Painting Nighttime Minis w/ OSL

[Noddwyr]

Hello,

I want to paint a mini to make it appear as if it was out and about at night, so i would go for monochrome paint job, but I am have a little dilemma when it comes to the OSL, which I want to be green

Should I add color(other than the OSL color) to the part that are affected by the light?
e.g: http://coolminiornot.com/170890

Or should I just stick with monochrome with some green light?
The first option seems to be more realistic to me, as the light would bring out some color from the fabric and face, but I was curious what the community thought about this method.

Cheers

 

[Einion]

Well this is an interesting question. It would depend on the exact light how much of the existing colour would be brought out by green light; some lights just make everything look greenish (e.g. mercury-vapour bulbs) but can emit enough other wavelengths that you can make out some of the basic colouration, others would have green light only (e.g. a green-coated bulb) so you get a green monochrome effect. So for the green-lit portion you can basically choose which way you want to go.

For the main paintwork, you might like to try making the greys very slightly blue. Even if this isn't strictly realistic often, in combination with the dark colouring it can help sell 'night scene' to the viewer. Another option is to paint it very subdued versions of the natural colours; again not strictly realistic but can work.

Check out night paintings by illustrators and painters for a good cross-section of how it's done.

Einion

 

[supervike]

I tried something similar a few years back.

The idea was to have a OSL of a 'magical' green lighting the way for this ugly demon in his dark cavern...

View attachment 3418

Then I tried a 'moonlight' effect (which conveys night a bit better) on this vampire feller...

View attachment 3419

I think I'm on the right track with these ideas, but it suffers because my execution is poor.

I'm thinking if you combine the two ideas....Using the bluish greys from the vampire, and the OSL from the top pic, it may work.

 

[Shawn R. L.]

If you go monochrome, or near-monochrome, for the night side of the fig, it will make the light look more brilliant and saturated.

 

[Noddwyr]

Hmm thanks for the ideas guys. I am waiting to order the model i want to try this on, but then I will start a WIP.
Could I go for a cross between subdued colors and the greys, by mixing say brown and grey so that the grey would have a brownish hue,(the natural color), thus making the brown slightly seep through but still retaining the somewhat monochrome that occurs at night?

 

[airhead]

TAB did a set of cannoneers set at night with only the cannon flash lighting them.

Here

Shawn has done some similar works with mechas.

here and here

Victoria did one more like you are describing here

 

[Noddwyr]

Thanks, those are very useful. I am going to try to find some nighttime paintings also to give me more reference material.