Review: MV's Jar's Beginners Class in Heidelberg, Germany

Heidelberg, Germany.
A sunny weekend and a big gang of miniature painters that meet up for MV's Jar's Beginners Class.
Sounds perfect and so it was. Roman was teaching this class for his 57 time and still finds ideas and thoughts to improve the class, thanks to his students. You can find more workshop reviews here.

Talking about a great group of students - here they are ...

"I have just attended the workshop in Heidelberg and it was fantastic. 
It is quite exhausting (starts at 6 pm on Fridays after you already have worked the entire week until midnight, continues from Saturday 10am to midnight and then again Sunday from 10am until about 6-7pm) but you really learn so much. Roman and Peter are always helpful and provide corrections and constructive comments and are otherwise very good at explaining processes and techniques. I can recommend these workshops a 100%."- Dario


Thanks!
First of all Roman wants to thank David and Peter for the great organisation work that made this all happen. Really smooth and wonderful in all aspects. Thank you both very much!

Second, Roman wants to thank Tobias and Evelin for their support in photos for this article. Roman was particular busy and did not do much photos. They wrote a really nice review in german language over on Magabotato and interviewed some of the students. Thanks a lot!

Third, thanks to all the people who want to learn from Roman's painting experience and teaching knowledge. Without you such a class would just not happen.

Fourth, thanks to everyone who was a repeater at this class. It is a big honor for Roman as teacher to see so many faces return to this class and your projects and growth as a painter speaks for itself.

And a most special thanks goes out to Peter once again for his great help in supporting the class with his knowledge and painting joy!

Friday night - basing time!


"Romans Worskshop sind einer der besten Ws die ich kenne. Pädagogisch sinnvoll aufgebaut, ein sympathischer Typ und man geht nach dem WE mit maximal geladenen Mal-Akkus nach Hause.
Der initiale Preis erschreckt vlt etwas, aber wenn man sich andere Hobbygenres anschaut, was man da für einen 2 1/2 tätigen WS bezahlt ist das mehr als fair.

Ich würde so gerne mal Roman im Mainzer/Frankfurter Raum sehen, aber Räumlichkeiten sind hier sehr schwierig zu bekommen." - Denny Crane / Magabotato review comments



When it comes to basing Roman has to thank the supporters of this class who made the class wonderful due their help in sponsoring some of their products, beside Roman's crazy material collection:

PK-Pro
Sockelmacher
Juweela
Modelmates
and Kellerkind Miniatures.

After basing the long night of theory went on and took the students through aspects of painting from Art History to photography, always focusing on the skill to observe and understand.

Our youngest member in the class came with his dad and we definatly had fun!

"Ich fand's super, dass wir so viel gemalt haben. Ich habe viel gelernt, z.B. wie man gut Leder, Haut oder Metall malt. Der Bau der Base hat mir auch viel Spaß gemacht. Beim Base-Bau habe ich gelernt, wie man nass-in-nass malt. 

Ich fand auch die langen Nächte der Theorie gut. Die Theorie war lang, aber jetzt weiß ich viel über Licht und Schatten.Das konnte ich gleich beim Malen anwenden.
Der Maltag war immer super mega oberlang, da musste ich manchmal Pause machen. Wenn ich Fragen hatte, konnte ich immer fragen und konnte die Antworten auch gut verstehen.
Der Unterricht war besser als Schule, weil ich immer wusste, wie der Ablauf war und was als nächstes dran kommen würde.
In einem Satz: Der Kurs war supergut, ich würde ihn noch mal mitmachen. Also: Weiter so!" 
- Linus


Saturday morning 
arrived and we missed nobody. Everybody was ready and eager to learn and proceed. Before we paint we still had some minor tasks to fullfil to get everything ready for priming at noon. We were also able to see many miniature projects on the miniature table as many people brought their beautiful projects to look at.

Then suddenly, it was time for priming before lunch break ...

PFFTT!!

After a well deserved lunch break everybody returned and the whole gang was anxious to paint soon. Painting session started with some wisdom about colors, brushes and how to set up a wet palette. Then we began working on the base ...

You gotta sketch, you gotta believe, you gotta enjoy, you gotta love it, but first you gotta have to lose fear of doing a mistake. There are none! Feel the process, you can guide it, do not think about every step you do. All these steps just lead to a result. Do not fear sketching. It will help you!

Yeahawr!

First sketches were made ...

Some of the class repeaters, focused.

And first timers - no difference in focus at all ... good sign!

Working more and more on our sketches ... and thumbs!

Saturday went to night time and we started painting the demonettes to make them fit or pop out of our bases. All connected to the color wheel.

Techniqual explanations by Roman ...

Peter in explanation mode ...

"I highly recommend Jar's beginner class to anyone who plans to take the
painting seriously and who would like to take the next step on his journey
of how to become a better painter. Roman and Peter gave me exactly the right
input and inspiration that I needed to see things differently and to raise
the quality of my painting to the next level." - Mike


Saturday left everyone exhausted, but Sunday morning the fun returned and we were ready to close all in to bring our base and miniature together with detail work and explanations.

Discover your hands as a great helping tool!

Demo-ro-man

Demo-nettes

Results
After all the focus, all the exhaustions of long painting days we came up with results. Many. Beautiful ones.

Thank you all for a great and funny weekend in Heidelberg, may the painting spirits always be with you and never forget: Colors are your friends, you just have to speak to them!

Keep on happy painting!