30 May 2018

SBS: Painting a lion on canvas

Painting a lion on canvas 

Not much to tell on this beautiful wednesday,
but I did not want to keep the jungle too silent though :)


A while back I painted a lion on canvas.
Done with mainly acrylics.






Time to dry out before I can continue.


Some days later ...
Creative processes need their own time. May it be on figures, in a your sketch book, in your mind, in your brain and on your actual projects.






Oh my gawd. Eyes fail!


I really enjoyed the sunlight situation on this photo ...


Decided to use it as inspiration while continueing ...


Called it done.


I hope you enjoy this little walkthrough. Mainly pictures speaking, I know.
Funny thing is, that the process I paint on canvas is not far from my process I do when painting figures. From rough and wild to sharp and detailed.

Happy Painting to you!

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If you like to support or say thanks the monkeys of Massive Voodoo in what they do, please feel invited to drop a jungle donation in their direction via paypal or check their miniatures they got on sale here.

27 May 2018

Sunday Musica






Find my personal music playlists
that I am listening to while happy painting on youtube!

23 May 2018

Workshop & Seminar News!

Hey Jungle painters,

important heads up our 2018 seminar roadmap:


  • Roman's material masterclass PDF is now available and gives you all information to not think twice for signing up!

    3rd - 4th August (1,5 days): Material Masterclass (German) (Download PDF)
  • Alfonso Giraldes weekend seminar in Augsburg is confirmed. 

    27th-28th October (2 days): Color Theory Class by Alfonso Giraldes (English)
    organised by Roman. Important PDFs for students:
    Introduction Alfonso Giraldes

    Tools & Material & Student guide

    to sign up wirte an email to jarhead---at---massivevoodoo---dot---com

If you want to join one of these seminars,

feel invited to check back with


And very important: NOVA OPEN 2018
Roman is teaching seminars in the US again this year. Alfonso will teach there too!
Only at NOVA OPEN 2018.

Including Roman's first ever 2.5 days of Beginner Class overseas - do not miss this chance:




- 26th - 28th August (3 days): NOVA OPEN - Beginner Class
- 30th August (1 hour): NOVA OPEN - Introduction into Display Painting
- 31st August (4 hours): NOVA OPEN -Creating a story and compositon with miniatures
- 31st August (3 hours): NOVA OPEN - Dramatic Lightning
- 1st September (1 hour): NOVA OPEN - Introduction into Display Painting
- 1st September (3 hours): NOVA OPEN - Dramatic Lightning



_______________________________________________________________________________
You want to support Massive Voodoo? 
If you like to support or say thanks the monkeys of Massive Voodoo in what they do, please feel invited to drop a jungle donation in their direction via paypal or check their miniatures they got on sale here.

17 May 2018

Step by Step: Tesla, Infamy Models

Oouuwwweeehhh, Jungle!
Time for another article that drops in the jungle.
I told you I got tons of things to tell and write. Not only about figures and color, but it just feels good to get things rolling again and of course Massive Voodoo's main content will be about figures and paint :)

_______________________________________________________________________________
You want to support Massive Voodoo? 
If you like to support or say thanks the monkeys of Massive Voodoo in what they do, please feel invited to drop a jungle donation in their direction via paypal or check their miniatures they got on sale here.
_______________________________________________________________________________

This time I want to explain to you some thoughts I made while painting up a wonderful bust of "Nikola Tesla" by Infamy Games.
My result looked like this - very colorful!
Brrzz!


Brrzzz?
Was just what I wanted to paint. Light. Object Source light that comes from the sculpt and the lightning and interacts with all volumes, shapes and material on Nikola. A big task and one that kind of made my brain explode, but the sculpt was calling for it.


I dived right in and placed my main colors to the figure as a basic quick sketch. The lightning very bright sky blue with even some white parts in it to sketch the main osl source. In the meantime all other elements recieved their basic look. Their look I thought they should have without the influance of the OSL.


I do paint rather freely
and place what I want to place where it needs to be placed. I do not search nor wait for a certain right moment for it. I just go with my painters instinct. Shadow here, small highlight there, cleaning up there, darklining there, as it comes.

Basic color of the true metallic metal parts in this photo:


As I wanted to have everything influanced via the lightning OSL I took some bright sky blue/white to highlight everything together. And look at this, it all connects to the lightning. I love this stage when a basic sketch starts to make sense.



Still some parts where missing, like the hair for example. I also used some darker blue to airbrush the bust from below. Sprayed as a glaze to tint the shadow areas it connects everything even more. Also going back to highlights after such a step. Push more into contrast.



I wanted to create the same final highlights in the lightning and on the figure as the osl should be the main light source on this bust. Everything has to go the same way to the color of the light.


Now he looked very whitish/blue all over. No wonder, because of what I just did.



