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Author Topic: Do you feel your painting skill has plateaued?  (Read 5478 times)

Offline Elbows

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Re: Do you feel your painting skill has plateaued?
« Reply #15 on: March 10, 2021, 08:26:08 PM »
I'd say I've plateaued, and I'm okay with that.  I'm happy with my painted results - and my goals are often not to learn new technical skills, but to find ways to cheat to get to that end result faster/easier, etc.

I'm always more interested in getting stuff done to a "good" standard and on the table.  Dips, washes, grass-tufts, colour primers, etc...anything that gets me there faster and easier is the goal. 
2024 Painted Miniatures: 166
('23: 159, '22: 214, '21: 148, '20: 207, '19: 123, '18: 98, '17: 226, '16: 233, '15: 32, '14: 116)

https://myminiaturemischief.blogspot.com
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Offline Bravo Six

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Re: Do you feel your painting skill has plateaued?
« Reply #16 on: March 10, 2021, 08:37:12 PM »
Quote
.... but to paint to a level where I was comfortable with the end result,

Yes Xander, agreed.

Once upon a time I aspired to paint like Prof, Captain Blood, Pynkes, etc. But I soon discovered my style was different and that bar was WAAAAY too high, so I learned to live with it. I consider my painting skill level "good 'nuff". If I'm ok with it, then sod everyone else.  ;)


Offline FramFramson

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Re: Do you feel your painting skill has plateaued?
« Reply #17 on: March 10, 2021, 10:58:16 PM »
I'm more concerned about the degradation of ability that comes as my eyes get older and my hands becomes even shakier (I have never had steady hands). The medium is self-restricting in the regard that we are dealing with a very small areas and amounts of paint. Fine control is essential, even if you're able to fudge nicely with inks and washes and such.

Been a while since I've painted so I'm sure I'll be rusty when I take up a brush again, but we'll have to see how deeply pitted the old iron is, you know?

Also, my skill always varied even within a single miniature - most effort is spent on the face and chest, which is where a viewer's attention focuses, while other parts of a mini may be simpler or less tight in their application.

Like FierceKitty I also hope my judgment about colours and shades improves... someday. Lord knows the number of times I ended up overpainting a section of a mini which turned out too bright, too dull, had too much contrast or not enough!

« Last Edit: March 10, 2021, 11:02:46 PM by FramFramson »


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Offline tin shed gamer

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Re: Do you feel your painting skill has plateaued?
« Reply #18 on: March 11, 2021, 12:25:21 AM »
It's something I've been musing over myself.
I was painting very very well back in my early Twenties. My stuff turned up in GW pictures and Foundry adds ( late Romans along with Jim Bowens painting.Is one I can think of off the top of my head.) And getting paid quite well I use to amuse myself by paint in the eye colours on 20mm figures.
I even spent a short time at GW.Before joining up.I gave away nearly everything After Bosnia.
I retrained as a CNB nurse . To destress I took up painting again. It didn't take long to be painting just as well if not better than I had before.But I hadn't the same level of passion Once I'd finished something I tended to give it away.
I started converting figures more or less at the same time as I started painting them. Eventually sculpting figures fulltime( I found its a lot less stabby than nursing.)
Now I honestly don't know if I enjoy the painting that much  it's become a necessary evil . To achive something useful.
Every thing is refined down to minimum effort- maximum effect . Rather than the journey from lead to painted and based as it use to be.
I don't know if its because I'm older and my lifestyle is hectic.So I begrudge the time taken up by painting.As I can achive more in the same time sculpting and building something. Or I simply no longer like to paint . But detest the Idea of gaming with unpainted lead. If I had the spare cash I'd quite happily paid to have my toys painted for me. ( I even got some prepainted scenery for Christmas.)
or If I'm just becoming more miserable then older I get. ::)


Offline Digits

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Re: Do you feel your painting skill has plateaued?
« Reply #19 on: March 11, 2021, 12:52:25 AM »
Ha!  I’m with you there fella!

Painting IS the necessary evil!  I hate it!  But just like you, I could not stand to play with bare plastic / lead.

I have to psyche myself up in order to start painting minis......to the extent figures can sit in front of me for months sometimes before I get up enough reserve to put a brush to them.

