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Personal Paint Style; How Did You Decide?


Bathory
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In college, I was a fine arts major (jewelry type sculptor, miniatures are a whole other ball game, I'm finding, along with drawing and abstract ink/acrylic work and copying old masters' work.  Great fun!). 

 

Style-wise, I can tell, compared to Cash AND Pingo, and Ub3r, and Monkeysloth, and dontfear, and... well... everyone else, I need more practice. 

 

Stylistically, I decided that darker wasn't the direction I wanted to stay, so my stuff ends up a little brighter than real-life in most cases (Khador Russian-style paint jobs notwithstanding), with as much dark to light contrast either between figure and base or figure and itself as I feel comfortable with.  That will come with time.  I am also balancing time spent on the mini versus time enjoying the mini (gaming).   Some minis will never see a game, so I take more time on them.  Some will, and those get faster paint jobs.

 

Inspirations:

 

This filters in some of my painting decisions, but I try to make it look either as realistic as I can (my warpwolf, Reaper Fire Giant, and Bezhukk the Immortal, even my Abyzarran fits this category), or I push the boundaries of what I consider sane. 

 

For Sci-Fi and some fantasy, I also try to throw in a reference to 8-bit artwork from video games when I paint (mostly in my color choices, and it's usually Mega Man I'm referencing, although Faxanadu, Castlevania and Final Fantasy make appearances as well!).  It just makes me happy.

 

I am also oddly inspired by GW's 90's-era 'Eavy Metal paint jobs.  I'm a bit more of a stickler for my paintings and find them much simpler than I want to paint (the 90's era "how to paint citadel miniatures" was a wonderful gift from a friend, which helped with a few things I was having trouble with). 

 

I have tried NMM, and, while I respect the style, I really prefer TMM.  I want to paint faster, and my shaded metallics technique works really well for what I want to do with the minis.  I'm still working through a Fire Giant Princess (bones) with TMM as well as a metal version.  Metal version is easier to work with using that style, IMO.

 

Finally, I also return to some of the old masters' painting work (Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, and Raphael) for color and composition choices, as well as some stuff from early expressionist and surrealist works (Dali, Monet), and, of course, I can't not include Picasso.  I'm seriously going to be getting back into my canvas work soon.  I need more release than the miniatures, and I will have the space to put my easel back up soon.  I'm really, really looking forward to that. 

 

That's about as far as my style has evolved thus far. I hope my ramble hasn't bored anyone to tears.

Edited by Darkmeer
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I started out at age 12 with military models.

Already i tried to make them look like the pics in the history books.

Up to the point i converted tanks because they weren't looking like they should..

 

Then I stumbled upon some Mithril and Prince August fantasy miniatures.

What a relief. Nobody bothered what colours a dwarf uniform would have to be...

 

I drybushed my way through hordes of undead, on the other hand I tried some very colourful Knights and Elves too.

So I gues the mini of the moment decides the style.

 

I've been painting for decades now and still have a lot to learn.

The journey is the most fun.

I like realism and cartoonish style.

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Normal is so overrated.  I am a tabletop painter for three reasons.  One I have poor control.  Two I paint to play with the mini.  Three, I do not have the time to do a great job.  I am fine with that.  I know that I would hate to spend the time Pingo did on the spelljammer and then have someone chip the paint in play.  Now if my men in black need touch up I just touch them up (eventually)

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I tried to figure out if I had a style or not. And I believe I can still classify myself as a generic "by-the-book" painter.

 

Meaning they pretty much reproduce what you see in "how-to paint" books, without much of my personal touch in it.

 

Like Laoke's father, I'm also an engineer (my parents figured that out when I was 3 years old), also tend to over-analyze, and too often stick with the belts are leather brown, orcs are green, etc. Which is odd because I'm also the most visually artistically minded and talented one in the family (the rest of the family is music/song oriented). I've always doodled and drawn in my youth and always took art classes in high school.

 

Nearly everything I ever painted was to be used on the game table, yet I never wanted to have speed painting level of detail. If I'm going to play with it, I want it to look good.

 

It's by hanging around here that I'm slowly breaking through my left-sided mind to allow the right side to join the party. But that will still require practice, practice, practice.

Edited by Cranky Dog
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... Meaning they pretty much reproduce what you see in "how-to paint" books, without much of my personal touch in it...

 

... and too often stick with the belts are leather brown, orcs are green, etc... 

 

Look at it this way - given your style of reproducing what you see in books, having too many brown leather belts and green orcs is really the fault of other painters!  :;):

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My minis have souls.

 

o_o

Mine speak to me.

...

...

...

...

No, really.

 

And they're telling you: paint us! paaaaaaaiiinnntttttt uuuuuussssssss! PPPPPPAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIINNNNTTTTTT UUUUUUUSSSSSSS! GET WITH THE PROGRAM AND PAINT US FOR CRYING OUT LOUD YOU GIANT OAF!!!

 

 

 

:lol:

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