THE
WARP STORM

Evening all;)
As I'm rather new to everything to the painting side of things. Thinking of the more advanced and in depth way of applying layers.
And ofc you go on the internett to do research it can be ........... well a lot :p
I know people take theyre education in color theory and stuff, but still would be cool to have a guide or learning curve if you will on how to progress in this hobby? If you start with the most difficult technical way to paint you could get discouraged really quickly.
Allso if you have some painters that you like to follow who posts videos thats worth looking into? Could be cool and worth looking into
Where do you go to get inspiration or help with your painting? Id guess everyone just go to Pinterest but:p
I remember looking at the box art when I first started out. Eavy metal painted models is rather difficult to aspire to when your new to this hobby. And even a good painter has probably issues getting a model to eavy metal painted quality models....

Could be fun especially for someone like me who doesn't have that many places to find information or tips to painting without going to the internett ....

Thanks

Emperor protects! For the loyalists atleast :p

Ps try and look away from the bad sentencing and stuff. Me just rambling, but still you get the general idea.

Okay, so there's a fair amount to get through here!


So let's start with the learning curve, and which way to progress. For the sake of ease I'm not going to talk specifically about airbrushing here, as that's almost a discipline of its own. I'm also not going to mention enamels or oils, because the ways they can be used are very varied, so they fall across a variety of difficulty levels.

In short, there is no 'correct' way.
There are always things that a beginner will have to master first; thinning paints, applying layers of block colour, brush control, drybrushing etc. These are the absolute first steps.
Then you come to slightly more difficult beginner techniques, like highlighting through layers or edge, shading through layers or wash.

Once your 'basic' techniques are fairly solid you'll want to look to doing things quicker (perhaps by under-painting) or smoother (feathering or glazing). These are perhaps intermediate techniques, but once you have a grasp on them you can definitely achieve a perfectly acceptable 'good tabletop' standard. Many (perhaps most) painters will stay at this level if they reach it - even some of those that can or could paint to a higher standard will choose not to for the most part, perhaps saving it for character or centrepiece models.

Following that there are a huge number of techniques you can learn, but no order in which you have to do it, or even a requirement to do it.
If you're interested in triple-loaded-brush-offhand-blindfold-wet-blending (God I hope that isn't a thing!) then go and learn how to do it, there's nothing stopping you.
Similarly, if you feel that you would be better served by learning the technical side of things (and this is something you should probably do at least a little bit of sooner rather than later, ideally before you even get to this step!) then brushing up (hah!) on your colour theory is there.

One thing you could do is find a model that you like the look of, and see what techniques have been used to achieve the finished product. If it turns out it's the Sky-Earth-Non-Metallic-Metals that caught your eye then find some videos on beginner SENMM and see if it works for you. The 'Eavy Metal style isn't the only one out there.

From what you've shown us, you know how to use a brush, and you can definitely colour within the lines, so to speak.
You've already suggested that you want to try out enamels. TRFT (YouTube link below) would be a good place to start there. Many of the videos deal with vehicles, but the techniques he's using can often be applied to infantry-sized models too - ask @James or @Lovecraft0110 himself!
You've also been trying out freehand recently - perhaps do some research into the kind of brushes best suited to it (without looking myself I would be suggesting sable-hair with shorter bristles for added control), and if there's any exercises you can do as practise.

One thing to remember though is that even if you have mastered the basics with every new thing you try you're having to start from scratch. You already know yourself that just because you can paint neatly that doesn't mean that freehanding a small design is easy! And the first time you try Object Source Lighting there's every possibility that it's going to look awful, but you'll still be learning.
Much like with painting your first models, when you wet-blend for the hundredth time it will look a lot better and be a lot easier than the first!

All the top painters will say this and its something of a cliché, but it's true: you have to find your own way. Take the techniques that you like, and forget about the ones that you don't.



So that's the long bit kinda covered, so let's move on to who I personally watch. I'll keep this a little shorter! Here are some of my YT subs:

Artis Opus; their channel focuses on what you can do with their (predominantly dry-)brushes. Stunning results with minimum effort.

