Where do you paint the best?

[Chrispy]

I was just thinking today, sometimes your work is based on you environment. Take me for example, I used to paint on my very dusty and cluttered desk. My room\'s on the south side of the house and it gets hot there quick. But, if I have my fan on, the paint dries on my brush before it reaches the mini!

Recently, I\'ve pulled out an old folding coffee table, and set it up in the living room. It\'s cooler there, and now I can watch TV. This is not distracting, so long as what your watching isn\'t. Once I tried to watch Saving Private Ryan on the DvD with surround sound... what can be more distracting than to be put in a warzone? So usually, I try to shy away from really hardcore action flicks while I\'m working.

So, here\'s my question of the day: Where do you work best and why?

 

[keshley]

Family Room

I also had experienced painting in the living room but it always gets hot fast because my house is facing west, so it gets the evening sun - ugh Plus Denver has a very dry climate so my paints dry quickly - which is very annoying

Then I moved to the family room which is roomy, quiet and it has swamp cooler.. yay! Now the room is humid enough to keep my paint wet for a while. I\'m a happy camper da di da di da da :bouncy:

 

[halon]

Where do you paint best?

I will paint at the dining room table if I have friends over doing the same thing. Instant critiquing can be Very helpful. My overall painting skill went up ten fold when I had other people around and could see how people were doing things. Unfortunately it has a ceiling fan over the table and the light isn\'t as good.
But other than that I set up a table in my office with three desk lamps, paint organizers and other supplies so that I can get the best quality from my work.
Another good side effect is my computer is right beside the work space so I can go online and quickly compare what I\'ve done to other well done pieces.

 

[Coyote]

A desk in my \"Office\"

I live in a two bedroom apartment with my girlfriend. I\'ve converted one of the bedrooms into an \"office\"

It has 3 desks, a bookshelf, a wall of shelving above my workdesk and a bunch of shelves in the closet.

1 desk has my computer, another my painting station, and another is \"emtpy\", which means \"covered in junk\"

My girlfriend actually preferred when we painted together at the kitchen table, but I didn\'t like the two options that left me

A: Leave everything out
B: Move everything back and forth when I want to paint.

I should figure out a way for us both to paint though, as she barely paints anymore.

As it is, it\'s a pretty sweet setup. I\'d rather be in a basement though, with more workspace and a good venting system for spraying/airbrushing.

However, 2 bedroom apartments don\'t have basements, garages, or any of those things houses have.

 

[Lowrianne]

My husband and I took the largest of the 2 bedrooms and made it into the Geek-Room. We have his computer, my computer, his gaming supplies, my painting table and my spinning and weaving stuff.

Coyote, why don\'t you clear off the other desk for your girlfriend? Then you can paint together again.

 

[sivousplay]

My wife is a very tolerant soul ... I own the kitchen table. We have a kitchen nook which is in a bay shaped room w/ windows all around ... lots of good natural light in the daytime (and for taking pics). Kids are playing, meals are being cooked, TVs on in the next room, but by painting there I at least feel like I\'m still part of the family.

jim

 

[Coyote]

Because I wouldn\'t want to paint at that table. It\'s right infront of the window, which means that you usually have more light behind your mini then infront, which makes it hard to see and causes eyestrain.

I\'ve been discussing some things we can do. We\'re going to try moving the table over and see if that works. She doesn\'t want to move much stuff until we replace the floor.

I\'ll need more desklamps.

Coyote

 

[dak]

i have a work bench desk setup in the bedroom havent been doing much painting lately but i will start some soon we have a new baby she\'s in there to so its kinda hard anyway i have light at my back during the day also i use a ott light wich is one of those color corrective bulbs i must say one of the best lighting tool i have ever bought i also have a swivel chair with arm rests my setup is pretty comfortable :cool

 

[Bent Brush]

For along time it was the coffee table.

Then the kitchen table.

Finaly I got my own space and guess what? I had to move.

Now I am using a friends paint table.

 

[Jana Wang]

Right now I have a setup at the kitchen table. (My house, my rules, mom!) It stays there year \'round so I don\'t have to worry about packing up and moving it around. I have a desk lamp for lighting because the kitchen is really dark. My husband has the other side of the table so we can sit and paint together and talk.

I paint best in natural light. I used to have a table at a sunny window, and I\'d just turn the blinds so it wasn\'t in my face. The light would be bright enough, but diffused.

I wish I had better natural light now, but hey....

The only painting I do at the game shop is basecoating. The overhead lighting is good, but not good enough for the detail work I like to add.

 

[Pookie]

i\'m lucky, i have a huge desk in my bedroom, and a gooseneck desklamp. so i have enough room for my yaffa crate of roleplaying books, a cd rack, and still have a ton of room for my minis. i have all i need in my room: my sterio, my unique decorating (a vampire skull wearing bunny ears, a huge map of the forgotton realms, and an autographed picture of nell campbell, for starters) and about as much privacy as i\'m going to get in a 2-bedroom apartment. even with my tons of room, i do need to figure out some way of displaying my minis so they take up less room.

 

[nadinbrzezinski]

Right at the moment I am painting in the living room, since that way I can be with my husband. It is rather hot at the official painting room and when he is not in, quite lonely.

The other place is the game shop, where I usually get to do it while teaching kids how to paint as well. Hey the price of the lesson is that they will teach others someday.

Now can I teach patience as well?



