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I think I am starting to get a hold of this whole edge highlighting thing, I picked and choose specific spots instead of doing every edge.

Your lighting angles are good. The lines are too thick. Which really isn't a problem.

Take a 50/50 mix of your mid color and the highlight, water it down to a glaze if you want to try that or for just a quickly thinning of the line just a little thinner than normal and ..

For the glaze place the brush at the midpoint of the gradient you want to create and drag the brush towards the current edge highlight. lifting the brush at the edge. This will create a gradient where the least pigment is where you started your stroke and most at the end. This will result in thinner looking lines and a nice gradient. Several coats and some fiddling/experimenting required.

To just tidy up the lines take your slightly thinned 50/50 mix and run it along the inner (darker area) edge of the line. This will tidy it up without much fuss.

Give it a go. I sometimes go thick lines on areas that need a thin edge but where directly brushing the edge is physically impossible to the line thickness I desire. I just go back and tidy up. Even the "eavy metal guys do this.

meatybtz wrote:
Your lighting angles are good. The lines are too thick. Which really isn't a problem.

Take a 50/50 mix of your mid color and the highlight, water it down to a glaze if you want to try that or for just a quickly thinning of the line just a little thinner than normal and ..

For the glaze place the brush at the midpoint of the gradient you want to create and drag the brush towards the current edge highlight. lifting the brush at the edge. This will create a gradient where the least pigment is where you started your stroke and most at the end. This will result in thinner looking lines and a nice gradient. Several coats and some fiddling/experimenting required.

To just tidy up the lines take your slightly thinned 50/50 mix and run it along the inner (darker area) edge of the line. This will tidy it up without much fuss.

Give it a go. I sometimes go thick lines on areas that need a thin edge but where directly brushing the edge is physically impossible to the line thickness I desire. I just go back and tidy up. Even the "eavy metal guys do this.

When you say 50/50 mix of the mid color and the high light, I want to make sure I understand correctly. So my base is an army painter goblin green, then on the edge I used a mixture of goblin green, demonic yellow and skeleton bone (all army painter) on the edges i wanted to highlight and then finally pure skeleton bone on top of that. I am assuming the mid color is the mixture of goblin green/demonic yellow/skeleton bone and the highlight is the skeleton bone pure. Am I correct in that?

 Vidablo wrote:

meatybtz wrote:
Your lighting angles are good. The lines are too thick. Which really isn't a problem.

Take a 50/50 mix of your mid color and the highlight, water it down to a glaze if you want to try that or for just a quickly thinning of the line just a little thinner than normal and ..

For the glaze place the brush at the midpoint of the gradient you want to create and drag the brush towards the current edge highlight. lifting the brush at the edge. This will create a gradient where the least pigment is where you started your stroke and most at the end. This will result in thinner looking lines and a nice gradient. Several coats and some fiddling/experimenting required.

To just tidy up the lines take your slightly thinned 50/50 mix and run it along the inner (darker area) edge of the line. This will tidy it up without much fuss.

Give it a go. I sometimes go thick lines on areas that need a thin edge but where directly brushing the edge is physically impossible to the line thickness I desire. I just go back and tidy up. Even the "eavy metal guys do this.

When you say 50/50 mix of the mid color and the high light, I want to make sure I understand correctly. So my base is an army painter goblin green, then on the edge I used a mixture of goblin green, demonic yellow and skeleton bone (all army painter) on the edges i wanted to highlight and then finally pure skeleton bone on top of that. I am assuming the mid color is the mixture of goblin green/demonic yellow/skeleton bone and the highlight is the skeleton bone pure. Am I correct in that?

Did you ever use pure skeleton bone? If not your highlight (edge highlight) is a mix. So in this case I would drop the skeletonbone and use a 75/25 goblin green/demonic yellow and use that to neaten up the line thickness. I presume you are not going to try the glazes methods. So that would be ideal. Just keep it thin (the paint) and paint up towards your current lines that is how you make them thinner when you can't directly draw a thin line.

I hope I am clear enough.

