I have definitely hit a plateau that I’m personally happy with. In the end, I want to paint warbands and armies that I can put on the table and chuck some dice with friends. Every now and then I’ll try a new technique on a hero model, but I generally gravitate to horde armies, and I can’t be bothered to spend that much time on every little skeleton warrior, for example. I aim for a good tabletop standard, and I’m 100% content with that.
@@Sue_Me_Too For me at least. But of course other people may not be army painters at heart, and that's great too. I guess the point is that you don't NEED to keep improving at your hobby if you're content with your skill level.
I think another interesting perspective is that after you've been painting for a while you have a "style". In the video comparing the Terminator from the beginning using washes to glaze for smooth blends and comparing it to the Doom Stalker with the OSL blends and great use of metallics and colors, I think the Doom Stalker is better but it still emulates a similar style that makes it his. And it shows that you can achieve similar effects and end goals using different techniques and tools that work better to different people's tastes! The way you move your brush, choose your colors, your eye, among a number of other factors, develop over time and once you've found a way to paint the way you like, incremental improvements, new techniques, and sometimes efficiencies you've found and learned along the way are the "getting better".
I started paint in '92, and putting dates on the bases in '94. I would say I peaked about 10 years ago, and since then I've seen a decline. Mostly I lack the patience to put in the time, some of it was having kids and a life outside the hobby. Every once in a while I decide I want to do a good job, put the time in, and get good results, but mostly tabletop is good enough for most everything these days.
Good to see youngsters like you revisiting their past. My first attempts at painting miniatures was in the mid seventies (1970s). over the years I have painted a couple thousand miniatures and bunches of terrain. I never caught the bug to improve my painting. I have just painted to bring my miniatures to life. Some of my favorites are figures I painted 30 or 40 years ago. I still have my original figures, all of them. I have used various paint brands over the years and ruined many brushes. Before UA-cam, I just painted the way I felt. When I saw videos of what others had done, I realized that some of the techniques they used were similar to mine. When I saw the fantastic minis that some painted, I thought that was amazing, but had no interest in spending hours on one figure. I have used brighter colors over the years than my battle worn, realistic, but muted figures in the past (much to my daughter's delight). The minis have changed radically since those early years of crude, metal figures to much better metal figures and even better plastic models. I still enjoy picking up a figure and recognizing that character by the paint job. They don't have to be brilliantly painted, they just have to be alive.
Funny how sometimes we can look back on projects and see great quality and techniques that we tried and successfully performed. Then we learn how to perform it well and then find our style. While comparing years later, we see ourself as not as progressed as we thought. I see that in most everything I do. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. It's amazing that you recall time and actions that it took to make thos projects, as they were over a decade or more ago and you have made so many over this time!
Great stuff! My "best" painted models are my old ones. Like you, it's the speed that I've gotten better at. I don't feel like I need to sink soooo much time and attention into any one project. I'd rather get the model to the good enough level and move onto something else. Thanks Adam! You da best!
I recently painted a heap of Nighthaunt for Deth Wizards. And I can happily say I have improved. Yes, I am using contrasts or speedpaints for a lot of my work with my chronic pain. But I am getting a lot faster and more consistent results. I am happy that my painting is good enough.
Ultimately, your happiness and your fun are what matters! And hey, speedpaints and contrasts are incredibly useful - don't let anyone tell you otherwise! Heck, I adore my drybrushing, sponging, washes, and detail work, and I still find plenty of use for contrasts and speedpaints. Tools are meant to be used, right?
Neatness and speed are where I think you improve by just painting a lot. Beyond that, display painting creates the opportunities to learn new techniques, some of which can trickle down to army painting. Your models all look great, I'm inspired to go paint more minis!
Unless you are interested in competitive painting or display painting, just get paint on it. Too many youtube painters are really discouraging people with their painting and how quick they can get it done. How long should it take to paint a mini? Answer as long it takes you don't feel rushed. Start small 1 mini a week or two. Hell just put a little on each day say 5 minutes after a year you will have a few done.
Also, if you are painting to play a “large” army game like 40K/AoS, learn how to batch paint and do it where you can listen to your favorite music that you can sing along to. Especially when you are starting out, or easily bored, do not try to paint for long sessions. You’d be better off limiting to 30-60 minutes each day or every other day, than to try to paint for hours on the weekend. Painting minis are very tedious and can easily get on your nerves if you try to do it too much
There are generally two “secrets” of UA-cam/instagram painters. Either it takes way longer than the audience thinks or they don’t actually look as good as you think (camera trickery basically).
I had hit a plateau a few years back. Decent quality but slow going. I then painted about 6 armies with practice of different techniques on each. Since then I've gotten waaayyy faster at doing stuff and now focus on improving for competition. I find that having done the grind with the armies has helped me get the basics done fast so I can focus on getting pieces comp ready. Keep at it and trust the process. But more than anything...have fun!
My own painting goes through cycles: I will go through a period of rapid improvement, plateau, learn a new technique, go through a period of rapid improvement, plateau, learn a new technique, etc, etc..
Very cool seeing you go through some if your older models. I see some chatter in the comments about changing the intro? I'd personally leave it. It's basically one of your staples to me now
I think your paint work is great. WAY better than mine currently. But the thing I took away the most is while you were talking about your paint work being "better" or "Not", you went through a multitude of things that you have got better at and learned from. Airbrushing, learning why sub assemblies are good. What paints you work best with and not. Kit bashing, making better basing, blending, colour matching/theory. Enamel washes, freehand work and decals. I mean, you've clearly worked hard to better your work and flow. I'm only 2/3 months into painting again after 20 years out (and wasn't good the 1st time round lol). I wish I had as many feathers in my cap as you do yours. Keep up this stuff coz I find your videos great help and inspiration.
Pushing yourself to improve is a pro and a con. The pro is you push yourself to develop new skills, techniques, and ways of thinking that overall improve your end result. The con is that you typically can’t do this alone and need someone who can help you, and you need to be honest and willing to work hard to improve. Striving to improve can also suck some of the fun out of mini painting so its always good to do what gives you the most fulfillment in the hobby.
I really liked those hobby progress vlogs, I know they probably don’t get the views you are used to , but I really enjoyed them. Thanks for all the videos man
Love that outlook. I always think how can I make the next squad better, the next model better, the next army better, and it leads to burnout that I am never just happy looking at a model and saying, "that's pretty cool." Law of diminishing returns...
My focus has changed over the last few years . I used to paint for speed and get armies done. But in the last 3 years, my family have all gotten into playing D&D . So my focus has been on painting 1 or a few models to my best ability. This has morphed into me now painting models that I have no plans for in wargames or D&D , just models I think are cool and want to paint. I'm thinking about entering competitive painting competitions, but I don't think I'm good enough yet.
100% my situation as well. Great to see someone on the same path. Ive won a couple local painting comps over the years back when i was painting armies so painting one model wasnt something i was so used to. Id say go for it!! Im sure your good enough mate and its a scary but rewarding experience just for the comraderie of it. Im now all about single figs for display purposes and have been considering comps again now that i am a far better painter and take things much further than i had before. Cheers!! Go for it!
