Sky Earth Inferior Mirage

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

Working on a Sigvald, a mini with a nice rounded shield, and I want to give it a chromatic reflective effect, as many users of CMON have done already. Some have pulled it off much better than others (I'm talking to you, mattster) and I'm confident I can make my own interpretation using SE NMM that is my own. I was thinking of having a volcano erupting in the distance, or some similarly dramatic effect. However, I've most recently wanted to mimic an inferior mirage, and wanted some advice on how to accomplish this.

An inferior mirage is that effect you get on the distant horizon, often on an asphalt road, of shimmering waves of heat. Actually, this is where the old desert oasis mirage is derived, because often times the ground reflects the sky near the horizon and it looks like a dark body of water. This happens when the air on the ground is hotter than the air higher up. It also causes a heat haZe, or a blurring of distant objects.

I have never ever seen an example of this in miniature painting. I think, to mimic the body of water, I may just paint an irregular shaped, dark patch near and underneath a portion of the horizon. Then for objects near the horizon, I will blur their edges, maybe by using simple glazing and blending techniques. My freehand limitations prevent me from getting too complicated with actual man made objects on the horiZon, so I suppose I'll blur the outline of the mountains. This must all look legit on a 3-4 cm shield though

Has anyone seen this on a mini using sky earth? Do you have any pointers or suggestions? Thanks for any advice you can offer.

 

[Zab]

Hit up James Wappel's blog. That man has done a lot of SENMM.

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

Checked him out. Lots of SE but not really any unusual uses of the technique that I noticed. Do you know if he is a CMON user?

 

[gohkm]

James is also active on Dakka Dakka. It's easiest to just e-mail him - his e-mail address should be available on his blog. Just Google for it.

What unusual uses of the SENMM technique are you looking for?

There was a picture of a dark elf, with armour done in SENMM style, with reflected buildings and a night sky in them. I cannot find the picture now, and I cannot remember who painted it, but does it sound like something you are looking for?

 

[Dragonsreach]

James is also active on Dakka Dakka. It's easiest to just e-mail him - his e-mail address should be available on his blog. Just Google for it.

What unusual uses of the SENMM technique are you looking for?

There was a picture of a dark elf, with armour done in SENMM style, with reflected buildings and a night sky in them. I cannot find the picture now, and I cannot remember who painted it, but does it sound like something you are looking for?

Angela Imrie aka Saxonangel.
Beautiful painter, her models are good as well!

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

Angela Imrie aka Saxonangel.
Beautiful painter, her models are good as well!

I didn't see the sky earth dark elf in her gallery or after a web search. If it's not too much trouble and you know where to find, could you point me in the right direction?

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

James is also active on Dakka Dakka. It's easiest to just e-mail him - his e-mail address should be available on his blog. Just Google for it.

What unusual uses of the SENMM technique are you looking for?

There was a picture of a dark elf, with armour done in SENMM style, with reflected buildings and a night sky in them. I cannot find the picture now, and I cannot remember who painted it, but does it sound like something you are looking for?

Yes, I mean SENMM used at night, or with some heat haze on the horizon, or any number of effects outside of the standard brown earth, white horizon, and blue sky. While this is the most effective means of creating a chrome effect, I am just interested in seeing some other ways to get it done, for use on GW's Sigvald's shield. Here as an example used on the very shield I am going to paint:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/213417?browseid=8596341

He uses a dark sky with brownish clouds. I'd like to do something similar, but was considering having an erupting volcano or using an inferior mirage to indicate the heat on the horiZon.

 

[Dragonsreach]

I didn't see the sky earth dark elf in her gallery or after a web search. If it's not too much trouble and you know where to find, could you point me in the right direction?

I've just had a look and I can't find it either.
I'm pretty sure it's in the 2003 Annual so I'll do some research and get back to you.

 

[ten ball]

'I'd like to do something similar, but was considering having an erupting volcano or using an inferior mirage to indicate the heat on the horiZon.[/QUOTE]

I would start on something a bit more basic to practice your NMM work on. A sword blade is a good starting piece, with a thin flat surface.
A shield with a domed surface (specially with a reflection like your after) would push even the most experienced painters.

This sword I painted on Boris is a good example, a nice flat surface. I started with a mid tone grey basecoat, then 'dragged' successive highligths of grey (by just adding white) to each edge.
Then the same with darker greys to the shadows. Then for the reflections I glazed very thin oranges and blues in places. The extreme white highlights which make it standout are left the the very last stage.
Keep the paints thin (like milk), most important of all is let the paint dry before stages.

View attachment 26656

 

[Bloodhowl]

Checked him out. Lots of SE but not really any unusual uses of the technique that I noticed. Do you know if he is a CMON user?

