How do you paint armor/metal/gold? It always looks so flat when I try to do it, but yours look so good and real
Good morning, Anon! That’s a tricky question. Metal and metallics are definitely one of the more complex textures to paint. It’s high contrast, high reflection, picks up the main light source, reflected light source and any colors around it unless it’s a very matte metal. I’m in no way an expert but I’ll try to explain as best as I can.
Vaard’s filigree is a good example as smaller metal details are a lot easier to paint than large pieces of armor (as that would take me hours to paint a step by step example of), but the concept is generally the same for both.
I’ll do an ultra polished metal to kind of show the basic effect that can be buffed up or dulled down depending on the metal. Plus cylindrical metal is the easiest to demonstrate.
Once you have your base tones, decide where your light is coming from and stick to it. I did my light coming from the top right and highlighted where it’s going to be hitting the metal the most.
1. Along those lines, you can literally draw a line of your highlight color all the way down. I did the far right where the light is hitting the most and the far left where the cylinder would be picking up the reflected light from underneath.
I also brushed a little white airbrushing closest to the light source as my original base was a little dark.
2. Next do a line of your shadow on whichever side your light is hitting the least. Note that with a reflective metal, especially silver or pale tones, is going to pick up a shadow color closest to the most prominent color around it. In this case, a bluish shadow as the cloak is the most prominent color close to it.
Environment will also affect this and make it look more like it belongs in the picture if you use the colors around it.
If you’re doing a more matte metal, you would do much wider, softer shade swaths with little reflective light from the underside.
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3. Now where your light is hitting with the most intensity, shade on the opposite side of your light along the edges with your shadow color as polished metals pick up very intense shadows and it helps the metallic effect along.
Now that you have your base, scuff and weather it up a bit with some light scratches (Just a thin white and black brush that I did some mild hatching around the shaded areas) and you have some basic metal!
This general alternating light and dark works for most curved surfaces. The higher points of your metal is always going to be the brightest with the most light followed by some darker shadows.
I hope this helps and isn’t too confusing. I tried my best. Best of luck to you and your metal painting, Anon!
