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Author: Tim_Simmons, Contributing Editor
| I darkened around a few of the spherical points on the badge then scraped some horizontal scratches to give it a brushed metal look.
Using a pencil, I darkened the lettering on the badge. |
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Darkening A Large Area I thought I would explain the process of how to darken a large area that already looks detailed. The vest already had a variety of tones and details in it. I took opaque black and spray it in indiscriminately over the vest. The area will darken but you lose many of the light details because the paint will not darken each section at the same rate. Spraying opaque black over a very dark gray will darken it some but when that same spray of opaque black falls upon a very light gray section, it will darken faster. The result is that the area will become darker but you lose the contrast that you had since the lighter tones have darkened more than the darker tones. Spraying a transparent color, such as transparent smoke or transparent black, will not achieve the desired effect either. Using a transparent color is designed to darken the lights without darkening the very darks. There are two things you can do. Spray black over the entire area equally, then spend hours erasing the details back in. Or, freehand the shadows that are present first then go back and darken the highlights. You will still need to erase to bring back some of the lightest details due to overspray but because the light areas are not overworked, it is MUCH easier to erase. |
| Finishing Up
With ComArt opaque black, thinned with water, I darkened the hat, hair, eyebrows, and vest. |  |
| Using an x-acto knife, I scraped along the edge of the letters to add highlights.
I then darkened the vest and hat some more, and did more erasing to bring out some depth in places. I lived with Reagan for half a day and noticed his right sleeve was too white compared to the rest of his shirt. I darkened his shirt sleeve and did some small erasing here and there where the lights needed to be stronger. My final step was to coat the finished painting with several thin layers of clear acrylic, then three or four layers of varnish. |  |
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