Advice for Painting Magic Camoflage

[SplotchyInk]

I'm going to attempt painting a bones High Elf Adventurer as one of my D&D.  One of the things he has is kind of cloak of invisibility (it's called something else in the book) and I wanted to make it look like his cloak is phasing out of invisibility kind of similar to this awesome paint job.

 

Problem is, a forest/dungeon like scene is a bit more difficult to paint as compared to a space scene like this one.

Does anyone have any advice or tips to pull off a similar effect?

[Corporea]

it might be doable if you pick a viewing angle, have some background vegetation or stone walls and paint them on one edge/part of the cloak... er sort of like the bridge of faith scene in indiana jones 3? Is that what you're looking for?  Then you can fade the colors out into the main part of the cloak.

[Chaoswolf]

I've got nothing. I do think it's a pretty awesome idea, though! Good luck!

[SplotchyInk]

Well, the fact that there are ripples in the cloak, I can probably do something interesting with what Corporea is suggesting.  Where a kind of stone wall scene painted on one side while a cloak color is painted on the other.
Also I can make it a bit meta and have it where I can paint it's own base and the surrounding 'tabletop' on the cloak where it seems to vanish when looking down at it in the usual 'tabletop' perspective.

 

Ambitious, probably too much so ;p
But hey, paints are easy to remove.

[djizomdjinn]

If you want to try something REALLY ambitious, you could try casting part of the mini in clear resin, cutting off that part of the mini, and gluing it back on, and then painting that.

 

I'm a sucker for overly ambitious projects. But hey, it'd look cool.

[Laoke]

I'd tie it to the base, and make the transition point low on the body, maybe at the ankle or knee point.  Then paint the lower part to blend in with the base.

[Glitterwolf]

Please post pics when you've done this...

[Bloodhowl]

You could try casting the model in clear resin to show it's invisible, and paint in any part not covered by the cloak:

 

 

 

Or paint it up to blend with any items he is standing near, similar to this:

 

Or this showing it transforming to match the surroundings:

Edited March 27, 2015 by Bloodhowl

[Arydis]

Trickier with an individual mini outside of a diorama.  Consider a base with a clear transition point with the cloak overlapping the transition or some other effect to create the feeling of a transition.  You could then have your magical effect at this point of transition with two different appearances on the cloak.  Like others have said, whatever you decide to do, let us see pictures of it!

[Pegazus]

Had a thought... cutting off a portion of the mini completely, no clear resin, and just paint the edges and cut side in some magical effect colors. This would then show whatever background because it is completely "invisible".

 

I'd do it, if the mini wasn't especially expensive, precious, or rare.

[djizomdjinn]

...I'm half tempted to just make a base with some footprints through dirt or snow, and call it an invisible rogue.

[Auberon]

Actually, someone mastered the invisible mini technique over a decade ago...

Seen here (or not)