Review of Miniature Mentor\'s Jennifer Haley master class.
I own a whole series of painting tutorials from various companies/artists and thought I would post a review of the latest offering from Miniature Mentor. If the feedback is that these reviews are useful I’ll write some more on the other tutorials I own.
Miniature Mentor is a company that is specialising in working with some of the best miniature artists worldwide to assemble a collection of tutorials covering many different aspects of the miniature painting hobby. They offer two purchase methods, firstly you can simply purchase the DVD/Download, or secondly you can subscribe paying an upfront fee and then smaller monthly fee for full access, currently I just purchase the ones I feel I need but the collection is growing rapidly and the monthly option may well cost in for people who have yet to purchase any.
Miniature Mentor kindly gave me permission to post some still pics from the video to help illustrate the review. All pictures are copyright Miniature Mentor.
This review is for the newest of their tutorials, the Jennifer Haley master class on Monochrome miniature painting, while the tutorial covers the subject of Monochrome painting (painting a mini entirely in a similar colour scheme, e.g. greys or browns) there are many good techniques used and it is still a worthwhile tutorial even if you’re not interested in Monochrome painting.
All Miniature Mentor tutorials follow a similar format, a Narrator will describe what the painter is doing as they paint various stages of the mini, each stage of the mini is split into its own section, for example cloak, sword, face, etc.
The Narrator will question and discuss the techniques the artist is using, effectively probing the artist for tips and techniques and comparing and contrasting their methods with other artists. Miniature Mentor have a particular advantage having dealt with many of the top artists already they can compare the techniques Jennifer uses with those they saw in other tutorials.
The Miniature Mentor DVD’s include very good still slides alongside the tutorial to highlight particular areas (see below).
The Tutorial starts with a conversation with the artist that typically covers their background, previous work history, painting working area, favourite paints/brushes, and the lighting of their work area. This helps to build up a background on the artist and also provides useful tips on setting up your own paint area/supplies.
The Tutorial also covers the way the artist paints, the sorts of palette they use, how much they dilute their paint, the Jennifer Halley tutorial also covers the use of Flow Improver and includes a useful section on her choice of paints and brushes.
The majority of the video is the coverage of the various sections of the miniature, starting with the cloak in Jennifer’s tutorial. This is where you really pick up the technique the artist uses and ways to improve your own painting.
The video is produced to a very high standard, and the picture below illustrates a typical close up shot of the mini as it’s painted, these close up shots makes up about 90% of the tutorial.
The tutorial moves onto cover the other sections of the mini and in the end you will see the full mini painted, stage by stage. The picture below illustrates one of the tips Jennifer provides in using a wash to help show the areas of the mini that need to be shaded.
In conclusion as Miniature Mentor continue to produce their series of Tutorials the production values increase, they’ve learnt from and improved on each previous Tutorial and the Jennifer Halley master class really demonstrates how good a video tutorial on painting a mini can be.
The specific topic, Monochrome, might not be something everyone is interested in but the tutorial actually covers much more than that. The use of a readily available miniature means that if you want to you could “paint along” to the tutorial.
The only downside in the Jennifer Haley tutorial is the lack of any display of Jennifer’s other work, it would be nice if a small showcase section was added to hear the artist talk about some of their favourite work, what they learned most their painting their favourite mini’s.
The cost is very reasonable at $25 (£13), the download is straight forward and the video is encoded as a highly professional .mp4 file that will play in quick time or VLC player. The total duration for the video is around 3 hours.
Having watched all of the current miniature mentor series as well as three other DVD’s from other artists I can highly recommend the Miniature Mentor Jennifer Haley DVD.
You can find the Miniature Mentor site here
I would be grateful for feedback on this review, if people find it useful I’ll try and post one every few weeks as I work my way through my collection.
I own a whole series of painting tutorials from various companies/artists and thought I would post a review of the latest offering from Miniature Mentor. If the feedback is that these reviews are useful I’ll write some more on the other tutorials I own.
Miniature Mentor is a company that is specialising in working with some of the best miniature artists worldwide to assemble a collection of tutorials covering many different aspects of the miniature painting hobby. They offer two purchase methods, firstly you can simply purchase the DVD/Download, or secondly you can subscribe paying an upfront fee and then smaller monthly fee for full access, currently I just purchase the ones I feel I need but the collection is growing rapidly and the monthly option may well cost in for people who have yet to purchase any.
Miniature Mentor kindly gave me permission to post some still pics from the video to help illustrate the review. All pictures are copyright Miniature Mentor.
This review is for the newest of their tutorials, the Jennifer Haley master class on Monochrome miniature painting, while the tutorial covers the subject of Monochrome painting (painting a mini entirely in a similar colour scheme, e.g. greys or browns) there are many good techniques used and it is still a worthwhile tutorial even if you’re not interested in Monochrome painting.
All Miniature Mentor tutorials follow a similar format, a Narrator will describe what the painter is doing as they paint various stages of the mini, each stage of the mini is split into its own section, for example cloak, sword, face, etc.
The Narrator will question and discuss the techniques the artist is using, effectively probing the artist for tips and techniques and comparing and contrasting their methods with other artists. Miniature Mentor have a particular advantage having dealt with many of the top artists already they can compare the techniques Jennifer uses with those they saw in other tutorials.
The Miniature Mentor DVD’s include very good still slides alongside the tutorial to highlight particular areas (see below).
The Tutorial starts with a conversation with the artist that typically covers their background, previous work history, painting working area, favourite paints/brushes, and the lighting of their work area. This helps to build up a background on the artist and also provides useful tips on setting up your own paint area/supplies.
The Tutorial also covers the way the artist paints, the sorts of palette they use, how much they dilute their paint, the Jennifer Halley tutorial also covers the use of Flow Improver and includes a useful section on her choice of paints and brushes.
The majority of the video is the coverage of the various sections of the miniature, starting with the cloak in Jennifer’s tutorial. This is where you really pick up the technique the artist uses and ways to improve your own painting.
The video is produced to a very high standard, and the picture below illustrates a typical close up shot of the mini as it’s painted, these close up shots makes up about 90% of the tutorial.
The tutorial moves onto cover the other sections of the mini and in the end you will see the full mini painted, stage by stage. The picture below illustrates one of the tips Jennifer provides in using a wash to help show the areas of the mini that need to be shaded.
In conclusion as Miniature Mentor continue to produce their series of Tutorials the production values increase, they’ve learnt from and improved on each previous Tutorial and the Jennifer Halley master class really demonstrates how good a video tutorial on painting a mini can be.
The specific topic, Monochrome, might not be something everyone is interested in but the tutorial actually covers much more than that. The use of a readily available miniature means that if you want to you could “paint along” to the tutorial.
The only downside in the Jennifer Haley tutorial is the lack of any display of Jennifer’s other work, it would be nice if a small showcase section was added to hear the artist talk about some of their favourite work, what they learned most their painting their favourite mini’s.
The cost is very reasonable at $25 (£13), the download is straight forward and the video is encoded as a highly professional .mp4 file that will play in quick time or VLC player. The total duration for the video is around 3 hours.
Having watched all of the current miniature mentor series as well as three other DVD’s from other artists I can highly recommend the Miniature Mentor Jennifer Haley DVD.
You can find the Miniature Mentor site here
I would be grateful for feedback on this review, if people find it useful I’ll try and post one every few weeks as I work my way through my collection.
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