Zenithal and volumetric highlighting: how to paint it, with paint ramps

What you need

• A base colour and paints for two shadow steps and up to four highlight steps (the ramps below).
• Optional: black and white spray or airbrush primer for a zenithal undercoat.
• A medium and a small brush: the big areas want a bigger brush, the top highlights a fine one.

How the Ramps mode builds it

In Zenithal mode, tap your base colour. The two shadow steps run evenly from about a third of your paint's lightness (never below 6) up to it, keeping 60% to 100% of its saturation. The highlights climb toward lightness 92, losing some saturation as they go, and the top highlight is 85% of the way from your paint to lightness 95, at a third of its saturation. The hue doesn't change.

Seven steps give you three highlights (Highlight 1, 2 and 3); five steps give you one. Lean the deepest shadow to the complement gives the darkest step a dark, dull version of the complement instead.

Every technique then picks real paints the same way: for each step it finds the nearest paint among the ones shown on the wheel, by ΔE with lightness counted 1.6 times as much as colour (value contrast is what sells a ramp), and never uses the same paint twice. Only opaque paints are used: no metallics, washes, contrast paints, inks, glazes, primers or fluorescents. Each step is graded Close (ΔE under 6), Fair (under 12) or Loose.

Using it on the wheel

1. Open the colour wheel and pick Ramps above the wheel, then Zenithal and volumetric highlights under Technique (or open it straight in this mode).
2. Choose 5 or 7 steps; 5 steps leaves out some of the in-between steps for a quicker ramp.
3. Tap your base colour on the wheel, or in the neutrals list under it. If it's a metallic or effect paint, the ramp starts from the nearest opaque paint instead.
4. Untick brands and ranges you don't want, or tick Matches from my paints only once your collection is set up, to build the ramp from the paints you own.
5. Tap ↻ on a step to try the next nearest paint, then Save as recipe to keep the ramp, with the step notes above, in your recipes.

Common mistakes

• Lighting everything from the front. Keep the light above: the tops of shapes are lightest, the undersides darkest.
• The same gradient everywhere. Shapes higher on the model (head, shoulders) can go brighter than shapes near the base.
• Shadows that are too dark. Zenithal shadows only need to be a step or two darker than the base; the highlights do most of the work.

The best paints for zenithal and volumetric highlights, brand by brand

Each ramp below is built the way the Ramps mode builds one: the same target colours, then the nearest opaque paint in each brand for each step. ΔE says how far each paint is from its target: close is under 6, fair under 12. Swatch colours are estimates, so test the ramp on a spare model first. On the wheel you can build the same ramp from any paint, or only from the paints you own.