Chest of Colors forum

Gemstones are one of my favourite things to paint. They're quick and easy to do with a bit of wet blending and can really make a miniature look special if the colours are right. I paint a lot of them too since I have a Dark Elf and an Eldar army.

However, I always struggle with black and yellow. Does anyone have any tips on what colour combinations and/or techniques to use to get convincing black or yellow gemstones?

For black: use a blue for highlights. add the reflection with pure white as you would with normal gems. if you have acces to P3 paints: Thamar black base, coal black and menoth white highlight for highlights. Pure white to finish it off. Then use a glaze to pull colors together. Blue or black in this case.

What colors to use for yellow gems depends on what you want. You can start with orange, through yellow to white or go from yellow up to white. Again finishing of with a glaze. You can try red yellow and orange for different effects.

Techniques for regular gems is practically always the same Consider the direction the light comes from and off you go. If the shape is more complex you have to study how the light falls on the subject and imagine the subject being translucent? (spelling? I have had a couple of drinks so I don't know...) Easiest to do this is to take a picture with strong directional lighting.

I saw a colour recipe for yellow-ish gems once using mostly browns. I'll see if I can dig it up somewhere...