"Do you feel your painting skill has plateaued?" Topic

I was comparing some miniatures I recently painted with some I painted a decade ago, the other day, and came to the realization that my miniature painting skills don't really seemed to have improved in the last ten years.

I don't think I'm a bad painter, I can certainly knock out a decent table top paint job, but it seems I just can't seem to take my paint jobs to that next level.

I've experimented with new techniques, different undercoats, different paints followed more than a few online tutorials and yet my paint jobs just don't visibly improve. It feels like I hit my skill ceiling in my mid 30s a decade ago.

Do you guys feel like your miniature painting is still improving or have you plateaued (or even gone backwards)?

Here's my blog if your interested in what my painting looks like

link

I did feel I had plateaued. Then I commissioned a pro-painter to paint a few units. I then tried to match what he had painted. An interesting exercise, which led not to me simply replicating his style but I developed my own style and feel I took a big leap forward with my painting.

Yes, and possibly below sea level.

Plateaued and now declining with my eyesight… luckily I now can't see bloops.

Too true, but that's the price of getting older and one's eyesight gets worse. We just have to accept it – the alternative is worse

Yes plateaued at solid mediocre.

Since I stopped painting for other people I have been getting less fussy about my own stuff. I've been trying for greater output rather than greater quality and seem slowly to be able to ignore bits I'd have touched up in the past. Definitely slowing down though, probably the reduced amount of painting I now do isn't enough to keep the speed high – that and the back problems.

Eyesight seems to have deteriorated too, which isn't helping but also means I don't see all the issues I might once have corrected.

Not yet got back to figure painting after the operation but have done a few scenery items to keep my hand in. Once I get full control back on my right side I still have a pile of both 10 & 15mm partly done so need to get going soon.

I have to really push myself to improve painting 28mm. I'm really concentrating on trying to get better at painting faces – it is paying off but it feels like hard work.

I'm also experimenting with shading based on directional light from one side to give a more dramatic effect. This is fun although the results are very subtle.

I'm happy with what I do with 18mm figures and old school 25mm so painting them is more of a production line process.

My eyesight is starting to decline.

Yes – or even below my best.

Combination of eyesight and time – to paint "well" (for me) is very slow. I need to get stuff finished and I just can't see the fine detail once it's on the table. So where I would have shaded and highlighted rucksacks (say) I just don't bother now unless it's a one off figure.

I plateaued about 15 years ago then declined. I have never really enjoyed painting since I got glasses and nowadays I just do a "good enough for me" job.

No, my disposable time budget plateaued.
It even declined to intolerable lows.

On the left my standard some 15 years ago for gaming miniatures from about 25mm-50mm.
On the right the painting niveau I like to buy to touch them up a bit, sufficient for my purposes so to say.
Flash and mold lines removed, gaps filled, primed and some simple paint job applied.

Sometimes cheaper than new ones.
We are in business, we have a deal.

From then on I take over.

So, the middle one I'm half way through with the paint job according to my current standard.
More and sharper highlights, some weathering, new base, I prefer coins nowadays, etc.

How long does it takes?
Too long.
That's the problem.
In the long run it would be more efficient to paint two or three of them and send them together with the unpainted to Fernando Enterprises and let them copy them.
But then again…
In a way, they wouldn't my babies anymore.

My problem isn't eyesight it's shaking. There are times when it's hard to hold them steady.

@Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, Earl of Holderness

Your Highness!

I really like your rusty robots.
I think they are spot on to a 'realistic' look of decaying painted metal surfaces, you're probably after.

I may introduce you to some models in this flickr stream.
You may like them.
High quality postapocalyptic wargaming and modelling diorama style. Presented by 'Clan McNeil' on his flickr stream
No, they are not mine.

Interestingly his miniatures are not as good as his vehicles, imho.
They are good, no question, but slightly less so.

…
So, there is not much I would do to touch up your robots.
What I would do to bring them closer to my style is applying sharp highligts at the edges and deeper shadows in the deeps.

Have a look at the edges, deeps and folds on this painting:

Stolen from the Wikipedia article about Rupert

And that is something I would do in general on gaming miniatures in combination with realistic approaches by weathering etc.
Deeper shadows and brighter lights, a lot of people like that.
Do it like Kevin Dallimore, but even more so.
I rather seldom use black lining and prefer sharper contrasts than Dallimore, but that is a question of taste.
Now if you have some time left, combine it with your weathering.
I could go on, but I think that should be enough for now.
In case you not already tried and discarded that approach.

…
And if my critism should help you, do me just one favour.
Never ever ruin a fine or even great paint job with an overlooked or even ignored mold line.

I see them.
All.
I'm a specialist for them.
They cut right through my eyes like in that Moon/Eye scene in 'Un Chien Andalou'.
People could have made a lot of money from me for their painted minis if they had just cleaned the mold lines.

I think my painting skills are still improving but a lot slower than before – primarily as I use new paints and new techniques, largely borrowed from fellow TMPers

No.

They bottomed out a few years ago due to lack of use but as I do more again they are very slowly improving – I must be up to just about poor by now :-)

I do think its a race between my circulation problems and eyesight vs my wish to get better again – eyesight can be managed with new glasses / aids but the tablets do not help most days so the figures are stiff and very cold – that's more the impact now I feel.

Yes.

I'm at the age now that I paint just to get them done. Nothing fancy. But I wanna play with them before I'm gone….

Yep, getting old sucks! I look at some 12mm Germans I painted some time back in Plane Tree camo…hell
I can barely see the figures let alone the camo!

