How to actually improve at miniature painting.
The road to artistic mastery is paved with distractions and burnout.
Oftentimes we don't want to believe advice given to us. If someone tells me what to do, even if I’m the one asking for advice, my immediate reaction is ”Fuck You.”.
“To be the best miniature painter you can be, you need to be painting every day. You need to practice specific techniques. You need to be relentless.”
The absolute worst part about the advice above is that it’s true. Being consistent and striving for improvement is the key to actually realizing a better self. In the early stages of miniature painting constant practice will help develop brush control, knowledge on thinning and mixing paints, and a steady hand. More veteran painters will often paint and stay at the same level and then wonder why they've plateaued. To be perfectly frank, if you don’t really want to improve, you won't. Even if you want to improve, if you aren't pushing your limits, you won’t.
“Deathbringer” from Games Workshop
A practice in NMM, Rust, and Flesh
This is where I was for a long time. I would paint for a couple of months, get distracted by other things, then paint more. I would overload myself on painting commissions and only paint things for other people. This led to a lot of tabletop quality miniatures being painted, and a lot of empty personal shelves. Then like clockwork I would get burnt out.
So what's the fix? For me it was painting every day, kind of. I have found a sweet spot, something that I've been looking for since probably 2017 when I got back into the hobby. I let myself take the odd week off and binge a show with my wife, or a new game that has been released. I let myself feel the urge to paint again, I’ve let myself become addicted to painting, to creating art for myself. I still take commissions, but with my current output I’m also actually working through my own backlog, not just everyone else's.
But that's not all, almost every piece that I've completed has NMM in some aspect. It’s practice, NMM was my white whale. This is all information that you’ve probably heard in a youtube video or a twitch stream. I’m just here to say I've tried it, and it works. I think with art you sometimes need to be relentless. You need to give yourself over to it. Then you need to come up for air. Only you can find the balance of how much to paint, but unless you push yourself to the limit you won’t know how much you can handle.
"Ryelle Rainheather, Bard Bust" from Reaper Miniatures
A practice in Highlighting Hair, Eyes, and Skin Tones.
Lastly, you need a goal. Maybe it’s painting like someone else. Maybe it’s winning an award. No one needs to know your goal except for you, then you just need to let yourself reach for it.
Practice more.
Reach higher.
Be relentless.
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