One of the most eye-catching effects in miniature painting is source lighting, where a glowing object casts light on the rest of the miniature. Especially in the fantasy and science-fiction genres, it’s a great way to show that a sword is imbued with magical energy, or a plasma cannon is charged and ready to fire. Let’s face it: glowing weapons are just cool. This technique is often called “object-source lighting” (OSL) by figure painters, as the source of the light is represented on the miniature (an “object-source”).

Pulling off believable glow effects is tricky, however, and there are many examples of poorly done lighting effects on the internet. In this article, I will show a step-by-step sequence of how I paint source lighting effects, using a Cryxian Slayer by Privateer Press as the demo mini. I’ll also provide plenty of tips and additional examples to help you give your models that eye-catching glow.

The Cardinal Rule

When a light source such as a torch, magical sword, or glowing plasma cell casts light on surrounding areas, they light up. Obvious, right? And yet, violating this simple rule is the number-one most common mistake people make when trying to portray lighting effects on their figures. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen someone try to represent a glowing object by changing the color, but not the lightness, of the nearby areas. So be sure to follow this rule.

Step 1:

Unless the light source I have in mind is so strong that it lights up a large portion of the miniature, I generally wait until the end to tackle light source effects. This works very well if the light is just going to be caught by a few relatively small surfaces and edges, but less well if large areas of the model will be strongly lit. For the Slayer, I plan for the furnace vents to be glowing, and the eyes. The way the model is posed, this means that only small areas will be strongly lit, so the model is nearly finished by the time I’m ready to start on the glowing necrovents.

If you want to see how I painted the battle damage, check out my tutorial from last week.

Step 2:

Before you try to tackle the cast light, start with your light sources. This helps you properly gauge how strong to make the reflected light. It should be lighter than the surrounding areas, but not quite as bright as the source of the light. You generally want your light sources to be a bright color, for a stronger visual, so start with a nice solid white (multiple thin coats). Otherwise you won’t get good coverage with the bright color. Don’t worry too much about mistakes, as they can be fixed in the next step.

Step 3:

Painting OSL on metallic and non-metallic surfaces is a bit different. For non-metallic surfaces, you can just paint the glow color over whatever is underneath, but if you do this on metallic surfaces, you will lose the shine. For this reason, I prefer to do OSL on metals using inks.

However, you can’t simply paint ink on the lit areas of a metallic surface and expect it to look like light is being case. Remember the cardinal rule: lit areas must appear lighter than unlit areas. For this reason, an important step when painting OSL cast on metal surfaces is to highlight the metal surfaces to portray light being cast from the source(s) on the figure. Use a lighter, neutral metal color such as GW Chainmail to highlight, as you want to be able to tweak the color using inks.

Here I’ve only done this on the areas immediately adjacent to the light sources. The reason for this is that when I color the light sources green, I will actually spread color over a slightly larger area than what I painted white in step 2.

Step 4:

It’s time to add some color! Start with thin glazes of a bright color, covering both the white-painted areas which are the source of the glow, and also nearby areas which would be affected by the glow. Use two-brush blending or your preferred blending method to smooth the edges of the glazed area. Because bright colors cover white easily, a thin glaze of paint is all you need.

For the Slayer, I used P3 Cygnus Yellow with a drop of P3 Necrotite Green for the glow color.

Together, steps 1-4 cement the overall look of the miniature, which helps put everything into perspective. From here on it’s all about refining the details. At arms length, the differences between this point and the final result will be fairly subtle, but from up-close, those refinements will make a world of difference.

Step 5:

From here on, go area by area, sharpening the details of the OSL effect. For each light source on the miniature, try to picture where light from the light source would shine, how strongly it would illuminate the surrounding area, and how colored light would affect the underlying colored area. Remember that light tends to catch on raised edges, and will affect shiny surfaces (such as metals or enamel armor) more strongly than matte areas (such as cloth or dirt). It will also affect shiny surfaces more sharply, so for a shiny surface, focus on edges, and do lots of strong edge highlighting. For a matte surface, the reflected light will be more diffuse, so do thin glazes to color a larger area with more subtlety.

For the Slayer, I started with the eyes, as they were the smallest, and quickest to finish. First, I did sharp edge highlights on nearby edges facing the eye, where the light from the eye would catch the edge, using my glow color (Cygnus Yellow + Necrotite Green) mixed with white. Then, to define the edges of they eye and separate it from the reflected light, I went back with a darker color (P3 Iosan Green + black) and lined the creases.

Steps 6-8

For the next few steps, I’m going to show a back view, as you will be able to see what is happening better from this angle.

Here’s the Slayer from the back, as it looked after step 5. From this angle, it’s clear that many areas will be illuminated from the rear furnace.

Step 6:

Where metal areas will be illuminated by a light source, highlight them with a lighter, neutral metallic color such as GW Chainmail. (The reason for this was explained in step 3.)

Step 7:

Add color to metal areas illuminated by your light sources. Try to match the hue of your glow using inks as closely as possible. (For the Slayer, I mixed P3 Yellow Ink and Green Ink.) Don’t worry if the inks appear darker, as long as they match in hue – most of the lightness of your color will be provided by the underlying metal. Using thin glazes with ink, color the metal areas you highlighted in step 6. Again, use two-brush blending or another blending method to smooth transitions.

Step 8:

Add color to the non-metal areas illuminated by your light source. Using controlled glazes of your glow color and blending, color each area where the light would hit. If the glow color is very different from the underlying color (such as a green glow on a red surface), mix the glow color with a bit of the highlight color for the underlying color and use that as a glaze. Start subtly, since it’s easier to add more of the glow color than to restore what you had before you started glazing.

Where there are sharp edges that would catch the light, do thin line highlights using the glow color mixed with white.

Step 9:

After step 8, I was pleased with the areas illuminated by the light, but not quite happy with the light sources themselves, as I thought they looked a bit monotone. To fix this, I painted a lighter color (mixing white into the glow color) in the center of each vent, and a darker color (mixing Iosan Green into the glow color) at the ends to break them up a bit.

Other Examples

Asphyxious, the Iron Lich (Privateer Press): Asphyxious is from the same battlegroup as the Slayer, so the colors are the same. Notice how the glow from his ribcage is reflecting off of the chains holding his soul cage

Commander Adept Sebastian Nemo (Privateer Press): OSL is actually a bit easier with non-metallic metals (NMM), since NMM provides you greater control in portraying how light reflects off of metal. The OSL I had in mind is actually the reason that I chose to paint the model using NMM, even though I normally prefer metallics.

Lorian, Son of Bezelay (Tale of War): I painted this model to practice a strong single-source OSL effect, and some of the mistakes I made are clearly apparent. The darker area on his cheek is wrong, and the light effect from his open palm is poorly done. Nevertheless, the overall effect works fairly well.

Celberum, Dark Rune (Enigma): This was another of my early attempts at OSL. What mistake did I make with the muscles on the arm holding the flame? (Answer obscured: V ivbyngrq gur pneqvany ehyr bs bfy.)

Happy painting, and never be afraid to paint outside the lines!