep Purple was in the blue hues...
Anyway, great video! Gives me plenty of ideas to test and incorporate in my Tyranids (purple body and blue "armor" plates).
Thanks for sharing!
Many useful informations, as usual. Thanks again
Thank you, always happy to help. :)
In the imperial purple paint set, what paints are the "neutral purples" purples? Because judging from using them, imperial purple and purple hex are the neutrals, with even red blue mix, then amethyst, witch and lipstick are the warm red purples, then voilet vamp, blueberry and orchid are the blue purples/violets.
That sounds like the right distinctions for me.
@@VinceVenturella thanks for clarifying. Your videos on colours helped me alot, I bought the Vallejo imperial purple set and some of the warcolors range paints, like the purple, pink and violet paint sets, all of their inks, some mediums, etc.
@@VinceVenturella have to add that the 'chalice red' is an extremely dark warm purple in the nocturna red set.
i have several figures from Thunderbolt mountain -King Arthur series they are Hellas,Guinevere , Morgan Le Fay as well.
Hey Vince, I had a question about purple.
I was basing a squad of Bladeguard Veterans tonight, I like to vary my squads, like Power Rangers, a different accent colour each, and a slightly different contrasting base earth colour to go with it.
Anyways, while making my different base earth mixes, I noticed that purple REALLY absorbs brown, as in if you mix the two, brown just disappears.
No other colour ate up the brown quite like purple did and I'm curious to know if there is any reason that might be?
Sorry for the long-winded colour nerd question, but I love this series you keep making. Please keep making more. It changed the way I think about painting.
It's generally because of the orange in the brown and Oranges relation to purple. Purple will generally overwhelm orange and hence brown derivatives orange.
I love blending with Purple, it's so easy!
Wouldn't using the Vallejo light flesh colour (itself being some sort of orange added with white) desaturate the colour with the yellow present in the orange component in addition to the white? wouldn't it be far better to use a light pink colour (red with white) to tint and highlight neutral and warm purples than light flesh?
It does destaruate it, but in a good way. White/grey, light colors always desaturate, but using the complimentary colors, we still get the destauration, but it's more natural and rich. THe overall desaturation is appropriate because bright lights/highlights, naturally desaturate. That being said, your highlight is perfectly fine as well, nothing wrong, it will just also shift the color some in a different way.
@@VinceVenturella i imagine it would take the purple in a more redder direction. Probably suitable for more redder purples/magentas.
Very helpful video as always . I have a bust I'm going to paint pretty soon, and I was curious on how to paint translucent skin? Where you can almost see muscle tissue under the skin. Any suggestions or videos I should check out? Thanks for your time take care.
Translucent skin is really hard, but effectively, you want to paint the muscle structure and then glaze the thin, pale grey/caucasian skin color over top (assuming it's Caucasian you're doing).
Vince Venturella Thank you I'll give it a shot. Maybe someday you could make a video of it lol 👍🏼
I’m working on a grim reaper figure on a horse. It’s mostly payne’s grey, some blue. My gut feeling is that purple would be a subtle and interesting shadow color. I don’t trust my instincts just yet but it seems like a compelling idea. I welcome your thoughts.
You're correct.
I'm now officially jealous of your nocturna purple hex paint. :-)
It's a great paint set.
@@VinceVenturella I believe it also is no longer available ;) Cherish it!
Purple in Danish is called Lilla. So of those shown at 25:22 the middle on registers as Purple to me.
Interesting, so I would assume the same root word as Lilac. I love this series because of what I get to learn.
@@VinceVenturella ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=lilla Wow! Dead on. "
from Italian purple or Spanish lilac 'lilac, lilac color', of an Indo-European root meaning 'radiant, shiny'"
I Love this series of Video ...
Perfect.
I'm not sure, but I think that one of the reason that Purple is not the same everywhere is because of the langage difference.
I speak French (mother tongue), and We have those 3 words for the colors you show
Mauve
Violet
Poupre
So, Violet is Violet but Purple is Mauve and Poupre, I thik, is kind of the Crimson color for you.
As you can ear Purple sound more like Poupre and Lots of people think That Purlpe is poupre where I live.
So it may explain the difference in tone for those colors.
Just my 2 cent.
Fascinating, I love these differences in how we name and see this stuff so much. :)
Yay you did my favorite color. Thanks Vince!
Awesome, happy to help as always. :)
I really enjoy this series. Looking forward the next colour! Purple is the right one where I live rvb(158, 14, 64). 2 questions: I think you commented once that in doubt one can use purple as shadow for anything, do i remember right? Anything thoughts regarding the Druchii violet shade?
Yep, purple is sort of your universal shade if you aren't sure what else to use. It's a little cold, and a little warm (depending on it's mix and what it's set against). Druchii violet is fine, though perhaps a little weak, but good as a pre-wash.
I personally use ivory to highlight purple but as u say I am Italian and for me purple is really a magenta. We call it "purple red" in fact and it's the colour of cardinals. Bishops wear a purple that corresponds to US purple. We call this one "porpora di Tiro" (a cheaper purple imported in antiquity from a Phoenician city in Lebanon, Tiro). After all cardinals are princes of the church and bishops are not: what you say about royalty still applies but in theory only to "purple red".
