Painting masterclass

[cybersquig]

Hey all,

I\'ve been asked to run a painting masterclass in gw cheltenham on saturday - which is fine, but I wondered what you think I should concentrate on? It\'s invite only, so they\'ll all be able to basecoat/shade/highlight efficiently, though some recap of the basics wouldn\'t hurt. I\'m a lecturer by trade so I\'m not fussed about how to teach it, what I\'m interested in is if you have had experiences of such things and what you\'ve found useful, if you have any thoughts about good techniques to demo and support, or any other advice you can offer that might help.

Let me know what you think, I have the opportunity to really fire up some people for the hobby, it\'d be nice to do it well!

James

 

[rocketandroll]

I guess it depends on your audience.... are they likely to be gamers looking to improve their painting for game models, or would be demon winners looking to do something really clever?

I guess that will determine what you try to teach, there\'s no point teaching NMM or wet blending to gamers who can\'t spend more than an hour or so on each model.


Ben

 

[green stuff]

Since it\'s your trade, I won\'t go into the importance of planning out the event, but I will emphasize on the point of having them paint the same mini. They don\'t all need to use the same colors, but it\'ll be helpful for them to mesure how they progress during the class compared to you and their colleagues.

At least that\'s what I did for my wife\'s first painting lessons. I had her pick a mini that pleased her and I prepped the \"clones\" in advance (but you might want to have your students prep theirs as it\'s also a good learning exercice). This is what came out of her first painting lesson (hers on the left, mine on the right) :

Also, it can help if you have extra time to bring some of your other minis to show more advanced technics.

And finally, make sure there is good lighting .

Good luck and take pics to post back here .

 

[cybersquig]

lol the one thing I can\'t teach is wet blending!

I\'ll get on the clones thing, it\'s a great idea. I\'ll call the guys and have them prep them beforehand.

Oh, and it\'ll be a mix of gamers who want to up their painting game for competitions and those who just paint for competitions but aren\'t up to gd standard.

 

[painterboyroy]

Green Stuff spot on with same model for all. I managed to run evening classes some years ago in Portsmouth Uk teaching miniature painters and had a range of sci-fi fantasy historic painters of all levels. But had them all paint plastic Bretonnian archers first. Go through basics as peeps will say they base, shade and highlight, and in my experience they do but poorly. main thing i concentrated on was neat painting. a unit painted in just base colours but all very neat looks a whole lot better than untidy paint work with highlights blobbed on.

Good idea is to look at what they have recently painted to get an idea of there standards, as some will think they are better than they are.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[Amazon warrior]

Originally posted by painterboyroy
Good idea is to look at what they have recently painted to get an idea of there standards, as some will think they are better than they are.

Good luck and have fun.

True that. Not mini-related but I used to help out at the local riding school and supervised on hacks through the hills. You\'d get people saying \"When can we gallop?\" as they wobbled along holding the reins wrong, toes pointed groundwards. When asked about their previous riding experience, they\'d often turn out to have ridden only once or twice before. Admittedly, you can do far more mischief as a novice out-of-control rider than painter, but some people get really arsey if you imply that their skill is anything less than awesome.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by cybersquig
Oh, and it\'ll be a mix of gamers who want to up their painting game for competitions and those who just paint for competitions but aren\'t up to gd standard.

Difficult situation here you\'ll be teaching to two levels of expectation.
Try to get all the gamers to sit together and all the GD Hopeful\'s together that way you\'ll be able to try to demonstrate slightly differing levels easier.

 

[boristfrog]

Sounds like fun.

I ran a beginners class on a Sunday afternoon during the holidays at our local GD. I had under14 kids and 1 dad - pretty much all beginners for 4 hours and it was hectic.

Obviously I can only teach real basics but this was fine for the audience. My main aim was to get them to stop painting straight from the pot!
(Actually there was significant improvement from all of them during the session)

They all painted the same imperial guard model which were primed ready for the event. I think this was really important as it was also not part of their armies and so they could paint it any colour without being stuck with their usual scheme.

I would recommend an assistant though if you have lots of people - as I guess you know from teaching, you can only be in one place at a time.

Best of luck

 

[cybersquig]

right,

got a bunch of marine/d.eldar and fellowship plastics, I\'ll do a \'how to do the basics but well\' part, a real metallics & nmm part and a feather blending part (i can\'t wet blend for toffee). I won\'t need an assistant, though I could have one if necessary, and I\'ll make sure they\'re bringing along something they\'ve done recently, and that they\'ll be painting the same model each. I\'ll set them critiquing each others work and then go around as they\'re set off on basecoating etc.

sweet! thanks guys and girls! pics to follow...

James

 

[evil tendencies]

Make sure they know how to primer a mini. I teach a twice-monthly class, and it is amazing to see how many experienced (I mean decades here) painters use one solid coat of automotive primer.

 

[cybersquig]

it seems that I\'d have to stop using 1 coat primer if I was going to preach to the learners about it...

 

[Infidel Castro]

Make them paint it on in three thin layers, aye!

 

[ScottRadom]

Originally posted by cybersquig
it seems that I\'d have to stop using 1 coat primer if I was going to preach to the learners about it...

Okay I guess it\'s safe to come out of the one-coat closet now. I had actually sent a PM to Evil Tendencies regarding using a one coat primer because I fall into the lump of 20yrs painting figs and doing the good ole one shot primer approach. I didn\'t know if I should be embarrased for doing something so basic \"incorrectly\" or not.

But now that it\'s out in the open can I ask what different approach do people take to priming models? I have always just gone with the spray and then brush a coat of whatever over top.

What\'s the advantage of another technique?

 

[freakinacage]

Originally posted by evil tendencies
Make sure they know how to primer a mini. I teach a twice-monthly class, and it is amazing to see how many experienced (I mean decades here) painters use one solid coat of automotive primer.