Happy belated 6th birthday.

I happily stumbled across MV a couple of years back and have been reading, and re-reading the many tutorials and other inspiring posts. Both for motivation and inspiration.

For me, MV was an eye opener. For many, many years I had been painting GW minis using the tried and tested GW way of painting. And was getting quite bored and dissatisfied with the results. Then I started to see lots of non-GW miniatures thanks to friends of friends which sparked my interest again. But I didn't want to just do the usual stuff with them that I had been doing. Frankly looking back, my old basing is bland and boring. No stories were told. No idea of actual lighting. And all the shading and highlighting was pretty standard.

Now, I've entered a few online competitions using actual display type plinths (never used them before), and am always trying to improve and vary how I approach my painting and modelling.

I love the way your articles are written as they are less like instructions (do it this way), and more like guidance and getting the reader to think and look at things for ideas. The 'painting black' article for example. Nothing about the actual paints but all about textures, materials, and looking at real things.

I'm really looking forward to learning more from MV and keeping my eyes open and being accepting of ideas.

Thank you all.

Hello my friends!
I wanna congrats you with birthday of Massive Voodoo family.

Want to say big (not a big, but a HUGE) thanks for what you are doing for me, for every single painter and for all painters community.
It's interesting to remember that I found this amazing blog at around 3 years before now, when all I was intersted in was only to paint my warhammer 40k armies.
Now after so much time pass I need to say that you've influenced much to my inner world of miniature painting. Really dont know how many times I've opened this blog for reading something, find out how to do this or that.
Now it's like a reading newspaper for some people, that's like a news for me. About my friends, about miniature world, about how to be a better painter.

But most effect Massive Voodoo had on me last two years , after I've decided to try to paint something better than gaming pieces and wrote you an e-mail about private coaching.There wasnt any single moment in my life , when the thought come to me that it was a bad decision.
You showed me how amazing painting can be, what great stories can tell you the composition, and many other things

After 2 years after we have been met I can say you're the BEST. All your team, all of you...
For helping people, for teaching people, for sharing news, for making news, for all painting projects you have done, for making in little studio in Augsburg home for everyone.

At last, I wanna congrats everybody with this MV burthday , cause guess there some Massive Voodoo in all of us, so f#ck it let's all stand up)))

P.S. Brother in name, I hope will not paint any homoculuses this MV year ^__^

Happy Birthday MV monkeys!

I habe been an avid follower since beginning of 2011 I think. I have fond memories of spending days reading through all the Tutorials.
The first big eye opener was watching the Salt&Hairspray technique in action.
The second was driving feom Cologne to Hamburg at the beginning of 2012 for one of Jar's Beginner Classes.

Apart from all the miniature and Tutorials goodness I especially like your attitude towards Painting and the hobby in General, one can really feel your enthusiasm.

Keep up the good work, looking forward to many more years of MV!

Cheers,
Michael

Congratulations guys!

Now what is your Massive Voodoo experience?
For me you guys serve as a huge source of inspiration!
Your story connected to Massive Voodoo?
I started painting on my own, so I didnt have a local hobby store to teach me the traits. I turned to the internet and your blog has a lot of very useful information for beginners and experts alike!
Since when do you read Massive Voodoo?
I think I started reading about 3 or 4 years ago, when I started painting.
What did you learn from Massive Voodoo's way of teaching miniature painting?
Building awesome display bases, creating realism on miniatures like blood effects, highlights and awesome details.
What made you really happy in the last years when you look back at you, your painting table and the experiences you made there connected to MV?
The massive amount of tutorials! I really loved my weekly fix if I had a slow day at work. Helped me connect to the hobby even when I wasn't sitting at my hobby table.

Good luck & happy birthday! You all got this studio cleaning business down! hopefully you all will have another 6 years to motivate and inspire new and old painters, sculptors, and other people from any aspect of the hobby. I know your words of kindness at nova and offer to critique my troll army has pushed me to all new heights and efforts to better my craft.

You all rock!

Massive Voodoo changed the way I approach painting miniatures completely. I first started to notice them way back...I don't know when but Raffa did some Blood Angel tank that blew my socks off. After a while I started to read all of the tutorials and blog posts. It changed my painting by introducing me to models from other companies and really got me thinking about stories behind miniatures and also taught me the most important thing is to do what makes you happy. But the biggest change it made in me is bringing out more colors on my models. Shading things with colors other than black, and highlighting with white.

Once I even had a skype call with Roman and that was really great. At first I thought I'm too much of a gamer for MV but in my conversation with Roman I realized that their approach is very unpretentious, which I really appreciate. They never once rant about certain methods of painting, and never once put themselves above others. They don't look down on anyone. Its really great reading this blog and just having them in the online community.

