Jabberwocky Posted May 14, 2007 Report Share Posted May 14, 2007 I thought I would attempt some NMM gold for the first time--pushing the envelope and all that. Ugh. I have been thoroughly aggravated by this. My archvillian is looking like a sissy boy with his sunshine yellow trim. For those of you familiar with the Reaper triads, this is Chestnut Gold/Palomino Gold/Buckskin Pale. I also did a 1:1 Buckskin/Linen White as well. I am planning on doing pure Linen white as well, but I quite sure that is not what is causing the problem. Any suggestions? Should I highlight it differently? Scrap the color scheme entirely? Will washing it with VMC or some similar brown give it a "richer" look? Frustratingly yours, Jabber Oh, any feel free to critique anything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ritual Posted May 14, 2007 Report Share Posted May 14, 2007 The problem here is that you have painted it like you would paint a yellow trim. Thus, it looks like a yellow trim! You need to have much more contrast to make it look like gold. Making the highlights pure white in the most extreme spots will help, but you also need to make the shading much darker. I'm not sure how the colours you've used works. I use GW Snakebite Leather as base for most of my gold and shade it with either black or very dark brown depending on if I want a cold or warm colour tone. For highlighting I use VMC Ivory and white. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Caroland Posted May 14, 2007 Report Share Posted May 14, 2007 Yeah ... what he said! * * mind you I haven't a clue what he said, but it sounded good. Like the colors and the freehand that you've put into the robe around the arm, that's pretty nifty. Now you are wanting the clothe to come out like it is spun gold or gilded? Might be a bit hard to get past visually as you expect it to be clothe and pulling NMM on it might be a bit difficult to get across. Do that with some jewelery and I think it'll come out better. I've tried my hand at NMM gold a few times and I never did get it quite right myself to be honest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wren Posted May 14, 2007 Report Share Posted May 14, 2007 I think I'm indentifying the same areas as Ritual - more shading and more contrast. You'll want to add Chestnut Brown to your mix if you have that one, and Chestnut Brown with some Blackened Brown for lining or deep deep shadows. My suggestion would be to either work up from the Chestnut Brown, or base in the Chestnut Gold rather than the Palomino. Using Palomino just in the layering helps tamp down the yellow. Jester's got a really nice tutorial on using the paints you're using for NMM gold on his site - http://www.jestersminiaturestudios.com/Blending.htm For NMM, putting bright or hotspot areas next to deep shadows can really help sell the 'shine'. For example on the zigzag pattern, you have deep shadows (though they could go even deeper) in the indentation of the pattern. If you put a thin line of linen white on the bulge underneat one of the V lines, the contrast will help it read as shiny. Vikinglodge has done a version of this figure with NMM trim it might help you to look at, although he added OSL which complicates things a bit. But you can see he's really got a lot more mid and dark tones than light ones, and many of the brightest highlights are directly adjacent to areas of shadow or darklining. (http://www.coolminiornot.com/127437). A painter named numbat did a great SENMM (sky-earth NMM) trim on a wizard's robe that might also be worth looking at. http://www.coolminiornot.com/8876. If the picture doesn't load, you can at least see a small version in his artist gallery. http://www.coolminiornot.com/artist/numbat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunjiNoKanrei Posted May 14, 2007 Report Share Posted May 14, 2007 Don't scrap the scheme. The colors look good and work well for this miniature About the gold NMM and there is really nothing to add to what Ritual and Wren said. Don't be afraid to use a very dark brown for shading and highlight all the way up to pure white for hotspots where the light is reflected most. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabberwocky Posted May 17, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 17, 2007 I took a look at Jester's site, and have done some additional work. Thank you Wren! Thanks also to everyone else for your suggestions--I really appreciate it. For your perusal... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Caroland Posted May 17, 2007 Report Share Posted May 17, 2007 Hey that looks a lot better IMO - and the design really comes out on the back of that cloak now. Nice work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avelorn Posted May 18, 2007 Report Share Posted May 18, 2007 Yep it looks great, now it just needs that final bright highlight imo And consider doing some tiny points of light in the darker places of the pattern as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabberwocky Posted May 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2007 All done. Thanks again to everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan Caroland Posted May 20, 2007 Report Share Posted May 20, 2007 Not a fan of the mushroom or the skull, but I think I know why you put them down there considering it is an Illithiad so it works. Really digging the paint job though. Your best yet IMO and the NMM gold with the bright spots for the reflection is really working. Time for another NMM gold mini to tie the skill up good now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunjiNoKanrei Posted May 20, 2007 Report Share Posted May 20, 2007 The scheme and the gold NMM came out great. Everything is there now - deep brown shadows and pure white reflections accenting the right spots. This really makes me want to take another shot at NMM myself. We'll see... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewartoad Posted May 21, 2007 Report Share Posted May 21, 2007 Looking good JABBERWOCKY! Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wren Posted May 22, 2007 Report Share Posted May 22, 2007 Nice! The gold really came out with a richer, older look that suits the character, and the overall end result looks great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabberwocky Posted May 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2007 Just wanted to thank everyone again for their input--my Bathalian won the little impromptu online contest over at the Reaper forums " The Wannabe at ReaperCon Painting Challenge '07". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wren Posted May 28, 2007 Report Share Posted May 28, 2007 Congrats Jabberywocky! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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