Article: Painting on the shoulders of giants - learning by comparison

by Hansrainer

Hi all,


today its going to be a short one,
a brief article about something I only recently realised, after I received a great gift from my friend Richard: A Bust, amazingly painted to a standard which by far exceeds my own current level of painting and understanding.

The model is, of course, Radigundus sculpted by Raffaele Picca.


The fun thing about this bust is that I painted twice already
- and it was Richards version standing right beside my own, which inspired this article.

I think everybody will agree, that the internet has revolutionized painting in so far as everyone has access to tutorials, blogs, videos explaining every aspect of the hobby and sparing the effort to find out so many things by trial and error.

Similarily, sites like putty&paint or coolminiornot have given access to loads of mostly high-quality photos of painted miniatures and busts, which as well provide great study material to learn from. But photos always distort reality to a certain degree and can only represent a subset of the information a three dimensional object represents. Its amazing how little or different even well taken pictures represent a piece, once you have the chance to look at the actual painted object.




However, we rarely get to see masterpieces in detail, up close and personally. For most of us, the best shot we get at this is going to a miniature show like SMC, Moson or Monte San Savino and even then, we usually get to see them only from a small distance and more often than not in less than ideal lighting conditions for a few seconds, maybe minutes.

Sometimes when taking classes, we have a chance to get to see works of other classmates up close but even then, we rarely take the time to look really close, rather giving other people the chance of taking a glance themselves.

Now, when I received Richards gift, I wanted to do it justice and I took the time (and I had the time with it!) to study it in detail, compare how he interpretated volumes differently, how his selection of light affected the skintone and overall atmosphere and I always kept going back to the ones I painted, took notes and sketches of my observations.

This is something we, as aspiring artisans and maybe artists should do way more often, especially with pieces we are painting or have painted ourselves. And while its definitely advantageous to study pieces painted by much better painters than one self, you can always learn a lot even from painters on earlier stages of their journey.

So I want to encourage you:
Looking at pictures, reading Blogs and watching videos is great, but take the time to look at actual  painted miniatures as often as you can and as thouroughly as you can get away with. It will school your eye and improve your skills. Take the chance when you meet fellow painters to really examine their work and try and understand it.

To me, it also gave a whole new meaning to buying pieces from other painters (which I haven't done so far), not just to collect them, but to study and learn from them.

So, this was just some random thoughts instead of detailed research or a tutorial (and by a motivated dilletante) - let us know if its an interesting read or rather pointless in the comments.

Thank you!
Yours,
Hansrainer

_______________________________________________________________________________
You want to support Massive Voodoo? 
If you like to support or say thanks the monkeys of Massive Voodoo in what they do, please feel invited to drop a jungle donation in their direction via paypal or check their miniatures they got on sale here.
_______________________________________________________________________________

News: Massive Voodoo Workshop on Color Interpretation and use with Craftworld Studio

by Hansrainer

Hello Jungle People,

Hansrainer is organizing a workshop with the visiting painters from Craftworld Studio - Marco Miladinovic and Aleksandra Cvetanovski from Nov 22nd to Nov 24th 2019. The class is held in English.

They are well know for their colorful yet balanced works and so we are happy to present their class on color use and interpretation in Rodenroth, near Frankfurt/Germany.

If you are interested, contact craftworldstudio@gmail.com

Please find all details below:


Main Topic: Colour Interpretation - Colour Use. 

One interpretation - many possibilities. 

"Using our method of teaching through fun practice and creative interpretation, you will be able to learn how to use colours and brushstrokes in creating a background story and atmosphere as well defining characters and bringing them to life. "

Two teachers, Marko and Aleksandra will work with students simultaneously. For examples of their work, visit:


Or their Website/Blog:  


Both will demonstrate different facets of one project in the same style using exact same steps, creating wildly different characters, telling different stories in their individual atmospheres, just by using different colours schemes and brushwork.. 

All students will have the chance to create their own interpretation and Aleksandra and Marko will support you in your color choices and technique. How this will be approached exactly will stay a surprise for the class, but we are preparing fun teaching and creative time for all of you.


