Quick Shaded Metallics Tutorial

Here is a quick write up on the technique I used for the metallics on the lupine slayer. The techique was made popular by a wonderful Australian painter that goes by Automaton. His original tutorial is over at CMoN and utilizes non-metallics to shade metallics. He uses more color than I do (currently, anyway) which provides a more "artistic" method, but IMHO is less "realistic". I do realize that I am painting a 8 or 9 foot wolf man in armor plating, so realism is in the eye of the beholder...

For the purposes of the tutorial, the photos are taken to accentuate the sword, so everything else may look a bit off.

Going left to right: I first lay down the basecoat of Honed steel over a black undercoat. Next, I have used GW Devlan Mud straight from the pot. This is painted over nearly all of the Honed Steel. As I move toward the darker areas, I reapply the Devlan Mud, gradually increasing the shading. Any dark brown will do, but I have found the GW washes quite thin and are good for my purposes straight from the pot. GW Badab Black is added in the last picture, only in the areas you want to be darkest. Any black will do, naturally.

I have found the GW washes are very matte, which is helpful with this method. In this technique, you can control two aspects of the metallics. The first, of course, is light to dark. The second (and I think less appreciated, especially if you are using strictly metallics) is reflectivity. As a metallic gets darker, it also reflects less light. It is not so important in a photograph as you can control where the light is coming from, but in hand this technique really shines (no pun intended). If you take even a dark metallic and hold it just right, some light will be reflected. The shading with normal acrylics helps to maintain that "darkness" and reduce the reflectivity, so it looks as intended from any angle.

 

Again going left to right, I begin to rehighlight with Honed Steel to bring back some of the reflectivity of the metallics. I try to keep the paint very thin at this point; it doesn't take much to bring back the flakes that reflect the light. Next, I add VMC Silver to increase the lightness and brightness along those areas that would reflect more light (second picture). You could add a white metallic at this point, such as VMC metallic medium or RMS Pearl White to really get it bright. Obviously, if you are going this bright, you want to keep the reflection very small. Finally, I have added a very thin glaze of half-orc highlight to add a touch of color and some visual interest. I don't cover the very brightest spots, but most of the midtones and darker areas. The key here is very thin glazes; it really should be tinting the underlying coats. If you go too heavy, the reflectivity of the metallic flakes will be lost and you'll need to go back and reapply either Honed Steel or Silver.

I hope this is helpful! If you any questions, let me know!