Offline Dentatus

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Re: Do you feel your painting skill has plateaued?
« Reply #20 on: March 11, 2021, 01:35:43 AM »
Another vote for 'plateaued'.

Maybe a little better at color selection now. Some highlighting and basing tricks for decent tabletop pjs. Occasionally, I seem to hit a good note with some figs more than others. (and some turn out sub-par)

Judging by some of the astonishing brushwork these days, I don't have it in me to invest in an airbrush or learn/master new techniques. I'll never be a competition or display-level painter. Which is fine because my minis see plenty of action on the tabletop. 

Offline Codsticker

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Re: Do you feel your painting skill has plateaued?
« Reply #21 on: March 11, 2021, 03:52:27 AM »
It goes up and down  :D. When I am painting mass rank and file troops (ECW, LoTR , etc) then it goes down;  skirmish minis (Black Stone Fortress ), it goes up. lol

Offline Blackwolf

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Re: Do you feel your painting skill has plateaued?
« Reply #22 on: March 11, 2021, 06:54:42 AM »
Interesting that a few of us treat painting as a chore, to some extent not very enjoyable . I find the gaming is secondary,an abstraction. Hmmm.
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Offline bluewillow

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Re: Do you feel your painting skill has plateaued?
« Reply #23 on: March 11, 2021, 07:25:56 AM »
My biggest change was the use of a wet pallet and extender medium.
I think mine has improved since I slowed down and spent time on the figures rather than trying to just finish a army.

Cheers
Matt

Offline Spinal Tap

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Re: Do you feel your painting skill has plateaued?
« Reply #24 on: March 11, 2021, 07:49:24 AM »
Some of the replies to this thread have raised a question or two in my mind.

I'm coming up 55, started in the hobby 3 years ago and have the usual age related sight issues and dithery hands.

Am I foolish looking at (to name one of my favourites) Deano's work as an aspiration?

Do I need to lower my bar a few (a lot?) of notches?

Can someone lacking innate artistic skills ever achieve anything close to his level just by practice, practice, practice?


Offline Cubs

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Re: Do you feel your painting skill has plateaued?
« Reply #25 on: March 11, 2021, 08:45:51 AM »

Like many, my eyesight is deteriorating as time ravages my previously youthful form, despite the use of close-up glasses to try to prop up my seeing organs. I appear to have adopted an 'impressionist' approach (ie. it's okay from a distance but up close it looks shite) so whenever I take a close-up photo of a model I notice it looks messier on the screen than it did in my hands.

On the plus side, I now approach painting with the attitude that there is no fancy effect without a teachable (or rather, learnable) technique attached, so I don't fear having a go at trying to represent new visual trickery. NMM, OSL and sheer materials are all things I've picked up (with varying degrees of success) over the last decade or so.
'Sir John ejaculated explosively, sitting up in his chair.' ... 'The Black Gang'.

Paul Cubbin Miniature Painter

Offline Blackwolf

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Re: Do you feel your painting skill has plateaued?
« Reply #26 on: March 11, 2021, 08:46:01 AM »
Definitely no!  I think you should actually raise the bar,if you enjoy painting why not try to be a better painter.

Edit; in reference to Spinal Tap’s post,Cubs was too quick.
« Last Edit: March 11, 2021, 08:47:58 AM by Blackwolf »

Offline Plynkes

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Re: Do you feel your painting skill has plateaued?
« Reply #27 on: March 11, 2021, 09:43:43 AM »
I agree with Blackwolf, Spinal Tap. You aren't being foolish. Aim high. Even if you don't reach those dizzy heights, chances are you will improve. I'm a firm believer in that. For me that's what LAF is all about. You have to think 'I'm gonna paint like that guy one day' rather than 'oh Jesus, why do I even fucking bother?' (A common and understandable reaction I have experienced here myself, many times)  :)


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Upon our prey we steal...

Online Daeothar

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Re: Do you feel your painting skill has plateaued?
« Reply #28 on: March 11, 2021, 09:47:33 AM »
Been painting since the early eighties. Mostly scale model kits, until I found an RTB01 box one day, and that's what got me into miniatures. But only with the advent of Hero Quest and Space Crusade a year or so later, was I properly introduced to miniature painting. In fact, I didn't believe that the minis on the sides of those game boxes were actually painted; I thought they must have been photoshopped (avant la lettre), since nobody could paint that detailed! Well, not with Revell and Humbrol enamels, no.

