Butterfly Wings

[Multifracture]

Ok i have recently bought the Bad Fairy from Freebooter and would really like to know how to do butterfly wings.

I think i\'ve seen a couple but i\'d like to know how to get that intense sheen.

Aside from using real butterfly\'s wings (yeuk!) how do i do it?

 

[Galante]

Most butterfly wings don\'t shine, for me this would be the (easy) way to go.

 

[Modderrhu]

Like the colours of a thin layer of oil on water, butterfly wings can shimmer due to an interference layer. The butterfly\'s wings are probably a dull brown.

I can only suggest very thinly glazing a surface with an iridescent medium to see if that\'s the effect you\'re after. Look at these two threads.
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/viewthread.php?tid=11210
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/viewthread.php?tid=4201

 

[Einion]

Interference paints are a good start, iridescents are also worth trying. Golden and Liquitex both make a good selection, they work well in thin layers glazed over the base colours (the effect is best over darker colours).

Einion

 

[Multifracture]

Thanks guys i was also thinking of \"wet blending\" the colours together then using some kind of solvent to blend them further leave that to dry then paint with a light glaze.

Would that work do you think?


Thanks for all your comments though

 

[green stuff]

Message original : Einion
Interference paints are a good start, iridescents are also worth trying.

Guillaume Giroud did it with normal paints and won a silver demon in 2001 at the french GD :

 

[Modderrhu]

Originally posted by green stuff

That\'s a really incredible effect, but it\'s more like that produced by a thick waxy cuticle. I suppose that Multifracture had better show us an example. lol

 

[Multifracture]

Ok here\'s a link to what i\'d want it to look like:

Butterfly wings

 

[green stuff]

@Multifracture : this is probably not going to help, but why not paint it just like the example you posted? I doubt you\'re going to find a blue iridescent paint like that on the market. Why not just work on the contrasts?

 

[Multifracture]

Ok cool i was going to try using a clear nail polish as a glaze (its weird but it works) but i wanted to know if there was a better way to do it

Thanks for everything guys

 

[Modderrhu]

Aha! I\'ll have to go with green stuff on this. Try painting those colours. Instead of using a glossy nail varnish, which will cause the entire wings to shine, how about a cheap hair spray? Some patches will dry matt, others will dry shiny, varying the reflections on the wings. Might just do the trick.

 

[Multifracture]

Hmm hadn\'t thought of that!!!! Good plan and i know the missus has some cheap hairspray

 

[Ritual]

I\'d paint the wings with basic light to dark blue transitions first, using wet-blending. Then I\'d go over the area several times with thin glazes of different blue and also some blueish green.

It hat\'s any help...

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by green stuff
Guillaume Giroud did it with normal paints and won a silver demon in 2001 at the french GD

The photo looks okay but you have to view the effect of interference paints in the flesh to see what they\'re really like (much like the difference between looking at an opal in a photo and in person).

Einion

 

[green stuff]

@Einion : I certainly wasn\'t dismissing your idea, I was just pointing out another solution .

 

[Multifracture]

@Ritual yeah that does help thanks sometimes you\'re so busy looking for a complicated answer that the solutions staring right at you

 

[Swordwind]

If its a bad pixie why not paint its wings like a moth?

 

[mickc22]

wouldn\'t basecoating the wings with silver first, then apply glazes of the various blues/greens give you a shimmering type of effect

 

[Sanitarium]

well you could just start from a color and highlit it and grade it into a contrasting one (from blue to green to yellow/orange) sarting with the colder on the outer sides of the wings and scale it to the brighter while you get closer to the body of the fairy.

 

[Mordac85]

@mickc22 We must be thinking alike.

How about a mix of a silver metallic with your blues? I\'m not sure if it would work correctly since I haven\'t used metallics yet. But I think you should be able to duplicate the iridescence.