First off, you are a really good miniature painter, and clearly have been for a long time. You have improved but I suspect that you are, perhaps unconsciously, using your newer skills like airbrushing, as hacks to enhance your results in a limited time rather than spend more time to go for that Golden Demon result. As a gamer and modeller I recognise that dilemma where you look at a figure and think "I could really go to town on this oorrrrr... I could finish the entire unit to this, pretty bloody good standard, and have a great game with my mates this weekend😊" . Maybe just do a piece or two for a competition, see how they rate, as painted miniatures, against other painters, rather than gamers, and satisfy your own curiosity. Don't be afraid to conclude that achieving Vince's level of results just doesn't outweigh knowing you could have put out another, entire, well painted game, on the table top in the same time. Keep up the great work 👍
If you want to get better at something, you need to intentionally practice that thing. You've been practicing army painting and you have gotten really good at army painting. The technique that leveled my painting up was picking a thing to practice on each miniature or unit and then doing my best at that one thing while painting the rest of the mini the way I would normally. With the next miniature, I picked a new thing to focus on. In this way I expanded my tool set without spending dozens of hours per mini and without the frustration of not getting any of the results I wanted. Note that sometimes the result won't be great, but at least you will have spent only a limited amount of time on each attempt.
There are 2 different approaches to painting, the English Gw way, which produces more consistent results or the the french/Spanish way which produces more subtle blends but and more interesting results, but can vary across multiple models
I like looking through my old models, not to see how much I've improved but how my 'style' has changed over the years as different paints have become available. One of my oldest models is a metal Leman Russ I painted in the mid-90's with my Dad's model railway enamel paints (who knew British Railways had a 'Space Wolf Grey' equivalent). Over time I've moved to old school Citadel paints, to P3 paints, Army Painter, and now Citadel Contrast. The only downside is that it's harder to add new models to old armies as my changing painting style means they look noticeably different.
Look at real life armies. They don't look like they were all done by one person all at one time. Sometimes they don't even look like they are supposed to be fighting together.
I don't or can't get better at painting because I am sporadic in my hobby time. With work, 3 young kids, house chores etc, I rarely get a chance to make time for painting miniatures.
I was stuck for years at the same level and didnt know how to improve. Then I found out about OSL, NMM, Washes, Loaded Brush, Wetblending and how to maximize the contrast. From then onwars I challenged myself to incorporate these techniques in my painting and started improving again surprisingly quickly.
My two cents: So first up those minis are really good. Whole forces painted like that must look great on the tabletop. You mentioned you've got faster, that sounds like 'better' to me. While you will generally get better as you things more but making distinct improvement often takes intentional practice. You're dead on with what you say at the end "maybe you have learned all of the techniques you need to know". Personally I want to nail NMM and I am getting there. I reckon that's where I'll stop though. Doing decent enough NMM will help the paint fit where to my eyes metallics don't (no judgement on anyone who uses and likes them, this is purely my personal preference). If you're painting at the level you want to be, don't feel you -have- to improve. It's all about what -you- want from the hobby.
I'm improving as I paint more since I started painting again a few years ago. Back in high school, I had basically no resources for learning how, I've learned a ton from UA-cam painting videos. But I learn more painting minis (tbh, I think it was Miniac who said that would be the case).
Man, after all these years I love how personal you get with these types of videos. Theres very few who will touch on these subjects, at least in this hobby. Theres always a bit of psychology implemented in them or better yet, wise old words from a very wise old man haha. Much appreciate this video because Iv only been in the hobby a few years and have had steady progress with paint techniques and upgrading my tools consistently for ease of painting and reducing laborous steps. However in the back of my head I always wonder when Ill hit that first plateau. I guess for now Ill continue to enjoy the ride of becoming better painter with each new project and model I do
Was just having similar thoughts where I started trying to paint everything as very best I could. Really started to take the fun out of it, and the pile of shame started to grow. Went back and “speed painted” a squad. Was amazed at how fast I got them done and had a ton of fun and they still look great. I think I’m going to return to that style for a majority of my projects.
Was looking for the “Pa Chow!” link at 6:40, but not seeing it. I’m new to your channel so I’m happy to dig through old videos to find it. Love all that I’ve watched so far! And found out you are a fellow Wisconsinite! So cool
Longtime viewer but mostly lurking. I would say that I'm getting better as I go and definitely learning new techniques to help really fuss up the minis that I really like. Since I sell the lion's share of what I paint, most of them are at a tabletop+ standard. But those pieces that really grab me? Those are the ones that are going to grab a little extra time on the table while I try out new techniques or spend that extra time to really make them shine. That's where I really see my growth in the hobby.
A nice thought provoking video, I know I have gotten better at painting now that I'm older than I was when I first started but a lot of that is to knowing when to stop and take a step back. Not every model needs to be precisely detailed when I'm not going to see it from 3-4 feet away. I do miss the extra free time I could spend on painting when I was younger, less responsibilities and demands on my time.
After watching your videos over the years, you have never been as much of an artistic painter but more of a gamer that paints well. I think you have discussed this before in videos especially when you started painting for competition and then you have pushed yourself with different technics.
The thing that's become very apparent just by watching other people hobby as well as my own hobby journey that I started about 3 years ago is that time doesn't make you better once you've already gotten pretty good at painting. If you don't actively try to improve at specific techniques, you quite simply won't. Otherwise everyone who's been painting models for more than 10 years would be fucking amazing at painting, but that's quite simply not the case. When I first started I was out of work thanks to covid, so I spent something like 30 hours a week just watching tutorials from people like Vince, learning all sorts of techniques and it really shows in the models I painted pretty soon after starting. Some of my oldest work still holds up very well to this day and something I'd absolutely still play with. That said the ''art style'' is completely different because I paint models in a completely different way nowadays. I use a lot more oil paints and heavy body acrylics than I used to, I mix my own metallic paints and paint TMM with a lot of volumetric highlights instead of just letting washes just do their thing, I airbrush on shadows and bounce lights on the models, sometimes I create a very heavy environmental lighting effects on all of the models because I like to imagine terrain around them and so on.
Edit: You mentioned this in the video after the point in which I'd commented. Rings true! While the point of the video is asking whether you have stopped improving the proof in your improvement was in your comments about each model. You kept talking about how long things used to take, or techniques that you have since replaced to get more efficient etc. You have been continually improving. Being able to paint to your satisfaction in 3 hours instead of 30 (arbitrary numbers to prove the point) shows MASSIVE improvement. Keep it up Uncle A!
isn't toaster putty just peanutbutter? Great video, the gf and I really enjoyed it and she commented on how much she loves this kind of video and how she wishes there was something similar for knitting
Repainting an old army is like the epitome of this. I just repainted all the feudal guard I had. It was one of my first armies and I think i've improved significantly since then in both speed and quality :)
Great video Adam. Glad to see the studio back! Also please don't change your intro or outro:) I actually stopped trying to paint display miniatures because they take too long and started speed painting lots of minis for my board games like Zombicide ect. It's refreshing to paint stuff and have it done the same day. You actually did peak my interest in painting another display piece and do some kitbashing (which I've never done before) when I saw your kitbashed stuff. Thank you!
As a guy who started painting sometime during covid, i've noticed that while I do try to learn new techniques a lot of my improvement hasn't been so much making more impressive paint jobs but making less mistakes. Which is technically faster but moreso less frustrating overall.
I would love to see you do a video on "I'm not getting better, and does that matter?" I made the conscious choice a few years back to stop pushing towards competition level painting since I'm mostly interested in playing games. There's no need to perfect that blend if it's a game piece that's going to live at 12"-24" away from me during the excitement of battle. I'll simply never notice those details. The contrast helps to make the models pop on the table, and I still enjoy learning/hearing about new techniques, but that desire to "get better at painting" is no longer a constant naging guilt a I carry with me. Now I just paint my tabletop-toys to a level that makes me happy.
