How to paint fire

[Enzed]

I have a few miniatures that have flames sculpted on them. How do you paint flames? Is it lighter the further out the flame or lighter towards the centre of it? In particular I would be doing green flames.

 

[Tercha]

Lighter (and hotter) towards the centre

 

[freakinacage]

Lighter (and hotter) towards the centre

Aye. Always.

 

[Shawn R. L.]

Lighter (and hotter) towards the centre

I tend to do the opposite for this reason - in the crevices there are shadow and that cancels out the 'lightness.'

 

[Dragonsreach]

Lighter (and hotter) towards the centre

Aye. Always.

I tend to do the opposite for this reason - in the crevices there are shadow and that cancels out the 'lightness.'

A flames brightest points will be where the greatest amount of Oxygen is being consumed.
So the lower internal centre of a flaming torch would look a bright orange/yellow leading to white leading edges and fading up to darker orange/yellow at the topmost tips of the flames.
Like So:
http://saltwaterwoman.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/fire-flames-1.jpg

 

[Avelorn]

It's very difficult to paint fire on a 3d surface as we're trying to paint something that is translucent. Towards the centre the flame gets more transparent and I think that's what Shawn R.L. is after with his method. Less red but darker perhaps?

Flames flicker constantly and where flames meet it gets hotter. So while a general guideline could be to make it lighter towards the centre you could probably find pictures where even the reverse is true, I think this is more true with smaller fires like those on a torch then larger ones.

Some references, but again, difficult to work from:

http://www.loupiote.com/photos/1112235738.shtml
http://www.italiaspeed.com/2006/cars/other/non_auto/xx_torino_olympics/01/torino_olympic_torch_1.jpg
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/olympic-torch-cauldron.jpg
http://www.bbc.co.uk/suffolk/content/images/2009/01/05/olympic_torch_460x300.jpg

I think Bobinator has does some great stylized flame effects and here you can also see how he solves painting a torch:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/225033

As you probably agree I think the freehanded flames are better, but it's hard to suggest what to do otherwise on the torch. I am currently trying to paint a few torches and I am not satisfied with the current results at all but I'll give it another session tonight and post the results tomorrow.

 

[GraveRisen]

"real" fire is incredibly hard to pull off on a mini properly. I find that doing fire in reverse, leading out to white on the outermost points (even poorly done) draws your attention more so than even average "natural" fire.

example... http://coolminiornot.com/206007

It lends to the almost cartoony, heroic feel to warhammer. Unless you're going for a natural paintjob with lots of earthtones and an ultra realistic look. THEN you want to do flames naturally

 

[Shawn R. L.]

"real" fire is incredibly hard to pull off on a mini properly. I find that doing fire in reverse, leading out to white on the outermost points (even poorly done) draws your attention more so than even average "natural" fire.

Yup. I'm willing to divert from reality in order, in this case, to achieve reality. Having dark parts - shadows - is more unrealistic than reversing the order of the progression of tone. One of those 'art trade offs'

 

[Einion]

I have a few miniatures that have flames sculpted on them.... In particular I would be doing green flames.

What mini(s) in particular? With sculpted flames the usual method is to work out from white or light yellow, so light out to dark, but this might not be the way to go for flames on a surface, rather than in a brazier or something like that.

Einion

 

[Avelorn]

Sorry if it feels like I'm hijacking the thread, but I'm struggling a bit with this at the moment and would like to have some input as well as discussing this more in depth.

I tried going a bit more random with the lights and darks but still keeping the overall light towards the centre. What do you think?

An earlier WIP version here

 

[Demihuman]

This guy had a really in-depth write up on it:

http://www.hot-lead.org/advance/fire_theory.htm

 

[Avelorn]

This guy had a really in-depth write up on it:

http://www.hot-lead.org/advance/fire_theory.htm

Thanks forgot about that one! I like his explanation of brighter licks of flame at the tips. Sounds quite scientific comparing to my "where flames meet"!