Just a Video About Painting a Belt Buckle

Back at It for the Belt Buckle

Continuing from yesterday’s leather belt work, now tackling the buckle. I’m using pretty much the whole palette of Kimera artist shades of gray: art white, art black, buff, pearl gray, violet gray, and green gray.

The Missing Wet Palette Mystery

I still haven’t found my wet palette, which is so typical. I was painting with the kids and I think I put it in with their art supplies. Just realized that this second.

Adjusting the Leather

Looking at the leather from yesterday—it’s still pretty bright. I honestly thought it would dry darker. I’ll probably go back in and do some glazing over it, but I’m waiting until I get more of the model painted before going too crazy there. I’m very happy with the texture we built up.

Creating Black Lining Effect

For the buckle, I’m leaving the black primer showing in the recessed areas—almost like a black lining effect to make those areas pop more. I hate to say “make it pop”—gives me flashbacks to graphic designer days.

Brush Control Technique

You can see my hand is on the table in a weird posture because of the camera, but I have my wrist on the table and I’m cupping. That’s what gives me the control. The brush control isn’t 100% in my fingers—the fingers do the quick motions, but the stability comes through my whole arm.

Following Light Sources

I’m painting where an edge highlight would be and just a little bit beyond, using brush strokes to create the reflection. I’m using the box art to tell me where the reflection should be.

My potential problem with this figure is consistency with light sources. But if I follow the box art’s light sources, even with different colors, it’ll at least be consistent.

Thinking Like a Painter

In a traditional Games Workshop system, if something is green, you paint it green—dark green, midtone green, bright green. If something’s metal, you paint it metal.

With volumetric painting and non-metallic metal, you have to think differently. Even the leather belt didn’t have much brown in it—except for the first coat. It has purples, pinks, and a warm white.

When you’re thinking like a painter, even though you see leather as brown, it’s not actually brown. You’re seeing a ton of different colors there.

Short and Sweet

This will either be a very short video or one with all the steps. Wish me luck.