Its weird. I’ve been building for 40+ years and I know that 8 have improved a lot. But when I looked at work I did 30 odd years ago, I am still very happy with my old projects and they still look great to me. I think the improvements come in hidden ways. Methods, techniques, accuracy and speed, so the improvements are there but are more hidden
I think I would be ecstatic to paint, either now or 10-15 years from now, at the level of some of the earliest models that you showed. You really are very talented. Just a consideration and please don't take this as criticism, but perhaps part of why you are faster now is that you don't spend as much time sweating the small mistakes or things you would like to do more betterer...that's a word. Because you are more comfortable in your new dynamic and enjoying the process more as you get more done in the same time. I have only been painting 24 months now but I am way better in a lot of my techniques but I don't see myself delivering higher quality than I do now but I see the pile of progress getting addressed at a higher clip over the next 24 months! Thanks again for the content. Liked and subscribed happily.
One of the things that started pushing my painting quite a bit was something Vince said. Be intentional with your practice. If you want to get better find something you want to improve on, then do that on a unit. The current thing I'm working on is kit bashing. I've done very little of it, but in my current painting project I have several heavily kit bashed models. Previous project was a vibrant shiny blue cloth. And so on.
Almost 30 years after painting my first mini, I can confidently say that my painting strengths have changed. Long gone are the days when I would paint the helmet lenses on Epic eldar guardians but my suite of skills has broadened and I think my eye for composition has improved. I vary my painting style depending on the game, army or the feel I'm after and find it hard to compare paint jobs as a result. Sculpting though is where I can still see continued improvement over 12-ish years of on/off effort.
I love this, i just made a comment to a friend that i played with the other day. If you are trying to play and your main goal is to put models on the table and make it look good then use speed paints and the slap chop method and stick to 1-2 colors. They will naturally highlight and shade and you can get a whole bunch done in a relatively short manner and once you get that figured out then it becomes about whether you want to paint for display. Like why would you spend hours and hours and do a lot of edge highlighting to make your model look like a piece of art to not display it and then handle it a lot by putting it on the table top where anything could happen like dropping it. True i want my models to look good and dont care if you have only assembled your grey army we are playing and thats the most important part to me. My friend wants to get better by focusing on highlights and shading by hand, that's great but if the time it took you to paint that one model i got my entire army out and played them, then I think the time was well saved. I don't plan to enter competitive painting, i got into the hobby for the gameplay, i didnt even think i would like the painting, but i did as i started to delve deeper into the game. I tell people its easier than it looks to slap chop or as i have been learning zenithal and using speed/contrast paints. the longest part usually is just deciding color scheme!
Great video! I feel the same way. I’m nowhere near a display painter. However, I see tutorials explaining they’re taking hours and hours for one model. I couldn’t get anything done. More power to anyone doing that, but I want good quality, not perfect. Your videos help so much. Thanks!
All your models look pretty good to me. For gaming purposes, I think for me once all my models hit a certain range of quality I’m happy with them. I bet if I commission a golden daemon level paintjob, it would look out of place next to my army/warband. Vice versa, if I do a cheap low quality paintjob, that might also look out of place.
Thanks for this video! This was an entertaining retrospective...I particularly like and remember Your Ambot/Ork kitbash, as it inspired me to acquire that kit for a similar nefarious scheme I have..! On the subject of improving my painting, I can definitely say I have improved my painting quality and speed over the last ten to fifteen years. It was around 2011 when I resolved to try to improve my standard . Through watching various painting videos, and trying new techniques, I think I am doing my best work yet. While there is always room for improvement, I am satisfied where I am at this point in my hobby journey and see my current projects as being the best I am capable of with my limited means. I have a lot of projects on the go and planned for this year to reach my yearly goal of 100 models/miniatures...time to get back to em! Thanks again!
I have numbered all of my minis. Working on my 61st at the moment and while I think I started out ok I definitely can see the changes in my work. My brush control has gotten better, my techniques are improved and I’m faster with fewer mistakes. I don’t think I’ve plateaued yet because every time i find myself in a rut I basically switch gears and do something different with a completely different model/color scheme (ie switching from space marines to Nids). By going back and forth like that I’ve noticed marked improvements
I feel like I’ve learnt new techniques over the last decade. Different ways of doing a part of a model. But in the main this has made things faster, or given me more options to make models look different. I’d agree that it’s not really a case of better, just variety
I was listening while fixing breakfast - and while reaching for the TOASTER PUTTY - I was thankfully steered clear of that blunder - the appliance and my internal piping thank you 😅
My paintjobs always only got worse lol. My first minis were the best, I spent about a week on each using expensive acrylics and oil paints and picking every detail. Later I started to cut corners more and more until it became a habit. That's probably cause I got into the hobby with established oil painting skills
I'm definitely getting better, I can see the progression. I have an old Ral Partha giant skeleton that I painted in basic colors long ago. Years ago, I decided I could do better, but instead of stripping him down to repaint, I touched him up, adding some shading and highlighting, and simple rust effects to his armor and sword. I got him out to use in Deth Wizards, and I can clearly see how I have improved since then, and may apply another touchup to Big Rufus. Enjoy your painting journey, wherever it leads you.
I try and finish most models to a character level. I'm the one who has to stare at them 99% of the time; and if I don't like looking at them, then they get redone.
From my 1991 RTB-01 marines to my 1998 Clan Wars minis - night and day. From 1998 to (big break in painting) 2016 - night and day. From 2016 to today - faster, more efficient, dry brushing is my jam.
Remember that the curve of learning always starts off pretty steep as you can improve fairly quickly but this starts to plateau as the extra needed to push the skill to higher and higher levels takes more time and practice. Add to this the changes in paint types and quality and starting to use new techniques and you are constantly dropping back down the curve. If you start by using Citadel traditional paints and paint every day using only Citadel paints (no contrast) then after 15 years you will notice a difference.
I have just got the Dark Rituals game to the table, for the first time in ages and I can't believe how badly I painted the miniatures! It was only about 3 years ago and it looks like I was mostly using contrast paints. I use contrasts/speed paints very sparingly now but this may have been my first experience of them? I have models that I painted way before this, that are much better. I am stripping and repainting them!
I would love to see a video of a side by side with newly painted models compared to the old ones. Like get a new necromancer and paint him with your current skill level and compare him to the old one you painted. Regardless of progress I think it would be an educational and inspiring video to make. I know for me personally I feel like I am in the same boat in that my current paint jobs don't seem to have progressed as much. I think showing of small progression or none at all could be helpful for people struggling to find inspiration in continuing to paint and not to get discouraged.
I started to critique my own work, and it has helped with understanding where I want to improve. I have to understand where I am at though. Can't be too self-critical, or too proud of my paintjob. Just look it over and see if there are things I can do better.
I’ve been painting for around a decade and I know I’ve gotten tons better since then but maybe the last year I haven’t gotten any better. I blame not having as much time to paint but I’m still enjoying it.
i found my painting style and it worked great for me but after a few years i started to experiment with new techniques and paint formulas and found that the way i was painting had become too formulaic and that's the reason my painting didn't improve. learning to use different styles of painting and how to work with other brands of paints/effects has made my models look far better than my older stuff i thought looked amazing.