Excellent info, the thing I loved most about this video was being able to understand all the different perspectives on this color, it's been wonderful.
RadioLab did an interesting podcast on purple a couple of years ago, going through historical references and showing how it appears we did it even really see purple until recently.... maybe your right maybe it was blue..
Yeah, it was blue that has the history of not being seen, purple has a really interesting history going back quite a way. I will check out the radiolab though for sure. :)
Hey Vince, did you ever buy the Nocturna red paint set? it has two shadow colours called Chalice Red and Crimson, which are very red purples.
Yep, I own it. they are some nice colors.
How do you always seem to know which colours I currently need help with!?! Great video, thanks!
Always happy to help. :)
Thanks! the way to "red" one i thought was purple untill i saw this
Hello Vincy V
Since this video is quite old i dont know if I'm getting a reply but you seem to answer to every single comment so here goes: sort of theoretical question but why use a light skin colour as hightlight for warm purple if it should desaturate it? Light skin tone is desaturated orange (orange + white) and orange contains red sure but it also contains yellow which is opposite purple on the colour wheel and by that principle it should also desaturate it right? And yet it kind of works. You glazed with purple over warm hightlight but still even without the glaze it looks good. Why? Shouldn't we use pink (red for saturation and white for making it lighter)? Hopefully I've not made it too convoluted.
Love your content. Cheers
Yes, there is a bit of desaturation, but all highlights desaturate, in this case, it's a softer transition that makes the purple both transition into the highlight more naturally, but also captures warm light well.
Just wanted to say thanks. This series of exploring colour has suddenly become massively useful; I'm referring back to it all the time for recipes on how to highlight / shade without losing saturation.
Would it be too much to ask for you to put a couple of your favourite highlight / shading colour recipes in the video description? Eg for this video highlighting purple with a flesh tone for warm, or a violet-blue for cold?
Sure, I can add that in the future where appropriate. In general, my advice is always more general tones than any specific recipe, but I'll see what I can do. :)
So I glad I found this. I will be buying Dark Elves from GW and they have a lot of purple.
Excellent, happy to help as always, :)
great videos as usual :) I'm learning NMM and I'm painting purple armor. are they the same technique / method to use when painting nmm Purple?
Yep. :) It's about that contrast.
I really enjoy the colour series 👍. Colour physics has lately started to fascinate me, do you have any recommendations for in depth study in that topic?
Colour and Light from James Gurney, everything you need.
@@VinceVenturella thanks! That one has been on my radar for a while now, time to get it 🙂
Awesome stuff as always! Vince, i find that as soon as theres some sunny skin tone in, it gets really tricky to glaze. Any tips? Do you think i should just whack down the highlights and then glaze back DOWN with my mid purple to level it all out?
Yep. That’s often how I work, glazing with lighter colors is much more difficult.
I love how you work your purples and violets, I've said it many times (actually, you are my girlfriend's favorite painter because of the way you use your violets and pinks), so thanks for the awesome tips and information about the color, Vince.
Actually, I'm gonna take this chance to ask a question about the wire you put on your palette. I heard is to prevent rust or something? What material is it?
btw, I'm from Spain, and for me, the model color purple is the true purple hahaha.
Good note on the Purple, there really is a strong cultural difference on that color, which is amazing. :)
The wire is copper and there for anti-bacterial purposes. :)
I've noticed that many miniature videos painters don't discuss purple or pink much, the colours of Slaneesh so thanks for this.
I love both, I am excited about the pink video for sure.
12:01 oh, I must be the oddbod who actually likes glazes.
Purple is a unique color because my colorblindness prevents me from ever realizing what is violet, purple or some blue tones XD When you show the violet ones, I was just like "Those are also purple to me"
Gotcha, interesting! Is that a manifestation of Red-Green color blindness?
@@VinceVenturella sure is. Blue red mixes are especially horrible and in the other side you got brown and green tones as an issue. In school I always mixed up what colors on trees the leafs have and what the wood should be for example.
That's also why I'm always asking in tutorials for specific colors, cause I can't pick replacements myself really. Working with apps and hex color homepages as well as conversion tables between brands
Great video, I've always used icy blue highlights, this has opened my mind on it. Do you think the purple fits the warm shadow, cold highlights and vice versa? Or warm or cold for both shadows and highlights.
I think it can honestly be any. You can use warm or cold highlights and opposing shadows. You can use cold and cold and I think that would certainly also work.
Hey Vince have you tried the purple haze from culturehustle or the golden so flats purple esk color
I've used the Golden, love it.
@@VinceVenturella i have the paints you helped to make too i havent tried them yet though been waiting for a project that called for them
Amazing video again. Thank you so much for all your work. I've noticed from a few of your videos that you've used the Crimson and Purple sets from Vallejo's Noturna line and seem to like those quite a bit. Do you like their two flesh sets, Fairy Flesh and Malefic Flesh, as well or would you recommend something like the Scale 75 Flesh Set you talked about in another video over them?
