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I painted this up for the No Quarter OSL competition (winner still pending, but entries can be posted). I had the mini on hand, and I really needed an infernal for the RPG I was running. I find it hard to tell when my own minis are very impressive, but he's gotten some excellent feedback from CMON, so I thought I'd see what the dakkaites have to say.

Well, I think I'd better just show you what I've done here:

Nice blending on the spirit/ghost/soul dealie. The pinky palette is a nice change from the apparently more usual greens and blues.

The artificial light source is also nicely accomplished. This is something I'm going to be attempting for the first time in the near future - do you have any tips or tricks? And good online resources out there?

Good luck in the competition!

Thankyou.

As for tips, there are a lot I could give you. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

1) It is easier than it looks. There is a little more to it than turning the mini on its side so that you can highlight towards the light. Once you've finished highlighting, glaze coats are your friend.

2) Keep your light source extremely light. Probably the best way to do this is to paint the source white then go over it with a glaze of the color light you are producing. If your light source is not the lightest point on the mini, then it won't look like it is lighting the mini.

3) Keep the mini dark. All the lit areas have to contrast against the unlit areas, and the lit areas (even the darker ones) must be lighter than the unlit. This mini was painted in very dark colors prior to lighting him (black and dark grey mostly).

Only one response so far?! This is stunning dude, I'm completely jealous of your light sourcing. You should do a step by step, as it looks great.

I like it. Something that throws me is the sash that she is wearing, it seems to be a reddish color. I can't tell if it is from the light, or that it is that color naturally. One thing to consider is making the highlight from the OSL on the brass scroll holder a bit lighter. the actual reflections from the metallic paint are lighter than the ones that you painted. I guess that painting those highlights 'hotter' where the pink light is reflecting would be needed.

Thanks for the OSL tips. I have been wanting to work with the technique for some time. I have several projects that it will be great for. One thing that I think is interesting is how understanding this technique can help you normal painting. If you are willing to imagine your minis outside on a sunny day, the overall paint-job should be OSL from the sun.

Thanks for posting this. Very good work!

wow...that's really great

Thanks for the criticism xenite. I'll take that into account next time I do an OSL fig.

You can do OSL in a few different ways. This fig is fairly extreme colored light, but if you want light from the sun, you should go with a full spectrum of lighting (similar techniques, but each piece of the mini will have its own color, and generally should lighten closer to the light source.) There are some pretty sweet minis lit that way too.