Some of my older paint jobs look better than my newer ones. I think I tried harder at first and then, over time, I just wanted to get my ridiculous amount minis on the tabletop to actually play with them. God bless speed paint, slap chop and strangely, colored pencils for highlighting.
I have had three "levels" of my painting skills I would say. My early "drybrush and wash" stage - then I began experimenting and got to my "second level" which was where I began learning skills. It was during this time I tried entering painting contests etc. But, I realized I didn't have the patience to get up to a competition level. Locally there was just people who were better than me. And I wanted to play games with painted models Thus, my current level I feel I have the skills *I* need to get both fast armies on the table, as well as some better looking models. I've always been an army painter at heart. I'm motivating by completing an army list, and playing with a fully painted army. Thus in my "third level" I focused less on getting better results, as much as I focused on getting "good enough results, faster." As I write this I'm looking at models I painted a decade ago, and they aren't much worse than what I put on the table today. And, I'm okay with that. Heck I'm just as proud of my Contrast painted Dark Angels, as I am my "spent hours and hours"-painted Abaddon model.
To force myself to get better, I bought new paints with a lot of "bright" colours, and restricted myself to using those for a while. Got me out of always painting things dark and dirty and really made me appreciate putting some vibrancy down on the table for a change.
Once painting is good enough, it really doesn’t need to get better. I won a few painting awards around the early 90s, but I paint better now because I deliberately paint worse - that is I try to paint simpler and faster and get more units finished to a good standard without caring about painting competitions or what something might look like in extreme closeup on a computer monitor. I’m much happier with my output now that I am consistently “good enough.”
I wish I could say I've improved anything... well, maybe a bit better results, but probably not faster, I guess. But, for sure, after 5-6 years painting, I'm getting... older 😅 And sorry for my poor English.
First off, the models look great! I wish my best was anywhere near that level of cool. I saw a lot of improvement between the old and the new. Look at the left Pauldron of the demon prince, your shading has gotten a LOT better as well (subtle and smooth - which I can't do at all). Anyway, I do go back and look at old models and compare. I try to have a firm rule to NOT fix old models, regardless of how much they pain me. That's how I know I've improved. What was acceptable 5 years ago would be unacceptable and, in some ways, atrocious today. I still like the models, but can see the flaws. Also, I've painted 2 of those Heldrakes. One I did as sub-assembly and one I rescued (pre-built bought with army). Highly recommend Sub-assembly on that guy. Crikey that's a lot of trim.
Ive seen a lot of posts where people assume to be good they need to be using a lot of NMM or OSL tricks, but then in the comparison pics with their old stuff, I often prefer their old painting style better.
> I mainly blame this on not really trying to increase my skills too much...because of this, I haven't really gotten a ton better in the last decade and a half, but I have gotten faster. 100%. If you are not challenging yourself, you won't really improve. Just painting the same technique the same way over and over is not a recipe for improvement. Chances are, even if subconsciously, you challenged yourself to paint more quickly, tried new techniques like the airbrush to improve your speed, etc... And the thing you actually worked on, you improved on.
Great video. I think it was you who said with esperience you get better or you get faster. Seems you have your answer. You pushed yourself for a model for NOVA Open. All those minis looked great.
The thing is, you've progressively attempted further techniques and different tools over that time, so if the standard is "the same" you've essentially added new skills to your repetoire, which is absolutely improvement. Further, and you mentioned it yourself re: speed; if you are hitting the same standard now as you did 10 years ago but in half the time then you have also improved.
I plateaued years ago, and if anything have actually taken a step backwards because of the convenience of speed/contrast paints. Disappointing to see. There's the occasional "WOW that looks good!". I'm investing in an airbursh and trying oil washes to give me a bit of a kick up the arse. off topic - my Deth Wizards book should be arriving today!
This exactly. When I started hobbying for real, the unspoken goal was to paint like the minis in the catalogues/magazines … and I got pretty ok at it (7-8 outta 10) But as the armies & warbands started stacking up, as well as the advent of mass market shortcuts (citadel washes then speed paints) Now I’d say I’m a happy 5 maybe 6 if I put in effort .. but my paint time has been halved at least.
We all have plateaus, and personal opinion it has to do with innovation vs our internal shorthand. We get to, 'this gets things completed', and once we get enough completed, and we're kind of fortunate, we get a new question to figure a new answer or method.
I was told that to get better you have to push yourself and to get faster you have to paint a lot. So after a certain point unless you try new techniques etc you wont improve that much. Brushcontrol can only take you so far. You will however get faster and faster at the lvl you are already on by painting more and more so a figure takes 2hrs instead of 4hrs etc
I saw my biggest quality improvement over the first couple of years of painting. Since then, if there is any improvement, I don’t see it, but my speed has improved. I am about 2-3x faster at painting than I was a decade ago. I think most people notice the improvement from inexperienced to table-top quality in a relatively short period of time. Thereafter, quality only increases based on your investment into quality, ie learning new techniques. Most people don’t have the time or sometimes the money to pay for expensive brushes, air brush setups, etc. when they are already paying a premium on the models. Not to mention having a lot of paint variety is part of quality and paint ain’t cheap.
Love it, as I've said before your good, would be my display standard. I find the biggest improvement actually comes from liking the models. I've a set of Mantic Games Enforcers, Forge Fathers and Marauders and I hate painting them so they are various states of started. Whereas I've some models from Crooked Dice, Heresy, Bad Squiddo, Warlord and GW and I've loved them, started and finished over a couple of weeks.Some WW2/Cthulhu/Spectrum (Captain Scarlet) skirmish fun going on with either 7TV or Faith and Fear rule systems. Motivation becomes a big part.
I was just thinking that my mini painting hadn't improved the last half year, but then I remembered that I spent much of that time painting cockpits and engines, so overall my results have gotten better.
I think some of my best work is from the 80’s when I was just starting with the hobby. Certainly I’ve learned a lot since, but sometimes a model just clicks.
Thanks again for a great, introspective video, Uncle Atom. From my novice perspective, it seems that you've mastered your own style of painting, and that's a good thing. As you add more models to your forces, there won't be that stark difference between classics and new additions. Keep up the great work, looking forward to your next video. 🙂👍
Please never change the intro! It gives me a small nostalgia hit even on new videos, it's hard to describe.
and the lighting, those background warm lights are so nostalgic for me
This
Agreed
Seconded!
I'll sign this petition.
I have definitely hit a plateau that I’m personally happy with. In the end, I want to paint warbands and armies that I can put on the table and chuck some dice with friends. Every now and then I’ll try a new technique on a hero model, but I generally gravitate to horde armies, and I can’t be bothered to spend that much time on every little skeleton warrior, for example. I aim for a good tabletop standard, and I’m 100% content with that.
Getting the entire army painted > one really well done model
@@Sue_Me_Too For me at least. But of course other people may not be army painters at heart, and that's great too. I guess the point is that you don't NEED to keep improving at your hobby if you're content with your skill level.
@@IAmTurbogfx I'm just happy when all my Imperial Fists end up the same shade of yellow.
I think another interesting perspective is that after you've been painting for a while you have a "style". In the video comparing the Terminator from the beginning using washes to glaze for smooth blends and comparing it to the Doom Stalker with the OSL blends and great use of metallics and colors, I think the Doom Stalker is better but it still emulates a similar style that makes it his. And it shows that you can achieve similar effects and end goals using different techniques and tools that work better to different people's tastes!