The subject of the class is a bust: Bianca Carlson (The HEROES of Fallen Frontiers - Scale 75)
Materials to bring:

Your brushes (ideally a very fine (size 0 or 1), medium (size 1 or 2) and a large brush (Size 3 or 4, always depending on the maker). We recommend you to use sable brushes, but whatever suits your painting style is fine.

Bring paint and brushes you are comfortable working with. The class is about using colours, so paint and brushes ranges can be various and you have the opportunity to learn directly on the material you are familiar with.

Your own painting light (daylight) and if possible an extension cord. (for participants arriving via plane, we have a very limited supply of lights we can provide. Please get in touch early if you need one of those).

What we provide:

- The Bust itself, ready build and prepared.
- Paper towels
- Plastic cups for water
- The new range of SCALECOLOR ARTIST Smooth Acrylic Paints for tryout during the class

So to sum up:

Students should bring : Lamps, paints, brushes, pallette, tools/putty etc…

The price includes: Tuition, Bust, Script, Room and Board,

from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon (dinner, breakfast, lunch, dinner, breakfast, lunch). Arrengements for special dietary requirements (vegan, vegetarian, food allergies) can be made. Please let us know as early as possible.

Class is suitable for beginners to masters, as main focus of the class in use of colours. Learn how to approach to the painting in  more artistic way. Learn the use of colour in your miniature painting projects. 



FM: Small Fairy

by Roman aka jar

Hi Jungle,

recently finished a really cool small fairy.
A wonderful and amazing small sculpt by Tom Meier.




These little fantasy fairies are full of character and are available in a set of five and this is the second one I have painted. The first one - painted in 2016 - is here:
https://www.romanlappat.com/miniatures/fairy











I hope you like her as much as I did painting her.
If you want to support me in my work, art and passion and want to make this unique project yours, check back with my PDF cataloge on projects I got for sale at the moment:
http://www.romanlappat.com/uploads/RomanLappat_MiniatureArt_2017.pdf


_______________________________________________________________________________
You want to support Massive Voodoo? 
If you like to support or say thanks the monkeys of Massive Voodoo in what they do, please feel invited to drop a jungle donation in their direction via paypal or check their miniatures they got on sale here.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Info: Beginner Workshop in Bern, Switzerland

by Roman aka jar

Hello miniature painters,

as the roadmap 2020 hit home in the jungle yesterday
I want to make a proper announcement of the first seminar weekend available in ...


Bern, Switzerland
// 31st January - 2nd February 2020  3 day Beginner Workshop
german language - 28/0 - Information PDF
IMPORTANT: The price per student is not the one mentioned in the PDF, due this is an international class with travel cost, room rent, etc.

Jar's Beginner Painting Class
Instructor: Roman Lappat

This MV class gives you insight into Roman's way of painting and basing, his thoughts, the background of his inspiration and a lot of fun and happy painting. This class aims at beginners and advanced painters, but also pros are welcome. Of course, repeaters of the workshop can come with their very own topic and project questions. More Information on MV's Jar's Beginners class?

Thanks to the help
of the local organiser and MV brother, Josua the seminar will take place in the following location:

Schweizer Alpenclub
Brunngasse 36
3011 Bern
Switzerland 



IMPORTANT: The price per student is not the one mentioned in the PDF, due this is an international class with travel cost, room rent, etc.

The individual cost per student will be calculated as soon as we got a minimum of sixteen participants. Check back with your calender and sign up to help us get this organised. I will inform you via mail about the progress.

To sign up, write an email to:
jarhead---at---massivevoodoo---dot---com

Best Wishes
Roman & Josua

___________________________________________________________________
You want to support Massive Voodoo? 
If you like to support or say thanks the monkeys of Massive Voodoo in what they do, please feel invited to drop a jungle donation in their direction via paypal or check their miniatures they got on sale here.
___________________________________________________________________

MV Seminar Roadmap 2020

by Roman aka jar



Hey jungle painters,

Most of the seminars in 2020 will be held in Augsburg, Germany.
Some will be held by a travelling, teaching Roman.