I went back in and brought some more colors in the skin again. To make him look more alive. Some reds, magenta and purple glazes. They do look out of place right now, but are needed for further steps. Just follow your instinct and what it tells you.

I thought about connecting skin and colors from below a bit more and sprayed in a glaze of magenta from below. Strong and powerful tint.



On my thumb you can see the colors I used. Brilliant, isn't it?


Of course this was a little bit too much.

So I reworked the lights of the osl again. Wax on, wax off until your painters instinct is satisfied.


It went to whitish again so I reworked smaller areas with blue glazes again. Wax on, wax off until your painter instinct tells you ...


... it works. Your vision is clear.
Then continue with final detail work and clean ups to arrive at your end result.



If you look at his chest, hand and face you can see some lightning shaped highlights that I painted there. They do look random, but they ain't. They should simulate the brrrzzzz!! At least this was my plan while painting them without concern.




 Brzzz!


blue, purple, blue, white, purple, blue, white ... ahh brrzzzll!!




Awesome bust to paint.
The lightning gives a lot of options and it was quite the challenge to include it into the bust.

Painted as a comission for Infamy Games.
Thanks for the cool opportunity :)

"Nikola Tesla" by Infamy Games.

Keep on happy painting!
Roman

_______________________________________________________________________________
You want to support Massive Voodoo? 
If you like to support or say thanks the monkeys of Massive Voodoo in what they do, please feel invited to drop a jungle donation in their direction via paypal or check their miniatures they got on sale here.
_______________________________________________________________________________

15 May 2018

Tip of the week







Make plenty of Work in Progress photos.
All the time. Even if you do not want to write an article about it. It helps you to check back with what you have done during your painting session. Check back with your photos when they are calling you. See things you did not see while painting. Think about them. Take them in consideration. Let your head wrap around ideas and thoughts. Continue.

Keep on happy painting!


_______________________________________________________________________________
You want to support Massive Voodoo? 
If you like to support or say thanks the monkeys of Massive Voodoo in what they do, please feel invited to drop a jungle donation in their direction via paypal or check their miniatures they got on sale here.

14 May 2018

Review: Jar's Basing Class - two


Aloa Jungle,

like I said I was teaching a lot recently and still do.
After cleaning up the MV studio from a crazy wild Basing Workshop one the studio had to stand the second round of it very closely, timewise.

Basing is such a cool thing
that you can guide you to very intense miniature projects.
Of course I am not speaking of gaming bases, they can be an art of themselves when it comes to themed armies. Display bases. Bases that help to tell a story.

Bases that take the viewer on a journey.

I want to thank
 my students who took part in this class for trusting my teaching skills and travelling from far and close. Thanks to Peter who helped me organise this seminar.

If you want to join one of my seminars,
feel invited to check back with


This seminar started with oupss!!!
Due life I missed to organise plinths, which is bad on a basing class where every student needs one.
I had to go to the tool store and buy some wood. Unfortanetely they only had 2,20 meter ready and I had to take the public transport with this wood bar. Felt like a celtic warrior waiting for the train and caught a lot of smiles.


Arrived in the studio with it.
Decided this will be the first tasks for my students :)


Still in my head ... wtf? :D

_______________________________________________________________________________


Jar's Basing Class
Instructor: Roman Lappat


In this MV class Roman takes you deeper into basing. No gaming bases. What makes a good display base? Learn more about composition rules you can put to use while basing, learn different focused material aspects on the subject: "After the postapocalypse, nature returns".

Classes in 2018:


  • 23 - 25 February (3 days): Basing class (English) (Download PDF)
  • 16 - 18 March: Basing class (German) (Download PDF)
  • 14th - 16th December (3 days): Basing Class (English) (Download PDF)
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So first tasks first.
Cutting this big piece in shape like professionals. Do not forget your protection glasses to avoid hobby accidents!



Friday night was packed with theory.
A big load of it. My students got introduced into the theme and topic of the base. How to develop a story around a character and how to plan a bigger base with art history composition rules.

After the theory part was done we went straight into the night party time: Checking back on the learned composition rules and how to put them to a test in real scale:

First with a little chaos ...




Then with serious composition tasks by me
... my students did really well! Check it out!

So much fun, but at the same time a big learning curve.








On Saturday we took our plans, drawings and ideas and started building the bases. I introduced material in several stages and the bases grew and time flew by with good chats and fine music.

Saturday night results:







It was a true joy to see these bases grow.

On Sunday morning
we primed the bases after some final touches and were ready for the painting process. Nature strikes back! Massively!



We pushed through a sunny sunday and created and finalized our story-telling bases. Colors, nature, and detail love. So beautiful results. Happy students and a very proud teacher were able to see these born from a wooden plank:


Thanks to 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:




If you want to join one of my seminars,
feel invited to check back with






















I want to thank the gentlemen attenting this seminar once again.
Again for being awesome students, for the wonderful time spent together, filled with good food, fine music and good talks about life and bases.