The way you move your brush, choose your colors, your eye, among a number of other factors, develop over time and once you've found a way to paint the way you like, incremental improvements, new techniques, and sometimes efficiencies you've found and learned along the way are the "getting better".
Same. Good enough is good enough
I started paint in '92, and putting dates on the bases in '94. I would say I peaked about 10 years ago, and since then I've seen a decline. Mostly I lack the patience to put in the time, some of it was having kids and a life outside the hobby. Every once in a while I decide I want to do a good job, put the time in, and get good results, but mostly tabletop is good enough for most everything these days.
Good to see youngsters like you revisiting their past. My first attempts at painting miniatures was in the mid seventies (1970s). over the years I have painted a couple thousand miniatures and bunches of terrain. I never caught the bug to improve my painting. I have just painted to bring my miniatures to life. Some of my favorites are figures I painted 30 or 40 years ago. I still have my original figures, all of them. I have used various paint brands over the years and ruined many brushes. Before UA-cam, I just painted the way I felt. When I saw videos of what others had done, I realized that some of the techniques they used were similar to mine. When I saw the fantastic minis that some painted, I thought that was amazing, but had no interest in spending hours on one figure. I have used brighter colors over the years than my battle worn, realistic, but muted figures in the past (much to my daughter's delight). The minis have changed radically since those early years of crude, metal figures to much better metal figures and even better plastic models. I still enjoy picking up a figure and recognizing that character by the paint job. They don't have to be brilliantly painted, they just have to be alive.
Funny how sometimes we can look back on projects and see great quality and techniques that we tried and successfully performed. Then we learn how to perform it well and then find our style. While comparing years later, we see ourself as not as progressed as we thought. I see that in most everything I do. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. It's amazing that you recall time and actions that it took to make thos projects, as they were over a decade or more ago and you have made so many over this time!
Great stuff! My "best" painted models are my old ones. Like you, it's the speed that I've gotten better at. I don't feel like I need to sink soooo much time and attention into any one project. I'd rather get the model to the good enough level and move onto something else. Thanks Adam! You da best!
I recently painted a heap of Nighthaunt for Deth Wizards. And I can happily say I have improved. Yes, I am using contrasts or speedpaints for a lot of my work with my chronic pain. But I am getting a lot faster and more consistent results.
I am happy that my painting is good enough.
Ultimately, your happiness and your fun are what matters!
And hey, speedpaints and contrasts are incredibly useful - don't let anyone tell you otherwise! Heck, I adore my drybrushing, sponging, washes, and detail work, and I still find plenty of use for contrasts and speedpaints. Tools are meant to be used, right?
Neatness and speed are where I think you improve by just painting a lot. Beyond that, display painting creates the opportunities to learn new techniques, some of which can trickle down to army painting. Your models all look great, I'm inspired to go paint more minis!
Unless you are interested in competitive painting or display painting, just get paint on it. Too many youtube painters are really discouraging people with their painting and how quick they can get it done. How long should it take to paint a mini? Answer as long it takes you don't feel rushed. Start small 1 mini a week or two. Hell just put a little on each day say 5 minutes after a year you will have a few done.
Also, if you are painting to play a “large” army game like 40K/AoS, learn how to batch paint and do it where you can listen to your favorite music that you can sing along to. Especially when you are starting out, or easily bored, do not try to paint for long sessions. You’d be better off limiting to 30-60 minutes each day or every other day, than to try to paint for hours on the weekend. Painting minis are very tedious and can easily get on your nerves if you try to do it too much
There are generally two “secrets” of UA-cam/instagram painters. Either it takes way longer than the audience thinks or they don’t actually look as good as you think (camera trickery basically).
"Don't touch toaster putty!"
Thank you for that one. A gem.
My uncle Lefty made that mistake once.
Once.
I had hit a plateau a few years back. Decent quality but slow going. I then painted about 6 armies with practice of different techniques on each. Since then I've gotten waaayyy faster at doing stuff and now focus on improving for competition. I find that having done the grind with the armies has helped me get the basics done fast so I can focus on getting pieces comp ready. Keep at it and trust the process. But more than anything...have fun!
My own painting goes through cycles: I will go through a period of rapid improvement, plateau, learn a new technique, go through a period of rapid improvement, plateau, learn a new technique, etc, etc..
Very cool seeing you go through some if your older models. I see some chatter in the comments about changing the intro? I'd personally leave it. It's basically one of your staples to me now
I think your paint work is great. WAY better than mine currently. But the thing I took away the most is while you were talking about your paint work being "better" or "Not", you went through a multitude of things that you have got better at and learned from. Airbrushing, learning why sub assemblies are good. What paints you work best with and not. Kit bashing, making better basing, blending, colour matching/theory. Enamel washes, freehand work and decals. I mean, you've clearly worked hard to better your work and flow. I'm only 2/3 months into painting again after 20 years out (and wasn't good the 1st time round lol). I wish I had as many feathers in my cap as you do yours. Keep up this stuff coz I find your videos great help and inspiration.
Pushing yourself to improve is a pro and a con. The pro is you push yourself to develop new skills, techniques, and ways of thinking that overall improve your end result. The con is that you typically can’t do this alone and need someone who can help you, and you need to be honest and willing to work hard to improve. Striving to improve can also suck some of the fun out of mini painting so its always good to do what gives you the most fulfillment in the hobby.
I really liked those hobby progress vlogs, I know they probably don’t get the views you are used to , but I really enjoyed them. Thanks for all the videos man
The models all look great. Remember better is the enemy of good enough.
Love that outlook. I always think how can I make the next squad better, the next model better, the next army better, and it leads to burnout that I am never just happy looking at a model and saying, "that's pretty cool." Law of diminishing returns...
My focus has changed over the last few years . I used to paint for speed and get armies done. But in the last 3 years, my family have all gotten into playing D&D . So my focus has been on painting 1 or a few models to my best ability. This has morphed into me now painting models that I have no plans for in wargames or D&D , just models I think are cool and want to paint. I'm thinking about entering competitive painting competitions, but I don't think I'm good enough yet.
100% my situation as well. Great to see someone on the same path. Ive won a couple local painting comps over the years back when i was painting armies so painting one model wasnt something i was so used to. Id say go for it!! Im sure your good enough mate and its a scary but rewarding experience just for the comraderie of it. Im now all about single figs for display purposes and have been considering comps again now that i am a far better painter and take things much further than i had before. Cheers!! Go for it!
First off, you are a really good miniature painter, and clearly have been for a long time. You have improved but I suspect that you are, perhaps unconsciously, using your newer skills like airbrushing, as hacks to enhance your results in a limited time rather than spend more time to go for that Golden Demon result. As a gamer and modeller I recognise that dilemma where you look at a figure and think "I could really go to town on this oorrrrr... I could finish the entire unit to this, pretty bloody good standard, and have a great game with my mates this weekend😊" . Maybe just do a piece or two for a competition, see how they rate, as painted miniatures, against other painters, rather than gamers, and satisfy your own curiosity. Don't be afraid to conclude that achieving Vince's level of results just doesn't outweigh knowing you could have put out another, entire, well painted game, on the table top in the same time. Keep up the great work 👍
If you want to get better at something, you need to intentionally practice that thing. You've been practicing army painting and you have gotten really good at army painting.
The technique that leveled my painting up was picking a thing to practice on each miniature or unit and then doing my best at that one thing while painting the rest of the mini the way I would normally. With the next miniature, I picked a new thing to focus on.
