Its pointless

dazt2801

dazt2801

New member
After finally picking a brush up in anger after a 15 year break, my painting is hideous. I cant remember what to do apart from "put some paint on the brush".
I have read through all the articles on here to do with paiting tips, but it just becomes more apparent how rubbish I really am. My mind goes blank when I am looking at the mini. I just want to bury my head in the sand. I am my own worse critic and I am to ashamed to post any pics on here of the various mini's I have done so far. I think my 18 month old little girl could do better.
I need inspiration. I dont want to give up and let it beat me.
Theres my moan for the day. Start a new mini tonight after work and produce a master piece. Well hopefully. Already wrecked one model out of the honour guard.

Cheers Darren (a very desperate painter)
 
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SkelettetS

New member
well 15 years is one hell of a break to begin with, if you even can call it a break. i just wanna tell you that rome wasnt built in a day, its all about training and practisepractisepractise. and remember to take it easy and relax and have fun painting, thats the most important thing really.
 
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cheelfy

New member
Paint minis you like and check the minis on that website, it'll give you inspiration for sure. And as Skelly said you have to practise.
 
dazt2801

dazt2801

New member
I love looking at the minis on here for inspiration, but it also makes me think "god mine are crap." I am currently painting Canis Wolfborn but the more I look at the mini, the more I feel that it is slightly wrong. The wolf dont seem right, and how the hell has Canis not chopped the wolfs head off with his lightning claws as he holds the reins.
I am building up to painting Marneus Calgar. When I do get around to painting him, I will be putting up a WIP to show everyone what way my painting is going.
I was in the Army for quite a while and I neer got chance to do any paiting. Now at the tender age of 31, I have a family and sit at home in my slippers and cardigan every night, I am able to spend time painting.

Cheers all Darren
 
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supervike

Super Moderator
I know the feeling Darren. It's not at all like 'riding a bike' where it just comes back to you. It's almost as if you retrain yourself after every painting break (and at my age, even after only a couple of weeks).

I get very frustrated at my painting, but I also have to remember that it's not just my output that makes this hobby so rewarding for me. It's the entire process, finding the mini, buying the mini, prepping it, and eventually painting it. It's that quality time spent that keeps me going.
 
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bodiscool

Member
i think you should take hart that evry great painter on here went through what your going through.
getting better is baby steps dont compare your paintwork to others compare against your
last paint job and work up as long as your improving then dont stress it.
 
Wyrmypops

Wyrmypops

New member
I've found a break away from the painting lark can be a double edged doohickey. There's the disheartening skill lose to contend with, but mitigated by ones previous plateau being burst through as old limitations can be cast aside as the fresh journey replaces them with new maturity/techniques/painting set up.
The getting-back-into-it stage is a good time to absorb a load of new tricks. Well worth a meander through the articles/sticky thread. After a sizable break myself, the same did a lot for me.

You know what you could do before, and know that techniques are just skills to learn and relearn, and know that practice is what drags them into something special. You should know, absolutely, that your painting turned to one of those stock market line graphs is gonna be a line speeding skywards.

To deal with that potentially soul crushing skill loss, I'd suggest the walking before running malarky. Find your feet with the easy stuff like basecoating. Getting the consistency right and getting comfortable with the brush as you take the paint up to the edges. Then getting further into the rhythym for the fancier moves, have some spare "bitz" to try them out on first. A sprue of shields, side of a horse, a dragon wing, whatever old crap is kicking around, try out the trickier things on them, like a flesh mix or highlighting tone so that when you take that to the mini you know it'll be right. It's just a few minutes work but what it does for the confidence and competence could be well worth it.

/salute
 
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Matt Cexwish

Member
How about a Painting Class then...?... There you will learn all the "up to date" Techniques and draw a lot of motivation if you follow the instruction of others in order to rethink your own painting...

In England, there may be some Workshop by Ben Komets and maaaaaybe me in Spring / Summer 2011... :)... Hope to see you there...
 
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dogfacedboy uk1

New member
I sympathise mate, I too get frustrated when I look at the great painters on here and see how far i have to go. Its easy to get excited, try something you see that has been really well executed and your own attempt pales in comparison, thus bringing on the feelings of despair....