Because those were the paints I had been using for all my painting up till then. In fact, I resisted crossing over to acrylics for several years (my RTB01 and MB games minis were all painted with enamels :D ), but eventually I caved.

And I was amazed at the enormous advances my painting showed once I got used to the new medium.

The next step was getting acquainted with other painters on online forums, and influenced by them, I went and bought my first good Winsor & Newton brush at the local art store. And again, I surprised myself with the huge improvement these made in my painting. I had been using the GW standard brushes that came with the paint sets I had bought before and cheap ones I had left over from my model kit years.

And it's the next period that really saw my painting skyrocket. I got better and better and in 2006, I flew over to the UK for Games Day. I entered the Golden Daemons with three entries, and became a finalist with all three! And even though these were my best work at the time, they were also 'just' gaming miniatures, intended to be used on the tabletop. I planned to return the next year, with purpose-painted minis (to be serious contenders), but then I met my later-to-be wife, and money set aside for GD 2007 became money set aside for a vacation together, and I have not participated again.

This was the time when I was able to paint Latin litanies on the rims of space marine shoulder pads, the time when I layered power swords with a whopping 40+ minute layers to achieve perfect colour transitions, the time I achieved somewhat mastery of non-metallic metal painting, and much more.

But my productivity was ever so slow. Painting to those standards, and I went for perfection on every mini I took the brush to, made my progress glacial. And since my ambitions to achieve painting god status had sort of been put on hold, I eventually decided to put quantity over quality, and started to paint gaming armies, since that had become the true purpose of my painting now.

The result was that I had to turn down my painting levels considerably, as painting to the best possible standard is sort of ingrained into me. So by lowering the standard, I could be satisfied with the results, even though they were not as good as the ones I achieved in the 'golden years'.

I've been doing that for about a decade now, and I can confidently say that my output volume, when compared to before, is astronomical. In fact, the bottleneck these days is time available, instead of my own abilities.

This does mean that I'm not as skilled as I used to be anymore. In fact, I know from experience that a prolonged period of not painting results in having to 'get back into it' when I pick up a brush again.
And then there are the physiological challenges. I have to face it; I'm getting older... ::)

There has been a period that my hands were constantly cramping up, to the point where I could not paint for more than 30 minutes or so. I was told it might be arthritis, but when we bought new mattresses and pillows some time later, the issue was completely gone overnight (literally in that case)! Turns out the old mattress and pillow caused circulation problems, with those hands as a result. I've not had that issue again, but it did mean my painting abilities took a bit of dive. Both because of the painful hands, and the fact I simply painted less because of them and lost some skill points because of that.

Also I've had my eyes lasered since then. I went from -6 in both eyes to 0, so finally glasses/contacts free. But the downside is a slight amount of lens flare in situations of high contrast (bad when driving at night, but also when painting minis) and a slight decrease in contrast resolution. And admitting to the inevitable decline, I now sneakily use some off the shelf reading glasses when painting, and So I can confidently say that I will probably not achieve the detail level of litanies on shoulder pad rims again.

Then there is the issue of being able to hyper-focus back then. I was diagnosed with ADD at a late age (35), and was prescribed medication for that. This did absolute wonders for my career, but also meant that I was not able to really get sucked into my painting anymore. I used to be able to sit and toil on the minutest detail for hours on end (completely forgetting about everything else around me), but that focus is now permanently gone. I've long since built down the meds and don't take them anymore now, but prolonged use actually results in changes in neural pathways that are permanent (which was the entire reason for the prescription in the first place, obviously).

So I am under no impression that I will be able to surpass the painting levels I once used to achieve. Best case, I will eventually be able to match those levels again, or come close to them.

TLDR: my painting used to be great, now it's OK...
« Last Edit: March 11, 2021, 09:54:42 AM by Daeothar »
Miniatures you say? Well I too, like to live dangerously...
Find a Way, or make one!