As mentioned, too the lines are too thick. Are you painting those lines with the tip of your brush, or the side? I try to paint edge highlights with the side of the brush whenever possible. Obviously flat panel joints make this hard, and you have to use very little paint on the brush with a light hand. Like anything else, practice makes perfect.

 John Prins wrote:
As mentioned, too the lines are too thick. Are you painting those lines with the tip of your brush, or the side? I try to paint edge highlights with the side of the brush whenever possible. Obviously flat panel joints make this hard, and you have to use very little paint on the brush with a light hand. Like anything else, practice makes perfect.

But if you do the side of the brush on the very edge, do you expect any at all to go over the edge, or to keep it literally just on the very edge in a way where its not very noticeable really? ( if you are doing the "where ever possible" areas )

Thanks.

Yeah you need to reduce them a fair bit. You're aiming to tip the very edge of the corner, do as already mentioned, the side of your brush bristles are your friend. I'd darken them up a little too as the contrast is a little stark, either that or work up some layers to lighten the highlight

meatybtz wrote:

 Vidablo wrote:

meatybtz wrote:
Your lighting angles are good. The lines are too thick. Which really isn't a problem.

Take a 50/50 mix of your mid color and the highlight, water it down to a glaze if you want to try that or for just a quickly thinning of the line just a little thinner than normal and ..

For the glaze place the brush at the midpoint of the gradient you want to create and drag the brush towards the current edge highlight. lifting the brush at the edge. This will create a gradient where the least pigment is where you started your stroke and most at the end. This will result in thinner looking lines and a nice gradient. Several coats and some fiddling/experimenting required.

To just tidy up the lines take your slightly thinned 50/50 mix and run it along the inner (darker area) edge of the line. This will tidy it up without much fuss.

Give it a go. I sometimes go thick lines on areas that need a thin edge but where directly brushing the edge is physically impossible to the line thickness I desire. I just go back and tidy up. Even the "eavy metal guys do this.

When you say 50/50 mix of the mid color and the high light, I want to make sure I understand correctly. So my base is an army painter goblin green, then on the edge I used a mixture of goblin green, demonic yellow and skeleton bone (all army painter) on the edges i wanted to highlight and then finally pure skeleton bone on top of that. I am assuming the mid color is the mixture of goblin green/demonic yellow/skeleton bone and the highlight is the skeleton bone pure. Am I correct in that?

Did you ever use pure skeleton bone? If not your highlight (edge highlight) is a mix. So in this case I would drop the skeletonbone and use a 75/25 goblin green/demonic yellow and use that to neaten up the line thickness. I presume you are not going to try the glazes methods. So that would be ideal. Just keep it thin (the paint) and paint up towards your current lines that is how you make them thinner when you can't directly draw a thin line.

I hope I am clear enough.

Yes! I think I understand, thank you.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 John Prins wrote:
As mentioned, too the lines are too thick. Are you painting those lines with the tip of your brush, or the side? I try to paint edge highlights with the side of the brush whenever possible. Obviously flat panel joints make this hard, and you have to use very little paint on the brush with a light hand. Like anything else, practice makes perfect.

I was using a very thin brush and the point of it, I'll have to try the side, I have read that before, I think I was just intimidated by it because it feels counter-intuitive. Thanks.

 Vidablo wrote:

meatybtz wrote:

 Vidablo wrote:

meatybtz wrote:
Your lighting angles are good. The lines are too thick. Which really isn't a problem.

Take a 50/50 mix of your mid color and the highlight, water it down to a glaze if you want to try that or for just a quickly thinning of the line just a little thinner than normal and ..

For the glaze place the brush at the midpoint of the gradient you want to create and drag the brush towards the current edge highlight. lifting the brush at the edge. This will create a gradient where the least pigment is where you started your stroke and most at the end. This will result in thinner looking lines and a nice gradient. Several coats and some fiddling/experimenting required.

To just tidy up the lines take your slightly thinned 50/50 mix and run it along the inner (darker area) edge of the line. This will tidy it up without much fuss.

Give it a go. I sometimes go thick lines on areas that need a thin edge but where directly brushing the edge is physically impossible to the line thickness I desire. I just go back and tidy up. Even the "eavy metal guys do this.

