How to paint diamond gems ?

[petrucci51]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently working on this bust from Black Sun Minitures and I encouter a problem with the gem/diamond in the middle of his chest. There are lot of tutorials about how to paint round gems, but how do you deal with this type of geometry ?
I havent found a mini or tutorial on which I could find some inspiration, and the diamond photos always show a way more complex object.

WIP Bust :
View attachment 52279

Here are 3 possibilities I imagined for painting the gem :
- #1 View attachment 52280

- #2 (a bit simpler) View attachment 52281

- #3 (really simple contrast)View attachment 52282

#1 obviously looks way more detailed, but is it close to reality ?

If anyone here knows a tutorial or some pictures that would help me to understand how it should be done, I'd be glad !

Thans in advance

 

[MAXXxxx]

you could try how ice / crystals are painted.
The sides are light and a bit pastely going more saturated and darker towards the middle of the gem. Finally the edges picked out with a really light color (white or white with a veeeery little of the color)

- A bit like the ice-golem here: http://s407.photobucket.com/g00//user/MajorGilbear/media/Malifaux/Ice Golem 1_zpsc39m3sb6.jpg.html
- altough painted in the opposite direction this you might like this more for reference: http://www.coolminiornot.com/366847?browseid=16649129 or http://www.puttyandpaint.com/projects/9452
- of course it could help, if you could paint what's beding the gem like here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.254592518084678.1073741864.171716109705653&type=1
- always a good resource: http://tutofig.com/painting/textures/gem-jewel-mineral-glass/

A bit different would be removing the gem and replacing it with a real one (not diamond, but with some clear/colored crystal)

some extra references:
- https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/cd/49/dc/cd49dc1941439255e4b9e25eea8b485b.jpg
- http://cgcookie.deviantart.com/art/Exercise-26-Results-Shading-Gems-Step-by-Step-462210728
- http://www.coolminiornot.com/articles/1200-painting-precious-stones
- http://www.coolminiornot.com/articles/1205-complex-gems

 

[petrucci51]

Thanks for your help MAXX, I did fall onto that Glacier king recently, but I dont get the logic of how light reflects on such objects.
I made some other reasearch and made other drawings, but I'm still not satisfied.
I'll keep on searching later.

View attachment 52285

 

[TheLost]

Hey MaXXxxx... You're such a GEM for posting all those tutorials HAHAHAH!!!!!!

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

To be clear, OP is asking about the geometrical shape, which technically has nothing to do with the precious gem stone referred to as a diamond (except these can be cut into the geometrical shape of a diamond).

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

For references, Google princess cut gems.

Due to the sheer differences in light sources and surrounding environments to this shape, there is no consistent rules other than the same that apply to any gem: a light side, a dark side, a white highlight on the dark side. I would break it down like this (apologize for the difficulty in understanding my written description below, as I cannot draw this for you at this time):

Break the shape into four quadrants. Top left (A) top right (B) bottom left (C) and bottom right (D).
A: Start light at the bottom and go dark up top of this quadrant. Place highlight in dark spot, but make it angular instead of round shaped

B: Opposite of A. Light on top and dark on bottom. Highlight in dark spot.
C: Like B
D: Like A

 

[petrucci51]

Hey Bloodfather, thanks for your help.
Your description corresponds to my #1 (or 6 which was the same but less ugly), the one I considered to be closest to reality. I will give it a try and show the result when it's done !

Thanks for the correct name of this shape. I wanted another word for "lozenge" and google gave me "diamond" as a first answer.