Gem effects are a great way to depict a reflective surface like a polished gemstone, or even for flat surfaces like goggle lenses. It's a great little technique to give your painting another level of detail and the high level of contrast sells the illusion that you've painted a super reflective item. My task on this "Skeletor" mini was to embed the staff with jewels. My previous experiment (inks over a silver base) was quite a failure, so I had a couple of options at my disposal. Citadel has a line of gemstone paints (Spiritstone Red, Soulstone Blue, and Waystone Green), which turn out best when painted over a bright silver base - this was what I was trying to achieve with my inks. They dry very glossy and give the effect of a shiny bead. This was Option 1. However, I thought back to gem effects that were instead achieved with "normal" paints, which looked like a gem because of how you apply light and shadows to sell the reflections. This was a little more appealing to my perfectionist side, so this is what I decided on in the end.
How to paint a simple round gem:
As I was putting together this little sequence in PowerPoint, it previewed the final gem when the colours were changed, and I think this is a good visualisation of how different colour gems look like. For my wings recipe specifically:
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