Roc
A Fixture
"Faux Metallics for Round Figures (without Metallic paint)" Part II
by Greg DiFrancoBasic Steps
Paint the entire object with the Base Color, generally stay with a middle tone but on the darker side of the value scale.
Add shadow lines in the form of "lines or semi circles" usually on the lower side of the object, but not at the edge, basically off center on the lower side (shape is depending on the overall shape of the object, for instance a button would have a semicircle).
a. slightly blend this into the base color but let some of the hard edge remain (you are tricking the eye into thinking its reflecting some dark object).
Outline all the details with sharp lines, using a very dark shadow color
Add Lower Reflections on the undersides of each lower facing edge of the object, minimal blending.
This is optional, but if the object is larger (not buttons or small metal items) you can also now paint some higher reflections on the upper sides of the object. However, keep these subtle and on the middle value side, do not turn them too light. Most of the time you can create these by adding some mid to light blue (peacock blue is nice here) to the base since many Higher or Upper reflections are of the blue sky.
Find key edges or corners of the object that would reflect the sun, and paint small dots or lines with the Highlight Hot Spot color. Only blend if it’s a long line, such as a long sunlight reflection along the length of a scabbard or a trumpet for instance.
Finish off with a semi gloss after everything dries. If you are using oils you may already have the semi gloss finish.
Hot spots or bright highlights This is ultimately the most important aspect of painting Faux Metallics, the size of the hot spots specifically. As stated earlier they need to be on the small side so always err on the smaller size and then enlarge if necessary. It seems there is a transition point in the size of the hot spot when it gets too large where the eye views it as a splotch of white paint as opposed to reflections of the light source. Of course the size is dependant on the size of the object, so you need to use your own judgement where it crosses the line from the illusion to the white splotch of paint. Also on larger surfaces, such as a breastplate, you can build up 2 or 3 layers of progressively smaller hot spots, the first being large but more blended into the base, the second less blended and then the third being pure white.
Some typical metal objects you will encounter…
Buttons- this may seem a bit tedious, but necessary if you want the effect. Basically you follow the instructions above for each button, but its always the same round semicircle pattern on each button, with a bit of reflected color on the underside and then finished off with a small round hot spot on the mid upper area of the button (don’t let it touch the edge or you will loose the round effect).
Buckles, bits, spurs – these offer a unique challenge since there is typically very little space to paint in all the steps we discussed above. At a minimum, for buckles you first paint the base color (very neat and sharp of course) and then paint in a hot spot on a high point of each buckle. I typically chose the upper corner of the buckle.
For longer thin items with a little more surface area you will also want to paint a small dark shadow line in the middle of one of the bars somewhere along the object and then finish off with a hot spot on each object. For instance on a spur, paint it mid grey, then with a steady hand, paint a dark grey line in the middle of the bar (I know that’s not easy since its convex surface, but you can always touch it up with the mid grey). Then add a white hot spot line along the upper edge of the bars and maybe a circular hot spot on one of the corner edges. If you are courageous you can add some yellow grey on the underside of any horizontal bars as a thin line to show reflections from the ground.
Lace – for lace you can start by painting the item as if it were normal clothing (little to no reflections needed), using the above colors for the most part. Sometimes I add more yellow into the gold lace to distinguish it from yellow metals. Carefully outline all the details. . Then be sure to add a bunch of very small hot spot dots or lines (depending on the shape of the item or pattern of the lace) to show random reflections of the metal that is woven into the real metallic lace. You can add some lower reflections if you find a good spot to place it, but that’s not as important for lace as the small hot spots are.
Chain Mail -
Paint the mail in a dark grey, then add a brown/black or blue/black wash into the crevices. You can play with some reflected color on the undersides of the mail shirt, where there are folds for instance, (not on each piece of mail obviously, but into general areas of the mail shirt). Finally, pick out various small hot spots with white on the upper edge of some of the pieces of mail, especially the ones on the upper surfaces, such as the chest and near the shoulder. Don’t forget to paint the color of the underlying tunic into holes in the mail. I usually do that towards the edged of the mail shirt.
Armor -
This is very difficult and I’ve never been yet satisfied with painting an entire piece of armor with straight colors on a round figure. I tried it on the Caesar piece and you can see the results in the picture. The same principles apply as listed in the basic steps above, but the placement of shadow lines, etc becomes more difficult as you have a large area to cover, and just painting in simple unblended shadow lines may not work that well to simulate reflections. For instance, if painting a breastplate, the ground could be reflected into the bottom of the breastplate and then transition to the sky somewhere in the middle, you may even paint in a dull representation of the horizon or tree line. First step is to ignore any details and paint the entire area of each piece of the armor as if it was a smooth piece of armor, reflections, hot spots, etc. Then go back and paint each detail with the same concepts. Its critical to find the point somewhere on upper part of each major piece of armor that would reflect the sun and then place a hot spot at that point. Of course you must be consistent in where the reflection will occur to create the illusion that its all coming from one point of sunlight.
I’m looking forward to see someone try to paint an entire armoured knight in this technique (I’m not sure I have the guts to do it).
Photo Examples
If you study the photos and think about each step above, you can see the paint as opposed to the (hopefully) illusion of metal. Its best to blow them up very large to see each detail.
8th Hussar
Note the dark grey shadow line through the middle of the scabbard, the orangish reflected light on the left side of the scabbard. I like to use bright colors for Steel reflections, in this case due to the intense red pants which are near enough to the scabbard to reflect some color I decided to use an orange reflected color and then as you move up the scabbard and nearer to the pants it gets more reddish. Note all the little pure white hot spots.
For the lace details, such as the chevrons on the sleeve, you can see some reflected color in the areas that face towards the ground. Note the small white lines (Hot Spots) in the lace, and some random white dots in the scabbard tassel. Very small random white dots or lines help the item look like lace. The random white dots and lines help to simulate multiple reflections from the metal woven into real metallic lace.
For the buttons, notice how each one has a lower reflected color, a dark semi circle and a round white hot spot.