Offline Ranthony

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 240
Re: Do you feel your painting skill has plateaued?
« Reply #29 on: March 11, 2021, 10:00:00 AM »
Been painting since the early eighties. Mostly scale model kits, until I found an RTB01 box one day, and that's what got me into miniatures. But only with the advent of Hero Quest and Space Crusade a year or so later, was I properly introduced to miniature painting. In fact, I didn't believe that the minis on the sides of those game boxes were actually painted; I thought they must have been photoshopped (avant la lettre), since nobody could paint that detailed! Well, not with Revell and Humbrol enamels, no.

Because those were the paints I had been using for all my painting up till then. In fact, I resisted crossing over to acrylics for several years (my RTB01 and MB games minis were all painted with enamels :D ), but eventually I caved.

And I was amazed at the enormous advances my painting showed once I got used to the new medium.

The next step was getting acquainted with other painters on online forums, and influenced by them, I went and bought my first good Winsor & Newton brush at the local art store. And again, I surprised myself with the huge improvement these made in my painting. I had been using the GW standard brushes that came with the paint sets I had bought before and cheap ones I had left over from my model kit years.

And it's the next period that really saw my painting skyrocket. I got better and better and in 2006, I flew over to the UK for Games Day. I entered the Golden Daemons with three entries, and became a finalist with all three! And even though these were my best work at the time, they were also 'just' gaming miniatures, intended to be used on the tabletop. I planned to return the next year, with purpose-painted minis (to be serious contenders), but then I met my later-to-be wife, and money set aside for GD 2007 became money set aside for a vacation together, and I have not participated again.

This was the time when I was able to paint Latin litanies on the rims of space marine shoulder pads, the time when I layered power swords with a whopping 40+ minute layers to achieve perfect colour transitions, the time I achieved somewhat mastery of non-metallic metal painting, and much more.

But my productivity was ever so slow. Painting to those standards, and I went for perfection on every mini I took the brush to, made my progress glacial. And since my ambitions to achieve painting god status had sort of been put on hold, I eventually decided to put quantity over quality, and started to paint gaming armies, since that had become the true purpose of my painting now.

The result was that I had to turn down my painting levels considerably, as painting to the best possible standard is sort of ingrained into me. So by lowering the standard, I could be satisfied with the results, even though they were not as good as the ones I achieved in the 'golden years'.

I've been doing that for about a decade now, and I can confidently say that my output volume, when compared to before, is astronomical. In fact, the bottleneck these days is time available, instead of my own abilities.

This does mean that I'm not as skilled as I used to be anymore. In fact, I know from experience that a prolonged period of not painting results in having to 'get back into it' when I pick up a brush again.
And then there are the physiological challenges. I have to face it; I'm getting older... ::)

There has been a period that my hands were constantly cramping up, to the point where I could not paint for more than 30 minutes or so. I was told it might be arthritis, but when we bought new mattresses and pillows some time later, the issue was completely gone overnight (literally in that case)! Turns out the old mattress and pillow caused circulation problems, with those hands as a result. I've not had that issue again, but it did mean my painting abilities took a bit of dive. Both because of the painful hands, and the fact I simply painted less because of them and lost some skill points because of that.

Also I've had my eyes lasered since then. I went from -6 in both eyes to 0, so finally glasses/contacts free. But the downside is a slight amount of lens flare in situations of high contrast (bad when driving at night, but also when painting minis) and a slight decrease in contrast resolution. And admitting to the inevitable decline, I now sneakily use some off the shelf reading glasses when painting, and So I can confidently say that I will probably not achieve the detail level of litanies on shoulder pad rims again.

Then there is the issue of being able to hyper-focus back then. I was diagnosed with ADD at a late age (35), and was prescribed medication for that. This did absolute wonders for my career, but also meant that I was not able to really get sucked into my painting anymore. I used to be able to sit and toil on the minutest detail for hours on end (completely forgetting about everything else around me), but that focus is now permanently gone. I've long since built down the meds and don't take them anymore now, but prolonged use actually results in changes in neural pathways that are permanent (which was the entire reason for the prescription in the first place, obviously).

So I am under no impression that I will be able to surpass the painting levels I once used to achieve. Best case, I will eventually be able to match those levels again, or come close to them.

TLDR: my painting used to be great, now it's OK...

Aside from being an interesting read, you write very well.
Perhaps you might consider submitting an article to one of the mags re : your painting experiences, you would hold attention.
Exodus 1:10 KJV
Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.

 

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