Happy Belated 6th Birthday Massive Voodoo!. You're actually just a few days older than my youngest daughter.

I found Massive Voodoo a few years ago while searching for a way to improve my painting and base making skills. It was truly an eye opening experience into what the art of miniature painting could be. Be for Massive Voodoo I was a average table top painter. Thanks to the numerous tutorials and connections on massive voodoo I have increased my skills immensely. Now I produce pieces of art that I'm proud to display. Thanks you Roman and Raffa.

Happy belated Birthday ;-)

I follow MV round about ohne year. I learned a log from step by steps, tuts and inspiration post's.

Due to your different (lot different) miniatures and links I learned a mit about miniatures which arme not from GW.
If I didn't have an idea or search an Inspiration I'm search for MV blog. Meanly I will find something

I Wish all of you the best and high Motivation to finish your Studio Projekt

BR

Ich wünsche euch alles Gute zum 6. Geburtstag und hoffe für mich und euch das noch viele Jahre Spass daran habt eure Weisheit, Inspirationen und Gedanken mit uns zu teilen.

Ich verfolge euren Blog schon einige Jahre, wie lange genau kann ich gar nicht sagen. Irgendwann um 2010/11 hab ich bei einem eurer Workshops mitgemacht und hatte das Vergnügen Roman und Raffael kennenzulernen.
Seitdem schleiche ich, meist als Stiller Beobachter, durch den Dschungel und genieße die Farben und Formen die man überall sehen kann.

Danke Jungs, ihr inspiriert mich immer wieder neue Sachen zu probieren und die Dinge auszuprobieren die ich noch nicht kenne. Durch euch wurde ich vom maschinenhaften Armeebemaler zum freiflatternden Künstler. Natürlich nicht auf eurem Niveau und handwerklich fernab der Perfektion, aber ich male mittlerweile zum Spass und mit Freiheit alles zu machen wie ich es will.

Früher hab ich Comics, Graffitis und Bilder gemalt wie es mir in den Sinn kam, aber beim Figuren bemalen war ich gefesselt von Farbschematas und Vorgaben. Danke das ihr mich aus diesem Käfig rausgeholt habt, mir geholfen habt, einen eigenen Stil zu entwickeln und so auf neue Ideen zu kommen.
Jedesmal wenn die Muse mich küsst und vielleicht sogar nen kleinen Lapdance macht, habt ihr großen Anteil dran.

Auf viele weitere Jahre, Jungs.

Gruß Igorz

HAPPY BLOG DAY! About the time you guys were getting famous on the internet i was getting tired of wargaming and decided to start a blog and start on the road to becoming a display painter. You played a huge part in where i am today. I am now on COOL MINI and PUTTY & PAINT and have worked on the NOVA OPEN charities armies two years running. i doubt i ever would have even dared to dream let alone achieve what i did without massive voodoo and the incredible works that inspired me.

Thank you guys!

Glückwunsch zum 6.!
Wir ziehen gerade übrigens auch aus, weil unser Haus umgebaut wird. Und was ich aus den Bastelschränken hervorgeholt habe... ich habe definitiv zu viel Kram. ;)

LG,

Erik

First of all - Happy Birthday!

I think we all really can be happy, that you two share your wisdom with us clueless followers ;-)

I have no idea when I stumbled over your blog, but I was fascinated from the beginning.
Around 2011 I visited one of your first beginner's workshops and it was a total eye-opener for me.
... and it reanimated my fun with painting figures.
All the GW-hints and tips did not work and I was close to skip this whole painting thing...

So I can not thank you enough for your motivation you gave me.

Now to your questions:

Now what is your Massive Voodoo experience?
-- hints and tips for nearly any painting encounter.
-- You are raising the bar for the artistic value of figure painting regularly.
-- others may be better in painting cleanly and smoothly, but only very few can match your artistic ideas.

Your story connected to Massive Voodoo?
-- three workshops (2x Painting, 1x Sculpting) and telling everybody who is painting figures to visit your blog--
and your workshops (to improve their painting)

Since when do you read Massive Voodoo?
-- no idea - 5 years?

What did you learn from Massive Voodoo's way of teaching miniature painting?
-- mixing colors is fun
-- don't use vallejo game color
-- you can always thin your color
-- never stop experimenting

What made you really happy in the last years when you look back at you, your painting table and the experiences you made there connected to MV?
-- difficult to say - the recurrent new ideas and inspirations to see my hobby from a different point of view...

From my perception you, Roman and Raffa, are the heart and the soul of you MassiveVoodoo.
I really appreciate your effort to fill this blog with life.
Please don't stop doing your things your way!