Roman's teaching curriculum:
https://www.romanlappat.com/curriculum

You can find this roadmap linked up
to the right navigation bar of Massive Voodoo :)


This roadmap is always under construction.

Every Seminar has an informational PDF to it to inform you about its content. Everything you need to know for enrollment. As soon as you are enrolled further communications will happen via email on the specific seminar.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Reviews on Seminars
- get to know what is coming at you:


Beginner Workshops
Advanced Workshops

Special Seminars (OSL, Basing, Speedpainting, Material, etc.)


_______________________________________________________________________________
 



Roadmap 2020 overview   
- here are the dates and topics for 2020. Red are upcoming seminars,
green
are the ones in the past. Check for the reviews on the green ones.

You can find so far enrolled student numbers behind the seminars.
All seminars in Augsburg will take place as soon as we got up to six students!



Actual planning on seminars in Augsburg, Madrid and New York for the first or seond half of 2020.
As soon as information is available it will be linked in here.

First half of 2020___________________________________


Bern, Switzerland - Info Mail soon!
// 31st January - 2nd February 2020  3 day Beginner Workshop
german language - 19/28 - Information PDF 

Madrid, Spain

// 29th February 2020 1 day Speedpainting Masterclass

english language - 9/12 - Information PDF
more information!

Madrid, Spain 
// 1st March 2020 1 day OSL Masterclass

english language - 9/12 - Information PDF

more information!


Augsburg, Germany
// 13rd March - 15th March 2020  3 day Beginner Workshop

german language - 30/30 Waiting List: 3 - Information PDF

POSTPONED: Augsburg, Germany
// 18th April 2020  1 day Speedpainting Masterclass

german language - 12/20 - Information PDF



POSTPONED: Augsburg, Germany
// 19th April 2020  1 day Object Source Light Masterclass

german language - 12/16 - Information PDF

POSTPONED: Augsburg, Germany

 // 25th - 26th April 2020  2 day Skintone & Faces Masterclass
german language - 14/16 - Information PDF

POSTPONED: St. Albans, UK
// 18th -20th September 2020 3 day Advanced Workshop
english language - 0/18 - Information PDF (fee will vary due international seminar)
to sign up, write an email to: journeymanminiatures---at---gmail---dot---com




If you have any questions or want to sign up please send a mail to Roman:
jarhead---at---massivevoodoo---dot---com



See further seminar describtions below,
in my curriculum or via the PDFs.
Thank you!


Planning on (Cancelled)

Augsburg, Germany


// 5th - 7th June 2020  3 day Beginner Workshop
german language - 0/30 Waiting List: 0 - Information PDF

Augsburg, Germany
 // 12th - 14th June 2020 3 day Advanced Workshop
german language - 0/18 - Information PDF

  
 




Washington D.C., USA

I will be teaching at this years NOVA OPEN in Washington D.C. again. Please see links below to get directed to my weekend class before Nova or my seminars during the convention. Please use the Nova Open Store to sign up:

// 30th August - 1st September 2020
Jar's Advanced Workshop, prior to the NOVA Open

OSL Masterclass
Sat 9/05/2020 - (OSL ) 09:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Skintones & Faces
Sun 9/06/2020 - 12:00 PM - 02:00 PM

Speedpainting for Wargamers
Sat 9/05/2020 12:00 PM - 02:00 PM

Happy Painting Church
Private Coaching and Individual training
Thu 9/03/2020 08:30 AM - 01:00 PM

Learn to paint the color black with ambient light

Fri 9/04/2020 01:30 PM - 05:00 PM

_______________________________________________________________________________

Special Event teachings:
Available when ready!
____________________________________________________________________________







Jar's Beginner Painting Class
Instructor: Roman Lappat

This MV class gives you insight into Roman's way of painting and basing, his thoughts, the background of his inspiration and a lot of fun and happy painting. This class aims at beginners and advanced painters, but also pros are welcome. More Information on MV's Jar's Beginners class?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Jar's Advanced Painting Class
Instructor: Roman Lappat

