Hand Painted Fantasy Shield

Valtyr

Hello, So I'm attempting to do a nice hand painted texture for a low poly shield.
What I'm looking for is any tips crits on the construction and lighting of the hand painted texture.

There are two materials on the shield, the plating (silver) is a sort of battle worn steel. The edging is like a gold leaf over steal or perhaps some other metal?

I'm sort of going for a wildstar or world of Warcraft style. So not a simplifications of realism but more exaggerated.

Currently neither material looks/feel like the real life counterpart it is suppose to represent. I'm still kind of noodeling looking for that gold and steel look.

So here are kind of my feelings on what I should do.
I feel like the steel should be sort of mat/dingy with a large shiny spot where a lot of ware would happen.
The gold leaf looks more like solid bronze so I need to figure out what reflection style and coloring will make it feel more like gold, then start adding in the same ware to make it feel weathered. Perhaps flaking off in some areas revealing the metal underneath?

There are more work in progress shots at my blog.

These are screen grabs from blender. Texture made in photoshop.

gilesruscoe

Firstly I think you need to look at the light sources being used here. there is an obvious shadow being cast from the left side of the shield, yet the bevels on the edges imply that light is coming from the center of the shield.
The second thing to look at is how you are defining the gold and silver materials. both of these have high specular values and different levels of reflectivity. The silver will have areas of dark and light in its reflections, mirroring whichever environment it is in, while the gold will have a yellow tint regardless of its environment.

http://thumb9.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/650527/650527,1319275258,2/stock-photo-gold-ball-d-render-87140509.jpg

http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/90581366.jpg

Try to figure out what you would expect to see in the reflection of the silver and use the relative tones to paint in specular highlights. Start dark and work up to avoid using too much white like you currently are. With silver, light going into the surface is reflected back with the same colour as it went in. A blue sky reflection remains as a blue sky reflection. Gold on the other hand is going to tint any light yellow.

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/september/8982/heroic_weap_shield_royalcrestoflordaeron.jpg

Notice how the light in the texture of this shield all comes from one direction, and the materials react to the light how you would expect. The metal piece in the center has a warm and a cool light source which helps to make it look like it is reflecting a sunlight and an ambient blue bounce light from the sky. This theory is used on the rest of the shield also, with the bottom of the shield being cooler in colour than the top.
I think you are a long way off your goal right now, but keep trying. If I were you I would turn off all the lights in the scene (100% self illuminated model) and paint in all of the lighting. From there, work on the material definitions and try to make them reflect the light correctly - try using a sun and an ambient sky colour!

Hope this was useful, I would do a paint over but im on my laptop with no tablet Good luck!

Valtyr

gilesruscoe, Thank you for the detailed advice! I'll see if I can correct the lighting and reflections of the metals. As well as adding in that cool to dark gradient.