In this way I expanded my tool set without spending dozens of hours per mini and without the frustration of not getting any of the results I wanted.
Note that sometimes the result won't be great, but at least you will have spent only a limited amount of time on each attempt.
There are 2 different approaches to painting, the English Gw way, which produces more consistent results or the the french/Spanish way which produces more subtle blends but and more interesting results, but can vary across multiple models
I like looking through my old models, not to see how much I've improved but how my 'style' has changed over the years as different paints have become available. One of my oldest models is a metal Leman Russ I painted in the mid-90's with my Dad's model railway enamel paints (who knew British Railways had a 'Space Wolf Grey' equivalent). Over time I've moved to old school Citadel paints, to P3 paints, Army Painter, and now Citadel Contrast. The only downside is that it's harder to add new models to old armies as my changing painting style means they look noticeably different.
Look at real life armies. They don't look like they were all done by one person all at one time. Sometimes they don't even look like they are supposed to be fighting together.
I don't or can't get better at painting because I am sporadic in my hobby time. With work, 3 young kids, house chores etc, I rarely get a chance to make time for painting miniatures.
I was stuck for years at the same level and didnt know how to improve. Then I found out about OSL, NMM, Washes, Loaded Brush, Wetblending and how to maximize the contrast. From then onwars I challenged myself to incorporate these techniques in my painting and started improving again surprisingly quickly.
My two cents:
So first up those minis are really good. Whole forces painted like that must look great on the tabletop.
You mentioned you've got faster, that sounds like 'better' to me.
While you will generally get better as you things more but making distinct improvement often takes intentional practice. You're dead on with what you say at the end "maybe you have learned all of the techniques you need to know".
Personally I want to nail NMM and I am getting there. I reckon that's where I'll stop though. Doing decent enough NMM will help the paint fit where to my eyes metallics don't (no judgement on anyone who uses and likes them, this is purely my personal preference).
If you're painting at the level you want to be, don't feel you -have- to improve. It's all about what -you- want from the hobby.
Now I know they're armed with Lightning Paws I may have to start collecting Chaos Space Marines. Nice video as usual, thanks.
I'm improving as I paint more since I started painting again a few years ago. Back in high school, I had basically no resources for learning how, I've learned a ton from UA-cam painting videos.
But I learn more painting minis (tbh, I think it was Miniac who said that would be the case).
Man, after all these years I love how personal you get with these types of videos. Theres very few who will touch on these subjects, at least in this hobby. Theres always a bit of psychology implemented in them or better yet, wise old words from a very wise old man haha. Much appreciate this video because Iv only been in the hobby a few years and have had steady progress with paint techniques and upgrading my tools consistently for ease of painting and reducing laborous steps. However in the back of my head I always wonder when Ill hit that first plateau. I guess for now Ill continue to enjoy the ride of becoming better painter with each new project and model I do
Was just having similar thoughts where I started trying to paint everything as very best I could. Really started to take the fun out of it, and the pile of shame started to grow. Went back and “speed painted” a squad. Was amazed at how fast I got them done and had a ton of fun and they still look great. I think I’m going to return to that style for a majority of my projects.
Was looking for the “Pa Chow!” link at 6:40, but not seeing it. I’m new to your channel so I’m happy to dig through old videos to find it. Love all that I’ve watched so far! And found out you are a fellow Wisconsinite! So cool
Longtime viewer but mostly lurking. I would say that I'm getting better as I go and definitely learning new techniques to help really fuss up the minis that I really like. Since I sell the lion's share of what I paint, most of them are at a tabletop+ standard. But those pieces that really grab me? Those are the ones that are going to grab a little extra time on the table while I try out new techniques or spend that extra time to really make them shine. That's where I really see my growth in the hobby.
I definitely see an evolution of your paint jobs, most notably in more interesting bright color pops as you move through your minis. Great video!
A nice thought provoking video, I know I have gotten better at painting now that I'm older than I was when I first started but a lot of that is to knowing when to stop and take a step back. Not every model needs to be precisely detailed when I'm not going to see it from 3-4 feet away. I do miss the extra free time I could spend on painting when I was younger, less responsibilities and demands on my time.
After watching your videos over the years, you have never been as much of an artistic painter but more of a gamer that paints well. I think you have discussed this before in videos especially when you started painting for competition and then you have pushed yourself with different technics.
I never thought about it this way, but it makes me feel better about my progress. Thanks Uncle Atom 💙
The thing that's become very apparent just by watching other people hobby as well as my own hobby journey that I started about 3 years ago is that time doesn't make you better once you've already gotten pretty good at painting. If you don't actively try to improve at specific techniques, you quite simply won't.
Otherwise everyone who's been painting models for more than 10 years would be fucking amazing at painting, but that's quite simply not the case. When I first started I was out of work thanks to covid, so I spent something like 30 hours a week just watching tutorials from people like Vince, learning all sorts of techniques and it really shows in the models I painted pretty soon after starting. Some of my oldest work still holds up very well to this day and something I'd absolutely still play with.
That said the ''art style'' is completely different because I paint models in a completely different way nowadays. I use a lot more oil paints and heavy body acrylics than I used to, I mix my own metallic paints and paint TMM with a lot of volumetric highlights instead of just letting washes just do their thing, I airbrush on shadows and bounce lights on the models, sometimes I create a very heavy environmental lighting effects on all of the models because I like to imagine terrain around them and so on.
Edit: You mentioned this in the video after the point in which I'd commented. Rings true!
While the point of the video is asking whether you have stopped improving the proof in your improvement was in your comments about each model. You kept talking about how long things used to take, or techniques that you have since replaced to get more efficient etc.
You have been continually improving. Being able to paint to your satisfaction in 3 hours instead of 30 (arbitrary numbers to prove the point) shows MASSIVE improvement.
Keep it up Uncle A!
isn't toaster putty just peanutbutter?
Great video, the gf and I really enjoyed it and she commented on how much she loves this kind of video and how she wishes there was something similar for knitting
So nice to see/hear you again. I could listen to you for hours!
Repainting an old army is like the epitome of this. I just repainted all the feudal guard I had. It was one of my first armies and I think i've improved significantly since then in both speed and quality :)
Great video Adam. Glad to see the studio back! Also please don't change your intro or outro:) I actually stopped trying to paint display miniatures because they take too long and started speed painting lots of minis for my board games like Zombicide ect. It's refreshing to paint stuff and have it done the same day. You actually did peak my interest in painting another display piece and do some kitbashing (which I've never done before) when I saw your kitbashed stuff. Thank you!
As a guy who started painting sometime during covid, i've noticed that while I do try to learn new techniques a lot of my improvement hasn't been so much making more impressive paint jobs but making less mistakes. Which is technically faster but moreso less frustrating overall.
I would love to see you do a video on "I'm not getting better, and does that matter?"
I made the conscious choice a few years back to stop pushing towards competition level painting since I'm mostly interested in playing games. There's no need to perfect that blend if it's a game piece that's going to live at 12"-24" away from me during the excitement of battle. I'll simply never notice those details. The contrast helps to make the models pop on the table, and I still enjoy learning/hearing about new techniques, but that desire to "get better at painting" is no longer a constant naging guilt a I carry with me. Now I just paint my tabletop-toys to a level that makes me happy.
