Another thing that goes really well with this idea is to try and do some drawing/painting of some basic shapes (cylinders, cubes, pyramids etc)it is a really great way to understand how light works, you can then translate that knowledge gained to bring out these sorts of techniques. It really helps as your brain immediately identifies where you would start placing highlights!
Excellent point. If you really want to up your game, find other arts that do similar things to what you want with your minis. Getting into custom green stuff molding? Try out some basic pottery work. Doing more tactical paint jobs and conversions? Spend some time studying scale military modeling. You won't look at primers the same once you do. There's so much of this hobby that people think are new, which are simply staples of other artists, like oil painters. NMM or OSL? That's just called 'how you paint light' to an oil painter. They've been doing it for literally hundreds of years.
You summarised in three minutes something I've struggled to implement the last three months. Thank you, particularly the curved surfaces part should make edge highlights so much easier in the future
If I might add my 2 cents. Another thing to add to edge higlighting is dots or specs in the edge that are even brighter, also while edge higlighting you can not hightlight a little stroke along the edge. This will achive variation that is usualy seen in edges that had been dented due to use. Cheers!
0:45 Just like you don’t learn how to add, then go straight into differential equations… 4:00 Something I stumbled on that may “shed light on the matter” is when I was taking photos during key points in the process. Turning my flash on, I would get a zenithal highlight effect from the flash on a black base coat (my first models were Deathwatch). From there, I would use a bright LED lamp, as my light source, then snap a pictures from various directions. This gave me my own references for shading.
I agree "neon highlights" take away from the overall appearance of a miniature. Painting, shapes, lighting, and color theory are all skills, not tricks. If you want the most out of your miniatures you are going to put the work into skills and theories of the hobby. I believe this is the true way to achieve your miniature goals.
This may be a weird piece of feedback, but here it goes anyway. In the shots where you are talking to the camera, there is black object in the bottom right of the screen. I (and I assume others) have been conditioned by RU-vid to get a 5 second notice before an add starts (right in the same spot and with a small black box overlay). I kept involuntary checking the bottom right, even though I suspected that it wasn't a notification. Maybe consider keeping that corner devoid of small black objects in future video? Ps love these short pieces of advice
Awesome! Thanks a lot - another great Vid! 2 “Questions”: * it would be cool to have a vid where you breakdown research. When I do this I sometimes do get confused / overloaded with information. A breakdown would be great! * do you do trainings / workshops? I’m living in Hamburg and would love to join a f2f training at some point :-)
I like to paint with contrast (lights, colours), but I don't like strong EH. It was nice to see that you don't prefer the extreme version just because a figure is small.
I am currently edge highlighting some Drukhari...this advice sounds useful. I wonder if it will be quicker to paint them this way rather than edge highlighting it the GW way.
Absolutely brilliant! As a photographer who is always lighting scenes and subjects, this makes perfect sense! Great work explaining a complex topic in such an accessible way - the mark of a great teacher
My tip that helped me is. Remove more paint from your brush. My highlights were too thick. If I removed more paint i would worry they’d be too thin. So what if they’re too thin. Do it again.
Really great. Short and precise! Ever thought about subtitels in other languages? And is there already a price for 1 school hour online trainings? 1x45 Minutes every week should be fine for 1 season....
Not sure what you mean. There is a feedback pledge level on my patreon for once a month live sessions, but I definitely can't do weekly online classes, simply don't have the time for that.
The worst offenders of bad highlighting are OSL newbies doing plasma weapons. They don't seem to understand that light travels in straight lines from the source. I see so many with the glow wrapped around the corner where it looks like the light is shining from above somewhere.
I really appreciate this video. You've been able to put into words something that I've been trying to emulate forever with my painting. The key word there, though, is trying. But that's just where I'm at in the process. While I've always liked the 'ol GW style of painting as far as an all-around good looking mini goes, or a solid tabletop standard, I've never really thought it belonged on a miniature meant for serious critique of artistic ability as a whole. I know that sounds kind of snobbish, and I can't stress enough that's not the message I'm trying to convey- it's just that no matter how good you are at painting in that style, that's just it- it's THEIR style. Sure you can bring your own thing to it, but if you're going for that anyway, why not just try to refine your own style? I suppose that's the point I'm trying to make here. And I think doing that means studying all aspects of your subject, and learning how to paint each individual part of it to the best of your ability. Sorry about the wall of text there- this video just addresses a point that not just I, but I'm sure many painters try to grapple with in their journey to becoming a better painter overall; and not outlining every single edge on the model in the same intensity of color is a great place to start. Thanks again for the video, and have a great week.
I like how you get straight to the point and give us good knowledge that helps. This is so useful, I just soak it up and I will try and apply it in my painting from now on. thanks for the tips!
I've been saying it for years, the edge highlight GW model style that goes on every single piece of armor everywhere looks out of place, dry brushing for easy way or proper highlighting like the one explained in the video is the way to go.
