Tutorial: How to paint crimson gemstones

Hey guys, I was asked how I paint the gemstones in my Eldar army of Craftworld Iybraesil. Well, painting gems is a technique that is easy to master and looks great. It’s actually pretty straightforward once you understand the basic principle. Learn how to paint crimson gemstones – after the jump.

This tutorial assumes you have a good understanding of how to paint and involves non-Games-Workshop paints. Underneath each picture are the corresponding instructions. Each step shows the paint(s) I used during that step. If a non-GW paint was used, I try my best to give you suitable alternatives [in brackets].

Paints I used for this tutorial:

GW Khorne Red
GW Wazdakka Red
GW Pink Horror
GW Emperor’s Children
Vallejo Game Colour Squid Pink [or Fulgrim Pink]
Privateer Press Formula P3 Carnal Pink [or Fulgrim Pink + White Scar]

In case you need to expand your paint collection, head over to Wayland Games and Element Games, which both stock a huge selection of paints at competitive prices.

Crimson gems painting guide

1. First I basecoated the whole gem with a suitably dark colour. I used Khorne Red for this.

2. Then, I applied the first highlight with Wazdakka Red. Notice the round area in the upper left which I left Khorne Red.

3. Next, I used Pink Horror for the second stage of highlighting, concentrating on the lower right while following the shape of the gem.

4. The next highlight was applied with Emperor’s Children. For smaller gems you can skip this stage, like I did on the gems on the fin.

5. Concentrating more and more on the lower right half, a highlight of VGC Squid Pink [a good replacement would be Fulgrim Pink] was applied. This must be a very thin highlight.

6. I applied a final and extremely thin highlight of Formula P3 Carnal Pink [Fulgrim Pink with white or pure White Scar can be used instead]. I also added a small dot to the dark area in the upper left – this is supposed to represent the reflection. Congratulations, the gem is done. If you like, you can also add a coat of ‘Ardcoat.

Gemstone painting theory

The schema above illustrates the basic principle of painting gems. Start with a very dark colour, then work up to white or an almost white colour while applying your highlights to the lower right area. The size of the gem dictates the amount of layers you’ll need for a good blending. For larger gems you might need to add a couple more stages. Mix your paints when needed.

You can adapt this technique to paint gems in any colour you want. For example, for the turquoise gems in the pictures above I started with Stegadon Scale Green, then went on with a mix of Stegadon Scale Green and VGC Falcon Turquoise, pure Falcon Turquoise, then Falcon Turquoise mixed with white, Falcon Turquoise with more white and pure white for the final highlight and reflection.

More tutorials

Check out this tutorial for painting my Craftworld Iybraesil scheme:

And you can check out my Avatar of Khaine from Forge World by following this link.

Hope you liked this quick and easy tutorial – if so, drop some words in the comment section below 🙂