Not sure. Painting skills are a lot of things, and I don't think any of us would approach painting up 100 old 5mm Cretan archers the way we would single modern 28mm SF figures. (Both examples are currently on my painting table.) Certainly I'm better than I was in the year or so prior to my cataract surgery, and my tools--paint, brushes, lighting--have improved over the past 5-10 years.

Maybe more important to be the best painters we can be given the time available and the need to have figures ready for games, without spending time worrying about how we compare with our past selves.

Maybe more important to be the best painters we can be given the time available and the need to have figures ready for games, without spending time worrying about how we compare with our past selves.

I retired almost 4 years ago. I also lost an eye (retina detachment, so my weak eyeball is full of silicon oil but cataracts fill my forward view).
My 28mm style still wows my weekly game group. I use a 3 stage approach: base coat, wash, highlight. Mostly N. Africa and Napoleonic.
I've recently, around the end of October, become enamored with Old Glory's 10mm ACW. I bought 1000's of the little cuties and have found that my painting style has dramatically changed. Speed is now more important that quality. I try to get the light blue on the trousers, but if I make a little slip up, if it's not noticeable, it passes. Front rank figures don't get their rears painted (black primer) and back rankers just get a cursory face slap with a smudge of diluted flesh paint.
I'm doing 60-70% of my painting with a spray primer! Black for Yankees and black, with a high angle grey for the Rebs.
120 figures in a day (2 regiments) including flags!
So, my style has altered. Hard to say if better or worse.
It seems to adapt to situation.

No. I can honestly say I never had painting skills so it has not plateaued.

@Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Robots, Earl of the Desert

If you've been consistently painting to that standard for 10 years, then this is a plateau that most of us, including myself, would like to live on.

There are a couple of ways to break out of a plateau

Firstly, find the best painters in your area and get feedback. Be honest with them and yourself and take criticism well. The best painters may not be the people with the largest armies and may not be the ones with the best social skills

Secondly, if your speed of painting has improved with quality the same – that is a major improvement. For me, part of the improvement is the time it takes to look at a figure, get ideas about how it should look, and then create that look – or in my case, an approximation of that look

Thirdly – the standard advice is to increase contrast. Some people will tell you that without seeing your figures, and they are usually correct. Boost contrast until it is too much (it's a subjective thing) and then back off until it feels right. Some approaches to boost contrast

• Choice of colours
• Strong differences between shades and highlights
• (black) lining
• Edge highlighting
• Direction of light. If you apply the above indiscriminately then it will look strange. Hats get more highlights than boots and edges don't get lined so much in the shadows

Arjuna has some good suggestions but I see that you're already doing most of the things I listed

I do like your robots – in particular the rust, the weathering and the paint blistering off. How I would increase contrast

• The weathered and beaten up paint scheme is great, but you end up with very little colour contrast. Something contrasty for each item maybe. Perhaps the weapon could be newer, less rusty with a bright marking on it. Certainly one item on each robot that is newer, perhaps added at random by the machinist. Perhaps something black and less weathered. Perhaps part of the robot is plastic that might be battered, but not rusty. Boomer does have an old unit marking on his foot – more of that kind of thing. It does depart from your overall aesthetic, but an idea to play with. Shocker is great with yellow and green paint and the blue insulator on the weapon
• Darker shadows. The torsos in particular could show off their detail more
• Black lining to show different areas of the model. Torso from legs, intact pieces from damaged

I hope there's something here that is of value to you

John

I keep changing how I paint, I am never happy – to plateau is a dream!- at least to me!

I recently sold some 25 mm figures I painted about 40 years ago to a friend. They were Swedish Napoleonic troops.

I inspected them before I sent them away.

I had painted a crest on the front of their headgear.

It was a yellow cross on a blue background about 1mm across.

I had to use a strong magnifying glass to see it.

Impossible to do now.

An Optivisor did wonders improving my painting after my eyesight started going to pooh.

pjm

Artistically, I think I'm still climbing, even at my age.

Technically, Optivisor is helping me stay on the plateau.

It has not, because I am constantly watching tutorials and speaking with other painters, always looking to improve, always painting and working the craft….and I have an Optivisor as well!

I don't feel the need to 'take it to the next level' in fact I deliberately scaled back my painting to get more models completed- at the end of the day I am a wargamer and not a modeller. However I feel, even taking this into account, that my skills are waning along with my eyesight.

Yes , but in a good way. I now can paint a reasonably good miniature in a reasonable amount of time. This allows me to get stuff done which is my main goal after all. But I don't like painting just for it's own sake. It's all about getting troops to the table for the game. 😀

definitely would say i plateaued a few years ago.

I realize i just don't have the fine motor skills or patience to do better. I also quit trying to make everything look like it was painted by someone better than me. base colors, stay in the lines, wash and minor highlights. if i get that far, its a victory. if their faces do not look like quasi modo, all the better.

I feel i am just going to go downhill from here as my eyesight gets worse. i got a magnifying lamp last year for christmas from my kids, and find myself using it more.

i try not to look through it too much as it just shows mostly how bad i am.

BTW, Kudos to everything PzGeneral said, I just don't have the time left, i thought i did. i might even quit highlighting.

I want to play not sit and look at the pile and think I might be 80 at might current rate of production before i play.

Yes, it has plateaued, but at a level I'm happy with.
Block paint and ink washes is great for churning out nice looking figures quickly.

Plateaued and now racing pell mell down hill at an alarming pace!!!

Yes. But occasionally I surprise myself and do a knock out job on a miniature or two. Then subsequently I revert to my plateau'd self.