At some point I 1000% want to commision you to paint a mini for me, for no other reason than your work is unreal good, and to own a mini that you painted is really the equivalent of a collector's item. Thanks for all the videos, please don'tever stop making them.ha. I love your technique and style, which is helping me develop my skill.
Your videos are invaluable maestro... I watched A TON of youtube video in the last 10 years and I must admit that when your videos pop up, I know I will see something new and inspiring. Cheers !
I think I personally have a bit of "texture blending fatigue". Looking at the top Golden Demon entries over the past year it feels like every entry is busy with texture. I'm also not a fan of "the competition to see who can get the smoothest blends" that's dominated the contest for years past, either, so maybe this style of comeptition painting just isn't inline with my personal taste!
Not negating your comment, but just curious what the opposite of this would be to really show off professional skill and technique? I feel like textures and blending are skills that differentiate a pro painter over a novice. Just curious what other method would display the time and/or skill needed to pull off both those feats?
@@ZeeLobby I think Michael Thomas' winning entry in the unit/warband category earlier this year is an example. No offense to him, he's a far better painter than me, but his blending isn't as smooth as most of the other winners... However, his use of colours and composition are great, and to me his entry was the second most memorable that competition (no awards for guessing which winner stuck with me the most!).
@@ZeeLobby The traditional way an artist truly shows their mastery isn't through providing the very best, most careful following of all principles, but by providing something fantastic that disregards some of those principles altogether. You see that all over the place in fine art over the centuries. Hiding brushtrokes? Bah! avoding building of 3d texture? Nope! Let it look amazing while ignoring the rules. That will even get great marks at some competitions, but get a fast disqualification at Golden Demon, because the judges there aren't looking for the best art at all.
@@jorgemontero6384that really depends on which art tradition and how far back you go. For example the prevailing attitude in France before the impressionists burst on the scene was that brush strokes should be totally hidden, paintings shouldn't have texture etc. The academie system was very similar to the way GW judge golden demon, very regimented and solidly house style. I feel like top level mini painting is waiting to evolve in that way past the 'technique demonstration' stage.
@@jorgemontero6384 Right. But blending and texture are two methods that convey realism, and realism at a small scale is a true challenge. At such a small scale things like abstraction and impressionism just look sloppy (and kind of are). Not sure how those techniques can be applied in miniature without it just looking like a lazy mess. Like sure Dali embraced surrealism, but all of his paintings done in miniature are blended and textured perfectly to pull it off. I don't think the principles of art on a giant canvas translate well to tiny miniatures.
Amazing paint job. How do you manage to get the right amount of paint on your brush, and how do you manage to keep your bristles that pointy ? All I get is a peeled-banana looking brush everytime I try to paint details or highlights...
You gotta load it a lot and wick off the excess into a paper towel (ideally wet one). If you do that, it solves a lot of problems. Also, if you are using brushes with long bristles, those tend to have split hairs too
@@Zumikito thanks a lot ! I paint with the GW brushes. I'm waiting to improve my skills to buy more expensive stuff. I'm not using a wet pallet tho, maybe should I.
Could you recommend any artist that is painting clean and in grimbright/bright/fairy style, please? I can't find anything other than Craftworld which is to much for someone who is painting nearly year :)
Baby steps. Once you start, you learn as you go & find which techniques work for you. Once you get paint on a mini, you'll find the urge to paint more.
Regarding painting and boxart: GW invented that method to highlight as many details as possible since the models were going to be used as boxart and therefore hopefully increase sales - the more details visible, the better. However, unless you are actually painting models FOR boxart, I think this should be avoided since it doesn't look natural and the highlights tend to be way too exaggerated. I know, I'm just a rube in minority, but I think that there are a lot of better methods to paint minis, and for WH40k miniatures, grimdark slapchop is pretty damn perfect. For a model like this Nurgle lord, I don't get the impression its a pustulent, virulent sick creature, it just looks... painted.
I see the value of your technique.. But I'm painting to play games, not for display.. I need to get a warband, a crew an army, or a Spearhead actually finished and this method is very very slow... Just not practical for tabletop Gaming.. I don't have 50-100 hours per model.. But it's a stunning result nonetheless
I’m just gonna say it, for being an unclean one, he’s remarkably clean. That could be a compliment if you want it, but really wheres all the blood and guts??
My brother I think you ought to know just how much better at painting you’ve become in the couple of years you’ve been doing this channel. This sicko vs some of the models from your early stuff is just leaps and bounds. You were always pretty great, but I just noticed today. 👏👏👏
Richard Gray did texture blending before it was cool! :D Ps, duude, you're much taller than you seem on YT. I expected small beardy dwarf and then BAM! You're even taller than me. It was cool meeting You on Kontrast in Warsaw!
Diminishing returns with some painting techniques - I’ve found a happy medium. 2 hour paint job vs 200 hours isn’t comparable, but I’m happy with 1/10th of the result on 1/100th of the time!
I completely agree that games workshop box art is very good, but often just way too clean. Even their Undead and Nurgle look like they just came out from being scrubbed down and sterilized.
Hundreds of hours and heaps of bullshit forums and noone has ever said. “You need to start yout texture painting at the basecoat, if you texture your last layer you done fucked up” For me to comprehend how Sergio paints. Thankyou for explaining it to in common simple for a fellow beard
If you want to save a lot of time with just a slight drop in cleanliness when texture blending, you can forgo the glazing between the layers for one final glaze with diluted contrast paint. I stumbled upon this when I deliberately tried to paint a mini without smooth blends and with visible brush strokes. Initially it was too rough, but this final glaze was just enough to make it rough but pleasant.
Way better than the box art, more thinking involved, better execution, love that armour texture, can't believe they painted lush volumes like those without shaping the light across them. Realise it's part of a golden demon entry so quality rules and time is meant to be lavished, but can I ask how long the armour took? I've got a lot of trench crusade to paint - that's a lot of seriously scratchy armour but I can use stronger value jumps on the troops to reduce time and make them look more beaten up. I want that style on my feature folks tho and with all that practice I should get a reasonable handle on it
just the armor could take between 4-6 hours (maybe more, genuinely can not remember, but I was also recording which makes it longer), but you could cut it down significantly if you don't use 7 layers, but just like 4 or so as you mentioned.
@@Zumikito Thanks for that, I was thinking way more time for that look and I'm willing to spend more than that for it - which is handy given your professional advantage lol Now I need three armour palettes avoiding cliche nurgle green for disease gives me purple scratched with yellow instead against desaturated skin with livid pink inflammation Green plate over brown battledress with a lot of red and white St George insignia for the hell stranded remains of the british army Red for crusaders scratched with yellow again? Might have to switch technique to black pitting with a touch of yellow 3d edging for the red plate instead. Thanks again m8