Vince Venturella; a multi-Golden Demon winning painter, who has a huge number of videos about pretty much every aspect of painting. He manages to make even very difficult techniques sound and look very simple, even for a painter of no real skill like myself. He also has some fantastic videos talking in depth about individual colours.

Marco Frisoni; he likes oils, enamels, pastels, spray cans and cheesy video effects, and he's very good with all of them!

Uncle Atom; Adam talks in his videos rather than paints, but he has videos discussing lots of different areas of the hobby and how to approach it. The video list is massive but there are some absolute gems in there.

Miniature Hobbyist; a bit of an odd one here. This guy is fairly new to the hobby and his painting is (by his own admission) not that great, but he creates some fantastic results using almost nothing but leftover sprues! I love the fact that he does something a bit different, and is willing to have a go at just about anything.

Geek Gaming; I'll probably never make a gaming table, but watching Luke doing it and explaining the processes behind it is a real joy.

The Race For Terra; our own @Lovecraft0110. Weathering. All the weathering!



Inspiration for me will be the shortest section. I can't stand Instagram, and I don't use Pinterest. If I want to look at models I head to YouTube, message boards and Twitter, though not necessarily in that order.



So I feel like this is a little rushed despite the size, and I'll probably have to come back and make huge edits, but I hope it helps a little. =]

Totally agree with everything Pawl is saying herr.
Ill add a couple of other youtubers to the list but i won't add links and format like Pawl cos I'm lazy.

Darren Latham
I think Pawl has actually mentioned him to me. I think hes a former gw painter. Very talented painter always good to check his stuff out. I recently used his vid on purity seals to do the tallyman.

Next Level Painting
Pawl hates this guy but he really grows on you! Hes not going to win golden demons but hes a good painter and his airbrush style is very effective and not impossible to recreate I've used his "ancient Chinese airbrush" techniques a few times now and its good!! One thing, if you follow his stuff you'll need to get an airbrush varnish otherwise you can have a disaster.

Juan Hidalgo Miniatures
This guy is really talented. Mostly brushwork and eavy metal stuff but his nmm is unbelievable and looks maybe doable. Hes on facebook quite abit and was recently on warhammer community for best painted mini of the month 2nd place i think.

RobPaintsModels
This guy is great. Does alot of intermediate to advanced techniques in a way thats recreatable and well done. I would be alot less of a painter if it wasnt for Rob for sure.

Couple of others worth mentioning Trovarion and Sergio Calvo. These guys do incredible work but i think are pretty advanced!!!

Very cool stuff peeps :d

Darren latham is sick idd. He's glazing techniques is just amazing. I've seen some of hes videos when had them on hes YouTube channel on painting faces. The detail on those faces looks allmsost alive ! Very impressive. Allso learned a lot on hes 4 part masterclass video's. Haha but it takes so long time. Omg :p I've looked some on miniac's work though just because he comes up first on YouTube haha. Ty all

Darren is definitely a very skilled individual (he's the guy who designed the new C'Tan Shard ) but I definitely wouldn't consider him beginner level! Although his faces are rather impressive.
Miniac is someone that I really should be subbed to, but always forget when I watch one of his videos!
Vince however will always be my go-to. That guy has forgotten more about painting than I will ever know!

Is darren still employed by gw? I thought he was just a painter, had no idea he sculpted too. Didn't he get in trouble with gw?

Maniac is good. More like a uncle atom, hobby all rounder i feel rather than a tutorial-er even though he is a really good painter.

Still not gna give big dawg KB some respect???

He moved into the design dept. full time I believe, don't think he paints for them anymore.
Yeah, there was a bit of a 'thing' around his YouTube channel - it's the reason Duncan went solo. Long story short Duncan asked permission before starting a channel, they said no, then realised DL already had one. Originally I think he was going to have to take it down, but now he's just not adding to it.

No.

Didnt realise. Shame He's not adding to it as hes damn good and easyish to follow (based on the purity seal tutorial).
I do hate gw's iron fist stance on these things

Come on buddy old pal.

Anything that's not base/layer/wash/edge is going to get turned down by GW! Plus he might have suggested that there are products outside of a Citadel catalogue.

You make me sad.

Outside the.... catalog!??!!? Heresy!

pawl wrote: ↑17 Feb 21, 11:26 You make me sad.

This will never get old