Tutorial - Object Source Lightning

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Aloa,

ups, another one rolling in. As Raffa did tell you a lot about Light in Theory lately and i was planning an Object Source Lightning (OSL) Tutorial long time now i've decided that now is the right time.

Object Source Lightning means...

... a light that comes from a special object around the miniature, like a torch on the wall of a medieval tower or for example a flashlight, a candle, a magic stone, a lamp, a glowing mushroom or whatever you could imagine - a light that influances the areas of your miniature from another source, not the source of light which is painted by doing lights and shadows at a whole miniature (uh, an Article about that is still missing)... for sure that light source for your OSL must not always be seen at the miniature itself, like holding a candle. The candle may be on the ground between some books or must not always be shown in the scene, simple keep your mind focused on the light source. I really would think that reading Raffa's great article about light before you go further at this one... Link!

OSL in the theory, one example, scribbled. A guy holding a torch that makes his appearence being influanced by the light from the torch, c'mon you know what i mean, everyone watches movies or has eyes in his head - keep them open and always ready to search ;)

Some Examples of OSL at Miniatures from the MASSIVE VOODOO staff:

 

 Hope you got what i mean - now let's look at this in a more practical way...

 Painting OSL

Again i would like you to read the article here! Seeing light and understand it is the key to paint OSL. The eye needs practice for that but with a little bit of it there you should go with always better growing results.

I can explain my way of going to paint a OSL. Don't get me wrong i just explain my thoughts while doing so... might sound weird :)

First of all i start to paint the miniature up like every other miniature. While doing so i decide if there is going to be a OSL or not. If so, i choose the object of the light source, like a magical crystal gem on this model of Red Box Games... still WIP in the shwon state.

If you want something to glow or to be the source of OSL i choose for myself to set it clear white, if you do so you garuantee the strongest power in the light you want to paint by glazing over pure white... here you go with that part of the act:

 

The next step is weird i guess, but i am telling it. Now i think myself really tiny, smaller than the miniature i will paint up, really, really tiny. Myself tiny i think myself into the source of the OSL. Now i check the areas around me by looking out of the OSL source. Those places nearby will get attention by the OSL, others far away or not seen out of my little hideout will not be affected. Sure this depends on how much Power your light source has.

At this example i choose not a high powery version. I choose a small OSL that should hit the areas around the magical ice stone power gems the little lady here is carrying.

First of all, the source has been painted white. Also pure white has been used at the areas i want the light hit her, like in the hair for example. Than i start with some thin glazes of white + ice blue to give those areas a shimery touch of this icieness.

Next step has been a glaze of pure Ice blue, followed by ice blue + a tiny tip of regal blue.

The last step has been done with pure white again on the source point to bring out its strength in light again - to really show where the source lies. Followed by mixing ice blue in every tone which is influanced by the light, like the skintone and the hair for example. With this midtones i have worked my way through the miniature and made the areas softer by glazing over them. Sometimes you have to go back to a colour or use more midtones to achieve a better result (here the wet palette really helps you), but this time i let this be as it is. I hope you get what i mean by the following pictures:

In Detail you can see the soft light on her fingertips holding the gems the best. Also in the metallics you see a soft touch of blu, reflecting the light of the OSL. Here you go with a bigger view on the fingers, please remember that this is a 28 mm Model and i am an idiot on my new camera as i was before on my old one...

Here is a shot on the workbench, completly confusing light, really, really soft OSL, haha:

From the photobox - i hope you can see the soft OSL painted in here, sorrounding the low powerful ice snow magic gems from this ice indian dwarf girl:

Uhm, yeah... so far from my thoughts at this point. I hope this little Tutorial may help the one or the other or simply can just inspire - Keep on happy painting!

Regards
Roman