Masterclass Painting Seminar

This past weekend I had the good fortune to take a fabulous 16 hour painting class. It was run by award winning painter Meg Maples of Arcane Paintworks. Taking the class was my Christmas present from Hubs. I am so glad I was able to do it, I learned *so* much. Best gift ever.

Getting started.

There were about a dozen of us in the class, and it was held at Huzzah Hobbies, a game store I am very fond of. The store's only downfall is the distance from me, if it was a little closer I would game there all the time.

The miniature we painted was Reaper's Viking Girl. A fun model with some nice textures to work on. Normally I'm all over Reaper's miniatures, but most had serious trouble straightening out her sword. I was lucky and just needed to tweak it back a little on mine. I don't miss working with metal minis.

We started by learning two brush blending on her cloak. This technique has changed my life. Essentially, you start by putting down a medium base color. Then you take two brushes, one loaded with a darker paint and the other damp with water. You apply a dot of paint in, say, the crevice of her cloak, and then use the wet brush to blend the dark color into the medium one. Same can be done with a highlight. The effect itself is great, but how easy it is to do is really what sold me on it.

I am so proud of my cloak.

 Then she taught us how to do eyes. With a #2 brush. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own astonished eyes. My attempts were feeble, this was definitely where I struggled the most. I tried her eyes so many times that I started losing the detail in her face. I really ought to go back and remove that paint and try again. Meg suggested buying one of Reaper's Faceless Horrors to practice the eyes on, since it's 70% eyeballs. Done and done, he's on the way.

Day two covered hair/fur and metallics. Much less frustrating than eyes, for sure. I don't think I really got the hang of the hair technique. I think with more practice (and a different color set) it will look a lot better. But the reddish brown just wasn't working out.

As finished as I got her over the weekend.

I would have liked to show you the 100% finished model, but unfortunately, holiday plans and travel got in the way. Silly family time, getting in the way of hobby time. I want to finish the fur and the shield (and try her face again) before I call her finished.

One of things I didn't expect to learn was how much I like the P3 paints. I've almost exclusively used GW paints (and a few Reaper here and there) since that's what we have had. I don't think I am going to make the swap over, as we have so much paint already, but I'll probably use them again in the future.

I wanted to get this post up a little sooner, but again, holiday travels. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. I'll be updating again next week with my 2013 Daemonette Project miniature. She is in progress!