NMM Burnt Metal Rodrigo Akore Signature

Metal painted by contrast

The abbreviation NMM denotes a procedure in which the sheen of steel is created not by metallic pigment but by a sharp difference between light and shadow. The painter places matte shades side by side in such a way that the eye works the reflection out for itself. With burnt metal the color trace of heat is added to this: once heated, steel turns orange at the edges and blue deeper in, and it is precisely this transition that turns flat gray into a gun barrel, an exhaust or a blade.

A scale of twelve steps

In the package you will find twelve bottles of the IONIC acrylic line. The scale of light is held by White, Albus White, Moon Grey, Warm Grey, Ruins Grey, Armour Grey, Fang Grey and Cold Black, so the path from the brightest reflection to the deepest shadow has eight stops and does not have to be filled in by mixing. The warm trace of overheating is added by Shadow Orange with Rust, and the cool one is taken care of by Abyss Blue. Dark Skin then serves as a muted brown link between the metal and the surroundings of the figure.

Why this particular twelve

A Signature palette grows out of the choice of a single painter, so the shades follow one another in the steps a person otherwise puts together over long months. It comes into its own on the weapons and armor of fantasy figures just as much as on machine parts, where real metallic pigment would break the scale. The paints are thinned with water, cover in thin coats and dry matte, which matters with this technique: a glossy surface would give the false reflection away at once.

The order of the steps

The proven sequence begins with a medium gray as the base. Then comes the shadow in the recesses, the light on the edges and only at the very end the sharp point of the reflection in the brightest white. The color trace of heat is let into the finished transition only afterwards, otherwise it clouds the gray scale and the metal loses its crispness.