The follow up class to Roman's famous MV's Jar's Beginners Class. You want to go deeper? Here is the place to learn. Main topic: Atmosphere! Intense study on technique, light/shadow, skintones, the color black, the color white and much more! Information?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jar's Basing Class
Instructor: Roman Lappat

In this MV class Roman takes you deeper into basing. No gaming bases. What makes a good display base? Learn more about composition rules you can put to use while basing, learn different focused material aspects on the subject: "After the postapocalypse, nature returns". More information ...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jar's Skintone & Faces Masterclass
Instructor: Roman Lappat

In this two day MV masterclass Roman takes you deeper into understanding the wide variety on painting skintone and faces. After these two days you will never dislike your results in this topic as Roman shows you the magic that is behind a natural and convincing skintone. More Information!


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Jar's Material Masterclass
Instructor: Roman Lappat
This is an in depth two day seminar that takes you deep into understanding many different materials, to analyze them and extract their properties into your painting work. Most important in this class are the questions: "Why?" and "How?". This seminar will help you step forward big time in your knowledge about painting in general and in small scale. More Information!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jar's Speedpainting Masterclass
Instructor: Roman Lappat
Roman usually does not teach masterclass seminars, but when he does: These seminars focus on one subject, because they aim to teach you to master a certain topic. In this class it is all about speed, efficency and zombie hordes. More information!

 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jar's OSL Masterclass
Instructor: Roman Lappat
Roman usually does not teach masterclass seminars, but when he does: These seminars focus on one subject, because they aim to teach you to master a certain topic. In this class it is all about light sources from objects and about the "how to" and "why" you can transport these into your projects. More Information!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jar's Space Marine Masterclass
Instructor: Roman Lappat
Roman usually does not teach masterclass seminars, but when he does: These seminars focus on one subject, because they aim to teach you to master a certain topic. In this class it is all about the glory of Space Marines. Roman will teach you to convert your own Primaris Marine and shows you all tricks on his disposal on creating epic heroes.



---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


NOVA Open Convention: 
http://www.novaopen.com/
Multiple English language classes!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Picster's Conversion and Sculpting Class
Instructor: Raffaele Picca

This MV class is Raffa's Conversion- and Sculpting class for Beginners and Advanced Sculptors. Learn everything important to convert with fun and sculpt with joy! Leave all that fear behind!

None scheduled at the moment. 

Inspiration: Weathering

by Roman aka jar

Hey Jungle, 

starting to show a collection of inspirational photos from my second car cemetery visit in Sweden from July's basing workshop - I hope you enjoy them and find inspiration ...









Yeah, that's not Einstein, but my dad ...


More soon!

_______________________________________________________________________________
You want to support Massive Voodoo? 
If you like to support or say thanks the monkeys of Massive Voodoo in what they do, please feel invited to drop a jungle donation in their direction via paypal or check their miniatures they got on sale here.
_______________________________________________________________________________

SMC Memories

by Roman aka jar



Everyone at the SMC, I hope you had a fantastic weekend!

SBS: Lady of the Lake

by Roman aka jar


"The Knights of the Realm needed him as the world was at a turning point.

The Lady of the Lake had to fullfil her destiny and wade into the holy water, summoning the Green Knight, the eternal warrior of peace. She was ready, even the water was a little bit cold. She had no fear. Slowly the bottom of the lake started to gloom in deep and rich greens. He was on his way and she was ready for the conception of the eternal green flame! Together they would bring back peace and harmony in their world."

_______________________________________________

Welcome to another article :)
This time I will try to give insight into my workflow and process on painting my version of this beautiful sculpt by FER Miniatures:



Lady of the Lake?

Ever since I saw the sculpt for the first time I fell in love with its grace.
For me I easily saw a vision of my version ahead of me. Pretty used to the official legend around the the Lady of the Lake I quickly combined it with the one from Games Workshop's Bretonnian Knight's tale of the Green Knight. A story I was in love with since encountered it.