When you say 50/50 mix of the mid color and the high light, I want to make sure I understand correctly. So my base is an army painter goblin green, then on the edge I used a mixture of goblin green, demonic yellow and skeleton bone (all army painter) on the edges i wanted to highlight and then finally pure skeleton bone on top of that. I am assuming the mid color is the mixture of goblin green/demonic yellow/skeleton bone and the highlight is the skeleton bone pure. Am I correct in that?

Did you ever use pure skeleton bone? If not your highlight (edge highlight) is a mix. So in this case I would drop the skeletonbone and use a 75/25 goblin green/demonic yellow and use that to neaten up the line thickness. I presume you are not going to try the glazes methods. So that would be ideal. Just keep it thin (the paint) and paint up towards your current lines that is how you make them thinner when you can't directly draw a thin line.

I hope I am clear enough.

Yes! I think I understand, thank you.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 John Prins wrote:
As mentioned, too the lines are too thick. Are you painting those lines with the tip of your brush, or the side? I try to paint edge highlights with the side of the brush whenever possible. Obviously flat panel joints make this hard, and you have to use very little paint on the brush with a light hand. Like anything else, practice makes perfect.

I was using a very thin brush and the point of it, I'll have to try the side, I have read that before, I think I was just intimidated by it because it feels counter-intuitive. Thanks.

You can paint extremely thin lines even with a "good" #2 brush. But that requires very fine motor-control (dexterity). If you can't achieve that, and some can't. I can often, but since I have motor-control issues sometimes I just can't so I just go back and clean it up. Edge of the brush will apply paint "over" the edge but not a lot (as long as the paint isn't too thin and or the pressure or amount on the brush is not too much).

Keep at it. You have the fundamental skill of understanding lighting and edges. Thats a great skill to start with and from there you can focus down with practice.

 Stormatious wrote:

 John Prins wrote:
As mentioned, too the lines are too thick. Are you painting those lines with the tip of your brush, or the side? I try to paint edge highlights with the side of the brush whenever possible. Obviously flat panel joints make this hard, and you have to use very little paint on the brush with a light hand. Like anything else, practice makes perfect.

But if you do the side of the brush on the very edge, do you expect any at all to go over the edge, or to keep it literally just on the very edge in a way where its not very noticeable really? ( if you are doing the "where ever possible" areas )

It's possible that some can go over the edge. This is where your amount of paint on the brush and the consistency of the paint matters. But edge highlights serve to define the shape of the miniature (much like shading does), so even if a clean thin line goes to one or the other side of the edge, it's still defining the shape. For example:


The highlight on the red knee plate starts on the front side of the plate edge and wanders onto the top of the edge. as it approaches the robes. But it's hard to spot unless you look at the original resolution https://www.flickr.com/photos/52990657@N04/43842377534/sizes/o/ because it's a thin highlight. If you have to zoom in to 5x the size of the mini to see it, it's not worth worrying about.

meatybtz wrote:

 Vidablo wrote:

meatybtz wrote:

 Vidablo wrote:

meatybtz wrote:
Your lighting angles are good. The lines are too thick. Which really isn't a problem.

Take a 50/50 mix of your mid color and the highlight, water it down to a glaze if you want to try that or for just a quickly thinning of the line just a little thinner than normal and ..

For the glaze place the brush at the midpoint of the gradient you want to create and drag the brush towards the current edge highlight. lifting the brush at the edge. This will create a gradient where the least pigment is where you started your stroke and most at the end. This will result in thinner looking lines and a nice gradient. Several coats and some fiddling/experimenting required.

To just tidy up the lines take your slightly thinned 50/50 mix and run it along the inner (darker area) edge of the line. This will tidy it up without much fuss.

Give it a go. I sometimes go thick lines on areas that need a thin edge but where directly brushing the edge is physically impossible to the line thickness I desire. I just go back and tidy up. Even the "eavy metal guys do this.

When you say 50/50 mix of the mid color and the high light, I want to make sure I understand correctly. So my base is an army painter goblin green, then on the edge I used a mixture of goblin green, demonic yellow and skeleton bone (all army painter) on the edges i wanted to highlight and then finally pure skeleton bone on top of that. I am assuming the mid color is the mixture of goblin green/demonic yellow/skeleton bone and the highlight is the skeleton bone pure. Am I correct in that?

