It’s been a while since I came home from the Massive Voodoo painting class, and I have been full of viral goodness bleurgh!… not caught something like this for a very long time! pretty much knocked me out and it all started just before the long trip out to The Netherlands (“Sod’s Law” in action there methinks!).
But now we are back after Christmas and the world is going back to normal, I thought I would put a little something together to discuss my experiences.
Holland is quite a way to travel from the South West of the UK, but I must say, it was worth the effort. I travelled on the Thursday afternoon (the course started on Friday evening) with a good friend (hello Phill!) who did the hard work of driving (thank you sir!), and we took an over night ferry from Harwich to the Hook of Holland. This was a really good idea – not only did it mean we arrived in Holland after a decent night’s sleep, but also meant that we arrived at a good time on Friday to get to the hotel and get ourselves sorted out before meeting up with the group and starting the first evening session. Otherwise I can imagine it would have been an absolute nightmare trying to travel on the Friday.
First things first, it was an absolutely fantastic trip – the Dutch people were all very friendly and really made us feel welcome, from the lady at the hotel to all of the other people on the course (big shout outs to Jurgen and Gert who organised it all).
If anyone reading this don’t know who Massive Voodoo are, then please go over and check their blog – it is pure painting inspiration. These guys are real artists when it comes to their painting and as quickly became obvious during the class they really put a lot of soul into their work. The class was run by Roman ‘Jarhead’ Lappat and helped Peter ‘Baphomet’ Toth both masters of their art.
One great sign of a course well taught is that about half of the class had been there the previous year and had come back for some more tuition. To this end, the class was split in two with slightly different agendas – the newbies (like me) were supplied a Warhammer Daemonette, a plinth and as much basing material as we could cram onto it, and we were taken through the thought processes and methods that Roman uses to produce his spectacular miniatures. And the repeat students were able to bring a miniature of their own or look through a decent selection the Roman had brought with him (lots of gorgeous Hasslefree Miniatures in that selection!). They were able to focus more on a specific area of improvement, for example flesh tones, and were guided by the firm hand of Peter Toth.
For the newbies, Roman had a number of slide shows that he took us through looking at various important topics such as colour theory and composition, and he also demonstrated the techniques at the front of the class. Each one of these demo sessions was to do with a particular technique or aspect of the miniature which we then went off to try and replicate on our Daemonettes… and it all seemed to go pretty well!
Click to view slideshow.Both groups received really good group tuition and individual advice from both instructors – nobody was left out, and I think it was fair to say that everyone took home new skills and knowledge by the end of the weekend.
Here are a few photos of the repeat students’ work – some really great stuff
Click to view slideshow.I THOROUGHLY enjoyed the whole weekend. I came away having learnt lots, (especially about being less afraid of adding black for shadows, and letting go to allow myself to paint more freely) and I would highly recommend anyone to attend a class with Roman and Peter. I also feel like I have walked away from the trip with lots more friends – thank you to everyone who was there.
I must also say a special thank you to Patrick from sceneryworkshop.nl and the Massive Voodoo crew for the use of their photos
