Lesson Plan

Time to show all the Space Puppies together!

As I mentioned in previous posts, these were done as private demonstrations to give an in depth detail on how to go about painting them.

It was an exploration into one on one Google Hangout classes, which I think could be a very interesting experience!  While we still want to create the multiple attendee versions, I have noticed in my experiments that each of those persons could be watching me on a very different platform!

It wasn't until Rich and I spent a number of hours tryout out all these possibilities that I saw the advantage of the one on one aspect.  Doing so would make it much easier to coordinate, even allowing for some "test hangouts" between us so that I can be sure how well you can see what I am doing.

During the last major test before Adepticon, Rich tried 3 different platforms, of increasing scale.  First, he began with his phone, followed by his computer.  Each was an interesting and different result.

Finally, he bluetoothed the signal to a giant TV, and that was a whole different world!

Right away, I imagined this being a potential issue for the multiple person hangouts.  Depending on what a person might be using to watch it, the difference could be massive.

While I can always do a "pre check" on each person before the start to identify how they are viewing me, it might be too difficult to settle on a lighting or focus mechanism that will work on such disparate platforms.

Testing will continue now that we have returned from Adepticon.  I also want to expand these tests to other people in other time zones, so there will be some Facebook announcements asking if people want to participate.  The idea would be to get as much live feedback as possible to lighting, focus, sound, and other technical elements.

I think it could be very fun along the way as well!!

Hell On Wheels

Same splinter chapter of Space Wolves, but this time a handy tank!  It was done to illustrate a number of techniques, including using the Vallejo Metal Medium to turn 'regular' paint colors into metallic paints.  That was particularly interesting!

This particular shade of gray offered some challenges, mostly because it resembles the original raw plastic color so closely.  It is so neutral, I had to be very aware of how intense the reds were getting, as they would have become overpowering very easily.

Some of the other aspects of vehicle painting were the weathering, diodes, freehand and more.

I have to say that a Rhino based vehicle is a fairly good subject for such things.  There are a large number of regularly spaced angled surfaces, which makes it a lot easier to show how to paint those transitions.

There are also several areas which are good candidates for showing simple weathering and freehand!

Here's a peek at both of them together.  I have one more set on a different kind of backdrop which really makes the gray stand out, so stay tuned! 

Grey Area

Here's one of a few figures that I painted as part of a lesson plan.  These were test figures to not only use as an example, but as a "muscle memory" exercise to allow me to focus on translating the information, as opposed to concentrate on painting the figure.

That needs to happen on autopilot, as I learned many years ago when I did watercolor and pastel demos.  I would practice the painting several times, so that I could set up things like "mistakes" or other "need to know", "by the way..." situations.

Those are far more helpful in the long term for people than you might think.  Years later, I would have people tell me that I saved them countless dollars in pastel paper, as they no longer threw out their half completed works in frustration, or because they had gotten too adventurous with their choice of paper colors :-)

Also, time is crucial.  Any demo that drags on forever will cause any of us to wish we were dead, so keeping things crisp and snappy at all times is important.  That's not always possible, but even the awareness of such things can be helpful!

Finally, one hidden aspect of showing people how to the process works often means that you are facing the figure to where they can see it.  That means a very awkward angle for you at best, nearly invisible at worst!

That can be the toughest aspect to deal with.

Another old doggie

Here's another pre-2010 figure.  The miniature itself must be very old, because I was told that this was GW's version of Leman Russ back in the day.  Tiny little bugger for a big bad Primarch! :-)

Compared to the new Forgeworld Primarchs, he's even tinier.

Nice little doggie...

Space wolf with lightning claws

I liked the sergeant mini, a lot of dynamism in the pose, and an expressive face.

Space Wolves Ragnar Blackmane

Painting Space Wolves gives me a chance to do some Celtic designs, which I don't get to do very much now in the post 2D art era.  I had a lot of fun with the freehand on this guy, as well as the base!

A few converted Space Wolves

These are some minor conversions on Space Wolf minis, primarily with the back banners to get some fun freehand possibilities.