NightShiftX
New member
With all my respects to Mike Lavalle who I think the first rendering realistic flames or making them so popular, I believe his flames are not so realistic. He paints awesome flames and I do love his work very much. His flames are kinda stylized and therefore creates a blasting realistic effect over the viewers. I carefully studied hundreds of flame scenes. I recorded fire news shown on TVs, rented DVDs with plenty of fire scenes. Froze every scene and analyzed them second by second. However none of these scenes ever looked like Lavalle work. Actually I painted a HD tank following his method and I was able to create an exact copy of his work. This is another problem cause they are easy to copy if you know what to do.
This week I painted another tank but this time followed my own instincts. Though I photographed every step, I can not copy it again myself. It looks amazingly real. You get lost within the fire and almost feel the hot when you look at it from the closest distance. Here is the instructions for the real flames from hell to the interested ones:
1-Base coat must be a dark color for the best results. Black, deep blue, deep purple etc...All paints I used are auto acrylics .Badger 100 G-Fine Tip airbrush.
2-Mix very reddish orange with top coat clear at 1:1 ratio. Over reduce it.( Name it Color 1)
3-Very lightly mist the orange over the area where you want the flames. Do not cover whole area. Spray very loose and thin cloud patterns. Partial clouds on a fine summer sky. Nothing similar to flames. Leave a lot of area uncovered. This will be the map
4-Now mix dark yellow-topcoat clear-reddish orange at 1:3:2 ratio. Over reduce it. (Color 2)
5-Very lightly mist Color 2 over your previous clouds. Do not cover all but stay inside of clouds. Now It must look like light orange clouds with darker orange edges. You don not want any solid look. You must hint the dark base coat thorough the clouds. Name the figure Layer 1.
6-(Optional for additional depth : ) Apply 2 thin coats of clear and wet sand it with 2000
7-Forget whatever you have done until now. Imagine you have painted no figure there and redo step 2 and 3. This time spray more clouds the bottom (where the flames will start). Name it layer 2.
8-Using Color 1 add some loose fire licks to your clouds both in the layer 1 and 2. Now the pattern slightly will look like a fire.
9-Using color 2 , highlight the interiors of all the freshly painted Color 1 areas like step 5.
10-Optional like Step 6.
11-Lightly spray dark yellow ( Color 3) over all the areas painted with Color 2.Again use cloud pattern. Do not cover all the Color 2 area. You want Color 2 visible around edges and some centers. Mostly blend dark yellow with Color 2. Go thicker and defined at the bottom of the fire.
12-Over reduce dark yellow and spray a couple of transparent smoke-like flames and curves to the areas where there is no figure. Tighter at bottom. Spray some very small stray licks away from the main flames.
13- Get a light yellow (Color 4) and highlight some edges and centers of Color 3 painted areas. Blend it. Give a lot more definition. Add several narrow and thick curves around Color 3 areas. Add some small dots at the tips.
These will be flashes later.
14-Optional like step 6.
15-Get a very light yellow ( Color 5) and highlight several of Color 4 areas irregularly. Now be very precise. Blend Color 5 at the centers, go thicker outer. Spray Color 5 to the bottom generously but opposite at the tips.
16-Spray 1 coat of clear. If the figure looks too light colored in general, add some dark orange to your clear. This will bring life to the whole figure.
17-Claim 1500-2000 bucks for a tank job. If you have done right until this point, your client will pay dearly , do not worry /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ohwell.gif
This week I painted another tank but this time followed my own instincts. Though I photographed every step, I can not copy it again myself. It looks amazingly real. You get lost within the fire and almost feel the hot when you look at it from the closest distance. Here is the instructions for the real flames from hell to the interested ones:
1-Base coat must be a dark color for the best results. Black, deep blue, deep purple etc...All paints I used are auto acrylics .Badger 100 G-Fine Tip airbrush.
2-Mix very reddish orange with top coat clear at 1:1 ratio. Over reduce it.( Name it Color 1)
3-Very lightly mist the orange over the area where you want the flames. Do not cover whole area. Spray very loose and thin cloud patterns. Partial clouds on a fine summer sky. Nothing similar to flames. Leave a lot of area uncovered. This will be the map
4-Now mix dark yellow-topcoat clear-reddish orange at 1:3:2 ratio. Over reduce it. (Color 2)
5-Very lightly mist Color 2 over your previous clouds. Do not cover all but stay inside of clouds. Now It must look like light orange clouds with darker orange edges. You don not want any solid look. You must hint the dark base coat thorough the clouds. Name the figure Layer 1.
6-(Optional for additional depth : ) Apply 2 thin coats of clear and wet sand it with 2000
7-Forget whatever you have done until now. Imagine you have painted no figure there and redo step 2 and 3. This time spray more clouds the bottom (where the flames will start). Name it layer 2.
8-Using Color 1 add some loose fire licks to your clouds both in the layer 1 and 2. Now the pattern slightly will look like a fire.
9-Using color 2 , highlight the interiors of all the freshly painted Color 1 areas like step 5.
10-Optional like Step 6.
11-Lightly spray dark yellow ( Color 3) over all the areas painted with Color 2.Again use cloud pattern. Do not cover all the Color 2 area. You want Color 2 visible around edges and some centers. Mostly blend dark yellow with Color 2. Go thicker and defined at the bottom of the fire.
12-Over reduce dark yellow and spray a couple of transparent smoke-like flames and curves to the areas where there is no figure. Tighter at bottom. Spray some very small stray licks away from the main flames.
13- Get a light yellow (Color 4) and highlight some edges and centers of Color 3 painted areas. Blend it. Give a lot more definition. Add several narrow and thick curves around Color 3 areas. Add some small dots at the tips.
These will be flashes later.
14-Optional like step 6.
15-Get a very light yellow ( Color 5) and highlight several of Color 4 areas irregularly. Now be very precise. Blend Color 5 at the centers, go thicker outer. Spray Color 5 to the bottom generously but opposite at the tips.
16-Spray 1 coat of clear. If the figure looks too light colored in general, add some dark orange to your clear. This will bring life to the whole figure.
17-Claim 1500-2000 bucks for a tank job. If you have done right until this point, your client will pay dearly , do not worry /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ohwell.gif