Still I'm learning a lot from over the net. When I go to the club, I'm one of the better painters, and I hardly get any constructive critisism. If I show a miniature there, it's WOW... when I show the same mini here it's like: nice, but it can be a lot better. Improve this this this and that... That's what I like, what keeps me trying to improve my painting style/technique and trying to find new things to do.
Dude, I must say this is almost what happens to me. I'm one of the best painters at my local shop, and I'm only 15 and I still have a lot to learn.
I took a huge break from painting for 3 or 4 years, but then once I found some good sites like coolminiornot, and this forum, and many others like it my painting has improved 10 times over.
I just wanted to post this because I've never seen anyone else post something that happens to me all the time.
(Well, this is my feeling from my heart, but ya, it is quite long, thx for your reading if u do)
I remembered I started my first mini in 1996, while I was studying at the University of Alberta, Canada. At that time, I did not have my own PC nor did not know where and how to search websites about painting. I just bought some 5th edition Bretonnia plastic knights and few bottles of D&D paints to work on them, as a decoration for my study desk since I love knighthood, magic, dragons and sword stuffs.
I was never a dedicated painter and even much lazier after I came back to HK in 1998. Since 1998, I almost forget this hobby.......until around 2002/3, I find out there is a HK GW shop, and I started to paint again, and um... only started from 2005, I find that I am more dedicate to this hobby and put more time on it, and also start browsing the website, asking the shop staff, practise hard, and finally join my first and so-far-only-one forum - Chest of Color.
To me, I find it when I was in the process of discovering different techniques, it could be confusing and easy to get lost. What is blending? drybrushing? How to file? etc.... just too much to learn...but I think after a longggggg years like this, it surely will come to a point that I get a briefly idea what the overall picture is all about. Kind of like a puzzle, u talk to the people, read the webs, look at other people's mini (both better ones and not-as-good-as ones), analysis why and how people do this and that, different techniques; and all this pieces are connected piece by piece. One day, you will find that your puzzle start becoming a clearer picture.
Honestly (not being humble), I know there is a long way to go for me to learn, but I find that this 2 years, I really learn a lot and start to know what I am doing and how to achieve sth within my abilities. And ya, I really thx for this forum and I swear that I improve a lot after I join this forum and eg..I did not know how to take pic before I join this forum.
I painted my first mini in 1987. It was on of the original Ral Partha dragons that wasn't all that much bigger than the 25mm chick that came with it. To find any paints other than Testors' enamels you had to go to real art stores or really hard-to-find specialty hobby stores. The Internet and email weren't around outside of US military labs, and we hadn't heard of them anyway. I didn't know another miniature painter for a few years.
I remember wandering into The Orcs Nest in London not far from Picadilly Circus in 1988. (Remember them? They advertised in Dragon Magazine... "Ooo Tickety Boo, a Game Store Just for You") I still have a mug I bought there (its in my kitchen, in fact). It was the first time I ever saw GW stuff.
Until about 1996 I didn't really know much about the mini painting world, and barely anything then. I remember hearing about GDs, but that was when the only one in the US was in Baltimore and that was a looooong, expensive trip away. You still had to phone England to get a decent mail order done. (The English guy with the great voice on the other end talked me into getting a WE codex that was just coming out around that time. Damn accents get me into trouble. )
And then less than 4 years ago I decided to take up painting after a 3 year break. Eight months later when my wrist was fixed and healed I started from scratch, and this time there was the Internet. And this time I was old enough to swallow some pride and go looking for tutorials and tips and suggestions. The simple instruction "thin your paint to the consistency of milk" made all the difference in the world.
Yeah, yeah... this post reads a little like "You had a BOX to live in?! LUXURY!!!", but you all started it. Well, sort of...
There.... something I finally wanted to use my 500th post on.
"I like gypsy moths and radio talk
Cause it doesn't remind me of anything"
yeah, yeah... all those memories...
I remember my very first contact with miniatures and acrylic paints...
if I compare my hobby knowledge from that priod with things I know now I can say one thing for sure: I was total ignortant!
thank god there are sites like that :rose:
The Internet certainly has had a big effect on the mini painting and indeed the whole wargaming and mono collecting hobby. I myself was painting Airfix 1/72nd scale WWII soldiers until I read The Lord Of The Rings which was given to me for my 12th birthday in 1979. I then found out from a friend that miniatures for fantasy were starting to appear in shops and one or two mail order companies which GW was one and that was it. I bought White Dwarf from its first issue and have done ever since but my painting improved only very slowly. I used to read the various painting guides and just could not get on with them so I basically taught myself different things but usually mini painting for me involved alot of drybrushing. Then came the net and a myriad of sites dedicated to paintting minis with online tutorials and people justtalking in general and my painting suddenly took a big leap forward though there is still much to learn and much improvement to make.
Yes, lady, even in mid 90's, I think even in North America, not everyone has his/her own PC and surely I guess there were not much mini painting web sites.......
Man, your post reminds me those old days, me and my secondary school (= junior / high school) mates use some plastic D&D characters by Ral Partha to play D&D (not AD&D) after school, that was late 80's or early 90's, around 1990. Man, I feel old ... even I think I am young.
And ya, I was painting all alone all those years, only know there is a HK store in 2003. HK GW store starts in 1998, but in 2004, US GW close down the stores because of the profit lost. Now, someone here take over and open a store as an agent dealer.
And I think this post can tell you guys some future news, the store in HK< the owner is designing and manufacturing some new mini, Qin dynasty related. I guess once I get some new pics or news, I can let u guys take a look.
)
