posted by roman, jarhead, kong






Hi.

My heart still beats from the jungle drums we all played in Hamburg, Germany.
First, I want to say my biggest gratitude into the direction of Heiko, who is the owner of a big Kung Fu School in Hamburg where the class took place, the Wu Dao, Hamburg. Heiko is a well known Sifu amongst the international Kung Fu scene and it is always a big honor to meet him and have a stay in this amazing place. He is also a Miniature Painter and Wargamer with much passion. We had some serious and interesting talks about life and somehow Kung Fu and Painting has so much in common, you wouldn't believe it. But more to this later on I just want to share a quote of Heiko with you that I feel very inspiring:

"A master of the martial art is like boiling water, 
if he stops training he is just only water again!"

Let me show you the place of our stay, the Wu Dao Kung Fu School.
For me it was the second class in this place as I already did one in early 2010 and always this place has its own magic.


At this point I want to thank everyone involved in the class organisation via internet in front of the class, everyone who helped during the class and everyone who took the advantage of being a part of it for doing so. Thanks to my bibab (brother in brushes and brain) Raffa for travelling with me, helping me at the class and enjoying this beautiful weekend together. The photos you see here are mainly done by him and myself.

A lot of thanks to Steffen aka Sockelmacher.de and Arne who picked us up from the airport and made our stay a great memory in all aspects. It was my pleasure to see so many new faces to the painting scene at the weekend. There was one participant who painted his first miniature ever during the class. He already bought one but did not yet paint it before the class, so seriously this was his FIRST one ever. I was also very happy to see some well known faces again.

Many thanks to MAGABOTATO, which is a german tabletop internet show that did some filming during the class to make a report about it in the future. There will be interviews and stuff and stuff and stuff to see. Stay tuned. It was my pleasure to meet you guys.

Muchas Gracias goes out  to Forged Monkey, Sockelmacher and Pardulon for supporting the class with material and for being at place.

Here you can find the whole crew getting ready for the epic group photo, we have been 28 people and so you can say the group was pretty big - but before you will see the epic group photos I will have to tell you a bit of the class.






We arrived on Friday and were getting everything ready - preparing the room with tables and chairs, preparing the painting places and getting everything set for the weekend. As everyone was ready, except myself we started right off with some theory and a lot of talk by my side. We were watching paintings and photos to get into a mood of colours and to sharpen the eyes, the stomach and the brain for the things to come. Heiko did recieve my latest painted Zombie Girl as a gift and already the first laughter began because of ... mmh ... funny moments :)




Friday was the day to prepare the miniatures, build up a base and staying awake long. Beside all these points there was theory in form of talk by me and some really had a hard time staying awake during my long time explanations. After the class we sat together for a while and if we would have known that time goes by so fast we would have went to bed earlier. It was late and Raffa and I always are inspired by all that weaponry around the place, so we had to do some weird photos. Here is just a little collection, be sure to find some more appearing in the review:






Saturday arrived fast as hell and had a massive impact as we made ready to make final preparations for painting. You can see some other models than the usual Demonette in the photos. Let me explain: Everyone taking part for the first time has to paint a demonic lady as she provides the best translation of the teached content. Those who took part a second or a thirt time are allowed to bring their own miniature or did recieve one from me. Using colours and brushes was ahead, finally at a Painting Class :D - Some Impressions of bases, priming and explanations:



The next step was to get something to eat and have some time for lunch, but also the time where everyone should think about where he wanted to go with his project. I would call this phase personal inspirational meditiation and you can do this best with a full stomach. After this we did start right away with an introduction in my way of painting and thinking while painting, you can call this painting philosophy if you want to. Everyone was ready to paint and so the brushes were swung madly on Saturday. Hard work ahead. Impressions:










Saturday passed fast and everyone was ready with his figures so far. The goal for Saturday was to have a sketch of colours, light and colour transition along most of all the bigger areas on the project. Everyone achieved this goal even the mind felt destroyed. I was very proud of the group. Raffa and I did some weird photos - did I tell you that? On Friday night we thought our motivational screams are heard beneath the curtains to bring everyone into Sunday final sketching and detail touches on the figure - some more stupid shots:












































Sunday arrived also pretty quick and still motivation was our best friend, maybe the motivational roars of Raffa and me on Friday night helped :)

This day was meant to be the day to bring the sketch on the figure together to a bigger picture. Bring in some details later on and finally getting happy with the result. It is how it is and in my personal view on miniature painting the way, the path you walk to your end result is pure joy - the end result returns this to you if you stay calm during wandering your path. The sketching with colours always should be fun first. You have enough time for the hard detail work later on and you can do it as long as you prefer to get a better result, but never lose the fun while swinging your brush and dancing with colors. Some Impressions of Sunday.


Sunday slipped away soooooo fast and I want to excuse myself for the little delay we had in the end with mostly everything. Thank you very much for all your patience and thanks for all your help during the big clean up. A special thanks goes out to Michelle, Raffa, Steffen, Arne and Sabine.

I now want to present you the results of this weekends projects, all done from Saturday noon til Sunday late afternoon - final touches might be done as homework. Some are not on the photo as they had to go in time to have a good journey home. I am again sorry for the little unhappy accident we had with the evil lamp of destruction and I am happy that it wasn't that bad. Always remember everything happens with a reason. I hope my final feedback helped everyone in his special case - what I can say is that I am really, really, really proud of your figures, click to enlarge:



Now I was talking about an epic group shot, wasn't I?

Heiko and I had the idea on Saturday night to make "Hero photos" - every participants had to choose his weapon of choice and the whole group went outside in front of the school to get mad - Impressions:

Sadly Raffa wasn't at place when those photos were shoot ... I was really sad about that, but the class programm forced me to do it in time, because the moment was right :/ 

At this point I want to thank anyone of you again - for a really cool weekend and so much good memories to it. May Happy Painting guide you through your projects! Everything happens with reason you know :) - As told we are already planning about a second class in Hamburg for 2012 as the feedback was so great and not all on the list were able to take part. It looks like a fine summer breeze will be the wind that guides our plans - more soon, when the time is ready!


Keep your eyes sharp and your brushes wet!



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After the class, on Monday we had one day to stay at Steffen's place, with his family and Sabine.
He is the Sockelmacher.de and we also visited his workshop, you will find a report about that soon in the jungle. Some impression of the pre-workshop-time, maybe some inspiration for you - don't you look me in the eyes - I was pretty tired from holding the class and did say around 4 or 5 words that day :D

























Good bye and thank you all for a wonderful weekend!

Michelle made some photos too and here is an additional photo gallery link! Thanks buddy! Read you soon! Sorry for the delay!



The sunset that welcomed us home on Tuesday in good ol' Augsburg:




PS: Now guess what: I did forget to tell you about Kung Fu and Painting - what they have in common! I would say you should find out yourself by painting or doing Kung Fu!