Cheers
Thomas

Your story connected to Massive Voodoo?
I had read articles on MV but was excited when I heard they were coming to NOVA. I took many classes from Roman and learned a lot. I wish I could have taken classes from Raffa as well.

Since when do you read Massive Voodoo?
For about the last 6 months.

What did you learn from Massive Voodoo's way of teaching miniature painting?
Color theory, de-saturating colors, mixing colors.

What made you really happy in the last years when you look back at you, your painting table and the experiences you made there connected to MV?

When I returned from NOVA I started thinking more about color theory and color mixing. I painted a figure only using 5 colors (Red, Blue, Yellow, Black and White)

I only used colors I mixed and I painted a fairly decent figure. I even created flesh tones. I was happy with that and I feel like I might be able to improve my painting.

I have been depressed about my painting for a long time. I think the classes I took from Roman helped inspire me and get back into painting. I look forward to trying more of what I learned.

Happy 6th MV!

I've coming back to MV since... several years now. I won't go into the details asked but guys, when I am down because of work, and only able to paint for a couple hours on the weekend, I get some of the peace and happiness of painting just but seeing new posts from you.

So, go on Happy Painting!

I remember first stumbling across MV back when there were only 300 followers on the page. Came here directed by a link to a tutorial and I spent the better part of a week reading every article. I have learned so much from MV over the years and you've really helped me to push my painting skills. Not to mention there's this amazing book of yours that sits at my desk and I get to see it every day.

Cheers and keep up the good banana.

I started reading MV long time ago, searching for some painting tutorial on the web, and stumbled upon the blog.

Wow, it was full of detailed and understandable tutorial, and for FREE !

I started reading MV more often and i became fascinated by the happiness and friendliness in which the articles were written. It felt no more like a blog about painting miniatures, but instead a familiar place where friendly people shared their passion with the readers.

Later i became interested in the technical abilities of Roman and Raffa, and decided for a private coaching: this was i think 2 years ago.

Time passed, and now i can say what i learned the most was not about the teaching itself ( that was indeed a huge step ahead, i want to specify), but more about the philosopy regarding painting.

These 2 guys were able to teach how to expand my mind when it comes to painting. How to break the boundaries of imagination. Now i look at a miniature and no more i think about colours, blending, etc... i simply know i can do a great paintjob because simply i'll do something i love.

That's right, painting miniatures has always been my true passion, but after reading MV i can say painting and joy became even more the same thing.

Tnx guys and keep up your great job !

Lorenzo

I found Massive Voodoo a while back but didn't come here very often (I'm bad at following any blogs really). I met Raffa and Roman at Nova Open and I got really motivated to push harder at getting better. Both of you guys have a knack at breaking down painting challenges that I thought were really tough (metals & leather, OSL, faces). So now I've been digging through the blog for any tips and tricks and also just enjoying some of the other random articles.

Oh and by watching Raffa with the airbrush I learned a simpler way to work - just mix the paint in the well! Simple concept, but I hadn't used mine much because I was always thinking I have to mix and put in a jar... Overthinking that one a bit too much, eh.

My desk has the Necron that Roman used as an example for the metals class, along with a space marine with some weathered leather that I just finished. I also pinned up the ogre face I painted in Raffa's faces class. Next project will be working on black armor - for which I read the blog post on painting black.

Keep on keeping on with the renovation gents. It looks like it's coming along nicely. It's always nice to sit back and look at the fruits of your labor after a project like that.

Cheers!

Scott

MV has been my go-to site for when I'm stuck, lacking inspiration, or determined to push myself harder. I've only been coming here for a year now, maybe a bit more (time flies), so I feel like a newcomer here, but the main thing I've taken away from this site is that I should just paint.

Maybe that's a weird way to say it, but I've stopped worrying about the details. If I want a ruined industrial base, I don't need to make it look like an actual ruined factory: metal scraps and tiny scenic elements look just fine. If I want skin to look cool or warm or anything, I can just add some color in, and if I make a mistake, I can always fix it. At worst, I'll have to strip the paint off, but if I don't try, I won't grow. I used to be a meticulous planner, saving color recipes and making sure everything looked homogeneous. Now, the miniature often takes me on an adventure, ending with colors and base elements and light work that I never intended initially.

The funny thing is that this is at the same time that I've started looking at things in the real world to get better, more realistic colors, which again, you guys have some great intros on seeing the world as a miniature painter.

By the MV-jungle's standards, I'd consider myself still a beginner, but I think I'm on my way. Thanks for the articles, the humor, and I can't wait to see what the future holds.

Keep on happy painting!

--Dan!