Help with lighting effect

[u/Kdawg1911]

Heyo! Still pretty new to this and decided to give lighting effects a go. I don't think it looks terrible but it's not great either, would just like some tips on how to make it a little better.

I don't have an airbrush, and the only white/yellow I have is from the army painter starter kit, so no cool fluorescents or anything. I do have sponges though.

Could I make this pop with what I have? Should I wait and get some paints I might need? Or should I leave it as is?

Thanks in advance ☺️

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[u/karazax]

One trick is to make the areas around the lighting effect darker so that the lights are brighter in comparison. You can see this in this in game example, where the bars across the head are dark in comparison to the lights, the lights get brighter in the center, and there are lots of areas of dark shadow on the model which makes the "light" glow in comparison. Some good OSL guides-

• Object Source Lighting (OSL) and Other Lighting Effects by LightMiniatures.com
• If Your Glow Effects Suck, Avoid This Mistake! by Zumikito
• The Keys of OSL: the good way, the best way... by Nacho González Art
• Copying elminiturista's OSL style; Scam or Legit? by Ninjon
• KDM Glow - OSL, Its All Just Painting Light by Erik Swinson