Nadin

 

[Triumph]

I used to have my hobby room. Big desk, well lit, everything had its place. Then my wife got pregnant and so went my hobby room. It became a nursery. I then moved to my office downstairs but with my computer there and all my work stuff my painting area was quite small.
I finally convinced my wife to let me build a workbench area in the garage. not perfect but QUIET, organized and well lit with natural light. The only drawback is the garage has really sh*tty insulation. A project for a weekend in the future.

 

[Thri-Keen Priest]

STATION!

I was working in the dining room as the light is good, but I always needed to move everything when I have guests over.

Now I have a *very* crowded desk in my bedroom. A large window is behind and to the right of me, which is perfect for a left-hander! Direct sunlight (the one true perfect light) shines in around 2-5pm. \"That\'s the golden time of day...\" Perfect for doing faces and other fine details. I always take models out into the yard to spray them with primer or sealer, to prevent breathing it. But for filing and buffing, I always hike up into the mountains; metal dust does *not* belong in my house, much less my or my dog\'s lungs!

TKP

 

[VonStrom]

Painting room

Well I started in my living room, so I could sit there while the wife was watching TV. But when the guys came over I had to move everything to the dining room, Lamps paints tool kit, mixing pallettes, and of course at 11 pm I dont wanna clean it up so Id get in trouble in the am when the mrs came down stairs to see my mess.
So we changed the basement around. It was just a room to play in. we took down my permantan gaming table and made several convertable temp tables and I have my desk with LOTS of light along with a long picnic style folding table if the guys want to paint with me. Which is a very good thing. I agree having other people with you helps with the mini coming out better in the long run. Not to mention I love to talk and having bodies there while Im painting means I dont get up to go bug my wife instead of painting...

 

[kahoolin]

I have always painted in my small cluttered bedroom, but it has a good scource of daylight, and i think thats the best thing to aid your painting, other light can tend to \'alter\' the colour. I still need a bigger room tho.

 

[Dragonsreach]

I am lucky in that I have a dedicated small bedroom which is an offshoot of GamesWorkshop and other miniature production companies storage areas. I have more figures than can be painted for an army or ten and my wife has stated that she will turn into a Pineapple if I ever finish all my figures.
I use an old dining table ruined by my dog, then a puppy, chewing on one of the corners all of the legs and three of the four chairs.
This room has an east facing window and the table faces north. I use a canterlevered desk lamp (colour corrected?!) and always have the overhead triple lights on.
The table is 4 feet x 3.5 feet and I still end up painting in a space less than a foot by 10 inches. The rest is given over to general clutter, primed mini\'s, basing materials and allsorts of stuff.
I\'ve got two built in cupboards full of gaming stuff, ruined buildings, 5 (nearly6) 40K armies and several hundred science fiction books, batman graphic novels and photography books.

To display I have a purpose built display cabinet mounted on the wall facing me, It\'s currently missing two glass shelves so a lot of my better figures are all mixed up. (Imperial Guard on the same shelf as Beastmen.)

To cap this all off whenever I am painting my Dog comes and lies guard behind me. In order to cover her snoring, Which she learnt off me apparently, I generally have my CD walkman switched on and plugged into my ears. Which is another excuse not to hear my wife telling me to cut the lawn.
If I\'m lucky and can get away from work at a reasonable time I can get a couple of hours painting at night - Yeah like that happens once in a blue moon - otherwise it\'s Saturday afternoon and most of Sunday, with the occaisional days leave thrown in for good measure.
(Must admit during the christmas break I painted on Boxing day (26th), 27th, 28th and New Years day.)
Oh yes I almost forgot to mention that the windowsill is the home of two 10 inch resin busts of The Batman and the Joker. Both have been tidied up ready for painting , but like Golden Deamon keeps getting in the way, (The busts are Four years old now and I give them a birthday cake every year.)
There are times I tidy up the room but that always uncovers something I had forgotten I\'d bought to paint and then the circle starts again. Or is that a spiral?

As it is my wife is looking a me very strangely since I bought some Confontation and Foundry Female figures. I have tried to explain that I need to practise my flesh tones? But she doesn\'t seem convinced, I don\'t understand why?

So please remember you\'re never alone when you have a miniature to paint.

 

[Sand Rat]

Where to paint

I actually paint at a desk in the living room with a table for further support . The desk is in the south east corner of my apartment , with a window in front and a table behind it. The table is used as overflow space and both support columns of the desk are full of minis and other projects, as well as a small hutch I built across the top.

 

[Badaab]

I paint primarily at my desk... in my bedroom. But anywhere with good light will do. I use two lamps, and incandescent 60W desk lamp, and a flourescent desk lamp, that is, if the sun isn\'t out, then I just open the blinds.
What was said about the Colorado air is true... compared with Savannah (humidity galore) the pain does dry quicker here up in the Boulder area.
I\'ve also found that music or the television can be helpful for background noise, but the type is important. I like punk rock normally, but this has the affect of speeding me up (and also when I\'m driving), so I listen to a lot of classical and instrumental music when painting. As for movies, it really doesn\'t matter what I watch, because it\'s not really my sole focus.

 

[No Such Agency]

Ugh, it\'s really gross here in Guelph (in S-W. Ontario) right now. Super humid, and very hot. I can either paint in the basement (cool, but crappy lighting), or the living room, (hot \'n\' muggy, good light). So right now I\'m not getting much painting done, or frankly, very much else either... I need A/C badly

So my poll answer: \"right now, nowhere\"