Monday 3 September 2012

Inspirational Viewing!



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. 



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.





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. 


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=265260

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!