I believe his CMoN handle is Wappellious. He used to have some WIP threads running, but I don't know how often he frequents the site anymore. Looks like his last post was in Feb 2013-ish

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

'I'd like to do something similar, but was considering having an erupting volcano or using an inferior mirage to indicate the heat on the horiZon.

I would start on something a bit more basic to practice your NMM work on. A sword blade is a good starting piece, with a thin flat surface.
A shield with a domed surface (specially with a reflection like your after) would push even the most experienced painters.[/QUOTE]

Of course, you are right about sticking to the basics or practicing basic senmm first. I believe it would be accurate to say, though, that different approaches at sky earth aren't necessarily more difficult to execute. A reddish sky for instance is just replacing basic colors, and there is technically not much different to it. But yes, a volcano would perhaps be biting off more than I can chew. Just looking for inspiration.

Ten, your results are always the best, IMO. However, that said, I find them difficult to achieve. For a basic SENMM on a domed shield I will:

-Make the horizon line a little low, since the shield is aimed slightly upwards.
-Make the horizon line curve upwards towards the sides. Sort of U shaped, but not that extreme of course.
-Ground goes from dark dark brown at the top to light brown at the bottom.
-There is a white band just above the horizon
-Sky starts at this white band and get progressively more blue.
-Add a hot spot toward the light source.

Seems pretty simple, which is what led me to believe that I could afford to add a few nuances. I'll post the result here and on my WIP.

 

[Stewsayer]

There are quite a few minis (at least a couple of Sigvalds) in the gallery that have the SENMM effect painted on them. I think I've seen one (a robot dog) that carries it convincingly. Don't get me wrong the others are nice jobs they just don't look right because the curvature of the object hasn't truly been accounted for.

As Ten says the shield will be difficult to get to look right. You really need to observe super shiny domed objects and how they reflect. TBH while a curved horizon line will look good it won't look right. Your mini isn't standing in the middle of a flat featureless plane after all. There will be objects between him and the horizon that interrupt the line.

I'm guilty of the same. The Dark elf wych in my gallery has a senmm face mask. I didn't stretch the reflections top to bottom enough and they should have been squashed in together tighter from the sides, all due to the curvature of the mask. Next time.

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

Hmm...well, there doesn't need to be many details on the plane leading up to the horizon. They are murky in their reflection anyway, and to make the effect convincing and realistic depends a lot upon the stark contrast at the horizon line, and how this line behaves in relation to the shape of the object it is painted on. This is of paramount importance , IMO. Indeed, he is not on a featureless plane, and objects WOULD likely interrupt the horizon line. A volcano is one such object I intended to portray this. However, as Ten Ball most graciously pointed out, this is above my abilities and I should concentrate more on selling the effect than on complete realism. And so I have resigned myself to this.

Below is an absolutely perfect example of a real world domed surface reflecting SE as we have discussed:

http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/b...Uploads/image_zps936d9491.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

I like this guy's choice of colors, but the HL is not curved enough and the earth is too featureless. Also the HL appears too flat to me. Though who is to say this isn't terrain of that nature.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/217775?browseid=8611625


With this example below, the HL is again not curved enough on the sides. In addition, I am just not sold with the effects. Ten's example on the sword above used a lot of gray, and I think this is necessary to differentiate between a chrome finish and an actual mirror. It's as if this Sigvald is holding a mirror,rather than a metal object with high reflectivity. I think, and please tell me what you think, that another way of selling the chrome effect is to be more gradual in your blending from the horizon on up. So start with white and just barely introduce blue into the sky as you go up. If it gets too blue it becomes mirrored to me.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/215127?browseid=8611625

In this final example, he almost gets the curvature of the HL correct. ButI think that it's important to have the white space just above the HL extend along the sides and make a half circle with the sky. See my real world example again and you'll notice what I'm talking about. Disregard some of the comments I left the artist, I've since seen the light. The shield needs more earth because it's tilted downwards. Also the sky color needs to be more subtle as discussed. But, another thing that strikes me: there is a circle within a circle on Sigvald's shield. Wouldn't we treat this as it's own reflective surface? So, rather than treating it as part of the overall HL, make it it's own surface and give the inner circle an entire HL of its own. Just a thought.


http://www.coolminiornot.com/256562?browseid=8611625

Also, I think that the earth on all of these needs a quality seen here:

http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/b...Uploads/image_zpsb5b5cd08.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

The earth sort of bends in upon itself in the center, lending itself to the curved quality of the surface. I apologize if I've been too academic in this discussion. In fact, I am probably flat out wrong about many things. However, I thought that all of this May be helpful to artists seeking to do a sky earth shield. Comments appreciated.

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

I'm guilty of the same. The Dark elf wych in my gallery has a senmm face mask. I didn't stretch the reflections top to bottom enough and they should have been squashed in together tighter from the sides, all due to the curvature of the mask. Next time.

