Hello,

it is me again with the second review from our time in Hamburg.
Again we had a weekend full of the BÄM² Painting Class content and willing painters that wanted to learn. Again the great halls of the Wu Dao Kung Fu school in Hamburg, Horn was the place to be for this weekend.

First of all - again - my deepest gratitude goes to Shifu Heiko for providing the location, shelter during night, the friendship and the shared miniature fun we all had.




If you live in Hamburg and want to learn about Kung Fu, the Wu Dao is your place to go. Even we were able to see, feel and understand a little knowledge of the Kung Fu Magic while our stay at Heiko's. Thanks for strengthen our minds with really cool Kung Fu Magic moves that you only can believe when they happen. OVER 9000!!!!!



Raffa's and my figure we did paint for Heiko as a gift down in the cold and deep dungeons of the Wu Dao the night before the class, while Kyle was preparing the dwarf. Figure is from the boardgame "Relic" by GW.


Most important gratitude goes to our students who took part in the class. They made it happen. Thank you for being a part of it and thank you for your unstoppable will to learn and walk the way of the Miniature Painter.  Thanks for the support!

Thanks to everybody who took a longer trip to travel to Hamburg, for example Kyle from Turkey ... wait? This guy again? Didn't he take part in the first class. Oh well, he stayed and we are very grateful of that. Kyle gave us enourmous feedback about the class and Raffa and I picked many cherries from it to rethink and replan parts of the class. Thank you for that.

Kyle also started to write his review on his blog - don't miss it!

Thanks to Steffen aka Sockelmacher.de for providing plinths for the class and having some cool individual pieces during the weekend. Check out his store if you are in need of a plinth that fits your new project perfectly.

Thanks to Michelle for being just as awesome as he is. Sorry to keep you up so long after the class and yelling at you in the morning when you came too late. That was not fair. I regret that ;)


Well, again this class has been a big family meeting. Everybody who attended was at least known to us the teachers and also the students were pretty familiar to eachother. The mood was right to paint until the night(s) (ahead) ...




Again we prepared Brekk, the bust that leads to so many weird name-combos and we had to work our way through some theory first on Friday night to increase the wisdom of colours of the students even more. Ready, Brekk, go!


Friday was - let's say at least - the easiest day of all three.
We prepared the Brekks, primed them, had some theory lessons, planned ideas and began painting well chosen basic tones. For Kyle it already went into deeper methods of swinging his brush on the big bust he choose to paint up during his second attend to the class. The bust was already prepared the night before so Kyle was sitting there all time long to finish sketching shadows and lights on Friday to dive into his BAM on Saturday ...
 
Friday night came fast and was quick, but the true painter never sleeps. He rather looks on the outside of his head while sleeping to gain new experience and understand more miniature magic.




A quote by Kyle from FB:

"Um OK.. just read your second class review.. may as well rename it... Kyle helps us.. oh and a second class...



Saturday arrived and everybody started painting the whole day.
Our attend - from having the first class and Kyle's feedback in the back of our minds - was to find even more time for the students to paint with individual coaching. So during the week we arranged some presentations new and saved some time ... In the end Saturday was a day with 13 hours of straight painting ...












Brekk-Gang during Saturday ...
 ... and again:

Saturday turned into night and due the timeline changes Raffa and I put into the class we were able to close the class just in time, so everybody was able to head home and sleep the sleep of the strong painter. Except Kyle, who we had to carry away from his monster bust as he did not want to stop painting. Oh wait, - I think he was one of the first in bed, while Heiko teached us magic Kung Fu tricks that you usually just see in movies.

Sunday morning got Raffa and me totally suprised. The class was about to start at 10:00. At 9:20 everyone, except one, was sitting in front of his Brekk and investing time, painting. C'mon seriously?
You are all Brekk-Addicted!!! This was really an awesome moment to see everybody so motivated after the painting madness on Saturday. Sleep seems important.