Thanks Boss!

Did you ever use pure skeleton bone? If not your highlight (edge highlight) is a mix. So in this case I would drop the skeletonbone and use a 75/25 goblin green/demonic yellow and use that to neaten up the line thickness. I presume you are not going to try the glazes methods. So that would be ideal. Just keep it thin (the paint) and paint up towards your current lines that is how you make them thinner when you can't directly draw a thin line.

I hope I am clear enough.

Yes! I think I understand, thank you.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 John Prins wrote:
As mentioned, too the lines are too thick. Are you painting those lines with the tip of your brush, or the side? I try to paint edge highlights with the side of the brush whenever possible. Obviously flat panel joints make this hard, and you have to use very little paint on the brush with a light hand. Like anything else, practice makes perfect.

I was using a very thin brush and the point of it, I'll have to try the side, I have read that before, I think I was just intimidated by it because it feels counter-intuitive. Thanks.

You can paint extremely thin lines even with a "good" #2 brush. But that requires very fine motor-control (dexterity). If you can't achieve that, and some can't. I can often, but since I have motor-control issues sometimes I just can't so I just go back and clean it up. Edge of the brush will apply paint "over" the edge but not a lot (as long as the paint isn't too thin and or the pressure or amount on the brush is not too much).

Keep at it. You have the fundamental skill of understanding lighting and edges. Thats a great skill to start with and from there you can focus down with practice.

Thanks Boss!

Very good advice before this, the side of brush for raised areas when done carefully can get very sharp edge highlights (targeted drybrushing?).
Reducing the thickness of the lines is a priority and maybe not quite as strong a colour difference is the second.

I would strongly suggest one of three methods for the highlight:
1) Find another standard paint that is a shide or two lighter of the same colour so the transition is not quite as strong.
2) Mix "one drop" of white to 3 or 4 drops of the original base paint if you are comfortable with mixing.
3) If you hit the green armour with green "shade" that may tone down the edging and make the recessed areas look a bit darker.

For a better idea of what edges to target, a strong pen-light shining down on the model will help with spotting the top edges to hit with edge highlight.

One interesting method is to black prime, underspray with a dark brown, spray mainly the sides a little bit with a lighter black (very dark grey) then "zenithal highlight" the top like a light source and then hit all the armor with a green wash or green ink. Then you can edge highlight as needed but not as much.

Many options available, you do what works for you.

 Talizvar wrote:

3) If you hit the green armour with green "shade" that may tone down the edging and make the recessed areas look a bit darker.

I like this trick a lot on organic armies. Basecoat, shade, and a light drybrush of the original basecoat. But it's how I paint my Knights of Gryphonne as well - metallic orange base, thin even flesh wash to tone the orange metal than original orange metallic for edge highlights.

 John Prins wrote:

 Stormatious wrote:

 John Prins wrote:
As mentioned, too the lines are too thick. Are you painting those lines with the tip of your brush, or the side? I try to paint edge highlights with the side of the brush whenever possible. Obviously flat panel joints make this hard, and you have to use very little paint on the brush with a light hand. Like anything else, practice makes perfect.

But if you do the side of the brush on the very edge, do you expect any at all to go over the edge, or to keep it literally just on the very edge in a way where its not very noticeable really? ( if you are doing the "where ever possible" areas )

It's possible that some can go over the edge. This is where your amount of paint on the brush and the consistency of the paint matters. But edge highlights serve to define the shape of the miniature (much like shading does), so even if a clean thin line goes to one or the other side of the edge, it's still defining the shape. For example:


The highlight on the red knee plate starts on the front side of the plate edge and wanders onto the top of the edge. as it approaches the robes. But it's hard to spot unless you look at the original resolution https://www.flickr.com/photos/52990657@N04/43842377534/sizes/o/ because it's a thin highlight. If you have to zoom in to 5x the size of the mini to see it, it's not worth worrying about.

Thanks heaps, appreciate it.