I notice you live in Plymouth, why not pop into the games workshop store there and do some painting with the staff. I will be making an attempt to get into GW Plymouth a bit more myself to force myself to paint without distraction. I live 20 miles away in Liskeard so it means I will have to sit there and actually get on with it. Maybe a good way to motivate myself more. If you can get in there during the weekdays (they don't like people painting on the weekend in case they run lots of games or events) maybe we could meet down there and share our woes.....

dfb
 
Einion

Einion

New member
Everyone gets rusty after a long break, everyone, and the longer the break the worse it is. So don't think you're alone!

Probably a good idea to sort of recreate the developing stages again: start simple, don't try anything too fancy, keep the number of colours and stages to a minimum. Thin the paint only if necessary to get it to go down smoothly, it's easier to control paint with a little body compared to when it's very thin and transparent (where you want the brush just damp, not wet). Once you've done a few things at that level, bring in something else like blending, layering, more colours or whatever.

Last tip, finish stuff - no matter how bad it is you can look back on it in weeks or months and you'll have a concrete idea of how much you've improved (and you will). And don't feel that the early pieces are wasted, in due course you can strip the primer and paint off pretty easily to repaint them at a higher level.

Einion
 
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Torn blue sky

New member
I hear yah Dazt, I'd never get anything done either while I was in! There's a few blokes on here still in the forces or ex. Best advice is to pick up the brushes and crack on with it. I'm still having moments where I pick something up again and think "Man, that looks shit...". Just keep going with it, eventually you'll surprise yourself! As people have said, paint something that interests you, usually does it for me when i'm in a inspirational black hole. Most important thing is to have fun with it. Yeah there's a lot of stuff on here that'll be better than yours, that gap just narrows with time. It's not a competition after all, and you need to bear in mind this site houses some of the best mini painters in the world ;)
 
dazt2801

dazt2801

New member
Cheers all. I dont know how to put this but I would feel a bit daft going into Games Workshop to learn how to paint. I take my models into my work place over the weekend. 12 hours of being on my own means I can focus. I got some base coats put onto the Chapter Champion from Marneus Calgar's honour guard. Painted all the gold areas calthran brown. Took a few attempts to get the paint consistency correct. I will next on a 50/50 mix of Burnished gold and calthan brown. I will slowly blend up to just mithril silver. Hopefully this will give me that kick in the right direction. I will put some pics up on saturday night while I am doing a night shift.
The next model I am going to do is Chapter Master Gabriel Seth. That model really inspires me. I dont know why.
One last thing. Does anyone else think the Canis Wolfborn is a bit weird.

Cheers Darren
 
Wyrmypops

Wyrmypops

New member
I like it, but yeah, he's gotten more than a few negative comments. If I could change anything on, I'd have the fur more, natural looking, wavy, as it is it looks a bit too finely ordered as from a lazy sculpt job. Now i look at it again, the head is looking weird, hardly lupine. The proportions don't seem as attuned to a wolf as to other animals.
 
BarstoolProphet

BarstoolProphet

New member
I refuse to let the fact that there are better painters get me down.
There is always someone better.
I'm better than some, worse than others. I like to think that keeping at it makes the number of people I'm better than grow.
Now, photography, on the other hand... No amount of practice seems to enable me to take a good photo of anything other
than my fingertip. As an extreme close-up.
 
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Torn blue sky

New member
Posting pics up here is a decent way to get feedback, Daz. People can pick up on what's going "wrong" and offer helpful tips and insight.
In regard to Canis Wolfborn...I hate it. Plain and simple. It just looks daft! I absolutely love Space Wolves but the Wolfborn model is just bloody horrendous, i'd never touch it, personally.
 
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IdofEntity

New member
My advice?

Don't compete with the guys on this site. Don't compete with the guys at your local hobby shop.

Compete with yourself. If you can say you did better on this mini than the last one, then you've got every reason to be happy. If it was worse, look at what you did differently and don't do it again.

And as much as I hate to say this, don't read every bloody article on this site. My head began to swim just trying to implement all of the techniques described. You've got to experiment on your own and find out what works for you, and you need to understand the reason a certain technique works before you can use it. I'm an average painter at best, but I've gotten better than I was. Just don't be a shmuck like me and start with expensive models when you can practice on far cheaper ones. :p
 
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daviessa

New member
you can buy tesco nail polish remover and dip the model into it and get a nylon brush form toolstation and itll come out like brand new. :)
 
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