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.

Painting Eyes Tutorial

This week I worked on the Nun from Bones II Pulp Action Set, (I'll be posting the full article tomorrow, Thursday May 7th) and I thought I would take the opportunity to give a quick tutorial on how I paint eyes.

        We pick up in the painting process at the point where I have painted the skin, and given it a wash with something to darken the recesses and crevices.  To do the eyes, first I paint the sockets black.  It's ok if you go outside of the actual sculpted eye.

      Next, I very carefully paint an area of white inside the black sockets that I just painted, being careful to leave a thin black rim around the area of white.

     I then go back and paint the pupils by doing vertical lines with black across the center of the eyes.

      I then take my flesh color and clean up anywhere that I have gone outside of the eye area.

     And that is how I do eyes. I hope this helps some of you who have been looking for an easy method.