Hobby Cheating 145 - How to Paint Object Source Lighting OSL 

Thank you, that is appreciated and exactly what I am going for. My hope is always to give you the why and make your own choices in your own projects rather than just a "how" I did this one particular thing. :)

I couldn't agree more. The theory and application are two crucial halves to one instructive whole. Hobby Cheating is the best minipainting tutorial series on RU-vid by several m-i-l-e-s.

Glad it was helpful! :)

Happy to help! I have several more videos on lighting and OSL recently, so definitely check those out as well. :)

Always happy to help

Awesome, happy to help as always and I love it when the timing on one of these items aligns.

You're not alone - that is most people in my life. ;)

Thank you sir, very much appreciated.

Excellent, happy to help as always. :)

They are incredible for sure. :)

Awesome, welcome, happy to have you along on the hobby journey and always happy to help. :)

There will always be more basing stuff coming. :)

I hope there is a NOVA 2020 for sure. I am going to need it by then. :)

Yep, OSL i one of the trickiest effects to actually apply and create that realistic look. Glad this helped. :)

Generally I am not using retardant. I usually have some flow improver on my palette (a few drops) and I will dip into that occasionally with my brush just to keep everything moving smoothly.

I have just thrown them away for years, maybe I need to start saving them and making a sort of Pollak painting.

Unfortunately not, I don't tend to record all of my progress, only the specific items I am sharing. Always happy to answer questions.

Ok :) Please tell us how you painted the Verminlord lol. Joking aside the skin is awesome. Airbrushed base and highlights then just worked on the shadows?

Just working out the logistics and they will be available soon. :)

Vince Venturella awesome

I would say no, but from a personal perspective, that is to say, I don't do a tremendous amount of OSL normally and when I do, i like it very muted. i think it is something that is better and sells more when it's more limited. It can get overwhelming when too strong.

That is the Warpgnaw Verminlord from Games Workshop Forge World. Thanks and always happy to help. :)

So I use the standard paper that comes with the Redgrass palette. If you need a replacement paper, then you could utilize some renolyds baking paper (the non-wax stuff), it's solid and something I often use on the road.

@@VinceVenturella ahhh ok so I have a the Masterson wet pallet I find the papper very thick I will the baking paper a try. Thanks again Vince appreciate it.

So I looked them up as I wasn't familiar with them. They didn't really seem to have OSL, more of a tron thing. That is to say I didn't really see glow reflected, rather I saw green light lines that were contained in the white armor. Are you wanting to do those same lines but have them glow out onto the armor? If that's the case, then something dark is generally your best bet. OSL from glowing stuff sells easiest on dark surfaces as the light is natural contrast. OSL is really complex (like the single most complex thing you can do in mini painting), so typing it isn't going to be easy to really communicate everything, but here is the simple version. 1) Make your lines in bright white. 2) Use an airbrush and airbrush a thin layer of near white over the lines but wider (i.e. you are fuzzing the lines). 3) use either your airbrush or a glaze to go over that white with your glow color (i.e. orange). 4) retrace your line with a bright color 5) put a very thin, near white hot color in the center of the lines. 6) (optional) do a thin dark line on each edge of your original line. Glow tends to sell the best when there is a recess it's emanating from that has some kind of shadow (like the pocket around the warpstone in this video). Hope that helps.

That is very helpful. I was going for more tron look with the glow being contained in the armor. I want to get them painted so I can play some games. Painting the tron lines would be easier than the glow effect. I wanted to add some effects to make them look more interesting. I am weighing painting them in a blue, grey, and orange color scheme, like Gundam robots or more of a cream/ light grey brown with orange power lines in the armor. I want to place them on bases with a forest theme but I am running into problems with making it look good. I am trying to figure out how to do some free hand on the large expanses of armor that are in theme with curves of the armor. I want to have a nice looking army that works with a forest theme, which somehow I want to tie into some kind of military markings on the wide expanse of armor. Retribution are like eldar/tau/wood-elves. Your painting bravely video was helpful. I might just go for it and if it looks bad I can learn for the next time. Thanks for the help. I might be coming to Adepticon 2019. Do people bring models to get feed back on to that event?

So the answer is yes, but in a specific way. Adepticon has a wonderful hobby hangout area (often referred to as Fort Wappel since James Wappel and his wonderful wife Cathy are the main force behind it). Most of the artists hang out there over the weekend and are just painting and discussing. I am sure many would be happy to share feedback.

That sounds like a worthy video. I don't have anything specifically, but generally, you want it at a very low angle and you need to separate the areas of this light from the actual normal colors with a hard shadow. I think Kolectiv has a great video about it in his Cursed City series.

Vince Venturella You rock. Thanks again Vince!

Vince Venturella could I achieve the hard shadow with an initial airbrush of Payne’s grey? I know you’ve talked about that as universal shadow before.

