Painting Philosophy: part three “Edge of Tomorrow”

Painting Philosophy: part three “Edge of Tomorrow”

Third time’s a charm thus welcome to the third ‘Painting Philosophy’ article, where “I let you in on ‘how’ and especially ‘why’ I do some things in a certain way. In my opinion a proper approach to painting is crucial to maintain healthy and rewarding experience. Final result depends on it in the same way as on techniques, know-how and tools used. Nowadays internet is full of painting tutorials yet it takes some inner understanding of our own capabilities to find what suits us best and fully benefit from all acquired knowledge. That being said – In this series I will reveal what works best for me as a painter. I hope you will find some wisdom in it…”

In last article I wrote a lot about the edge of a base and what it represents. Do not let yourself get fooled by a similar title tho, as today I would like to take a slightly different approach. I introduce to you the ‘Edge highlight technique’. Something that I myself am addicted to since Games Workshop lured me in with their EDGE paints series. Before that I struggled to keep my colours juicy and interresting enough. Kept to dark, murky colour schemes and avoided any type of lining, including edges. That translated into being a bit dissapointed with my own work – so a not very healthy relationship with paints and miniatures. It all changed once I got my hands on GW’s EDGE paints and that was just the first step which made me realize how important strong edges, combined with proper Lining, are.

Edge highlighting is a technique of applying paint to the natural edges of a surface, providing strong contrast and exposing the mentioned surface. I find ‘Edging’, combined with Lining, to be a great way to make a colour pop and literally change how an eye can perceive it. It works especially well with multi-layered surfaces of detailed miniatures but should work for you regardless of what miniatures you paint. Here’s an example of edge highlights being one of key factors to improve a paint job:

I’m not a guy that looks at miniatures through magnifier glass. Mostly I paint projects related to gaming and this kind of miniatures should be able to catch an eye while being used. I like my miniatures to pop, to be sharp and  ‘edgy’. To have personality and coherent colour scheme. For me edge highlights provide all that and more.

First of all, like with most painting methods, I avoid overloading my brush with too much paint. This is very important as too much paint would run down and ruin a crisp, sharp edge. Other than that I try to:

• Keep the tip of a brush positioned perpendicularly to the line of the edge and drive it along the edge from one side to the other. This helps to avoid the tip moving off the edge and paint all around it.

• Hold a brush near the tip. This gives me a lot of control over the tip and it’s movement.

• Keep the tip of a brush positioned at about 90 degrees to the edge, which usually keeps it from going point forward and leave paint in recesses.

• Pick a right paint for the job. This is not limited to GW’s EDGE paints only. Any paint that provides enough contrast, works well with a chosen colour and has enough pigment will do.

Now you know how I approach edge highlighting and with this I would like to close third Painting Philosophy article. Please take note that what works for me, might not necessarily work for you – still there are many ways to accomplish certain things – mine is just one of them. I encourage you to leave some feedback. As usual I put a lot of effort into preparing this article, but if it helps at least one painter out there – I consider it a time well spent.

This would be extremely ‘paitnful’… for you.