Miniature Painting

Chanur

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So a few months ago I decided to get into painting, and I thought I did an okay job with some tutorials and some decent paint and brushes. My wife saw me doing it and wanted in.

On her first try she's blowing me the fuck out and everything she painted is amazing, and everything I painted is absolute shit. It legitimately made me embarrassed for my minis and now I only ask her if she can paint something I'm interested in.

I'll get some pictures up later, I just packed away a ton of minis and games and I'd have to dig them out.

I know how you feel. My wife can draw, write, and paint. She could have made her career in oil painting but has decided to write a book.

When it comes to artistic stuff I can do fuck all.
 

Chimney

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Just noticed this thread. My friend paints miniatures for a living and it's crazy how much people spend especially when he gets orders from outside of the US. Some dude from France had him paint a giant set of star wars figurines and spent thousands on it.
 

Fyff

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Just noticed this thread. My friend paints miniatures for a living and it's crazy how much people spend especially when he gets orders from outside of the US. Some dude from France had him paint a giant set of star wars figurines and spent thousands on it.
And it turned out to be like 12 dollars an hour for him I am sure :). Pro painters make crap most of the time if you figure it to an hourly wage.
 

Chimney

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Probably so on more complex jobs since most pieces cost between $20-40 each and he gets hung up on making things perfect.
 
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Fyff

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There is a reason most good painters have stopped taking commissions that aren't from companies or billionaires. They have moved on to teaching classes because they can make a livable hourly wage.
 

Chimney

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Eh I guess that depends on the area you live and your education system pay rates. He's making at least $40-50k year, gets to work from home and makes his own schedule. Seems pretty good for the artsy fartsy type even if the hourly turns out to be low at times. My gf makes less than that as a teacher here and definitely puts in more hours.

Plus he rents the flat above my house and has about $15-20k in board games that I get to play a bunch of since I work from home as well and have a pretty flex schedule.
 

yeahthatisneathuh

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The ultimate scam is to be an art teacher at a high school, and assign work, and then during class paint minis for money.

Very few of the art teachers I had growing up even had the skills for that, but if you could, it'd be pretty nice.
 
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bigmark268

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I always wondered how much I could make being a painter for hire with the stuff. Problem is living on long island, making 50k is like living in poverty
 

Chimney

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I always wondered how much I could make being a painter for hire with the stuff. Problem is living on long island, making 50k is like living in poverty

When I lived in NYC all the "artists" were trust fund kids. Just need some rich parents!
 
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Noble Savage

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I always wondered how much I could make being a painter for hire with the stuff. Problem is living on long island, making 50k is like living in poverty
When I lived in NYC all the "artists" were trust fund kids. Just need some rich parents!

Or find a rich old gay dude to be your benefactor. Just have to play with some old wrinkly balls and jerk off a flacid penis once in a while and your dream is within reach.
 
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bigmark268

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Well trust fund is out lol. And I will have to pass on the wrinkly balls. Instead I settled on doing pavement markings and road sign instalation. But here's a pic of my little painting workshop space I'm slowly putting together. And a pic of the stompa I started

20190507_204210.jpg


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Hateyou

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Some more progress, should finish this up this week. Touch ups next, then OSL from the crystal, do something with the base, seal it, then add some blood where all the flesh is ripped open.

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Koushirou

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So I've neem keeping up with the Painter's Guild series on G&S, but I wish they kept the cameras on the detail more often than they do. Anyone else have suggestions for tutorial series to watch (preferably aimed more towards painting fantasy minis as I could use some example of colors themes commonly used)?

Finally got off my butt and got a lamp for my desk so I have some proper lighting to paint in, so probably going to pick up something new to practice on. One of the difficulties I've had with some other pieces is trying to figure out what colors I want to use on stuff then realizing I just don't have those colors yet and trying to see what to buy off the rack when I go to my LGS. Do folks generally have a set color palette in mind before starting to paint and stick to those colors as you go through or do you find you pick out colors as you're working on each bit?
 

bigmark268

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I pick out all my colors before hand and look at how everything meshes together. I'll group them together in rows for , weapons, skin, clothong, accents, or what not and see how each set looks next to eachother.

So you get a feel for how a finished project would look once all the colors are together.
 

Hateyou

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I basically do the same. I get some colors in my head, pick some out and make some rows of paint. Then as I start painting if things aren’t going the way I want I’ll pick out some new ones and paint small patches on paper, put the mini next to it then eyeball which color would look best. The red metal on my most recent post, I have a piece of paper with 4-5 reds ranging from an orange red to a purple red cause I couldn’t picture which would look best next to regular metallic metal.

Once I start doing some color mixing, if I know it’s something I’ll need a lot of, or touched up later I will write the mix down on paper. I’m not at home atm or is post a pic of the paper for this latest models notes. I did get a new wet palette recently so that should cut down on the amount of notes I need to take.
 

OhSeven

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But...do his arms fall off?

I think they got tired of that meme.
Psa+abaddon+can+no+longer+be+called+armless+great+care_c0a1a7_7006998.jpg


Couple of buddies got me into Age of Sigmar and I've been painting up some of the spooky boys. Broke the damn arm off this one but still turned out alright. Haven't decided on how to base them yet.

208084
 
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Fyff

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So I've neem keeping up with the Painter's Guild series on G&S, but I wish they kept the cameras on the detail more often than they do. Anyone else have suggestions for tutorial series to watch (preferably aimed more towards painting fantasy minis as I could use some example of colors themes commonly used)?

Finally got off my butt and got a lamp for my desk so I have some proper lighting to paint in, so probably going to pick up something new to practice on. One of the difficulties I've had with some other pieces is trying to figure out what colors I want to use on stuff then realizing I just don't have those colors yet and trying to see what to buy off the rack when I go to my LGS. Do folks generally have a set color palette in mind before starting to paint and stick to those colors as you go through or do you find you pick out colors as you're working on each bit?
For suggestions I would highly recommend watching the videos Duncan has made for Games Workshop. He does an excellent job explaining basic techniques and even goes in to some advanced stuff. He is easy to follow and the shots are well put together. I ate breakfast with him at NoVa last year. Really nice guy.
 
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Hateyou

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Moving on to a new model for now. Don’t have everything I want to finish this ones base so it’ll have to wait until some stuff I ordered arrives.

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