I recently came across sculpts for several fantasy busts on Facebook from a new company called Polaris Minor. One in particular caught my eye, Count Melenth. He's some sort of evil creature... vampire-like, but not exactly. In the end, I guess it doesn't really matter, he's just a fantasy bust.

To make a more interesting figure I decided to paint strong lighting effects on this figure. I think this sort of lighting also works well for this evil looking subject. Instead of treating the main light as directly above the figure, I painted it as if it were above but slightly off to his left. I then pretended there was a second light source coming from below and to his right. I choose a bluish tint for this secondary light. To help me with the lighting, I took several photos of the unpainted figure with a light placed either in the primary light location or in the secondary light location. These were a useful reference too. From there, I started to sketch in the main lights and shadows for the figure. You can see that stage in the first image on the left. From there I started to smooth out the work on the skin (first image on the right). So far I've just focused on the skin in the main light. The area lit by the secondary light is still just my initial sketch.

I still plan to do more work on the more finished looking parts. I'd like to add some fine details and add more color variation with glazes. But first I want to tackle the secondary light, then I'll return to the other side.

Here are a few more angles. I think that painting this figure with the dramatic/exaggerated lighting effects has given it kind of an illustration quality. Although I paint a lot of historical figures, I like doing the occasional fantasy piece as I feel freer to experiment with stuff like this!

He is really excellent figure.
I like his comic book look that you achieved.

Hi
saw this on your painting Blog......I like how its coming together
as well as lots of other good painting tips

Oh........and my photography has improved ...due to an upturned
translucent waste paper bin ....experimenting ...but happy with the results
I am getting

Many thanks

Frank

Very nice work on this. I like the style that you have achieved.

Really impressive! At first I did not know whether I was looking at an illustration or a figure.

Great work with the light, and very good explanation, superb SBS.

Military miniatures painted by Eduardo Garcia

nice. like mr melenth

The lighting is fantastic and really helps create a ton of atmosphere
Phil

Very good work.
You've managed to make good transitions between light and shadow

Thanks, everyone!

This past weekend I spent some time trying to refine and improve the OSL (lighting effect on the right side of the face). I fixed some of the placement, smoothed out the transitions, and upped the contrast by increasing the brightness of the highlights while still keeping them limited in area. I still need to finish the lighting on his neck and there are a couple small things on the face I want to fix, but in general I'm very happy with the results. After that it's time to move on to his clothing and then his hair.

Here's another side by side showing how the OSL used to look (after some refinements from the picture I first posted above) and then how it looks after this weekend's painting session.


I think the lighting works well as an edge light when viewed from the front but also holds its own when viewed straight on.

Very well done on the lighting effect. It is looking very realistic.

Let me ask a question. One of the things that puzzles me about these OSL effects with the light source coming from below is how to make them look nice under standard lighting conditions, light coming from above.
In the usual painting (zenithal light) the painted highlights and the actual ones caused by the real light and relief on the figure complement each other.
The painted effect of a light source from below goes against these 'actual' highlights.... This can look very unattractive (just view a nicely painted figure held upside down).

So my question is, how do you paint the effect in a way that it still looks nice under standard room lighting conditions?
Or is this effect only nice when photographed?

Very eager to try this kind of thing, but my initial experiment did not give a nice result, because of this 'conflict between real and painted light'....

Thanks in advance for sharing some insights in this.

Cheers,
Adrian

Fantastic - the OSL effect is really working here - all those little tweaks really paid off. Looks amazing
Phil

Thanks, Adrian and Phil!

Adrian, you definitely hit on one of the main challenges for OSL, how to balance the effect with the room lights. I don't think there's a way to do it so it works under every lighting condition. The stronger the overhead light, the tougher it is. But, ideally it should work in rooms with more reflected light (so the light is coming from all directions and not just one main one). So, when I take the figure into the kitchen to view it, the OSL tends to work well. If I'm looking at it in the living room, well it varies a lot based on where I am in relation to the lights. In the display cabinet and on my painting table, I try to have the light hitting the figure more straight on (rather than from above), so it tends to work fine there too.

A friend and I were just having a similar conversation about whether OSL works better in photographs than it does in real life. I was comparing and contrasting it with NMM, which do think works much better in photos than real life. I put OSL somewhere in between. It works in photos and sometimes works in real life.

The position of the painted light source also makes a difference. Painting OSL based on a light source off to one side is going to work more easily under various lighting conditions than a light source directly below. In this case, with the light below, I'm going overly bright on the highlights because I know the room lights will make them look dimmer. So I have to correct for that.

Another thing to consider with OSL is the backdrop. If you're viewing the figure with a lot of light/bright stuff behind it, that can interfere with the OSL effect. I'm debating whether or not I should attach my own black background to the base of this figure. At the very least, I'd bring something like a black cloth and a stand to use as a backdrop when I take him to a show. My other time painting OSL it was on a full figure. I tried to setup the base so that it created a mostly solid backdrop behind the figure. I've got another full figure where I want to paint OSL, so I'll come up with a base that creates a solid background for him too.

Thanks for sharing your view on this David.

I think the 'light from below effect' indeed needs special measures, such as a dark background, or overhead cover (box dio) to work. You can 'intensify' the lights to compensate the natural lighting like you mentioned, but this will only go so far in my view.

I am close to starting on a project featuring OSL, but will keep the source coming from above/sideways to keep the challenge manageable.

Cheers,
Adrian