Originally posted by Shawn R. L.I would simply go with the firelight coming from the front and above. For the time being, ignore the staff and it\'s crystal. Paint everything (except the crystal) on the side facing the Balrog burnt sienna ( a reddish brown, rust color). Paint everything that isnt facing the Balrog dark grey.
One thing that might help this piece is to mount it on an oversized base so you can show a cast shadow from the fire. This will \'explain\' the firelight to some extent.
Well, I ended staying up (like an idiot) all night Thursday in a serious tactical error of judgment (thus pissing off my wife - as I said, a
serious tactical error of judgment)... the positive outcome, I guess, would be that I ended up finishing the figure in time to get it submitted for the GW LotR painting competition. It was well received by the manager, who was the one who asked me to try painting my entry with source lighting.
Before I read your last reply, Shawn, I actually was forced to redo the base again. I tried to fix his foot which wasn\'t flush with the base and the figure was simply pinned and glued - I tried dissolving the glue from the underside, which worked to a certain extent, but when I started to separate the figure from the rest it basically shredded the base.
I made a new, wider one out of the same material, and although not as obvious in the pic I\'ve got due to poor lighting/photo conditions, I\'ve got three \"light sources\" painted on there - the white from his staff crystal, the ruddy glow brushed on the raised grey stone color backwards, and the area blocked from both supposed light sources by Gandalf himself, which is darkly shaded grey stone getting blacker as it moves towards Gandalf\'s back.
I apologize in advance for the picture, but I ended up taking one in the GW shop after the figure\'s already in the case and entered into the competition - the case has some serious orange-tinted lighting and is backlit by the outdoors from a window behind. Not exactly the most ideal photo setup:
I more or less have been painting him the way you suggested: I started with the light from the staff, though, and blocked out all those areas of color; I took his robe, belt, beard, etc. base color, worked in GW Hobgoblin Orange paint and orange ink, and painted up highlights in all areas not lit by the staff with the light source directly in front of him at a largish angle; anything not lit by either light source was done in highlighted and shaded base colors, with the shadows deepening in color the further back/deeper in they went.
I added the stone on the base to give an obvious shadow and light source direction from the staff crystal, I lightened up all the white shadowed areas as I think they were a little dark, I lightened up the shading in his beard, and I tried using OSL shading with the metallics of his sword - all blade areas generally facing the crystal were painted silver/white blended up to light edge highlights, all areas generally facing the Balrog were painted with silver + brown ink + orange, and all areas facing away were shaded with brown/black inks.
