Many thanks!
The things I found out about painting:
In the early days I did something wrong (well, wrong for me, it might be fine for others). I just took the brush and paint and started to do something. A talented person can do a lot that way I think. My problem with that is that I am not very artistically talented. My results in arts were always quite bad. Bad or at best mediocre grades in school when something had to be painted.
I even remember this one incident when I brought another painting home from school which, yeah, sucked I guess. I don't remember the painting but I remember my mother shrugging and saying "well, you've never been good at painting".
Then I developed a tremor in my hands (actually my hands are fine, it is my thumbs that quiver. No problem with that, the only thing it affects is when I must precisely handle small things - or draw/paint something) and I guess that sealed it.
At some point I just accepted it and didn't draw or paint something again (except technical stuff using rulers and so on).
It wasn't a major problem either, because my strengths are with logic, handling computers and all that stuff.
Years went by. I went studying and discovered stuff like vector graphics on the PC. I was intrigued because it didn't matter that I lacked precision, I could just zoom in further and the PC smoothened the lines, it also allowed me to just erase or correct single lines or colors many times to make them look good.
I made some interesting stuff that way, like Logos and T-shirts and website stuff. There was still something missing though. I noticed I can draw something using a PC if I had a decent picture of it right in front of me or a place to start from, like an existing picture to manipulate. But I am still not a person that you tell to draw a bird and then they create something from their mind. Even on a PC I can only draw XKCD style stuff without at least a template.
But I noticed one important thing during that time: there are aspects of painting (and arts in general) that are just knowledge that can be learned. Techniques (for example how to hold a goddamn brush) and theory of how human perception works (color contrasts with a color wheel for example) and quite some more stuff.
I had no need to paint anything so I kinda forgot about it, but when I started this hobby and wondered if I could paint those models without being too ashamed of them, I remembered that knowledge can make up for a lot of lack of skill.
So the first thing I did, while still contemplating if I wanted to start wargaming and which army I would pick, was starting to gather knowledge.
I watched YT videos and read blog posts, and learned some very valuable lessons that way. I knew that of cause that practise was also going to be a huge factor to become a decent painter, but I figured that I could avoid a lot of mistakes by learning the parts that depend on knowledge, not talent, before starting, to compensate.
I learned some very valuable lessons there, like
- thin your paints properly
- using a wet palette can help
- let the model help you with the lines by using the correct brush and holding it at a correct angle.
- don't actually paint some details that are too small for you, use inks/washes/shades that will fill the crevices automatically for you, drybrushing takes care of raised surfaces
- analyze the model. It tells you things about the materials, giving hints for possible colors.
- look at contrasts and how you want to use them: brightness contrast, color contrast (use that wheel!), detail contrast (you know, detailed areas vs. less detailed areas)
Those and others are not dependent on talent, you can just learn them. Up to a certain level talent can make up for lack of knowledge and - more important for me - vice versa.
So a big shout out to guys And gals like Atom Smasher, Joey Berry, the Terrain Tutor, Warchef Ändi, Mini Creative Art Painting, Doctor Faust's Painting Clinic, Next Level Painting, Spikey Bits, and Warhammer TV.
And also thanks to y'all here at the forums!
There are SO many inspiring projects here, helpful posts how to do stuff, lessons to learn from successful and failed experiments, and a whole lot of pics of good models to use as templates for my own work.
So that's how I do stuff. And yeah, I already improved a lot. I am sure I will never belong to the group of really good painters, those need considerable knowledge AND talent. But I already surpassed all my expectations and that makes me happy. With a little bit (or a a lot) of additional practice I will improve a bit more, and that's a level I can more than just live with.
Ok, now back to painting, I have some projects to finish.
