Check out this amazing tutorial from Massive Voodoo about how to paint shades of black
These Cave Spiders look deceptively easy to paint, but don’t let them fool you. Shades of black can be notoriously difficult to get right. For starters there are so many different shades from light gray to coal black. And Black can be warm or cold depending on the color scheme you choose for your miniature. A great resource for painters of all stages is the group Massive Voodoo. They did an amazing breakdown of how shades of black can be warmed to almost red or cooled to almost blue. I’ll post a link to that great resource. I chose to go with a warm black to better match the red symbols on the spiders backs. I also tried a cooler green tinted black for the boss spider.
Next comes the tedious task of trying to find the right shades and locations for the highlights. I used a glazing technique where you water down the paint to a very thin consistency and then paint layer after layer in the same place to slowly get a blended highlight. It’s a great way to get the smoothest blending but it’s a very time consuming technique so if you are just trying to get the game painted and start playing ASAP then it may not be for you. I also similarly highlighted the tops of the head, legs, and antennas.
To create the spooky symbol in the back you’ll want to work in two steps. First highlight the black fur with a lighter shade all over the back. (This is where a wet pallet really starts to come in handy) When you are happy with how the fur looks take some dark red and draw whatever symbol you choose on the back. Then lighten that color (if your using red lighten with an orange paint) and dry brush only on the fur with the symbol. You can lighten more and repeat for a more dramatic effect. I believe I lightened and dry brushed three times before I achieved the look I wanted.
The mouth was easy and consisted of a dirty bone base with an umber wash. Then I dry brushed a mix of dirty bone and white applying paint more heavily towards the bottoms of the the mouth. The claws are painted with the same colors as the symbol with red tipping to orange white.
P.S. I seem to be having some issues linking the website for Massive Voodoo through WordPress so here is the site address to copy if you need to
http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com/2014/05/tutorial-painting-colour-black.html?m=1
Board Mini Painter 