Dispensing advice? Me?
Over on TauOnline.org, I posted a thread covering my ongoing Tau painting project, and so far it’s been getting a good response. I have been caught off-guard by one particular type of post, though - the request for painting advice. Besides complimenting the final results, people have been asking me about my techniques. This strikes me as odd, because I normally think of advice as being something from experts, and I’m far from being one of those. There are many, many better painters than me out there, so the fact that people are asking me for advice is kind of humbling.
So far, people have asked me:
- how to paint lenses
- how I colored the lines in my armor
- how did I keep the undercoat from showing through the base color
- how to do “plasma effects”, namely how did I make my ’suit weapons glow blue
That last one really boggles me, since the answer is “paint the tips light blue”; I wish there was more to it, but that’s it. The truth is, most of my painting techniques are cribbed off of someone else. I’ve studied all the tutorials I can get my hands on, and I’m still an amateur at best. How to paint lenses? I learned all that from a short-but-informative tutorial on AdvancedTauTactica.com. In fact, the only technique that I’ve really discovered on my own was using a micron pen to color armor gaps, and I know I’m not the only one who does that.
In the end, though, I’m honored that people are asking me for advice. Even if I don’t have any major insights of my own to share, I can pass along the same resources that I’ve studied, and help everyone get better. Beyond that, the only other advice I can offer to anyone is, “Practice, practice, practice,” and, “Don’t be afraid to try new techniques.” Every lens I paint, for example, ends up better than the one before - and I wouldn’t even be painting them if I hadn’t gotten over my worry that I’d muck it up. Sure, the first ones are a little crude, but it’s a matter of laying the foundation and building on it. Will I ever be a Golden Demon-quality painter? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean I won’t keep practicing and improving. That’s the best advice I can give.
tags: miniatures,painting
