Any tricks for achieving a metallic look without using metallic paint?

Karl Becker

Mac-Valve Maestro!
The next piece I'm working on has stainless steel and polished brass in it. Other than getting the shades of gray/silver and yellow right, are there any little nuggets out there as far as getting a metal look without actually using metallic paint? I'm afraid that if I use actual metallics I'm going to overpower what I'm going for.

I have a feeling that as long as I paint what I see right it will take care of itself, but figured I would ask the collective group anyway in case I'm missing something obvious. If you haven't figured it out yet, I tend to over think things.

Thanks!
 
Metal reflects and the sharper the reflection, the shinier it will look. Chrome has sharp and clear line, aluminium or dulled metals has a duller look. Here is a car I did many years ago. You can see the one grill slat appears much shinier than the others because it has sharper lines.

002_1946_cadillac_tag1.jpg
 
I have not read correctly. I thought you wanted to airbrush something on stainless steel.
But to make the effect of brushed stainless steel. Can you start with a medium gray. And then scratch in a straight line with a piece of sandpaper.
Then add some lines with a dark gray.
To make it softer, mist with white.
Then some gloss with white. Or some dark spots in transparent black.
 
How about this, it might help a bit



Chrome is basically hard and soft edges with dark and light fades. It really is a paint what you see type of thing. I've had a go and some of it came out ok


Hotrod.jpg

Hope this sheds a bit of light on what your trying to achieve.

Lee
 
I'm late to this thread, but might as well chime in just in case:

In the land of gaming miniature painting, this sort of thing is known as "NMM" (Non-Metallic Metals). It's become trendy over the last decade as mini-painting fashion currently favors stylization over realism. As a result there's a squillion tutorials for it out there. They'll be aimed at model painting rather than 2D art, but the principles are the same (a lot of the "painterly" mini painting styles are 2D painting techniques used to enhance a mini's topography, or create the illusion of topography that isn't physically there).

Do a search for "NMM painting tutorial", and you'll get a mountain of useful stuff. Cheers!
 
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