Time spent painting?

[montka]

Hey guys,

Just interested to know how many hours (approx) you spent painting your best pieces - it seems the more I improve at painting the more ludicrous an amount of time I have to spend hunched over the painting table to get a figure done!

Also I\'d like to know whether you use thin paint for the base coats - this seems to be one of the most time consuming stages, but essential to get a nice smooth effect without clogging any detail?

Cheers!
John

 

[GreenOne]

Hi!

Let me point you to a thread I brought up about this a few weeks ago^^
Painting on chrono.

I feel about 20 hours for a nice character makes sense, mor than that and it better be for a comp. or something.

This is a \'thinner\', circle, so I guess everyone will advise you to thin whenever possibe. Basecoating with thick paint can only ruins the fine details, before you even get started.

Hope this helps

 

[Rodnik]

My Atlanta GD entry had roughly 150 hours in it---that includes everything from open package to last brush stroke.
Ironically, the highest scoring piece I have on CMON has less than 10 good hours in it.

My most significant painting breakthrough was on a piece that I invested about 90 hours in---just doing and redoing until I got it \"right\".

 

[Legacy Account]

I have a notoriously short attention span. Any more than a few hours - one or two sittings for most minis - and the thing doesn\'t get finished.

I\'m building up some reserves of willpower to try and produce something better soon.....

 

[Naukhel]

Four years, three months, two days, 11 hours, 23 minutes and 17 seconds.

And that will usually get me a 5 rating.

If I want a 7, my grandchildren will be finishing the piece for me, at some distant time in the future.

 

[Dragon Forge Design]

Originally posted by montka
Hey guys,

Just interested to know how many hours (approx) you spent painting your best pieces - it seems the more I improve at painting the more ludicrous an amount of time I have to spend hunched over the painting table to get a figure done!

Also I\'d like to know whether you use thin paint for the base coats - this seems to be one of the most time consuming stages, but essential to get a nice smooth effect without clogging any detail?

Cheers!
John

My Biggest project and best piece ever.. well over 400 but that was converting/sculpting and model work too plus the painting.

As for thinning all your paints.. almost all paints need thinning and its better tio build a base coat up over a few layers than trying to do it on one coat.The extra time take.. which isnt much makes a world of differance.

As to how much to thin it.. well thats eventually up to you and your preferance.

 

[Stuntylover]

I am a journeyman painter who has not painted for competition since 1988 (GW Golden Demon). I settled into a routine which involves painting for three hours each day. At the end of the week I will have 4 or 5 28mm pieces (3 if they are mounted) finished and based, so my average time for a foot figure is about 4 to 5 hours.

I have been painting for 36 years so my standard is quite high due to constant practice and study. I have lost the desire to paint for competition as it is too time consuming. I would rather paint 20 good figures than one great figure as most viewers are not discerning enough to know the difference.

As to paint thickness, the only answer is thin the paints and go for a smooth base coat - the essence of a good finish. You can add but you can\'t take away.

 

[Wren]

I usually feel like I paint with glacial speed. I really only have one speed, though I\'d like to be able to learn how to paint faster and less well to do tabletop stuff. The length of time seems strongly related to the number of different coloured areas on the model. Which makes sense, I suppose. So my fastest mini was about 6 hours for a little snotling that was mostly just skin and loincloth, and I think my longest was about 35 hours for my barbarian with wolf, which was my first go of weapon/armour NMM. That is just painting, I track painting time but not prep.

I do feel as if I\'ve been getting very slightly faster lately. It does tick me off that basecoating can take me so long, which is less overly thinned paint than having to go slowly on later areas so as not to get paint on finished parts. I do thin my basecoats so they\'ll flow better.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by montka
Just interested to know how many hours (approx) you spent painting your best pieces...

It depends on size, complexity, the colours used (and if something goes wrong )

Originally posted by montka
it seems the more I improve at painting the more ludicrous an amount of time I have to spend hunched over the painting table to get a figure done!

Yep, that\'s about right.

Originally posted by montka
Also I\'d like to know whether you use thin paint for the base coats - this seems to be one of the most time consuming stages, but essential to get a nice smooth effect without clogging any detail?

Depends on the colour/paint - some things cover better than others. I might try to use paint at around the consistency of cream for basecoats but sometimes it\'s better to build up coats of a thinner mix.

Einion

 

[RussianDragon]

max time painting- for about 30 hours..
and max time constructing-constructing shadowsword -60hours

 

[StarFyre]

my times varies....

The 3 best things I\'ve done:

My current GD entry I\'m working on is at 248 hours ...it\'s done but I want to add a few tiny things to it and touch up/correct some stuff, so about another 10 hours will go into it this weekend in that and gluing it together, which I am affraid to do, since I have to make sure it\'s aligned properly.

Azaroth in my gallery took like 25 hours around, and my engine of the gods is from 150 to 175 somewhere I think...

Sanjay

 

[MacBrown]

What is the minimum time you will consider to sit down and paint in one session?

If I can\'t spend at least three hours in one sitting, I won\'t bother. So I generally only paint at the weekend. I know I\'m bad \':|~\'

What do the rest of you do?

 

[GreenOne]

Over the weekend is easy, I\'m not an \'extra curricular guy\' so I can line up 5-6 hours a day without bothering.
I paint as much as I can, and hope to keep that up.
A good trick is to place all my stuff ready for painting as soon as I\'m home for a while and try to paint between coffees, supper and the \'evening activities\'.
I figure what I\'ll do before sitting, mix only enough color for one or two steps, depending on how long I\'m gonna sit.
So this rounds up about 3 hours a day and can make interesting progress within a week, enough to keep the motivation up

 

[Rodnik]

I\'ll spend as little as 10 minutes sometimes. I\'ll run through the studio, sculpt/paint a quick piece and then go on about my business.

On weekends, provided my schedule is not full of business stuff (and I try to make sure it isn\'t), I\'ll spend 5 or 6 hours Friday evening, 10-15 hours on Saturday, and 10-15 hours on Sunday. I try to get in at least 20-30 hours per week, if at all possible. I prefer 40-50.

Alot of this time is \"practice\"---trying new stuff, etc. Out of the last one mini I completed and publicly shared, I have 5 or 6 that are either partial or already stripped clean. I\'ll dunk a mini and never think twice about it.

As a good example, I spent 15 hours last weekend teaching myself how to sculpt a good rope. Basically just doing it over and over again.

When I learned to paint eyes---I painted eyes on the same miniature over and over again (over the underlying paint for that added complexity). To the tune of about 150 times. The great thing is that it took me exactly two days to become so confident with eyes that I can paint them at any point up to the completion of the mini---without fretting in the least.

I guess that\'s a bit long-winded, so I\'ll stop now----point is, I spend alot of time in the studio, but 2/3rds of my time is focused on improving. The other 1/3rd is all that\'s focused on completing a work.
I\'m not what you\'d call a naturally talented guy---so, I try to work a little harder to make up for my lack of creative vision..

Kev

 

[elouchard]

Best peices are usually 6-12 hours depending on the amount of freehand. I try not to get into the 20\'s or the selling price/hour drops rapidly and I just get frustrated with buyers. There is a 30 hour piece, Nekhar, in my gallery but that one was a bitch with all the details.

A good amount for me is 3-4 hours, which allows for the application of decent NMM, blending and face - or nice metallics. The key is to do details right the first time and stop blending when things looks good enough. A half-hour session is fine for me, as long as I get something right in that time, like eyes or a cloak.