To paint lightning, you’ll need to use fast-drying white paint and a small brush. First, sketch out the basic shape of the lightning bolt with white paint. Next, use a thin brush to add in the finer details. Be sure to make the lightning look realistic by adding various shades of white and grey. Finally, let the paint dry overnight before adding a final coat of varnish.
How to Paint Lightning: What You Need to Know Before Trying Your Hand
Acrylic Paints
We will be using a variety of colors for this tutorial including white, black, blue, yellow, and light purple. We recommend Liquitex Professional Heavy Body Acrylic Classic Set. It includes a good selection of the colors we will be using and it is an excellent quality paint.
Oil Paints
We recommend Winsor & Newton Artists’ Oil Colour Paint Basic Set. It is a good quality oil paint and it comes with a variety of colors that we will be using for this tutorial. Also, it is a good idea to have an oil painting thinner on hand in case you need to thin out your paint.
Paper
We will use Arches Watercolour Block Pad (Hot Pressed) for this tutorial. It is a high-quality paper that is perfect for painting with acrylics and oils. Its size is 9” x 12” and it has a smooth surface.
Brushes
For this tutorial, we recommend that you use a variety of brushes including small, medium, and large sizes. We also recommend that you use both synthetic and natural hair brushes. Synthetic brushes are typically less expensive and they are easier to clean than natural hair brushes.
However, natural hair brushes tend to hold more paint and they can create softer brushstrokes.
We will use D’Artisan Shoppe Professional Brushes. It is a good quality brush that is perfect for painting with both acrylics and oils. The set includes a variety of sizes (small, medium, and large) and it is made with natural sable hair.
How to Paint Lightning
First, start by painting the entire canvas black. Once the black paint is dry, mix together some white paint and blue and/or purple paint until you have a light blue or purple color. Next, use a thin brush to “draw” the lightning bolts onto the canvas. Make sure that the bolts are thin and pointed at one end. Finally, let the paint dry completely before framing or displaying your artwork.
Getting Started
To create a realistic painting of lightning, you’ll need to study photos of real lightning storms and try to recreate the look and feel of those images in your painting. It’s also important to capture the motion of lightning in your painting, as it moves across the sky at high speeds. With practice, you’ll be able to create stunning paintings of lightning that will amaze your friends and family.
How to Paint Lightning With Acrylics
1. Paint the Background Blue
To begin, you will need to paint your background blue. You can do this by using a brush and some acrylic paint. Make sure that the paint is evenly distributed across the surface of the paper.
2. Add White Streaks
Once the background is dry, you can start to add white streaks to represent lightning. To do this, you will need to use a brush and some white paint. Again, make sure that the paint is evenly distributed across the surface of the paper.
3. Add Black Spots
Now it’s time to add some black spots. These will be the storm clouds that are giving off the lightning. Use a small brush to add these spots in a random pattern. Try not to make them all uniform in size, as this will make the painting look more realistic.
Once you’re happy with the placement of the black spots, use a slightly larger brush to paint over them with a dark gray color. This will give the impression of storm clouds that are gathering in the sky.
4. Paint It Pink
Now that the storm clouds are in place, it’s time to add some color. To do this, you will need to use pink paint. Start by painting the lightning strokes pink. Then, use a smaller brush to add some pink highlights to the storm clouds.
5. Circle the Lightning in White
Then, use a white paintbrush to circle the lightning in white. This will give the painting a more electric look.
6. Add Final Details
To finish off the painting, you can add some final details. This could include adding more white highlights to the storm clouds or adding a few more pink streaks of lightning. Once you’re happy with the way it looks, your painting is complete!
All about the light
Most miniature painting relies on a light source directly above the subject like we show you in our highlighting tutorials. But with OSL, the primary light source is changed, or another is added to fall in another angle. The source could come from an object like a torch, and hit the miniature from the side.
It could also come from the glow of molten lava, or toxic sludge on the base. This reverses the placement of highlights and shadows on the miniature to the under side. Notice the light edges facing the ground – by using the tips from the Edge Highlighting page you can easily place these highlights.
Dipit says
Using a flash light is a good way to try out different light angles before priming
Fluorescent Warpaints Air
Our Warpaints Air range contains 6 ultra-vibrant fluorescent colours, and these are perfect for applying OSL effects with your airbrush thanks to their unreal vibrancy.
You can use many tools to achieve this effect like our Masterclass Drybrush, our Warpaints Air range, or even our Speedpaints. We recommend Warpaints Air Fluo, for that most vibrant and striking effect. Let’s learn how!
How to create an OSL effect
Object Source Lighting is best applied as an effect when you are almost done with your miniature.
Start by airbrushing a Matt White undercoat on the intended light source and the area around to help enforce the glowing effect.
Next, airbrush your Fluorescent colour of choice over the white. Here we chose Blue Flux which is a flourescent Warpaints Air colour.
Now, apply a subtle edge highlight to the coils and the hard edges where the OSL effect has been made. Because of the intense light from this weapon we chose Matt White.
Painting Lightning
Now let’s get to actually painting it.
Video Format
I’ve since done a video tutorial. It’s a slightly different technique than below if you’re interested.
I’m trying to create a random zig-zag pattern, but as shown above in the references, lightning comes in all shapes. So, don’t stress too much about this step if yours isn’t looking quite right.
Next I create the secondary bolts coming from the primary one.
You can use those secondary bolts to correct your primary one a bit if you weren’t happy with it. Once those secondary bolts goes on there it starts coming together.
Second Layer
Now to really start making the lightning stand out.
All I do in this step is to take a lighter blue and paint a thin line inside the previous line. I’m not too concerned about it being perfect because lightning is random in nature.
