Figure Painting, does it get easier or better?

[bigmanfran]

......or worse over the years?


http://theangrylurker.blogspot.com/2011/04/figure-painting-does-it-get-easier-or.html

[kalebdaark]

It depends.  To my mind, quality painting depends on a number of factors that come together, and messing up one or another can result in cr@p.

Practice doesn't make perfect, but it does make better.  So it does get easier and better as you go along and learn new tricks.

A big factor for me is as I age, my vision is failing.   So I put on my big-boy close-up magnifying glasses and get to work. 

Another could be unsteady hands.  I don't have this problem and thank God I don't.  That'll probably end your painting.  If it happens (and if you have money), find a good painter and have them do 'em for you.  You only embarrass yourself by fielding unpainted minis, the true mark of a rank amateur! 

A large mental factor that I've come across is the biggest one I think.   Some painters, when they reach a certain level (earlier or later in life), think that they're good enough or even "great" and they just stop getting any better.  They never want to learn or try out new things because, after all, they're "all that and a bag of chips".  But they're not and their painting isn't.   Facts 'o life, bud.

Bad idea.  Don't go there.  Keep expanding your repertoire.  Paint obsessively and never stop.

[steeldragon]

Sometimes I look at things I've painted (or modelled) in the past and I have no idea how to repeat the process... I'm guessing experience made more 'efficient' now and hopefully will start painting for myself rather than others.



Andres

[goon3423]

I think styles evolve. I stared out doing 40k & I paint those in a much more "realistic" style. Over the past several years I have been doing almost all Pulp and Old West and I do those in a much more "cartoony" style. So short answer I think it does get easier and better you just have to find what works for you.

[Luthaaren Von Tegale]

I'd have to say it gets easier - if only because after 30 odd years of painting minis I no longer get anal about painting stuff you can't see from normal "tabletop viewing" distance (ie 18-24") and as I play in good natural light there's no need for three layer highlighting etc.

That said painting figures "properly" does get easier the more practice you get - the trick is to find a standard that YOU are happy with and forget what the "painting police" may tell you. Be inspired by what others produce but don't be a slave to it.

vT

[Froggy the Great]

Having come at this from a showcase perspective and not an historicals / army perspective, I find that in the 10 years I've been painting I've proven to myself that I can paint to bronze level at a national contest, so I am therefore free not to.  "Done" is perfectly acceptable, even if I haven't tried NMM in three years.

I do have certain points of pride, though, even if I drybrush the rest of the figure -
--I must dark-line.
--I must paint every eye as well as I can.
My mileage varies widely.

[Calimero]

I also think it get easier to paint figures with time. But I think that the general quality of the figures available today make painting easier. It’s a lot easier and faster to paint a well detailed mini than trying to turn a formless lump of lead into an acceptably painted figure… but maybe that’s just me?

[kalebdaark]

Luther and Froggy make good points.   Just how detailed do you wanna get?   How do you know when you're "done"?    Because it is possible to "over-paint" a mini and have it look terrible.

Do you want to put a level of detail on that you need a microscope to see or pull off, when the mini is destined for the game table and not the painting contest?

A good goal to set for yourself is to be able to take on and successfully pull off any painting project that you want.   This'll help you train for the detail of the painting contest and the speed of unit painting for the game.

[Gluteus Maximus]

Slower, harder and worse 

When I think of the amount and quality I used to turn out 20 years ago, I sometimes despair.

Never mind, I'm still enjoying it and that's the main thing 

[Phil Robinson]

Never mind, I'm still enjoying it and that's the main thing 

Hit the nail on the head there.

[Smillie]

I've found I'm slowly getting better and more consistant in my painting although I am still a bit naff at fantasy stuff and oddly I find I am better at painting lead than plastic . Although I am epically bad at painting anything after say the 1960's.

 As for repeating, or replicating past work I gave up remembering painting "formulas". So inside the tin I keep my paints in I have rather a lot of carefully folded pieces of paper upon which I have written out what paints I used for different parts of a model. Has been no end of use when I have gone back to add an extra unit or paint something similar. Thinking about it I really should write those down somewhere a bit more permanent. 

[tomek917]

I have to say it gets better, but not easier. When I was 12 and started painting it was really really really hard to get those straight and nice lines on the shoulderpads of a spacemarine. Today, 13 years later, it's still really really really hard to get those straight and nice lines. Only this time its the waffenfarbe on a 15mm SS-soldier.

I think you have to keep pushing yourself if you want to get better at painting, and you don't do that by getting things done the easy way.

[FramFramson]

Another could be unsteady hands.  I don't have this problem and thank God I don't.  That'll probably end your painting.

Sadly, I've always been beset by hand wobble when I try to paint (I don't normally have the twitch, but whenever I try to focus...), so for me the question becomes one of ever just working to a satisfactory level.

[Heldrak]

I have to say it gets better, but not easier. When I was 12 and started painting it was really really really hard to get those straight and nice lines on the shoulderpads of a spacemarine. Today, 13 years later, it's still really really really hard to get those straight and nice lines. Only this time its the waffenfarbe on a 15mm SS-soldier.

I think you have to keep pushing yourself if you want to get better at painting, and you don't do that by getting things done the easy way.

I'm inclined to agree. It does get better, but it doesn't necessarily get any easier. While one does discover helpful techniques, useful tools, handy paint mixes, etc., in the end it's just you and the figure(s), staring at each other across the painting table and that is always a daunting prospect.

[Gluteus Maximus]

I'm inclined to agree. It does get better..

But beware the time when it starts getting worse. It can get quite dispiriting when this happens. Like verything, at some point your physical skills will start to decline 

Sorry to be a killjoy - it's still fun though