Sculpting : as necessary a skill as blending?

[minimaker]

Time needed for sculpting probably. Sandy Garrity once mentioned doing some 60 hours a week of sculpting. Doesn\'t leave much time for painting. And as Steve says, sculpting pays. Painting does not or far less. And with the large number of good painters around it\'s much easier to arrange for somebody else to paint your minis while you concentrate on making them.

By the way, I think it\'s better for sculptors to have some painting experience since that will make it easier for them to imagine what painters need and want. Interesting is of course that the different preferences lead to different philosophies. If I got it right, Steve Buddle likes his figures unclutered so he has a cleaner canvas, so to say to use. And you can see this in his figures. Rackham\'s figures are differently but they too take into account the painters. Their studio painters are involved at the design start of a miniature.

 

[MarkusTay]

Wow

That sucks. kind of takes the joy out of it, doesn\'t it? I once approached my LGS guy about buying him out when he retires. He said he liked me too much to do that. He asked \"do you like this hobby?\", I said yes and he replied \"then stay out of the business.\" I figure he\'s been there for 26 years, so I\'ll take his advice as words of wisdom.

I really should post some of my sculpts, but I rarely ever complete anything, maybe soon.

 

[minimaker]

\"That sucks\" You mean those 60 hours? Actually, Sandy doesn\'t seem to mind since she likes sculpting this much. And in her case she still has a fair bit of freedom in design and so on. And she gets to do fun things.
I\'m not sure what you mean with LGS but there may be a difference. Free-lance sculpting leaves you much more time to do what you like, sculpting, than for instance starting a miniature company. In the later case you have to deal with many things that will eat up your time like arranging bussiness deals, larger sales administration, casting, mailing, etc., etc. So you have less time for the fun things. The owner of Warcrow told me he had not had the time to sculpt anything for over a year.

 

[lahatiel]

LGS = Local Game Store

I think he\'d been thinking of taking over his neighborhood shop if/when the current propietor retired, but said proprietor was inferring that the time and effort involved in running the store would take all the fun out of the gaming aspect.

 

[shinjikun1]

I ran a store for over a year and a half, and it was never not fun. how many of you wish your hobby was your job? If anything, going to the shop everyday was inspiring. anyone i know who has worked in this environment have always grown in their hobby develpoment.

 

[Infidel Castro]

I painted for a year for Griffin and I had to stop. It was driving me mad. Still haven\'t recovered and i barely lift a brush these days lol

Not a positive influence...

 

[MarkusTay]

Originally posted by shinjikun1
I ran a store for over a year and a half, and it was never not fun. how many of you wish your hobby was your job? If anything, going to the shop everyday was inspiring. anyone i know who has worked in this environment have always grown in their hobby develpoment.

My friend Scott works at my Local Game Store, and he loves it. He says he\'d be hanging out there all the time anyway, and now he gets paid for it.

However, working there and owning the place are two VERY seperate things. As the owner you have to worry about making a profit, no just hanging out. That means you got to make all kinds of costly decisions about what lines to carry, and how much of each to order. My other LGS is in trouble because the guy went crazy with Void stuff, did an entire aisle of the crap. Now he has it on clearance for 30% off and it\'s still not moving at all. That is when the business stops being fun.

 

[Anatora]

Originally posted by MarkusTay


My friend Scott works at my Local Game Store, and he loves it. He says he\'d be hanging out there all the time anyway, and now he gets paid for it.

However, working there and owning the place are two VERY seperate things. As the owner you have to worry about making a profit, no just hanging out. That means you got to make all kinds of costly decisions about what lines to carry, and how much of each to order. My other LGS is in trouble because the guy went crazy with Void stuff, did an entire aisle of the crap. Now he has it on clearance for 30% off and it\'s still not moving at all. That is when the business stops being fun.

So true. My storefront ran for 5 years and my employees had the best time. On the other hand, I didn\'t find it so much fun. Being an employer differs more than you thnk than being an employee on all levels. On the positive side, I did have a lot of enjoyment as well, painting minis, running tournaments, major events on all holidays. Not all of it was bad, just a lot of stress. Since I do better under pressure and seem to be a glutton, we are re-opening this fall/winter. Someone shoot me...I have lost my mind.lol

 

[sniffles]

@Anatora - maybe you could tell us where you\'re located? I\'m sure a few CMONers would pay you a visit.

Back to the original topic - I don\'t think sculpting is necessary, but it\'s sure a plus if you\'re good at it. I wish I was. Then I wouldn\'t spend so much time painting more minis for the same RPG character - I\'d just sculpt myself a perfect one! lol

 

[minimaker]

Origineel geplaatst door MarkusTayIf you could do that, Ming-Hua, I would love to see his stuff.

Werner didn\'t bring any painted figures unfortunately but here are his winners in the Golden demon competitions:
http://demonwinner.free.fr/peintre.php?id_peintre=287

Bye, Ming-Hua