What happend to minipainting???

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spazzy

New member
I started painting a few years ago just to share my hubby\'s hobby, spend time with him. It didn\'t take long before I was hooked, and HAD to learn about how to be better. That\'s when I found CMON, and these folks are truly great. I was really embarrassed to post my first few minis because they were really crappy and I didn\'t own a digicam, but eventually I caught up with the rest of the world and bought a digi cam and decided to post something. I\'ve only posted two minis, and I only got tabletop scores, but I was also given a lot of encouragement, kudos for the things I did well, and advice for things I didn\'t do so well on.

One thing that has always gotten me is that I buy a mini and I see the great things somebody else has done with it, and I get discouraged. I\'ll get better with practice, but it\'s easy to get impatient. NMM is kind of daunting for me right now, so I think on my next mini I\'m going to try the metallic metal technique recently put up in the articles.

Good luck!
 
MPJ

MPJ

New member
15ish years ago I considered myself as good, or at least darn close to it, as most slayer sword winners and even entered GD painting contests with expectations of good results (had won many, many competitions before that). Unfortunately (for me only) the rest of the hobby got remarkably better and I did not. It happens.
 
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Euphorion

New member
Eventhought it´s been a while that I started this thread out of a feeling of slight frustration I just wanted to thank you guys for the nice feedback and knowing that I´m not the only one who has gone through a similar \"phase\".
:)

(Gosh, I sound like I used to be a alkohol addict an just went through detox...)
 
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hakoMike

Active member
Embrace mediocrity. It works for me.

On a more constructive note, things may have changed a bit since last you paint, but you also now have a very vocal and supportive community here who loves to help!
 
S

Springbok

New member
I don\'t think that mastering nmm and osl will make you win competitions, for example, i love Da Vinci\'s work and hate Van Gogh\'s, i also think that Da Vinci\'s painting were more advanced in blending and usage of light sources, but despite all of this, if i were a painting judge and they both entered a piece, i\'d be screwed! My view is, find what you are good at and become the best at it.:)
 
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Euphorion

New member
Sure it won´t make me win competitions and I just mentioned them as an example of techniques that are all the rage now.
People are doing wonderful things with them and one day even I might master them, too. :)

I just had to overcome my impatiencence and since I got started again, I finished four minis and I think that I´m getting constantly better (And I discovered the joys of scratchbuilding and sculpting. :bouncy:)
For a start I´m working on my basic skill and got some very beautiful Fenryll Barbarians that I´m looking forward to paint maybe even with NMM :rolleyes:
 
Dragonsreach

Dragonsreach

Super Moderator
Staff member
Originally posted by hakoMike
On a more constructive note, things may have changed a bit since last you paint, but you also now have a very vocal and supportive community here who loves to help!
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Oh where, please tell us?lollol

Honestly the best thing to do is to Paint for yourself. If you are trying to impress others instead of making yourself happy then you may be on a hiding to nothing.
Make sure that you are happy with each figure you paint. Remember Figures can be stripped and done over.

I\'d suggest that you find someone who\'s work you like and ask for tips on the aspects you want to be happy with.
I\'d say 90% of the people on here will respond. (Not saying favourably, mind you ;):) )
 
Amazon warrior

Amazon warrior

New member
Originally posted by Dragonsreach
Originally posted by hakoMike
On a more constructive note, things may have changed a bit since last you paint, but you also now have a very vocal and supportive community here who loves to help!
Click to expand...
Oh where, please tell us?lollol
Click to expand...
Oh DR, you\'re such a cynic! lol:p
 
Dragonsreach

Dragonsreach

Super Moderator
Staff member
Originally posted by Amazon warrior
Originally posted by Dragonsreach
Originally posted by hakoMike
On a more constructive note, things may have changed a bit since last you paint, but you also now have a very vocal and supportive community here who loves to help!
Click to expand...
Oh where, please tell us?lollol
Click to expand...
Oh DR, you\'re such a cynic! lol:p
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You just noticed?
;)
 
H

Helga

New member
Orginal gepostet von Euphorion
What is \"mini painting\"?
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@Euphorion, for me it\'s buying a miniature you like and bring it to coloured life as you see it in your mind.



On topic,
what happened: time happened, sophistication and style happened.

My first contact with miniatures was the 1992 Ral Partha Catalogue. There were colour photos of painted miniatures on first and last page and the centerfold that made me go aaaahhhh wow back then. Those would get an average vote of 3.5 now.
Painting Styles went from dirty dull \"realistic\" colours over shrill popart colours to superreal enhanced contrast. For some time simple base colouring and washing was all the rage. I remember a time painting metal not at all but polishing the mini (metal of course) with a needle to a shine and leaving it at that.
NMM is a fairly recent rage and seems to be on the decline today as metals are coming back. Blacklining: first a no no, then everybody and his dog did it and now it\'s tempered down to a deep shadow line to get a clean contrast between body parts.

What I wanted to say is: I don\'t paint as I did 15 years ago, and I think nobody here will. Viewed from today the old pieces are pityful. But they were ok then.

What you want to paint is how You see a miniature in Your mind as it should look like. If You can bring that off, to give it life, a character, you did good.
 
Dragonsreach

Dragonsreach

Super Moderator
Staff member
Originally posted by fieldarchy
yup an oh so true comment.

I\'m glad Aaron and I are honeymooners! :kiss:
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:cool:Aahhh:cool:

Supervike & Wiccanpony; Took you two a long time to spot that.
Besides it was too easy a joke.;)
 
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rocketandroll

New member
More to the point... I want to know how \'Open source lighting\' works.... do I post my half finished mini on CMON and let everyone else highlight it as they see fit? :)

Or are we talking about Object source lighting?


But seriously.... I remember vividly the first time I came on CMON about two and a half years ago... the last time I\'d been involved in mini painting was the late 1980\'s... as others have said, that was a very different time back then :)

When I saw how much techniques and the overall standard had improved over the intervening twenty years I did have a \"Oh my god, I don\'t know if I can compete with that\" moment... but it passes, I\'ve tried a lot of those techniques... some I\'ve got ok at, some I\'m still dismal at... but I\'ve focused on what I\'m good at and just kept working to improve the areas where I\'m not... now when I see those incredible minis I let them inspire me because, I\'ve already come halfway, so why can\'t I keep improving and one day get that good?


My Advice is to ignore the flashy techniques... as others have said, just get your blending up to scratch, play with some freehands to get your hand steady and learn what works... then once those elements are mastered, the rest is just a matter of chosing the right colours and applying them in the right order, nothing more.


Ben
 
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bullfrog

New member
I understand perfectly where you are coming from as I have only recently returned to miniature painting after 14 years.
Instead of giving up I got stuck into online tutorials, asking those who really can paint something wicked and spending hour after hour trying new techniques. One of the things I have found about this site is that most people are only too happy to give you a few pointers to get you going in the right direction. Take advice and try it at least once before discarding it as of being no use to you.

It is amazing how much you will improve in even a short time if you follow some of the newer techniques.
 
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Euphorion

New member
That´s so true and I´ve learned a lot from the tutorials and some people really put a lot of effort into them.
I hope that I can contribute to that and write a tutorial someday. :)
 
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