It was time again to dive into Brekk's volumes, equipped with a brush and four helping hands and eyes from Raffa and me. Even helping different oppinions as we both don't tell the same all the time. We see different things. You ask me, you might get a different answer than Raffa's. Bad? No! Pick the cherries for your own thoughts and solutions.

It was a true joy to see everybody's Brekkdance evolve to new heights during Sunday. Again, thanks to Kyle who changed the class with his feedback. Again, we had more time to paint than the weekend before. Sometimes it is amazing how fast progress can be. We also saw that on our student's models ...


No I am just kidding on you, Kyle. Raffa and I were corious how far we could push you after the little sad time on Saturday where this dwarf beard began to make you crazy. It was a good choice to focus on mainly the face area and push this as far as we could.

Thanks to Michelle (funny moments all the time) and Heiko (serving the tables with coffee and snacks) the Sunday felt like home in our studio but with much more people enjoying the painting party. Increasing contrasts here and there, adding details and painting eyes in such a great manner. While Raffa and I orbited the gang to find something were we could help. Well done, gentlemen!
Some Impressions:








                                                   Getting serious now ...




Sunday came to an end and it turned out that the students did a BAM-job on their Brekks during the weekend. Not only that their figures looked cool in the end, I had the feeling while we chatted during the weekend that everyone went a step further, raised his level of understanding colour and the importance of volumes. This was our goal with the BAM class and so Raffa and I have been very happy to be able to help. Even we all were dead tired from a hardcore painting weekend, the bodies dried out and the backs strangely disformed, the eyes were shining bright and I am sure the brushes will stay wet with more joy ...



It is hard to explain what exactly happens to a student in this class. Hard to find words for it. The best word for it is: Click! 

I try to explain: Just imagine you are an alien, sitting in a BAM class and the only language you can understand is when minds are clicking, evolving, increasing wisdom. Clickadiclick! Click! Cli! ClickClick! Click! all the time ... So the results have again been a pleasure to look at - even Heiko's figure was not blessed by Fortuna on that day ... falling of the table two times, gna!!!







We want to thank every participant deeply for taking the class. We hope to find your expectations fullfilled and we hope these clicks will follow you from now on. There are so many outthere in this world, they just want to be conquered. Pick your cherries ...

Except Kyle ... he deserves a special deep Ape bow: With his detailed and honest feedback he helped to let our fourth BAM class improve in many aspects. Thank you for your input and thank you for your output. I think the clicks you took from this class were extraordinary - so taking it two times in a row is mad but good from the learning effect :D

Keep close to the reports Kyle is writing over on his blog, he can describes those clicks better than I ever could: M R Lee's Painting Emporioum

Kyle was asked by the company (UDock) who produces the dwarf (Wild Hunter) to paint for them. I mean - c'mon - straight out of the class recieving such an offer. Seems like we and Kyle did something right. Even it is still mad to take both of the classes, but you survived and that is all that matters :)

Meanwhile I found Tuffskull's Brekk version on Putty&Paint - enjoy!

It was a pleasure to spent the time with you all!
Thanks for supporting MASSIVE VOODOO and stay on the happy side of the brush :)

Again, Heiko offered his skills as a photographer to let the Brekk's lose and we choose to make the group shot even more epic by using composition rules to get together. An epic battle ...




Not only did we manage to do the group shot, we also had some fun after cleaning up the place with some additional memories. And believe me, strong memories :D






















Well that post is packed with pictures :D
Good Memories, thanks to everybody and see you in the future!

Keep on happy painting to all of you!
And remember those clicks, form them, learn to use them without thinking and see new clicks on the horizon.
Train the muscles, paint :)

Best Wishes
Roman (& Raffa)


PS: Heiko: Deep Kong Fu Bow in your direction and a Gorilla hug, sent to you with mysterious Kung Fu magic. This breathing technique really is awesome. I learn to breathe to every point of my body ... well, that sounds strange now ... I stop ...