Im trying to do an NMM blade on my mini, im trying to figure out the rough color placement to do.
Here's my attemps on MS Paint, im having a hard time figuring out if it makes sense, especially around the flat of the blade.
#NMM Color Placement
muted geyser
looking at other paintjobs, im not seeing any "island" of bright in the middle of the flat part. They seem to start around the edge and fade to the other side, if it makes sense.
exemples attached
ivory cedar
Im trying to do an NMM blade on my mini, im trying to figure out the rough color...
Usually a flat will be best depicted as a fairly uniform color or as a simple gradient, but as always there are no hard rules.
NMM is painting reflections.
In the second of your two references (I don’t much like the first) you can see how the honed edge gives the impression of sky and ground with a horizon line in the middle.
It’s up to you to decide what is being reflected and to what extend the reflection is being matted and diffused by the material surface and what distortion does the shape apply.
A fully polished flat surface is just a mirror. What is it mirroring and how does the type of surface affect it?
A helpful thing to keep in mind is that a flat plane, no matter the shape, is still just a plane. Don’t conform the reflection to the shape of the cutout, that makes no sense. It’s just a plane.
muted geyser
yeah, it makes sense that a mirror's shape would have no bearing on the way it reflects light 🙂
the second is from richard Gray's website, it seems to be a fairly decent tutorial, but i fear my skill level isnt quite there and im worried im trying to bite more than i can chew.
I might go with a simple gradiant on the flat, with some light glaze at the end to do something similar to the earth and sky over the cutting edge
ivory cedar
yeah, it makes sense that a mirror's shape would have no bearing on the way it r...
A really simple approach to the honed edge is to paint lots of thin lines extending from the flat out to the edge.
Start with a large area and go progressively smaller as you move up in value.
This approach makes it really easy to go back and forth between colors and basically requires no blending (though you still can glaze over it if you want).
Don’t worry if you paint onto the flat, you can clean that up in the end.
Here’s a quick board game mini to show what I mean.
muted geyser
A really simple approach to the honed edge is to paint lots of thin lines extend...
i see what you're doing, that's another good idea. let's say you have colors (lightest 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 darkest), do you always try to only ever have the direct next color in your lines? (ex, you would never put color 4 directly next to color 1)?
ivory cedar
You can make abrupt changes in value. That happens in Real life as well.
But in most situations I would aim for a gradient, even if it’s a very narrow one.
muted geyser
gotcha, makes sense. i feel like i've never looked at stuff before in my life, lol.
muted geyser
Small update : I've taken your advices in consideration and here's my WIP so far. I might introduce some whiter white, but I'm really feeling what I have. Thanks for the help.
