Purple Game Color Set

Why purple is the hardest to put together

Purple has no natural neighbor in an ordinary starter palette. Anyone who wants to lighten it usually mixes in white and the tone immediately grays into ashen; anyone who wants to darken it reaches for black and the color loses its saturation altogether. A matched family of shades solves this by having the lighter member and the darker one carry a purple base within themselves, so that they do not lose color when layered.

Field of use

Purple belongs to the robes of priests and mages, to the fabrics of wealthy characters, to poisonous and magical effects and to the cold shadows on dark skin. On military equipment it appears rarely, whereas in fantasy and science fiction it is one of the most sought-after tones, because it tells a character apart from brown-gray surroundings at once.

A note on the pigments

Purple and blue pigments are among those with the weakest covering power, which is exactly why a graded family is worth more here than with other colors. Mixing purple at home from blue and red gives a muddy result and an unrepeatable ratio, while a family in which each member already has the purple base within it keeps the tone through every step of the layering.

How to work with the line

Lay the darkest member down over the whole area and let it set to a matte. Lead the middle one so that the lower tone shows through in the folds, and apply the lightest one with a dry brush or in a narrow line along the edges. Purple takes more coats than yellow, so it can be built slowly and without the risk of the engraving being filled.

• A graded purple family ready for layering right away
• Thinned with water and drying to a matte, so it takes a further coat without sheen
• A narrow nozzle in the cap lets even a single drop of paint be measured out
• Inside there are the paints alone: no primer, no varnish, no brushes and no model