Actually, I really liked the mask. Could you elaborate a bit more on #1 how you did it, and #2 what you mean by stretching and squashing the reflections. It's kind of hard to see what exactly is being reflected and how you did your horizon line from the pictures provided. If you have any additional pics archived that would be helpful. Thx brother.

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

@ Stewsayer:

Is this the guy you're talking about?

http://www.coolminiornot.com/pics/pics14/img4ae024121097f.jpg

 

[Stewsayer]

Yep that's the particular puppy. It is stylised, but the artist has really thought about the placement of his horizon line and the curvature of the parts.

On the wych I was going for a reflected city skyline (probably not very 40K), including windows that either have their own lights or are reflecting sunlight. If you look at photos of motorcycle visors and full face surf helmets (similar in shape to her helmet) you will see that reflections in them are tall and thin. The curve of the visor from top to bottom is gradual and goes from being slightly downward at the bottom to pointing to the sky at the top and has several different gradients. Objects close up and in the middle distance will seem stretched when reflected by this curve. The curve from one side to the other is rather sharp and would cause the reflections to be thin (I think aynway).

I can't remember off hand how I went about it, knowing my methods probably the slowest way possible (I tend to work from dark to light, silly I know). Now, however, I'd start by painting the entire mask to a nice solid white (its small after all). For Sigvalds' shield probably just the area where you plan the horizon to be would do. Then using your darkest land colour paint in your horizon line. Tidy up using white and your dark colour. For the sky then blend from white (Horizon) to a nice medium to deep blue (upper edge, leave white points for your glints of course). Repeat with your ground colours, darkest at the horizon lightest at the bottom edge. Sorry I don't have many more pics (pg 3 of my wip log might have some better ones. I'm not sure).

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

You are very correct in that few people compensate for the correct curvature of the object that they are painting. Your inclusion of stretched out buildings is just the sort of "skill level 2+" SENMM I am looking for examples of for inspiration. The dog is skill level one done properly. I can find tons of examples just like it. I can also, as you pointed out, find a ton of examples done poorly that don't compensate for curvature or improperly place the horizon.

Sigvald makes his home in the chaos lands. A region that is distorted by the Gods. It may rain blood one second, then the sky may be filled with violent explosions the next. It is constantly in flux. So my challenge was to illustrate this by reflecting this from his shield. But I don't want to do something so complicated that it takes away from the effect and makes it look simply like his shield is painted. A reddish sky maybe? Or some streams or pools of lava on the ground. Again though, maybe this is too ambitious. The good news is I actually have 2 of his shields. One to practice on first.

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

Went to page 2 of your WIP. Those buildings look awesome. I know they aren't perfect and could use some distorting, but the important thing is that the viewer knows exactly what he is looking at. Kudos, especially because this looks like it was pretty early on in your painting career.

A comment someone made on your page actually ties together many of the things I am currently experiencing. I mentioned a number of my frustrations on my own WIP page. Kathrynloch noted that sometimes it is best to shelf a mini and pull it out when your skill level is up to par with your vision. This may be the case for me with this shield. My original vision asked for a volcano that erupted somewhere on or near the horizon. Then I would paint clouds of ash and many other effects to lend to the erupting scene. The volcano itself will need few details, since it is so far off. Maybe a couple shaded and highlighted lines to show ridges on its surface. The ash would be painted in any ways like clouds, using dark greys and freehanding balls of smoke. Each ball might have a couple other smaller balls of smoke on it. Each ball would be painted darkest gray-black on the outside, and will get progressively light grey towards the center. This may look like smoke, IDK. A few fiery objects would rain towards the ground. Instead of making the sky standard blue, I'd go with a yellowish tint towards the HL, getting more and more burnt orange towards the top.

This is is my vision. Perhaps I shelf it until I can pull it off.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Blood father what you are describing trying to undertake is something I think you'd be best off doing as initial tests on paper. That way you can plan out something so complex as this carefully and on a larger scale, then do a number of attempts on primed styrene sheet before hitting up the master.

Planning any complex freehand is easier done in a sketch book, before using a brush.
That way there's less chance of screwing up, a bit like calculating the trajectory twice before placing the first round.

 

[Stewsayer]

I definitely agree with Dragonsreach.

Draw it out on paper first and larger then start shrinking it down to size. You'll be bored of it by the time you actually put it on the mini (having drawn and painted it a few times) but you'll get to figure out what is going to work and what won't, and you'll start to get the process nailed down making future efforts at freehand and SENMM much faster.

Check out the Giant in my thread for an example of ambition>>ability. He was going OK but the OSL started to get beyond me and he still sits in the cupboard (I almost gave up altogether because of that one). One day maybe.