I am currently working my way through -
2 Raiders
1 Ravager
1 Venom
3 Reavers
1 Razorwing
1 Squad of Kabalite Warriors
AND - most of all
ALL THE BITS. Yes I have cut off every bit of model off the sprues and will be removing the mold lines off all of the them. Why?
There are many ways to get good at painting but only one efficient way. To study all the theories, watch all the youtube clips, research all the brands of paints, air brushes and their techniques. To scour the internet for the best colour schemes and basing, shading, highlighting, NMM techniques and learn them all. Then make long lists of plans about how you will paint your own models and then paint one ultimate figure one after another? No.
It is to paint as many models as possible. Think of success in terms of quantity of models painted NOT quality. I am going to all all my spare bits (heads, torsos, arms, legs, weapons, skulls, flags, prows, racks and more) sort them and paint them. Assembly line style. Imagine doing 20 heads, 20 bodies, 20 splinter rifles and flags/doodads quickly without agonizing over the detail. Then I will soak them in Magic Amah kitchen cleaner and go through the whole process again. I have done my research, I know I need to prime, base, preshade, wash, layer, highlight, weather and base. I have the tools and the basic knowledge, now all that there is left to do is paint.
Up to this point, I have been on the path of painting slowly, painting perfectly and only painting a model once each. I have since learned that this is SILLY. You will get good at painting by practicing. You will get good by lining up a whole bunch of arms or shoulder plates or heads and painting them all PREFERABLY with a good sitcom or audiobook in the back ground. If you are not confident with faces and skin like I am, get all your spare heads and skin models, line them up and paint all of them. When you see the results (mine are utter crap), you can dunk them in your cleaning solution and have a go again tomorrow. Don't worry about making each stroke perfect, don't worry if the paint is too thin or too thick, don't worry if you just want every tiny little bit to be perfect and neat but it isn't. Just clean em and keep painting them over and over again.
I've been sitting here for the past eight hours removing mold lines and have acid reflux from being hunched over too long and my food not being able to digest properly. Hope that inspires you : D
- oh as an epilogue to this post, i would like to say i was inspired by the book by Kaufmann - The First 20 Hours or something like that. it is talking about becoming proficient at something or not sucking in 20 hours. I didn't buy it, i just flicked through it at the book stall and learned all the important parts of the book in 30 minutes. Ha - take that kaufmann, i used a speed learning technique to learn about your speed learning technique. here's what i took from the book.
1. Practice makes perfect - science shows the first 90 minutes is the most productive when learning. There is a graph that shows diminishing returns on a graph and 90 minutes of continuous practice seems to be the sweet spot. Of course it depends on the task you are doing but after 90 minutes or earlier, you should take a break. Professionals generally clock 3-4 hours of practice a day (i'm talking about musicians here). Again it depends on the task but 3-4 hours a day seems to be the most you should force yourself to do a day. More if you love it of course.
2. Kaufmann suggests doing 20 minute sessions with an alarm, whereby you do a task for 20 minutes and don't stop for any reason until the alarm goes off. Practicing painting warhammer with an alarm? sounds like it's worth trying. It doesn't have to be 20 minutes, for things like learning a language or learning the guitar perhaps, but i'd be looking at doing 30-40 minute sessions for painting at least. 20 minutes won't get much for me because i'm a slow painter by nature.
3. Quantity over Quality - he cited some experiment where a clay potter was teaching a bunch of people beginner pottery (like in Community). For group A he told them they would be judged solely by the amount of pots in weight they made that day. So the more pounds of clay they used, the higher the score they would recieve. For group B he told them they just had to make one pot and the quality of the pot would be judged. At the end of the day the best pots came from group A and all group B had was a bunch of pottery making theories and pile of rubbish clay. Learning is in the doing, it doesn't have to be good, you just have to be doing it.
See, I think that when it comes to crunch time, people will reveal what they have been practicing the most. In case of music, when performers get up on stage, it doesn't matter how much they've psyched themselves up and read about stage performances. They will play what they have been practicing. You can't escape that muscle memory. Painting is similar, your painting can be better by a small margin when you concentrate ultra hard on that Warlord model, but it won't be much better than your average rank and file. Your muscles and your skill takes over all that neurotic thinking and self aggrandizing.
4. Prepare - this one comes from me a little as well. Having the right tools to do what you want is very important. Have enough brushes, colours and shades will make all the difference when it comes to practice. You can't live on 8 paints (gold, silver, black, white, primary colour dark, primary colour light, primary colour shade, black shade) and expect to be inspired and motivated to practice painting. You can't have a bunch of cheap ass hair splitting brushes and expect to get better at edge high lighting/painting faces and eyes. Your lack of sharp brushes and a decent range of paints will make you hate painting. It will wear your will to paint down thin and you will spend most of your time trying to get started on your figurines and motivating yourself rather than just painting.
The book can probably be absorbed in 2x20 minute sessions. Just have a phone on you to take note of the important stuff, because the book has a lot of what i think is filler stuff. it's interesting to hear him learn the 6 things he learns, yoga, go, windsurfing etc. but i don't really think it's worth buying the book just for anecdotes unless that's what you want. the 'crunch' of the book can be sucked up in 40 minutes, just have a quick browse through it. take what you think is useful and buy the book if it's something you really want.
Get some paints and brushes, look up a few basic guides to painting, set and alarm and just go for it. Even if you get acid reflux...
Here's a picture of Hello Kitty sitting on all my empty sprues.
No comments:
Post a Comment