Review: MV's Jar's Advanced Class in Blumberg-Achdorf

"Having attended numerous workshops over the past few years, I can confidently say that Roman's advanced class is one of the best out there. This workshop is fantastic for everyone who wants to get a better understanding of how colors work and how to create a concept for achieving a specific atmosphere on your miniature. Highly recommend!!"

- Thomas

Well,
I held my second Advanced miniature painting class,
a class that takes my students deeper into my brain, after my famous Beginner's Class.

The themes and topics plus schedule is getting more complex and after I took about 2,5 years to work on the concept, made thoughts, collect stuff, think about how to explain something, break information and steps down to a level that everybody can understand and follow what I try to explain in this class.

You can believe, when I say - even as a very experienced teacher - was nervous about the concept premiere one year ago and still was for this second run.



Even tough I was able to teach this concept for several times now in private coachings, was able to improve something due the lessons I have learned as a teacher I still was corious to take it to another group of students.

Main topics for MV's Jar's Advanced Class:

- Learn to paint atmosphere in a Miniature Project
- Learn to visualise, analyse and understand the variety of colors
- Learn to keep all harmonic
- Doing a small conversion to make your figure personal
- Learn simple, but very effective rules for a gaming base
- Learn to paint skintones
- Learn to paint black and white
- Advanced Color Theory
- Advanced Blending Techniques
- Advanced Happy Painting Methods
- and more!

First of all 
a big thanks goes out to Hasslefree Miniatures, who supported the class with a big bunch of "Tregars", which were actually perfect for the class concept. I like to change the seminar figures in this class every class and I am really happy that everyone was happy with their barbarian who actually looks like "Conan".

They got great miniatures, check them out here!

Here are our results from the weekend. 
Well, this photo does show them all, but they are too small. Maybe I should start the whole story from the beginning.

We did meet up in Blumberg-Achdorf,
a small village close to the Swiss border, but still in Germany. Even April and May still were a little grey Blumberg greated us with sun.

Many thanks to Vlado from BigPandaV.de, Phil and Peter for the organisational part. It was once again a so called "deluxe workshop" where we all slept and ate in one house. Thanks to Phil for additional photo material for this review.  

Thanks to Peter for a nice car ride from Stuttgart to Blumberg. Many people arrived earlier than us, but not all of them ;)

"I feel like a really lucky guy, to accidently attended a Roman’s beginners workshop back in 2011. To now get another insight in Roman’s miniatures painting technique was really amazing. I highly recommend this workshop for those who want to know how colors work and gear up their miniature painting.“ - Phil aka Tuskar


Blumberg is always a place to meet old friends and new ones :)

"As most of you know, it can be challenging to generate a vibrant atmosphere on your paintjobs. You have the right idea, but your attempts are failing and frustration is rising. In order to overcome this situation, I took a Private Coaching with Roman two years ago and also joined him on his first Advanced Class last year. In both cases I was able to improve my understanding of atmosphere a lot, but never achieved a real breakthrough in my mind.

To be honest, I sometimes struggle with the understanding of colors and due to my daily work it can take time to accumulate enough practice to achieve this "click"-moment. The first Advanced Class put down important basics which I worked on for over a year.

To take the Advanced Class a second time was one of the best choices I have made in my painting career. As I already knew most of the lessons and exercises, I could concentrate on further internalising the important facts. So, in this happy group of painters, in this little village called Blumberg, I had some big "clicks" happening in my mind. Don´t get me wrong, I understood the theory in the first place, but painting is a lot about "feeling", which is hard to explain on a scientific level. Either you get it, or you don´t. There is nothing wrong about it, if you don´t. The mistake is, to stop trying to get it.

So, if you are one of these hobby painters who wants to push his own limits, take the chance and join Roman´s Advanced Class. It´s a real challenge, even for an experienced painter, and you should be ready to work hard. But, I promise, you will get more information than you can stomach. Take you time, practise and join the class one more time... it´s worth the investment as the result will speak for itself."

- Peter

After a litte late start and some great dinner we started with some theory, followed by preparing our models for their journey:

Did I mention the great dinner we had this evening and all the rest of the weekend? Thanks to our god in the kitchen, Rainer.

Friday night arrived pretty fast and after some drinks we went to bed as the next morning was welcoming us with advanced color theory, starting from here:

The color theory part in this class leads to one main thing for my students brains:
Learn to visualise, analyse and understand the variety of colors and be able to mix it as this makes the understanding of atmospheric painting much easier to approach:

"Don’t attend this class if you can’t handle that your brain might explode. A class that is not really about technique or improving skill but about improving your whole approach to miniature painting. You will most likely change your view on everything and maybe even change your whole painting style after it. So.. much.. knowledge… on just one weekend.
100% recommended after you attended a Beginner Class (you just need to know the basics) and if you want to improve your painting."
 

- Sebastian

Read Sebastian's full review here!

Everybody got busy and a little brain melted after these hours of color knowledge, but again we had some good lunch and were ready to start off to the figures:

After the first stages we went deeper in the paintjobs, everybody absolutely focused as the brain was working to bring together the color theory and atmosphere parts to the actual painting process:

After a colorful painting time we once again head to bed, some earlier than others and the next morning was greeting us with sunshine again.



Today it was time to push the models further and to increase the connection and understanding of atmosphere knowledge to our figures, but suddenly Sunday was also a day to find us outside once in a while as it was just too beautiful.

We also had an area of finished projects and I was proud to see the progress of many of my students in their new paintjobs and projects.

Panda-love! You can get this little fella via BigPandaV.

Stoessi's Heroes

Somehow the sun was great, but somehow not. I mean if you are supposed to be painting inside and outside spring is showing his first powerful lasting sunbeams it was hard to not be outside once in a while ...

"When you get the chance to attend one of Jar's Advanced Painting Classes, go for it! I can only recommend the perfect mix of theoretical lessons followed by practical exercices and individual support he offers. One of the best workshops I have attended so far!" - Tanja

Many thanks to all my students in this class. 
After some days now after the class I hope you can feel the impact the class should implement on your observation- and color analysis-skills. Visual studying and understanding I call it. Many thanks for all your great and honest feedback to the class. This will help me to improve it further.

I also want to thank you all for the nice time we spent and the good talks about life and such. It really helped me to see my own creative track a little better through the fog. May spring be with you!

Thanks to Tanja you can find her review on the class here:

Tanja's review, part 1
Tanja's review, part 2


Here are the results of the weekend.
Many Tregars or Conans or Afrohulks as you may call them. Unfortanetely I missed one. Not on purpose, sorry, Felix! Main focus on these was the color play happening if you decide to understand miniature painting with athmosphere, harmony and ambience. We started painting on Saturday early afternoon and pushed as far as we could.

Keep on happy painting everyone!
- Roman