Satin Look

[fieldarchy]

Ok, I have been painting up a lot of female figures recently that are in lovely gowns and it struck me that I should probably try to achieve the satin finish look on the dresses. Does anyone know how to do this? Any advice or tips would be good.

[Darkstar]

I usually try to find a couple of good pics of Satin on the web, or whatever material I'm trying to represent, and then take a really hard look at it.

 

With satin, I paint it to have large areas of dark shadow with the highlights being placed without much gradation between the stages of light and dark. A stark contrast between the lights and dark gives a nice satiny illusion. Here's a clip of an image that came out looking like satin or silk on a cloak:

 

 

As you can see, there's a very quick jump from the shadow area to the broad areas of highlights with a few very sharp highlights thrown in for the shiney look.

 

My best advice is to study how light reacts to a real piece of satin or look hard at some images, that will help you to paint it more accurately. Good luck!

[airhead]

Satin (and silk) are shiney fabrics and can be treated similar to metalics. They need harder and higher highlights than other materials.

 

Another idea that looks good IRL, but does not carry well in photo is to use the Pro-Paints Silks paints. I am not sure, but they seem to have some pearlessense in them.

[Painfully]

The Reaper Silks & Satins paints work well when mixed about 50/50 with a regular paint of similar color. Otherwise it tends to appear too bright for its scale. I use it mostly for the trim area on fancy clothing.