The blue here is a Vallejo color called Electric Blue. It’s one of my favorite colors Vallejo makes.
You can see it’s now starting to take shape and look like lightning. Only one step remains now.
Third Layer
For the final layer I’m using white. What I’m going to do is reinforce the primary bolt and paint a thin line inside the previous line.
What I like to do here, and this is an artistic choice, is not use the white down the entire length of the primary bolt. I’ll paint down the length some, stop, and pick it up a bit further down, in turn leaving some gaps of the previous blue.
This process, as you’ll see, creates a bit of a broken and irregular look that I just like the look of. You could paint white down the entire primary lightning bolt and be fine too.
I’m using White Scar from Citadel for this but of course any white works.
Notice how I don’t use the white down the secondary bolts. I have some white that starts down the secondary bolts but stops.
Again, it’s all artistic choice and about creating something that looks cool to you.
Here’s the same shot as above but zoomed out a bit to show you how this looks at a more natural distance. When you get all zoomed in things just look bleh.
Painting Thoughts
While I did give the colors I used, you can do this technique with any colors. It’s about the concept, not the color.
The concept boils down to creating progressively thinner layers of paint inside previous layers. You start with a wide line and paint a line inside that, and then a line inside that.
Doing this will create that glowing look that lightning bolts give off. The impression of light is created with some very simple layering.
Master that and you can create lightning in any color you want.
Another Example
Using the same technique outlined above, here’s another example using oranges to create lightning.
I tried making the bolt a bit different and just experimenting. I admit, it’s not the sexiest lightning bolt but sometimes you just gotta play around.
Painting Advanced Lightning
The advanced version is mostly just some thinner paint and some extra layers to create something smoother.
Step #1 – Layers 1 & 2
I start off with a thin layer of Daemonette Hide and create the primary lightning bolt.
I then add on the secondary bolts.
As noted above, this method isn’t any harder, just more time consuming because you’ll do everything twice.
So, I take the same color and do a slightly thinner line to bolden it.
Step #2 – Layer 3 & 4
Now, I use Slaanesh Grey and do the same, create a thin layered line inside the previous.
And, once again, I do a second layer of the same color to reinforce things and blend it out.
Step #3 – Layers 5 & 6
Guess what? We do it again! This time I’m using Pallid Wych Flesh.
And then the second layer.
Step #4 – Layer 7
I decided I wanted to push this a bit more, so I grabbed some white and hit a few points on the lightning bolt to really make it pop.
And here’s that same shot zoomed out to a more normal distance.
Now, to get this to look even better all you do is keep doing thin layer after thin layer. Using a lot more thin layers will let you blend everything out much smoother so it looks better up close. I’m just trying to give you the groundwork, so admittedly my efforts above aren’t amazing.
Bonus Tip: Glazes
Sometimes your lightning bolt color isn’t exactly what you wanted, or maybe you want to blend things out a bit more, or maybe you just want to add some visual interest.
All three of those scenarios can be addressed with glazing. Using a glaze will add a thin translucent layer that can change the color and help smooth out the look.
Let’s start with the beginner examples. Here’s what it looked like:
I decided to add a red glaze over the lightning bolts to darken it some. I used Bloodletter Glaze for that.
The single layer is pretty subtle. I could continue to add more layers of glaze to continue shifting the tone to red and darkening it all. It’s always better to start thin because you can keep adding more layers but you can’t take them off.
Speaking of, here’s a second layer of red glaze to show you.
The blue lightning I did, here:
I thought it would be fun to add a yellow glaze (Lamenters Yellow) over it.
As you can see, the color shifted towards a green hue (yellow + blue = green). A really simple way to completely alter the look.
For the advanced one:
All I did to this one was to put a very thin layer of purple wash (Druchii Violet) over the bolt to darken it some.
I then decided to use a blue gaze (old-school Guilliman Blue) over parts of the lightning bolt to just add a little visual interest and color shifting elements to it.
The other thing this is doing, as I said above, is smoothing out the layers of paint and blending things out.
So, if you want to play around then grab some glazes and just create something fun.
Maximum Effort!
So, if you take all the above and combine it you end up with something like this.
I did a lot of very thin layers of paint, glazes, more thin layers of paint, more glazes, repeat ad nauseum to get that.
I felt I needed something to show here that didn’t look like hot garbage zoomed in, and to show you how you can keep pushing the results higher and higher 🙂
That could still be improved upon as well. Like anything, you get out of it what you put into it. That being said, I find there’s a fine line between having fun creating something and getting frustrated seeking perfection. If you’re not having fun then stop.
Different Styles of Painting
It’s worth noting that this is how I like to paint lightning. This is my style for it and there’s many more ways you could go about painting lightning bolts.
Maybe you’re not a fan of my style and that’s cool. I just want to show you how you could go about it and let you find a style that suits you.
An easy way to adjust the style of this is to use more circular motions and less angular ones like I used. My style is more on the cartoony side where realistically lightning isn’t so zig-zagged.
You could blend out the earlier layers more than I did and go wider to create more of an OSL (object source lighting) look to it as well. Basically, make the lightning glow outward more.
The possibilities are endless!
Oh, speaking of style, I do have an article on painting style that talks about this more. I won’t bore you right now 🙂
Conclusion
I really enjoy painting lightning. It’s random, chaotic, and you can’t paint it wrong. I hope to have shown you that and helped you feel confident enough to try painting your own. Just play with it, experiment, and have fun with it.
If you’re looking for more help with freehand painting (which this is), then check out my tutorial on that as well. You’ll find some more tips and advice there.
Lastly, with this technique you could paint a great power sword as well. Check out that tutorial if you’re
Specific Painting Techniques & Tutorials
Check out these other tutorials covering specific techniques.
