pez5767 Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 The title pretty much says it all... I'm trying to get that "metal" look to my NMM. I realize that my skills are pretty "middle of the road", so this might be helpful for some folks who are struggling or new to painting, and I'm hoping some of the L337 painters out there can break-off some knowledge on my would-be-amazing-if self! Okay, so assuming there are some folks struggling with NMM out there, I'll explain what I've done so far. I started with a dark grey prime coat and then hit that used the Jeremie Bonnamont T (I don't know how the spell the rest ) zenithil white overspray technique. Baiscally a light coat of white primer shot from directly(ish) above the miniature to show where the highlight woudl actually be. Then I began the actual painting. A thin coat or 3 of REAPER MASTER SERIES (RMS) Cloudy grey. I then began washing in some of the shadows with RMS Grey Liner. I smoothed things out again with the RMS Cloudy Grey (always working with thinned paint), and finally made a 50/50 mix of Cloudy Grey and Misty Grey to start setting some of the highlights in place. Everything thus far has been very fast and loose to set the shadows and highlights in place. I think I know that 90% of NMM is getting the light and dark contrast in the right places so the light plays correctly as a metalic surface would... and the other 10% is that buttery smooth blending. This is pretty early on (about 1 hour), but that's the idea with a WIP right? Thanks for any questions, comments, suggestions or reads. Updates hopefully coming soon! pez Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fieldarchy Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 ok, so the placement of highlights and shadows looks good but you need to really pump up contrast! You need the shadows to be a nice rich almost black--going just straight black never looks right. Add a color to some black so that it's got a bit of a tint to it. That will give it some life. You'll always want some color tinting your NMM mix though. Don't just go straight black, white and grey. Add a little bit of blue or purple to it. to get that smooth blend--it's glazes man. That's why my isabeau from last year's reaper con took me a month to paint. Half of that time was glazing in the freakin' gold NMM. But it's the prettiest NMM I've done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercius Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Glazes...the bane of the impatient ADD riddled painter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pez5767 Posted April 27, 2011 Author Share Posted April 27, 2011 Hour #2 done. Added more depth to the shadows with RMS Grey Liner. Smoothed out some highlights with more of the 50/50 mix of Cloudy Grey and Misty Grey. I brought up some highlights with RMS Ghost white to continue pushing the contrast between light and dark. I find that this point in the process helps me with figuring out where the actual whites might end up. Based on Meg's suggestion, or mind reading powers, I began adding some "feel" if you will with a glaze of RMS Templar Blue. I know leaving the model with just grey tones ends up with a concrete look no matter how smooth it is. Suggestions and comments are the point of this. Also, if you are unclear about part of my process, please feel free to ask about that too! pez Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fieldarchy Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Glazes...the bane of the impatient ADD riddled painter. Can't use that excuse. I have ADD too Pez--looking really good. Keep working at it. You're getting there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psyberwolfe1 Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Let your ADD become OCD and your trip to the dark side will be complete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fieldarchy Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Let your ADD become OCD and your trip to the dark side will be complete. Exactly . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercius Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 I am well on the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pez5767 Posted April 27, 2011 Author Share Posted April 27, 2011 This is the point where I become confused... on some level, I actually think this looks worse. What went wrong? Hour 3: Thanks for the help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fieldarchy Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 mmkay, first things, I think I've told you this before but in case I haven't: Every mini has an ugly stage. A stage where you are painting along and then all of a sudden you look and go, "damn, that's not what it should look like at all" and you get discouraged? Happens to me every day. Anyway, just keep powering through that to get to the pretty. Right now I'd say there is too much midtone present. But NMM is not my forte. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pez5767 Posted May 3, 2011 Author Share Posted May 3, 2011 As suggested, I added some of the other colors to the model. I also hit some of the highest points with pure white and added some dark purples (RMS Nightshade Purple) to the deepest shadows. So... I'm feeling kind of done with this guy. Not that I'm "done" painting, just done working. He was supposed to be a practice model to get better on NMM, and without devoting MANY more hours blending things to silky smooth, I think that I met my goal of practicing. Unless someone has some input for me, I'll be picking out a few more details and call it "done enough". Suggestions? Comments? ANYTHING!? thanks for looking... pez Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krztoff Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 My metals all come from glittery paint, so consider that when I say anything about NMM, but I see the last picture, and it looks to me like he's wearing metal, as opposed to matte gray stone, which is pretty much my basic question for figuring if a particular NMM job did what it was supposed to do. Granted, it doesn't look like shiny metal, but more like metal than not, so good so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dks Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 Very good. Here's how I would "redline" the model. Mostly it's a matter of making the light direction consistent, adding or moving the highlights in that direction, and not missing any places where the light should be reflecting. The breastplate is the main thing that I would change. I didn't mark up the hammer much; flat surfaces are harder to make convincing as NMM. I think you would just get spots of light off the edges, like you did. Curved surfaces are easier -- abstract them into spheres, cones, and cylinders, and you'll know exactly how to highlight & shade them. Derek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pez5767 Posted May 7, 2011 Author Share Posted May 7, 2011 WOW Derek! That was really helpful. Thank you SO very much for taking the time to do that. I'm not sure I understand the highlight on the front-center of each should pad, but clearly it looks right. I'll go back and apply all the highlights as you suggested. Really, again, I cannot thank you enough... that was going above and beyond! Hope you're well, Jody Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferox Posted May 7, 2011 Share Posted May 7, 2011 WOW Derek! That was really helpful. Thank you SO very much for taking the time to do that. [...] Really, again, I cannot thank you enough... that was going above and beyond! This. I grabbed your image and saved it for future study. Much appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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