nails

[Dan11]

anyone got a decent way to paint fingernails? Also is there a method to get that \"transparent\" look, like in real life?

 

[Amazon warrior]

Well, just looking at mine now, I can see that they\'re slightly paler than my fingers and they have whitish looking ends where my fingers stop and my nails keep going. They\'re more reflective than skin too, so you\'d want some decent highlights.

 

[Bigdennis52]

I use reaper master series paints and I have some experience with this

if you want them to look like a human nail I use

basecoat of light pink

highlight the center with maybe a 75% pink, 25% white mix

put a clear coat over it (reaper series have paints called clear) they are opiac (spelling)

then I do a white line at the very tip to highlight the distal edge a

and then to finish off I place a second coat of clear

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Dan11
anyone got a decent way to paint fingernails?

The basic answer is: observe the real thing, translate into paint.

If this is for minis, assuming nails are there at all on the sculpt, they\'re pretty tiny so there\'s a physical limit to what most of us can actually include.

Even on historical subjects which are mostly larger most painters just do a very basic \'shorthand\' for fingernails; rarely will you see the white nail represented (or its dirty equivalent!), much less the half-moon or lunula.

Originally posted by Dan11
Also is there a method to get that \"transparent\" look, like in real life?

If you get the colours dead-on then you\'ll match how nails look, you don\'t have to simulate the way they look as they do in reality by glazing (although it can work well).

Einion