Here's another artifact that was included in the set I purchased from Crooked Dice. I'm not sure what this one is supposed to represent. Maybe the Hope Diamond? I couldn't think of a way to create something that looked like a clear crystal, so I went with red in the hopes it might look something like a ruby. No such luck, really. I think maybe I should have tried to drybrush the jewel's edges to show the facets.
You sure are going after the tricky projects, very brave. I've painted a few jewels in 2D. You can magnify high-resolution images of what the Masters do, and you will note the brush strokes are usually very simple. The lighter colours go on the bottom and the darker colours go on top, since light inverts as it goes through glass, crystal, or water: a lens. Then you put in highlights and specular details on the cut surfaces of the jewel, the former using the tint of the object and the latter the tint of the light source. That's a fancy description for what could be two pinprick dots of paint.
ReplyDeleteBut that's 2D, and you can get away with those tricks because the viewer has only one viewpoint. Doing that on a sculptured piece might make it look like a diseased tribble. Were it me, I'd saw off the jewel and replace it with a toy plastic gem. Maybe even use tiny rare earth magnets in the gemstone and the pedestal so that the trinket could be steal-able.