Yes-yeeesss! Almighty masterful-artistic Trovarion show-tell man-things edge highlighting in a quick-quick format. So much to learn-try now! Thaaank you, oh great and wise-skillful Trovarion! Me go catch-hunt and bring back my Clan's Rat Ogres now - you scare-surprised and chased them off with that "Whooo!". 😁
Thats some piece of advice I really needed - thanks for that! On another note: those colours you were using on the Necron and the second (red) Space Marine look pretty much like what I had in mind for a project to come as close to the artwork as possible (if interested: the Kongo Battlefleet for Dystopian Wars). Would you share which exact colours / recepies you were using here? Thanks again and have a nice day :)
I cannot stress how much I enjoy this format. Your more complex videos, such as that Blood Angel you showed, may contain more information. But this short and precise format makes it more easy to implement, especially for beginners like me. In my opinion, this should be a staple on your channel alongside your traditional content. Even just a few more to ease into complex ideas would be massively useful. Perhaps the 3 minute limit isn't strictly necessary, but this information being so concise helps it be much more digestible and easy to implement in small steps as you said.
What a great and well done compelling format with the "we're on the clock" element feel to it. You always bring great value in your content. This format seems like a nice focused piece.
Since I've started trying to do volumetric highlight, I often have a hard time doing proper edge highlights. Say I paint red and use three or four differents tones from darker to lighter. When I'm done, I've already used my lighter red (or orange, or pink), for contrast. What should I edge highlight with? My lighter colour + some white or yellow?
With red, you'll want to do more shading. Highlighting with white or yellow can make the red look pink or orange. So instead, you'll want to create darker shadows. Taking a saturated (but dark) purple or even something close to black and running it next to the highlights will make the highlights look like a bright red. If you were to do this step-by-step, it would probably look something like: 1) White primer 2) Red midtone basecoat. 3) Red highlight 4) Orange/pink highlight for areas you want to appear as white 5) Dark red in the recesses 6) 50/50 mix of red and black or saturated purple (such as Cadmium Red mixed with Prussian Blue) glaze from the recesses of dark red up to the red midtone. For non-reds, you can usually stick to just using a highlight of lighter colors or by mixing white. The downside of mixing any hue with white is you'll get desaturated tones. You can highlight blue by mixing yellow in a ~90/10 mix, but of course this will make it more of a green shade. For some color schemes (like Thousands Sons, Alpha Legion, RAF uniforms), this can work.
I actually prefere the top down aproche, when you go to more detail then that I looks good on a picture, but as soon as your units start to move in different directions, it just looks strange having a million different suns in the sky. 😅
Fantastic video! This is so helpful for me as I learn to paint. I’m just about to start my Drukhari combat patrol box which has lots of edges. I’m practicing on an XV25 battle suit and will give this a go! Question: how do you make it brighter it certain areas - less paint, lighter strokes etc?
reality often sucks. as well as real light. i'd say uniform highlights throughout the model just fall in the same category as primitive layering w/o value changes
Damn mate, this channel is awesome. Im just starting with 40k anddidnt paint a single figure yet but i will try to take that all advice and try my best when i start painting my spacewolves. Cheers!
Unrelated to painting but it piqued my attention . Your table is set very high when you paint , not a comfortable height by any normal standard , but i assume that for long painting sessions , it helps alleviate the lower back pain that you get by being constantly bent forward over a regular desk ?
I high light this way, it looks way more realistic and let's be honest cuts the painting process and allow you time learn or practice your glazing be it glazing up or to shadows.
Thanks for another outstanding (and very quick) tutorial….it shows me how to get significantly better edge highlights that I probably wouldn’t have figured out on my own - thanks again!
Ok, so I'm going to try guessing the edge highlight advice from the thumbnail and title alone. Before watching the video in full, and without reading any comments... Does it have something to do with imagining the specific direction of the light source and understanding the material that your surface is supposed to be? And maybe applying the philosophy, "less is more?"
@@trovarion Yeah, I'd say I was pretty close. I was off about the "less is more" point. This is a great video, and I think it's applicable to more than just miniatures.
this is obviously a great piece of advice for advanced hobbyists and painters, but how much does this affect the way they look on the tabletop? at lower skill levels, this seems like it might work to sacrifice overall contrast for close-up fidelity (?)
This is a technique i have tried to adopt in recent years. I think it's a great improvement over highlighting every edge. Sometimes however i end up looking at the figure as a whole after it's done and i have highlights at 12 o clock, 1o clock, 11o clock, ect. Is there a technique you use to help prevent this and get more unity across the miniature? Many thanks.
Thank you. Do you think you will do any terrain building or base enhancing tutorials? Do you get into DIY terrrain building at all? Once I am done painting my pile of shame necron army I think home made terrain and maybe a custom board would be fun to do
I have some bases already up on the channel. Terrain I am not sure...I have a hunch people will just tell me it's too complicated for terrain if I go beyond the foam cutting, covering in litter and drybrushing, but we will see.
@@trovarion I will be checking out the base videos very soon. All your tutorial vids are very concise and easy to follow and add alot of value for beginners like myself (and probably more veteran painters). So cheers again
really enjoying this format! super digestible while i eat my dinner or am waiting on something and dont have time for a 20 minute video, but still want to learn something new.