Its weird. I’ve been building for 40+ years and I know that 8 have improved a lot. But when I looked at work I did 30 odd years ago, I am still very happy with my old projects and they still look great to me. I think the improvements come in hidden ways. Methods, techniques, accuracy and speed, so the improvements are there but are more hidden
I think I would be ecstatic to paint, either now or 10-15 years from now, at the level of some of the earliest models that you showed. You really are very talented. Just a consideration and please don't take this as criticism, but perhaps part of why you are faster now is that you don't spend as much time sweating the small mistakes or things you would like to do more betterer...that's a word. Because you are more comfortable in your new dynamic and enjoying the process more as you get more done in the same time. I have only been painting 24 months now but I am way better in a lot of my techniques but I don't see myself delivering higher quality than I do now but I see the pile of progress getting addressed at a higher clip over the next 24 months! Thanks again for the content. Liked and subscribed happily.
Your work from beginning to now is very clean!
One of the things that started pushing my painting quite a bit was something Vince said. Be intentional with your practice. If you want to get better find something you want to improve on, then do that on a unit.
The current thing I'm working on is kit bashing. I've done very little of it, but in my current painting project I have several heavily kit bashed models. Previous project was a vibrant shiny blue cloth. And so on.
A lot of times, you may not get "better," but you will find you will get faster. Either way, paint for yourself and be proud of what you've done.
Almost 30 years after painting my first mini, I can confidently say that my painting strengths have changed. Long gone are the days when I would paint the helmet lenses on Epic eldar guardians but my suite of skills has broadened and I think my eye for composition has improved. I vary my painting style depending on the game, army or the feel I'm after and find it hard to compare paint jobs as a result. Sculpting though is where I can still see continued improvement over 12-ish years of on/off effort.
I love this, i just made a comment to a friend that i played with the other day. If you are trying to play and your main goal is to put models on the table and make it look good then use speed paints and the slap chop method and stick to 1-2 colors. They will naturally highlight and shade and you can get a whole bunch done in a relatively short manner and once you get that figured out then it becomes about whether you want to paint for display. Like why would you spend hours and hours and do a lot of edge highlighting to make your model look like a piece of art to not display it and then handle it a lot by putting it on the table top where anything could happen like dropping it. True i want my models to look good and dont care if you have only assembled your grey army we are playing and thats the most important part to me. My friend wants to get better by focusing on highlights and shading by hand, that's great but if the time it took you to paint that one model i got my entire army out and played them, then I think the time was well saved. I don't plan to enter competitive painting, i got into the hobby for the gameplay, i didnt even think i would like the painting, but i did as i started to delve deeper into the game. I tell people its easier than it looks to slap chop or as i have been learning zenithal and using speed/contrast paints. the longest part usually is just deciding color scheme!
Great video! I feel the same way. I’m nowhere near a display painter. However, I see tutorials explaining they’re taking hours and hours for one model. I couldn’t get anything done. More power to anyone doing that, but I want good quality, not perfect. Your videos help so much. Thanks!
All your models look pretty good to me. For gaming purposes, I think for me once all my models hit a certain range of quality I’m happy with them. I bet if I commission a golden daemon level paintjob, it would look out of place next to my army/warband. Vice versa, if I do a cheap low quality paintjob, that might also look out of place.
Thanks for this video! This was an entertaining retrospective...I particularly like and remember Your Ambot/Ork kitbash, as it inspired me to acquire that kit for a similar nefarious scheme I have..! On the subject of improving my painting, I can definitely say I have improved my painting quality and speed over the last ten to fifteen years. It was around 2011 when I resolved to try to improve my standard . Through watching various painting videos, and trying new techniques, I think I am doing my best work yet. While there is always room for improvement, I am satisfied where I am at this point in my hobby journey and see my current projects as being the best I am capable of with my limited means.
I have a lot of projects on the go and planned for this year to reach my yearly goal of 100 models/miniatures...time to get back to em! Thanks again!
I have numbered all of my minis. Working on my 61st at the moment and while I think I started out ok I definitely can see the changes in my work. My brush control has gotten better, my techniques are improved and I’m faster with fewer mistakes. I don’t think I’ve plateaued yet because every time i find myself in a rut I basically switch gears and do something different with a completely different model/color scheme (ie switching from space marines to Nids). By going back and forth like that I’ve noticed marked improvements
I feel like I’ve learnt new techniques over the last decade. Different ways of doing a part of a model. But in the main this has made things faster, or given me more options to make models look different. I’d agree that it’s not really a case of better, just variety
I was listening while fixing breakfast - and while reaching for the TOASTER PUTTY - I was thankfully steered clear of that blunder - the appliance and my internal piping thank you 😅
My paintjobs always only got worse lol. My first minis were the best, I spent about a week on each using expensive acrylics and oil paints and picking every detail. Later I started to cut corners more and more until it became a habit.
That's probably cause I got into the hobby with established oil painting skills
I'm definitely getting better, I can see the progression. I have an old Ral Partha giant skeleton that I painted in basic colors long ago. Years ago, I decided I could do better, but instead of stripping him down to repaint, I touched him up, adding some shading and highlighting, and simple rust effects to his armor and sword. I got him out to use in Deth Wizards, and I can clearly see how I have improved since then, and may apply another touchup to Big Rufus. Enjoy your painting journey, wherever it leads you.
I've been painting for 8 years. Like you, the quality is a little better, but the speed is faster. Also, I learned the value of a nice-looking base.
I try and finish most models to a character level. I'm the one who has to stare at them 99% of the time; and if I don't like looking at them, then they get redone.
From my 1991 RTB-01 marines to my 1998 Clan Wars minis - night and day.
From 1998 to (big break in painting) 2016 - night and day.
From 2016 to today - faster, more efficient, dry brushing is my jam.
Good trip down memory lane. With a good take away - practice improves performance.
Remember that the curve of learning always starts off pretty steep as you can improve fairly quickly but this starts to plateau as the extra needed to push the skill to higher and higher levels takes more time and practice. Add to this the changes in paint types and quality and starting to use new techniques and you are constantly dropping back down the curve. If you start by using Citadel traditional paints and paint every day using only Citadel paints (no contrast) then after 15 years you will notice a difference.
Oh man, I remember that liquid green stuff video, time sure flies.
I have just got the Dark Rituals game to the table, for the first time in ages and I can't believe how badly I painted the miniatures! It was only about 3 years ago and it looks like I was mostly using contrast paints. I use contrasts/speed paints very sparingly now but this may have been my first experience of them? I have models that I painted way before this, that are much better. I am stripping and repainting them!
I would love to see a video of a side by side with newly painted models compared to the old ones. Like get a new necromancer and paint him with your current skill level and compare him to the old one you painted. Regardless of progress I think it would be an educational and inspiring video to make. I know for me personally I feel like I am in the same boat in that my current paint jobs don't seem to have progressed as much. I think showing of small progression or none at all could be helpful for people struggling to find inspiration in continuing to paint and not to get discouraged.
I started to critique my own work, and it has helped with understanding where I want to improve.
I have to understand where I am at though. Can't be too self-critical, or too proud of my paintjob. Just look it over and see if there are things I can do better.
I’ve been painting for around a decade and I know I’ve gotten tons better since then but maybe the last year I haven’t gotten any better. I blame not having as much time to paint but I’m still enjoying it.
i found my painting style and it worked great for me but after a few years i started to experiment with new techniques and paint formulas and found that the way i was painting had become too formulaic and that's the reason my painting didn't improve. learning to use different styles of painting and how to work with other brands of paints/effects has made my models look far better than my older stuff i thought looked amazing.
