"War" photographs at the BBC

[FramFramson]

I have to agree with Scurv. I tend to think of painting minis as craft. To me, they feel almost like a very fancy colouring book for adult-size children - stay in the lines! Shade and highlight properly! There really isn't much pure creativity in deciding what shade of brown to apply to a particular beastman's butt.

The thing is, craftsmanship is nothing to be ashamed of.

[carlos13th]

I really don't like looking at that image. The colours make me uncomfortable.

[Hammers]

Because he wrote a kick ass essay with it, put shows on at a gallery and handed out cheese and cheap wine. He also called it art and that gets any old shit over the line. Any of you guys could be doing this sort of thing if you could stomach the people you have to deal with. If you want to give it a go start practising your air kisses and get a better wardrobe, something avant garde.

I for one think that from an photography perspective they are quite interesting. He is obviously not aiming to impress our lot but rather to use toy soldiers to make another sort of statement. I have seen much better similar attempt at this by other artists, though.

[Cubs]

Which is a fancy way of saying some shit grandad knocked up in the shed years ago.

That's no way to speak about about my grandmother.

[Hammers]

That's no way to speak about about my grandmother.

 

Very good...

[Doomhippie]

I have to agree with Scurv. I tend to think of painting minis as craft. To me, they feel almost like a very fancy colouring book for adult-size children - stay in the lines! Shade and highlight properly! There really isn't much pure creativity in deciding what shade of brown to apply to a particular beastman's butt.

The thing is, craftsmanship is nothing to be ashamed of.

Yep, that I can agree to. Well said.

[FramFramson]

I felt a lot less bad about nicking someone else's really nice colour scheme after I came to that view. 

Also Cubs, omg. 

[Cubs]

Anyhoo, speak for yourselves boys. If all you're doing is reproducing colours to a template then fair enough, but if there's any element of creativity in your process then you're an artist. If you've ever painted an expression on a model's face, or slipped in an unexpected pattern, or arranged an atmospheric base, you've created art.

Art is just about anything created for the purpose of causing an emotional reaction.

[FramFramson]

Well, it's not a black-and-white thing, where there's some garish switch you throw between "ART" and "NOT ART". I know I go to a lot of effort to create faces that in some cases aren't on the sculpture.

But the way I look at it, if it's 90% craft with 10% artistic flourishes, if I have to pick a one-word description of what I'm doing, it'll be the word that matches the 90% and not the 10%.