Haven't tried their flesh sets yet, but I am sure they are quite good. I generally use a bunch of different flesh colors, I am a gadfly when it comes to flesh colors.
Any tip on pairing purple with black effectively?
Do you mean purple with black shadows or as a composition complete (like some pruple areas and some black areas).
@@VinceVenturella Base color is black with purple sections
@@duckfilms3662 They work well together, in general, you're better off with a brighter purple, either go hard into the lilac or bright red influenced purple. But they work well together in general.
@@VinceVenturella Would mixing a bit of white with my purple work?
@@duckfilms3662 That can work, though the transitions are very harsh as I said in the video, using a softer color like sunny skin tone will give you softer transitions.
So topical. Thanks for a great vid as always sir!
I've been struggling with this recently since I don't have any light colors... paint is obnoxious and expensive to get where I'm from. But I recently got the Kimera set, so I'm playing with just mixing everything from there.
What I struggle with is that so many people seem to suggest mixing in a flesh tone or grey instead of white on highlights.
But as far as I can tell, those colors are just mixes of white/red/yellow or white/black/blue anyway. So how is the answer everyone seems to get using flesh tones or light blues instead of just "white, but less of it" or "white and another color"? And if I mix my own flesh tone or grey out of white then use that to mix my highlight, is it any different?
Hi Ben, I've been looking at Kimera, but I'm concerned they don't have a magenta or cyan. Since playing with true primaries, I've realised how important those two colours are.
Mikey R, they come with a magenta, but yeah... you’d have to mix a cyan with green and the cool pthalu blu. I’ve found I can mix to any color I want, but adding white to desaturate the super intense colors is the hardest part for me so far, which is why I keep asking. XD
@@xenotrauma oh, I didn't realize they had a magenta! That changes things! When this virus is all over, I might have to try Kimera out.
So the reason you use a flesh/yellow white/blue white is manyfold. First, it adds more hue and visual interest to the piece (white and black and visually the most uninteresting things you can paint, they communicate the least information). Second, its more "realistic" as the lights in the real world are rarely white. They are more often either yellow or blue depending on Third - it helps set the environment the miniature is in. Someone outside in the sun has a very different set of tones and hue than someone in a cave and so on. Hope that all helps.
@@VinceVenturella, maybe I rambled too much. The main question is, can I mix a fleshtone or light blue using white, then add that to get the same effect if I don't have any lighter paints?
That was a great video!!! I learned alot cant wait to try the purple yellow combo. Can you do one on orange?
Yep, we will definitely tackle Orange (and all the colors in the future). :)
So Vince, shadows for my Imperial Fists...
Orange shadows? Is that a thing? Doesn’t seem temperature true. But interesting?
Or purple? If purple, do I need to desaturate my purple ink?
So I answered in DM, check that out, hope it helps. :)
Finally everything makes sens !
At school we were always said that "violet" is said purple in English.
In french we have the 2 words "pourpre" and "violet" which are completely different color to me.
I had already heard people saying "violet" in English without really knowing what they meant, since "violet" was "purple" to me.
It is fascinating that those 2 colors have 2 different levels of popularity in those languages. "Violet" is in French the global term for everything purpulish, and it seems to me than in English people use purple more easily than Violet. Weird.
Thanks for this amazing lesson ! I've learned a lot !
Absolutely, one of the most fascinating things about this video has been the response and seeing the cultural differences of how color is perceived.
Fantastic tips.
Glad it was helpful!
In my area, the place that carries the fw ink, doesn't have paynes grey ink. Were you able to get yours from a brick'n'mortor store, or did you order online?
I got mine from Amazon. :)
thanks for sharing !
Thank you, happy to help as always. :)
Thank you for the video!!!
My pleasure!
Despite your best efforts, I still find it hard to differentiate between warm and cool tones, what would be a foolproof way to identify such differences?
Any chance of exploring magenta? i still have no idea how to arrive at that particular colour
Well, the real key is sort of what has blue in it and what has yellow/orange in it. That's sort of the poles of the thing. Yes, we will do a video on Magenta, as it's arguably a primary color in itself.
@@VinceVenturella thanks!!! Real reason why I'm asking this is because I'm trying to make sense of GW's new purples. Phoenician vs Xereus and Kakophoni vs Genestealer. The former comparison is especially mimd boggling since I myself can't seem to see a difference between the 2 colours while Reddit seems to settle on xereus as warm and phoenician as purple
If i do a warm shade with red/black as you mentioned do i then go for a cooler highlight like a blue/grey ,thanks in advance ?
Yep, that's generally the idea, if you have the warm shadows like that, you want cold highlights.
Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, Slaanesh is Sweet and yellow too?! If I was “Undecided” Chaos before the allure of Purple, Sixes, and “hello thighs” just became a tasty 😋 looking pallet. Thanks Vince!
Always happy to help. :)
A year late, but a question if anyone can answer: If you're painting a model with purple and yellow as the main colors, would you still want to use the yellow-purple in the the shadows in that case?
Sure, it can be a way to tie them all together. :)