Painting Red Hair

Hi,

I am about to paint an mini with red hair, actually the first one ever. I am going for the redhead femme fatales look aka Jessica Rabbit



I am wondering on how you guys are painting them? And how you would go about painting this hair style?

For that shade of orangey-red hair, I think I would go with a basecoat of a yellow/dun color, then wash with a redbrown.

If you have some, grab some crappy old figures at the bottom of your 'to paint" list and experiment on them!

I use a red underlayer, and then work my way up with vomit brown, gryphon sepia wash, some thinned down bronzed flesh, and some lighter shades such as elf flesh and bleached bone, depending on the hue of the hair.

I did Fiery Orange with a Baal Red wash from Citadel, and then highlights with orange and/or red (gore or blood)

Thanks guys...

Will try the colours out.

Will post an link when I am done with the mini

I've found that the best results for red hair don't actually use any paints with red in the name. Real red hair is much more muted, and to be completely frank, it's typically orange. I've had pretty decent success with a base coat of Dark flesh worked up by adding successive amounts of vermin brown until you end with a highlight of pure vermin brown. This pictures pretty lousy, but this is what it turned out like:


Good luck!

Agree about the realistic natural red shades not having any red in them. He is asking for something a la jessica rabbit though, so actual red shades are warranted IMO.

Looks good, Mr. Chair.

@Mr. Chair: It looks good! Thank you for your input!!!
But as Sartori added I am going for that unnatural reddish look, So will have to use some red

I'd go Fiery Orange myself

I went with a Blazing Orange basecoat, then a wash of Baal Red. Drybrushed it Blazing Orange and did a light wash of Badab Black. Then highlighted it with a 75%/25% mix of Blazing Orange and Iyanden Darksun. Here's a pic of the result:

The thing to remember with "Red" Hair is that it is actually a bunch of colors, a mix of brown, Orange, Yellow and actual Red.

I think that you have to start with a base of brown and red, then add layers of Orange and high lights (light dry brush) of Yellow. If you over Yellow you can fix it by covering some of it with an Orange dry brush.

You have to play with it, I think the suggestion of getting crappy mini and practicing is great advice.

The thing to remember with hair is that it is not 1 color, sure all the colors add-up to make what seems like one color at first glance, but it it a mix of high lights and low lights. If you don't put in the high ligts and the low light it makes the hair look flat and cartoonish.

Mr. Chair and Zujara have 2 really good examples.

Here is a picture of the redhead that I wanted to paint. I tried to highlight the hair with orange, but I just did not like the finish. So painted it over again and highlighted the hair just with red.

Tell me what you think, good and bad .

I think they both look stunning! I especially like the purple dress and fan. The red hair has turned out good as well.

I have to agree with Mithras there, stunning models! Might take me 2 turns to get back up

Are those pirate-models from blackscorpion by the way? I'm most certain the right one is, not really sure of the left one though. Love the details on the dress!

Thank you for the comments!

vampirekhaine, you are right. Both of the figures are from Black Scorpion Miniatures, the left one is from the Privateers 1 range.

If you want to see some more figures from Black Scorpion that I have painted, here is a link .
https://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/historical-wargames-f17/no-times-royal-navy-legends-of-the-high-seas-t2955.htm

No Time wrote:

Thank you for the comments!

vampirekhaine, you are right. Both of the figures are from Black Scorpion Miniatures, the left one is from the Privateers 1 range.

If you want to see some more figures from Black Scorpion that I have painted, here is a link .
https://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/historical-wargames-f17/no-times-royal-navy-legends-of-the-high-seas-t2955.htm

That's a nice link you got there, love the painting style.

Don't you just think those fellows/girls @ blackscorpion sculpt some fantastic mini's? My pirate warband is actually from there! Now just to paint them ....

Thank you for the complement.

And yes, the sculptor (Adam Clarke) from Black Scorpion is fantastic. The figures are so full of character!
I am looking forward to seeing your Pirates painted up on this forum

I have been painting up some Black Scorpion pirates this month too, by coincidence (two guys, one pirate lass, two dwarf pirates, and an orc pirate). Love those figures.

Reaper has just released a new "triad" called "red Hair".

Auburn Shadow
Carrot Top Red
Highlight Orange

Tried them out on a BS dwarf pirate, and quite like the effect. Not as bright a red as No Time's lass (great job on those figures, by the way..

They are scheduled to release a "Blond Hair" triad soon - I think March.

Quote :

Reaper has just released a new "triad" called "red Hair".

Auburn Shadow
Carrot Top Red
Highlight Orange

Tried them out on a BS dwarf pirate, and quite like the effect. Not as bright a red as No Time's lass (great job on those figures, by the way..

Pictures please

The hair turned out really nice. That's a cool miniature and you did it more than its share of justice.

Thanks

One of the hair, which has become very popular in recent times have highlighted your hair. Hair highlighting is when the hair dye used to color the hair of different sizes and different parts of the head. There are a number of lights. Basic types of sheets of light, the painting of hair, poor lighting and chucking.

I have been using a basecoat of scorched brown, followed with a topcoat of fiery orange. Highlighting is with a cheap acrylic colour - Mango. This works well for the Dwarf slayers. For a more natural red hair I use tanned flesh instead of the fiery orange.