Review: Private Coaching with Andi

 

Hello Jungle Painters,

time for another review.
In August we had a private coaching with Andi from Austria.
Andi is not only a passionate painter, he is also a long time friend to the jungle inhabitants and it was our pleasure to welcome him for a two day private coaching in Augsburg.

To proof how long we already know Andi: 
He took part in Roman's first of Jar's Beginners Class back in 2009.

Andi, Raffa, Roman

We want to thank Andi for his trust in our teaching, for his friendship and his time he took to write down some words of his Massive Voodoo Private Coaching experience. Now we hand the mic to Andi ...

Private Coaching review by Andi
thoughts before the workshop

I was lucky enough to get a free slot on Raffa’s and Roman’s timetable in August for some private coaching. 

It’s not like I had never joined them for one of their awesome beginner workshops (I did that multiple times because I enjoyed them so much!) but understandably there is only so much time for personal training on those. 

Some creative ideas struck me on these courses but making out with inspiration doesn’t necessarily give you the skills to put those ideas on a miniature. So I grew a little frustrated after every workshop because my spirits were high but painting a miniature after a workshop somehow didn’t look as good as you thought it would, even though you were sure you improved every time you went to a workshop! 

Soon the realisation dawned on me that I had learned some nice tricks and basic understanding to make certain effects work out but my way of painting lacked … direction. Emphasising every part of a mini in the end means emphasising no part oft he mini. I stretched into so many ways at the same time that in the end I felt like I had arrived nowhere. Sometimes putting pieces of a puzzle together without knowing what’s supposed to come out changes the result drastically each time you try to assemble it. While that can be fun for a certain time, I felt like I wanted to go for achievable goals and planning so I can actually compare my progress. 

Roman: Andi brought some of his recent miniatures. In many mails we found out the main subject of the two day coaching: Wise Color Choice, Color and focus control on a miniature.

 
So I asked my former and hopefully future teachers if they would take care of me once more in a private coaching. I already knew about their teaching style and their personality, which made them the perfect choice and they agreed! 

So after telling Roman in a few messages what I needed, I was soon heading to Augsburg … the Workshop itself: It soon became obvious to my mentors what my problem was. Roman let me pick an unpainted mini from his Hasslefree stash and we talked about colors. The whole workshop I had a burning (more heat related puns because of immense August heat incoming. I’m not even sorry) desire to use colorful, bright colors potentially ruining my chosen miniature soldier’s camouflage. 

Theory of colors while choosing them!

 Prepared Hasslefrees for Andi - now choose!

 Color!

 
Raffa was surprised (to put it mildly) at my choice of pure Goblin green and we promptly went off to analysing and mixing colors in various degrees of saturation ourselves so I get a feeling of what colors consist of (and so that my minis get less saturated) So this was my main point: start desaturated after thinking up a color scheme. 

I was also really surprised how often I still tended to paint what I thought things looked like instead of actually looking at them and painting what I saw. So as a warm up exercise Roman and me quickly painted some Zombicide Zombies to get a feeling for how to create an atmosphere. 

Zombicide Color Test runs 

 
Raffa then used a toothpick to teach me how to apply consistent lighting to miniature painting but it was quite a lot, to be honest. I wasn’t used to paint 10 hours a day so focussing that much for extended hours burned through my energy reserves quite fast and the studio couch and me soon became good friends. Roman delivered some wet towels that we wrapped around our shoulders while Raffa cooled my flaming brush hand with some delicious ice cream to hold while on break. They really took good care of me. 

 Tired Painters!

Wet Towel-Painters!

Plan your color choice!

 
In those breaks he showed me how to cut out a nice mask where I can look at a color without being irritated by the colors next to it. Even though my main focus was just to paint with less saturated colors, those two painting madmen kept surprising me with new approaches to painting I haven’t thought of and were a refreshing new access for me.

So was it worth it? 
For me it was. I would have preferred it if the weather gods would have been a little bit cooler about me being in Augsburg but I loved it. I had a lot of fun while working and in the end having fun while painting is my biggest motivation.