Review: Beginner Workshop - St. Albans, UK

Hello Jungle,
it is time to tell you about my first trip to the UK, back in June 2019.
I got invited by Tim and Mally, that form the great team behind Journeyman Miniatures
to teach my first beginner seminar on the island. Really, I never set foot to the UK. Really strange, if I had known what I did miss so far.

Tim and Mally
are such cool dudes with their hearts at the right spot and their hobby souls full of energy for the good things that you can find in our miniature world. They promote and organise seminars with a huge variety of different miniature artists and teachers alike and they got some organisational skills, that every teacher will benefit of.

I want to thank both of you from the heart for bringing me over,
your hospitality, your comradry and the nice time spent together!

Mally & Tim

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"Firstly, thanks again for a superb weekend.

Two of my contribution to the weekend - at the start when I thought "what the hell do I do with this" and the end result where I thought "hey, I'm rather proud of this!". One of the guys from Journeyman, often overlooked as they hide behind the camera. First to arrive, last to leave and always well prepared. One of Matty. You opened his mind so far, by the end of Saturday he was painting with pure light ;)

If anyone has a doubt about attending this course, they should put that doubt aside. It's intense but relaxed, constructively critical but friendly, all the while challenging and rewarding. At no point did I feel overwhelmed, but constantly educated and excited."

- Dave

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The theory parts contain:

- Learn to see your world with different eyes
- Introduction into basing composition
- Learn how to feel harmony in different aspects
- Important contrasts for figure painting
- Explanation about how to paint a light situation on your figure
- Understand colour theory and learn how to use it properly
- Learn about different materials, their unique properties and learn to paint them
- Learn to lose fear of doing something wrong
- much more!

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

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"I was writing up my notes from the workshop in St Albans and matching them with the handout, and I just wanted to say thank you so much for an amazing weekend. Just going through my notes has refilled with me inspiration and enthusiasm again and I can't wait to spend the rest of the weekend painting. You're a fantastic teacher! Many thanks!"

 - Alysia

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I want to thank the students of this seminar.
Without your interest in my teaching this would not have happened. It was quite the large group of thirty students, but luckily I am always a good prepared teacher that knows how to handle such big groups. I want to thank you all for your trust and good will to travel to this workshop and the joy you did find in my teaching!

Thanks for all the good chats about the hobby and life alike. Thanks to those repeaters of the workshop who once joined before. It does mean a lot to me and I was happy to push you even further again. Thanks to those who supported this review with their photos as I did not take many myself.

Our location to the right, in St. Albans!

 

 
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"Attended his beginner painting weekend course last weekend. Roman is a fantastic teacher who encourages you to think for yourself and just try things but is a guide when you need a bit of help and advice. Very enjoyable weekend with an amazing 30 students that all had chance to get one on one feedback and tips. If you're considering attending a course or thinking about one on one teaching then I would highly recommend Roman as someone to not only teach, but to help embrace the happy and free side of painting."

- Caragh

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"I wanted to give you some feedback from your course. It was the best course I have been to so far, you have struck the right balance between theory and practise, and I really enjoyed the fact that we were not focused on one aspect like other courses might do. The main thing I liked was that you pushed us to do our own project and not to copy each other, this was great because we could see that whatever direction you take, you can have a very nice project at the end.

I am mainly a "gaming" painter but I enjoy painting a lot and decided to give display painting a go. I tend to approach projects from a very methodical perspective, not looking at the project as a whole but as separate parts, I have learned during this class to give more thought about the overall picture and not necessarily worry about the small details, as you said, get the overall feel right and work on the details later. It was also my first go at doing a display base, something I never tried before and never thought was so easy to approach. Well, now I have lots of ideas bubbling in my head for future projects so it was great to conquer my fears! Overall I had an excellent time. 

The only regrets I would say is that the TMM part and the finishing of the base felt a bit rush at the end, I would have liked to have a bit more time to spend on this aspect during the course. But they are minor criticisms, the course was amazing for anyone who wants to build confidence to tackle display painting.

Thanks again to be such an honest guy, your approach to painting is a model for me, I will always think about happy painting!

I will also remember that some people like to paint like a butterfly but it's ok to paint like a boar as well ;)"

- Julien

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"Balls deep yes I would recommend him. Himself and Banshee, these 2 guys are like cream and cake, butter and jam, pie and honey!!! This is to say, I absolutely would and Banshee paved the way for my understanding, and Roman to add solid f'in cohesion.
I feel like after his course I am free. Free to enjoy painting and my understanding of colours.
Best of all is, he's a bloody top bloke too... means something in this world of `interesting` people."

- Jamie

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When it comes to basing
I got to thank the supporters of this class who made the class wonderful due their help in sponsoring some of their products, beside my own crazy material collection:

PK-Pro
Sockelmacher
Juweela
Dirty Down
and Kellerkind Miniatures.

Flying to the UK for the first time
I did expect rain and rain and dark clouds. Like everyone told me so far in my whole life. Well, not this time. It was hot in June and Saturday almost destroyed us in our painting room. Lucky us, we were able to also paint outside and some did, even I did for some explanations.

Zenital Light on a bald head

Really we need to go outside, it is too hot in here! I can not teach!

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"I have flew over the continent to attend his course and it was amazing. A teacher that likes what he does and does it with love. Teaching beginners and experienced alike without a problem and with great care. Great experience, wonderful time totaly worth it"

- Andrei

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"I have just literally finished Roman's Beginners course arranged in the UK by Journeyman Miniatures and I was amazed by the following:

1. The way he teaches is 1st class
2. His course structure is A+ really well balanced and laidout taking you through the stages of the process in a logical manner.
3. Even though we had a really large class 30 pupils, I believe that no student got more of Romans time than another as he always made sure every had a couple of personal 1 to 1 time.
4. I would highly recommend this course to anyone as it helped me solidify my knowledge and backed up the theory and tutorial with actual practice."

- Marc

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"I found the course which catered for the beginner to the more experienced to be extremely informative, well balanced, well paced and above all - fun. I expected to be quite tired after travelling, cramming a 30 hour course into a weekend but this was not the case. In fact I can't believe it went so quickly so sign me up again."

- Nigel

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I want to thank you all
for your beautiful feedback during the workshop or after. This and your results make me a happy teacher and I know again why I love teaching and helping other painters on their own journey!

Following you can find the results from this weekend! Thanks to Tim and Mally for organising the photo booth! First timers had to paint a Games Workshop demonette. Repeaters of the seminar were allowed to bring their own model with their very own focus.

Click to enlarge!

 

Many thanks to all of you who have been part of this!
I will keep it with good memories in my heart and I will come back next year to teach some more!
Mally, Tim and I are already speaking about it! Stay tuned!

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