Hi, I'm wondering if anyone has made their army (or perhaps just one piece) look very dark, like it's at night, with highlights. The reason I ask is because I'm making a witch hunt theme for my Guardsmen, and since they have lots of torches, I might make some OSL. So, the point would be to paint them in dark colors (with black ink to tone down stuff like flesh) and then very bright lighting for the lanterns. Do you think it would work? Or would it look like a primed an army black, then sprayed it yellow?

I haven't personally done it - but I would expect doing a whole army like this would take an incredible amount of time and test even the most steadfast patience.

I would probably recommend only doing 1 figure to begin with. find some good tutorials. I know there are several on coolminiornot and see what the results turn out like.

If done well it looks very cool, however if it isn't it just plain looks off. I would not recommend just priming black and then spraying yellow or even doing a watered down black over the regular paintjob - it will not produce the effect you are looking for.

You need to paint darker versions of whatever you are painting - flesh, clothing, armor, etc. and then paint in the light highlights, etc. There isn't a miricle wash that will give you istance OSL effects! :w00t:

Cheers,

-Mike

That was my point. I want to make it look dark without looking like I primed then sprayed it. I can do OSL pretty well, especially stuff like shadows (silhouettes on the bases will look nice...), but I think the problem is making it look like darkness- not just really dark equipment, clothing, and everything else.

You can mute the shades until you get the the darkness you want. Black isn't necessarily the best choice for all colors though. Also darkness as in night - doesn't necessarily mean no light whatsover - so you should see some color just not in its most vivid and bright sense.

You could for example mix the darkest areas of red with a dark purple or dark brown - transitioning to a darker red and finally lighter red as it reaches the light source. If you approach it like this you won't be stuck with what looks like a primed figure and still have a dramatic look to the OSL.

Cheers,

-Mike

catbarf-sounds cool, but i just have one thing. You could start a project thread and then post all your questions in there. Then you could post pics of your projects. That would be pretty cool. kinda like a real project forum on thw whole development of the army

Yeah... you're probably right, it's just the only problem is that I have so many projects I'm working on, that it might not get updated for weeks :x

well, you could make it an, all inclusive project threads, covering all your stuff....


-YTHC

If it was dark out you lose your perception of colour first (rods and cones in your eye are affected differently by darkness). So maybe the best scheme would be bright colours. In the latern light would be these vibrant colours but the bright colours would dull until they are almost grey scale as they move further from the light. If done right this would look super cool but a whole army? That would worthy of a golden demon if done right. Hell a unit done could make a run for the trophy.

Wait a second... Wow, I see what you're saying! I paint everything dark and kind of grayscale, but stuff that's in the light has color, in addition to being highlighted! That could be really awesome!

I just need to figure out how to do shadows on their bases.

Hey, one more thing, since I'm going to be using OSL for the firelight on the people holding torches, should I use yellow or orange or both for the lighting highlights?

yellow > orange > red > then a bit of the colour ( brown boots , blue hat etc . ) clothing showing

So yellow for close parts, and red for farther away?

Also dont forget that regular light (like from the moon) at night is blue. So all your shadows and highlights not facing the torch should have bluish tint.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u235/jpp4569/FairyForestNight001.png

I hope this helps.

But who says there's a moon? Or that the light reflecting off it is blue? Mars reflects red, for example.

It's just common practice. What people normally think of, even if it isn't true. If you want to "fake" a night time scene you have to trick people into it, if you know what I mean. Anything else and you might not get the effect you were aiming for, or it might not come across. If you have to explain it, then you have failed in my opinion.

Also, light from external sources (sun, moon, stars, etc.) is generally blue due to our atmosphere. Yes, sunlight is generally thought of as being blue not yellow, ask any photographer. That being said, if the guardsmen are around in open atmoshpere of a planet, then it must have a similar composition to ours for them to be able to breathe.

I can also speak on how a person's eyes work. Our eyes naturally white balance to the most prominant light in the area. So if the brightest light we see is reddish, then everything else that isn't as bright (and is not as red as the main light) would appear to our eyes as being bluish (even if the light is actually white or even yellow). It a very quick rundown of what our eyes/brains do, but hopefully it is enough for people to understand.

All in all the light should generally be bluish for both artsy and (my poor) science reasons.

Interesting. Well, I've just about finished painting the sergeant with the lantern (Genswick in the conversions forum), so I'll post pics soon.

I just thought I'd resurrect this to say that my first painted pics are up in the Projects forum, C&C would be appreciated.