Quick and Easy Gem Painting

   Over on the Reaper Forum, I received a comment on the gems I did on Monday's Storm Giant figure; so I thought I'd do a quick tutorial on how I paint them.  I picked this method up somewhere along the way; I'm not quite sure where now.

      No matter what color you're using, I begin by painting the gem a solid mid-tone.

 I then do a crescent moon shape at the top with a dark tone, and then the same at the bottom with a light tone of the base color

 Next, I add a White highlight dot at the 11 o'clock position on the top, and a large White highlight oval shaped dot at the bottom 5 o'clock position.

      Lastly, I cover the gem with a gloss varnish.  While it doesn't look particularly good blown up this big, the effect usually looks very good on the small gems you find on figures.