@@pk-vk3oc Yep, that would work. :)

Just simple edge highlighting, I have several videos on the channel on it, such as this one - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-odBf2j5p-pQ.html

Awesome, glad to hear this was helpful and good luck. :)

@@VinceVenturella thank you, I wasn't expecting an actual respond from you, I must say that your videos are quite useful, and your technique is fantastic!

@@DrParka I try to make it a habit to always respond to everyone and always happy to help. :)

It is possible, though difficult because of the shape. The key is to make the central area of the lightsaber the brightest and make the reflections very true to color. Here is the best guide I have seen on the subject - figurementors.com/osl-artem-romanov

I do paint mine. There are many different ways you can paint them. Some - as Sorastro - paint their lightsabres with a bright line down the centre of the length of the blade and the rest with the colour of the light aura and some OSL-effect on surrounding surfaces. This looks good from a certain angle, but not so good from others. Another variant is to paint the blade with a strong colour and a short transition to a hot bright, almost white at the point where the blade emerges from the hilt. Problem here is that this does ignore the sheer brightness of the blades in the movies and shows. The blades are a pure bright white with a subtle hint of a coloured light aura surrounding them in the original material, and the aura and OSL-effects are only perceivable when the environment is darker, I chose to paint mine in a very bright version of the colour I want the blade to have with a short colour transition to a hot white at the base of the blade where it is emitted from the hilt, with subtle OSL-effects only on areas which are very close to the blade, or which are highly reflective. www.tabletopwelt.de/uploads/monthly_2017_11/5a1a8163d646b_DarthVader001.jpg.9b11e10380555b09d4584c9126dec6ad.jpg www.tabletopwelt.de/uploads/monthly_2018_02/5a7d7912ac4f5_AhsokaTano001.jpg.fbc89288382a288fad0b229af728ac6f.jpg www.tabletopwelt.de/uploads/monthly_2018_04/5ac9c7528b967_TheGrandInquisitor001.jpg.89ca9bcfa99a2b53ea305e94b9ff7384.jpg www.tabletopwelt.de/uploads/monthly_2018_01/5a4e5cce1e8d8_Obi-WanKenobi001.jpg.f5645961444413c31d978ce661e40335.jpg

Yeah, the cylindrical shape does make it rather difficult to really convey a glowing light source, whereas a standard blade shape is much easier in comparison.

Marrok Wolf, here is the tutorial - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-28CjGEAfcRg.html

I have it on my list, it's a very challenging thing to paint that generally works best on display pieces as it won't really read as well on an army piece, that being said, I will certainly get one done eventually.

@@VinceVenturella, great, will be looking forward to it. Also, started missing Exploring Colors 😅

Yes, that airbrush OSL is just something that gets under my skin for sure. :)

Yes, I am going to do a second piece (I already have it picked out) where there is no other light and something on the figure (or near it) is the only light source. Future vid, but it's coming.

Basically none of them. But Scale 75 has one that sort of works, but there isn't much out there for FX red.

Verminlord from Forge World.

Yes, it's funny, because Ben Kantor (who is one of the best with OSL I know) and he has spent about the same amount of time doing digital coloration and animation work, so for him, lighting is totally natural. For myself, this has always been the most challenging but you are certainly right, everyone will encounter their own personal "toughest mountain" to climb. :)

Its going to vary, is it the only light? How bright is it? What other light is present? Your best bet with anything like this is to google images and look at the real world.

​@@VinceVenturella its the only source and it is very strong, almost blindingly so. I'm doing a Commander Farsight model and I decided I want his jets to be a dominant piece of the composition. The vision is to have his entire backside be illuminated and to glint on his legs, shoulders, forearm, blade shield and helmet. Also to draw a shadow of his frame extending forward. Very involved and challenging, especially since this is my first project of this caliber. Thank you for your reply.

It's a real question and I am not sure I have an answer. You are correct on the first ones and I have videos for those, but the other two are so amorphous. For my DoK (who are from Ulgu), i used the Greek temple floor from Green Stuff Roller world), but what exactly the realm of light or shadow really look like it tough and trying to find new basing schemes is my current nemesis. Rest assured, if I think of some good ideas, I will be sharing.

That's awesome, always happy to help. :)

Thank you, happy to help as always and greatly appreciated.

Not my exact intention, but not a bad thing either. ;)

@@VinceVenturella Happens all the time... But its a good sign because it means the tutorials motivate to paint more and not intimidate to say 'I can never do that...'

I agree and that is why I tried to really push that point. :)

Unfortunately it is all too common. It is usually explained away as "artistic licence" & "selling it." "How come its ok to push the contrast as much as you want but you want the OSL all perfect & realistic and on something magical I might add." All quotes I have heard trying to justify the airbrush spurt "shortcut."

Unfortunately the only cure for such an afflicted model is a deep and long bath in Purple Power or LA's Totally Awesome.

Well, night scenes are really a whole different kettle of fish, you have to change more or less everything to capture how colors work at night. Now as to the high intensity colors, much the same, in the normal lighting, it wouldn't be too bright, but it's such a high flash, it can be a very small amount of white and then out through the normal fire colors.