Painting Mandrake Skin

Anyone got any tips/advice for painting (black) Mandrake skin?

I'm trying to finish off this guy, but his flesh looks too light:



I'm never really sure what to do with black flesh. I can't wash it (especially in this case, what with the runes and all), but when I try drybrushing it it ends up looking too light (and also a bit weird).

Can anyone help me with this?

Two ways I can suggest.

1: Black with very thin and very few highlights.
2: Dark grey, slightly lighter thin high lights finished with a black ink wash.

sKP.

With regard to highlighting black, what colour(s) would you recommend?

Should I use a dark grey, or a shade of blue/purple?

I have a dark grey called "Adeptus Battlegrey" from GW, that with a wash over it is perfect for black highlighting.

skp wrote:

I have a dark grey called "Adeptus Battlegrey" from GW, that with a wash over it is perfect for black highlighting.

Cheers, I'll try and find it.

Using dark grey to lighter ones can work.

I prefer to use other colours to make the black pop more. It still looks black, but has a little something extra.  

I like to use dark blues or dark purples.  

Black base,  1:1 black + dark colour,  just dark colour, then add a little white or something similar for extreme highlights in areas of interest. Face, hands etc...   It's simple.   Or you can just take what you have done and do a dark glaze or wash.  Maybe thin a wash with lehmaia (or however you spell it) medium. Use some black wash mixed with a little blue or purple.    Thinning a wash with water tends to ruin the wash as they are not ment to be mixed with water.  The medium keeps the consistency of the wash, but just thins it a little so that it isn't so strong.

I use eshin grey as my ashen skin base colour. I start with pure eshin grey, then the first highlight is eshin grey and bone colour 2:1, then the final highlight is 1:1 eshin/bone.
The bone colour gives some life to it, I find white makes the grey lighter, but still dull.