Some of my older paint jobs look better than my newer ones. I think I tried harder at first and then, over time, I just wanted to get my ridiculous amount minis on the tabletop to actually play with them. God bless speed paint, slap chop and strangely, colored pencils for highlighting.
I have had three "levels" of my painting skills I would say. My early "drybrush and wash" stage - then I began experimenting and got to my "second level" which was where I began learning skills. It was during this time I tried entering painting contests etc. But, I realized I didn't have the patience to get up to a competition level. Locally there was just people who were better than me. And I wanted to play games with painted models
Thus, my current level I feel I have the skills *I* need to get both fast armies on the table, as well as some better looking models.
I've always been an army painter at heart. I'm motivating by completing an army list, and playing with a fully painted army.
Thus in my "third level" I focused less on getting better results, as much as I focused on getting "good enough results, faster." As I write this I'm looking at models I painted a decade ago, and they aren't much worse than what I put on the table today. And, I'm okay with that. Heck I'm just as proud of my Contrast painted Dark Angels, as I am my "spent hours and hours"-painted Abaddon model.
To force myself to get better, I bought new paints with a lot of "bright" colours, and restricted myself to using those for a while. Got me out of always painting things dark and dirty and really made me appreciate putting some vibrancy down on the table for a change.
faster and better. I know because I randomly just did compare older, oldest to newest. dig the content TY
Once painting is good enough, it really doesn’t need to get better.
I won a few painting awards around the early 90s, but I paint better now because I deliberately paint worse - that is I try to paint simpler and faster and get more units finished to a good standard without caring about painting competitions or what something might look like in extreme closeup on a computer monitor. I’m much happier with my output now that I am consistently “good enough.”
I wish I could say I've improved anything... well, maybe a bit better results, but probably not faster, I guess.
But, for sure, after 5-6 years painting, I'm getting... older 😅
And sorry for my poor English.
First off, the models look great! I wish my best was anywhere near that level of cool. I saw a lot of improvement between the old and the new. Look at the left Pauldron of the demon prince, your shading has gotten a LOT better as well (subtle and smooth - which I can't do at all). Anyway, I do go back and look at old models and compare. I try to have a firm rule to NOT fix old models, regardless of how much they pain me. That's how I know I've improved. What was acceptable 5 years ago would be unacceptable and, in some ways, atrocious today. I still like the models, but can see the flaws. Also, I've painted 2 of those Heldrakes. One I did as sub-assembly and one I rescued (pre-built bought with army). Highly recommend Sub-assembly on that guy. Crikey that's a lot of trim.
To be fair, with the last miniature it could just be that whoever did in IC paintjob was painting over a welding job,
Ive seen a lot of posts where people assume to be good they need to be using a lot of NMM or OSL tricks, but then in the comparison pics with their old stuff, I often prefer their old painting style better.
I've found things look more interesting when you're just having fun and experimenting vs trying to be perfect with your style and blending
> I mainly blame this on not really trying to increase my skills too much...because of this, I haven't really gotten a ton better in the last decade and a half, but I have gotten faster.
100%. If you are not challenging yourself, you won't really improve. Just painting the same technique the same way over and over is not a recipe for improvement. Chances are, even if subconsciously, you challenged yourself to paint more quickly, tried new techniques like the airbrush to improve your speed, etc... And the thing you actually worked on, you improved on.
And strange how you liked my comment about doing a video about going back to old minis and bringing them up to your own new standards….🎉
Great video. I think it was you who said with esperience you get better or you get faster. Seems you have your answer. You pushed yourself for a model for NOVA Open. All those minis looked great.
ok so I am only 5 mins in, but when you said you started with tau I was very dissapointed that the clip of Sam shouting Tau for sale wasn't used lol
The thing is, you've progressively attempted further techniques and different tools over that time, so if the standard is "the same" you've essentially added new skills to your repetoire, which is absolutely improvement. Further, and you mentioned it yourself re: speed; if you are hitting the same standard now as you did 10 years ago but in half the time then you have also improved.
I plateaued years ago, and if anything have actually taken a step backwards because of the convenience of speed/contrast paints. Disappointing to see. There's the occasional "WOW that looks good!". I'm investing in an airbursh and trying oil washes to give me a bit of a kick up the arse.
off topic - my Deth Wizards book should be arriving today!
This exactly.
When I started hobbying for real, the unspoken goal was to paint like the minis in the catalogues/magazines … and I got pretty ok at it (7-8 outta 10)
But as the armies & warbands started stacking up, as well as the advent of mass market shortcuts (citadel washes then speed paints)
Now I’d say I’m a happy 5 maybe 6 if I put in effort .. but my paint time has been halved at least.
Adding an airbrush and enamel streaking grim just leveled me up and bit, and more importantly, let me paint a death army in a few days.
Started with 5th. Thanks for making me feel old for stopping regularly playing 40K at 4th.
We all have plateaus, and personal opinion it has to do with innovation vs our internal shorthand. We get to, 'this gets things completed', and once we get enough completed, and we're kind of fortunate, we get a new question to figure a new answer or method.
Thanks for the review
I was told that to get better you have to push yourself and to get faster you have to paint a lot. So after a certain point unless you try new techniques etc you wont improve that much. Brushcontrol can only take you so far. You will however get faster and faster at the lvl you are already on by painting more and more so a figure takes 2hrs instead of 4hrs etc
I saw my biggest quality improvement over the first couple of years of painting. Since then, if there is any improvement, I don’t see it, but my speed has improved. I am about 2-3x faster at painting than I was a decade ago. I think most people notice the improvement from inexperienced to table-top quality in a relatively short period of time. Thereafter, quality only increases based on your investment into quality, ie learning new techniques. Most people don’t have the time or sometimes the money to pay for expensive brushes, air brush setups, etc. when they are already paying a premium on the models. Not to mention having a lot of paint variety is part of quality and paint ain’t cheap.
I love all Tabletop Minions videos! Everyone should watch them!
Jeez, i remember the texturing with liquid greenstuff video. I never thought about how long ago that was.
Wow, the liquid greensrufd video is how I found this channel and have been a fan ever since.
That Blight Drone looks the business man!!! Grimdark!!
Love it, as I've said before your good, would be my display standard.
I find the biggest improvement actually comes from liking the models. I've a set of Mantic Games Enforcers, Forge Fathers and Marauders and I hate painting them so they are various states of started. Whereas I've some models from Crooked Dice, Heresy, Bad Squiddo, Warlord and GW and I've loved them, started and finished over a couple of weeks.Some WW2/Cthulhu/Spectrum (Captain Scarlet) skirmish fun going on with either 7TV or Faith and Fear rule systems. Motivation becomes a big part.
I was just thinking that my mini painting hadn't improved the last half year, but then I remembered that I spent much of that time painting cockpits and engines, so overall my results have gotten better.
My skeleton minis and Deth Wizard book should be coming today. I'm pumped. Going to do a Horde Necromancer with tons of skelly boys!
I think some of my best work is from the 80’s when I was just starting with the hobby.
Certainly I’ve learned a lot since, but sometimes a model just clicks.
Thanks again for a great, introspective video, Uncle Atom. From my novice perspective, it seems that you've mastered your own style of painting, and that's a good thing. As you add more models to your forces, there won't be that stark difference between classics and new additions. Keep up the great work, looking forward to your next video. 🙂👍
thx i needed to hear you say this. i just started (old world) and i was thinking that i would never finish my bretonia starting box.