Chivalry in its pure form.

Step by Step 
Allright, I try to explain my steps to you to all the photos I have made. It is not an article about color recipes, rather more an inspiration of a workflow.

Vision

My vision saw her standing in the water of the lake. A glow from below as the Green Knight awakes and starts to ride through the water on his glorious horse. He is getting close to her to grab his metal covered fist around that magical sword that she presents. An aura of absolute chivalry is shining through the full valley of the lake and she stares in awe while fullfilling her destiny.

I had to start with green from below :) - just bam, bam ...


Wanted to feel magic there ... swwwooommmm!


Ok, great so far ...

as I have painted this all on black primer I knew that I needed some highlights. I decided to paint them in 'grisaille', like also used in this quick tutorial of a Deathwatch Space Marine.
Even there was green in already I did not care to use this technique on top of it. It helps me in this stage.

First on the clothes ...


More definition on the clothes and started with a very desaturated skintone with plenty of green in it.


I love this brush by Brokentoad. For me it is like a holy painting sword. It is out of production *cry*,
but they got a new series up. Still need to give it a try!



In this stage I decided for the hair color. Started to gently bring in some more skin color and sketched in her eyes and gaze. Not perfect yet, but I needed it to understand my vision properly.








Touched everything from below again with strong yellowish, saturated greens. I want that glow!
Now all the white paint comes into play as I sprayed severat thin glazes of green on top of it to tint it.



Where to go from there, you might ask?
I did too. Unsure about how to tackle the greens I went for the skintone. Brought her to life with adding more saturation in the skin and some highlights to the hair. Painting what I understand first, then back to the greens I hope.


The whites on top of the green where distracting me. I knew I want highlights there and everything is touched by the green aura, so I decided to spray a very powerful yellowish green from the top on the clothes to connect both.


Used the brush and worked more of the yellowish/green highlights in. Brought back the magic swirls on her clothes too with it.


I thought of some water reflections as beside I was also working on another project, when I started her and got inspired.


I even thought of spraying through this to get that ripple effect, but did not do it :D


I really started to love the powerful yellow areas of the fabrics that appeared ...


The skintone was still flat. So I knew I had to work much more on it. Check back with how the green light touched everything from below ... even in the detail of the head ring.

I did rework the sketch of the eyes, deciding to give her blue eyes with a green glow from below, of course. Green glow you name it!


I used a brush to rework the greens inside.



It is such a graceful sculpt from several angles ...



Touched the face with more time on my hands.
Stronger Skintone appeareance and reworked some highlight in the clothes and hair. Also worked a bit more on the magic thingy on her lower body part. Did not go for caustics of water reflection. Decided to go for some magic.

With my smartphone camera the yellows look much stronger.


Compared to using the big camera. I decided to add the sword and hands now to understand the full picture better.


Of course the sword was inclued in my vision scheme. Pow! Pow!


I decided to work more on the highlights.
Face. Hair. Fabrics. 
I want them more powerful in saturation and brightness. Also worked out details on the sword's light situation.


While working on the skin I decided to give her some freckles while doing skin variatons. Thinned down reds and browns mixed with skintone were used here.


In the end I did final tweaks here and there,
but called her finished rather soon as my vision worked out well and I enjoyed the final result.

I hope you like her too?














She is also on Putty&Paint if you would like to vote for her:
https://www.puttyandpaint.com/projects/21474

If you want to make this unique version of this bust yours to collect my art and at the same time support me in my work, passion and life feel invited to check back with
my miniature art PDF cataloge!

Thank you!


So far from the depths of the jungle.
More soon!

Keep on happy painting!
Roman


_______________________________________________________________________________
 

You want to support Massive Voodoo? 
If you like to support or say thanks the monkeys of Massive Voodoo in what they do, please feel invited to drop a jungle donation in their direction via paypal or check their miniatures they got on sale here.
_______________________________________________________________________________