Painting Tech: NMM. What went wrong?

[Gizzard]

OK, so check this guy out. I roughed in the colors (he's a Pirate Chef, they're supposed to be garish) and then I did the detail on the cleaver, trying out the NMM technique that's so popular. But it just doesn't seem to work here for me. To me, it looks like someone painted a scene onto a cleaver rather than a shiny chrome cleaver reflecting things around it.

Any ideas what went wrong?

 

[mps42]

my opinion

While I am certaily no expert painter, my opinion is that the problem is this: your borders between colors is too sharp. Even on the the shiniest metal, the refdlected image is still fuzzy and rather distorted, no to mention that during the forging process, imperfections are going to be introduced into the surface.
That's what *I* think "went wrong" with your NMM.

 

[D'karr]

I think your problem is reflective perspective. WHAT THE HECK IS THAT? I don't know but it sounded good... LOL

Well the cleaver seems to be angled. The surface area facing away from the pirate seems to me to face skyward. Your reflection on that side should probably be much more sky and less land if any land at all. The other surface, the one facing the pirate would probably have more land and hardly any sky. Also remember that surface reflection is based on how polished that material is. Would a cleaver handled by a pirate chef have much polish? That is a matter of opinion. But looking at your paint job it looks like that cleaver is much more reflective. If it has that level of polish wouldn't you have a reflection of the pirate's leg and apron on the blade?

Your horizon should also be much more in line with the horizontal plane the pirate is standing on. Right now it looks like the horizon is tilted. Make sure that both sides of your horizon coincide.

Someone recommended to me once to take some aluminum foil and place it as flatly as possible over the surface you intend to NMM. Look at how the reflection works on that surface and try to imitate it in your painting.

Hope that helps.

 

[Darius101]

Lines are too sharp is all it looks to me.

Solid then highlight and a striaght color in a very very thin line will do wonders. Yours is fixable.

Darius

 

[thullgrim]

just a question. That fig is great, I have been looking for some decent pirate/swashbuckling figs, where did that come from?

Thull

 

[Gizzard]

OK, I am trying to absorb everyone's comments into a cohesive whole; then I'll take another swing at it.

One problem that I see in person though is that the eye gets frustrated with NMM since it only "works" from one angle. Ie, rotating around the guy there are angles where I should see more apron reflected in the cleaver and there are other angles where I should see less. If I rotate vertically I should see more or less wooden leg or earth or sky depending on my angle.

When I look at the NMM in person I feel like the Chef is carrying an ornately freehanded cleaver, not a reflective one. :-(

Has anyone seen some of the great looking NMM figures in person? Is this a general problem with NMM, or is this a particular failure on my part?

Someone recommended to me once to take some aluminum foil and place it as flatly as possible over the surface you intend to NMM. Look at how the reflection works on that surface and try to imitate it in your painting.

That is a nice trick; I will definitely try that before I move on to the next phase.

That fig is great, I have been looking for some decent pirate/swashbuckling figs, where did that come from?

He is from Foundry. He came in a pack with a bunch of other nifty pirates for like $20. There were many many Foundry Pirate Packs, but a lot of them had flintlocks which I didn't think were appropriate for Freeport. Here's a link to their site; if you explore a bit you will find more:

Foundry Pirates