I haven’t written for a while. I decided what I needed was
inspiration to write about something new. I wracked my brains and then realized
that people have the same problem when painting – so I will write an article
about some inspirational models and new techniques that people stuck in a
painting rut can try!
OSL
OSL – Object Source Lighting is considered an advanced
technique that adds more depth and realism to a piece. It is when you use a
point on the actual miniature/model as a source of light and paint the rest of
the model as though lit up by that source. It sounds simple but is very difficult to achieve properly,
especially since most people apply OSL using a coloured light source rather
than a white light source. Below are some of my favourite examples, including
some links to tutorials and explanations as to how it was achieved.
This first one is a tutorial demonstrating the technique from
start to finish on the necrotite (green) sections of a Cryx model. I really
like OSL using blue and greens and the tutorial is well presented.
http://handcannononline.com/blog/2012/08/20/a-beginners-guide-to-heat-and-light-part-2-fire-and-osl/
This is another good tutorial that gives more consideration
to mistakes that are easy to making when trying out OSL.
In this article the author talks a bit about how they did
the lighting on two of the more famous miniature dioramas.
Victoria’s Page - http://www.coolminiornot.com/artist/victoria?browseid=2534624
Another really neat OSL tutorial.
A nifty glowing green eyes tutorial
Cyril doesn't have a CMON page I can find, but here is his personal site http://neomodel.free.fr/
It's mostly in French but still useful since there are lots of pretty pictures :3
He has also won a small set of Golden Demon awards (France) which you can see here
This isn’t strictly an OSL guide but it’s a nifty lighting
tutorial.
This tutorial including UV pigments and paint in painting
OSL
Here's a few more examples of great OSL.
By Shawn R L - CMON Page http://www.coolminiornot.com/artist/Shawn+R.+L.?browseid=2652542
He has a number of well painted pieces featuring outstanding OSL.
This is by Ana, who's CMON page is here http://www.coolminiornot.com/artist/Ana?browseid=2652606
She doesn't have many pieces with OSL on though.
Non-Metallic Metal
NMM is the technique of painting something to look like a
metallic surface using non metallic paints – paints without bits of mica,
metallic flakes or pearlescent pigments in. It requires an advanced level of
blending and very careful consideration of lighting angles, viewing angles and
surface shapes. It’s very difficult to make any kindof metal surface look
realistic scaled down, but NMM is often a favourite amongst advanced painters.
This is a set of examples from the GW site. Most are quite
good and worth looking at.
Another brushthralls! This is a method of painting bronze,
which I haven’t come across before. It looks really easy. I will definitely be
trying it out soon. The final effect is different from any of the others I've seen - it really pulls together at the end.
An article on NMM written by Cyril Abati, translated from
French to English by a CMON user. It's not the best article but it could be interesting to see more into the approach of a GD winner.
Here’s some more on the theory behind NMM. Quite long, but
interesting and nicely presented outside of CMONs ability to ruin any
formatting.
A different approach to NMM than all the others.
Here’s some of my favourite NMM.
By Silphid, CMON Page here http://www.coolminiornot.com/artist/Silphid?browseid=2652747
This guy has a few great paintjobs and a number of award winning models in his gallery. Doesn't seem to be the most prolific painter though.
Done by Brokenblade, CMON page http://www.coolminiornot.com/artist/Brokenblade?browseid=2656917
Dk suwit, CMON page here http://www.coolminiornot.com/artist/Dk+suwit?browseid=2657006
And a little extra – this guy shows how he polished up the
metal of the model itself. I really like the final effect.
Battle Damage/Weathering
There are a number of ways of achieving battle damage and
general weathering. It is one of the best methods to add realism and style to a
piece, as well as extra depth to its visual story.
This tutorial from chest of colours shows a nifty way to
achieve chipped paint and rust runs.
This is a very in depth tutorial including some more
traditional techniques such as oil paint weathering.
Here are some Mig tutorials. Mig Jimenez is one of the
leading historical and war miniature painters, and his tutorials are very in
depth and involves lots of techniques used at the same time. Even if you are
only interested in fantasy/sci fi miniatures or a small portion of the
techniques employed these are still worth reading all the way through.
This one is my favourite tutorial for battle damage
Outside of online tutorials I really liked the first
Forgeworld Masterclass book, especially for weathering and damage techniques.
It’s £26 but very worth getting, I think. I should be doing a review of the
GW/Forgeworld books soon and I’ll obviously go into them more then.
These are the three main things I’m excited about in
painting and looking to start trying on all my new models! Are there any you
can suggest? Anything you want to try out but can’t find any inspiration for?
Just leave a comment!