Life is your base,
you build it and can do it with composition :)

Man, Hansrainer!! Still makes me laugh out loud when I see you on the group shots :D


If you want to join one of my seminars,
feel invited to check back with



Keep on happy painting!
Roman

Hansrainer
 wrote up a great review from his perspective, thank you!
I’ve been planning to take one of Romans basing classes
 ever since he started offering them. Initially I was always put off by the fact, that he only offered them in Augsburg, but after my private coaching in December, I didn’t dread the long ride as much anymore and I had a good friend join me for the class and we managed to get a decent hotel. As an added bonus, the class ended up being held in the MV-Studio, just a few minutes away from our stay - and we were only six participants!

Having been there three months ago,I wasn’t just as excited as my friend Christoph to visit the holy halls of Massive Voodoo - still quite excited though, truth be told. As usual, we were the last to arrive there, in our excuse, everyone else had a much shorter trip to Augsburg. Roman had already prepared the studio and set up some additional workplaces, making room for all 6 of us.

As usual in Romans classes, 
the friday was an intense trip into theory land, learning about composition, mood and life-size basing… We had a lot of fun and the photos taken during the live-basing exercise speak words of it. As always, every new theoretical concept (golden mean) was supported by several practical examples, making studying seemingly easy. We learned a lot about how to use different implements to create guiding lines in a base setup, guiding the eye of the beholder to the desired focal point of the scene.

As an added bonus, we all got to huddle on the couch around Roman, unfortunately I believe that no pictures of that were taken. At the end of the day, I was rightly tired, head full with new concepts and eager to try some of them out.
  
On saturday
 the base-building started in earnest: First of all, we all drew lots - and by lots I mean a miniature out of box full with Hassle-Free Miniature goodness - thanks for those by the way. It was a really good Idea to get the creativity-juices flowing. Everyone got a random miniature and should come up with a name and short story that the final base was supposed to tell in the end. And then we all went back to pen and paper (or pen and tablet) to start making sketches and concept drawings of our base-project. My concept was based on “the worst toilet in scotland” from the movie trainspotting. Just transposed into this post-apocalyptic world. The toilet would be the worst - but at the same time the best toilet - because it’s the only one left in Scotland. So Mark, the protagonist of the movie returns to the smallest room to find some peace.

With the concepts in hand, we set off building our bases, starting with the big and coarse elements and going into more and more detail, as the day went on.

Roman gave us a long excurse on the loads of different bits and doodats in his huge repository. I dare say, the MV-Studio is probably the paradise of every basing enthusiast - I mean they have TOILETS (model toilets that is). We also learned a lot about random placement and the effects of symmetries on the overall perception of a base.

Most of the day went by in a blur, we had nice conversations and listened to a lot of music. At some point Peter from MV stopped by for a few hours to work on his latest projects. We had really good food in a nearby restaurant - Roman forgive me, I can’t for my life remember the name :(

Unfortunately I got quite carried away with my base project and forgot to take any pictures during the construction process, suffice it to say, at the end of the day (coming earlier for some and as usual, later for me) we all had a more or less finished base construction. I ended up working some overtime, but I can say it paid off. Lesson not learned: Less chatting, more working...


Short interlude: 
I have been a student of Roman for a few years now, my earliest class dating back to 2013. Yes, I know I am a Fanboy, but I have also been a teacher for years. It always impresses me, how good Romans instinct is, with regard to when to push students (and which students) to adhere strictly to the curriculum and when to let go of the proverbial leash. That is a rare gift, even among teachers and I can only recommend to trust him if you ever take one of his classes. It usually pays off, even if it feels wrong to begin with.

So, Sunday arrived and it was time to whip out the paints. After giving our bases solid 2-color base coats, we started setting the atmosphere (if you want to know more about this - see the advanced class - shameless advertising!) and painted our bases to the point, where we could start adding the finishing pieces, mostly greenery nature to the bases. Eventually, the day ran its course and we had to pack up.

Conclusion:
I had only been painting busts in last months leading up to this class, but I was hoping it would rekindle my interest in working in smaller scales again - and it did! If you have seen pictures of Romans beginner-classes, you know that base-building is a very important part of that already and I can say, the basing class adds a lot on top of it. It provides a solid theoretical foundation for the things done before and adds a lot of tricks and best practices with the different materials available for basing - be it things collected outside or bits unseen before (by me at least). Admittedly, this specific class had added charme because it took place in the famed MV-Studio, but I think it would have been equally awesome in the school it was planned to take place in originally.
Most important though: It was a fun weekend with nice people, good food and music!


_______________________________________________________________________________
You want to support Massive Voodoo? 
If you like to support or say thanks the monkeys of Massive Voodoo in what they do, please feel invited to drop a jungle donation in their direction via paypal or check their miniatures they got on sale here.