NicoleCadet on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/nicolecadet/art/Painting-gemstones-and-jewels-211780474NicoleCadet

Deviation Actions

NicoleCadet's avatar

Painting gemstones and jewels

By
Published:
38.7K Views

Description

Taken from my website, these are just the image files (for full tutorial go to [link])

Although I’ve done this in digital format, the principles are the same, regardless which media you use. The best way to paint gems is to look at them in real life (even paste gems are good enough), and if you don’t have real ones, use photographic references to look at the way the light hits.

Brushes:

- Hard round for highlights
- Airbrush at 50% – 100% (I normally don’t use airbrush, I have custom blending brushes, but you could use Hard round at varying percentages)

Steps

1. Generally I start with the darkest tone or at least a mid tone. To make the stone really neat, I’ll often use the selection tool to isolate the stone from the rest of the painting.

2. The light source is to the top right of the gem. I take the airbrush and add a dark mid tone to the upper right hand of the stone.

3. Because gems are transparent, there will be light coming through the stone and out the opposite side of the stone. This is why I add a small amount of light to the lower left. (I probably didn’t add enough for this sample, but you get the idea).

4. Add more highlights to the upper right in a mid tone.
Take a harder edge brush, and with a lighter tone add a reflection point

5. I added an extra highlight because I wasn’t as happy with the highlight.
Image size
771x1535px 62.64 KB
© 2011 - 2024 NicoleCadet
Comments30
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
WolfikX's avatar
Thank you, was very useful.