Small Art

The above out-of-focus-webcam pic displays my workplace. To the right of the orange fan is my computer, and above that, my CD player. Needless to say I spend a lot of time in this room.

I have been a miniature painter for many, many years. I haven't painted since 2002, and my last works are probably in some New Zealand landfill right now, which sucks, I was pretty proud of what I had made.

As is a theme of mine lately, I am reviving and returning to the miniature painting world. When I last quit, I was beginning to get good. Every time I took a break I returned twice as good as I had been, though I'm not sure about this time, as I've been away for a few years. It'll be interesting to see how easy it is to get back in the groove of things.

It's a bit intimidating, as new methods of painting have popped up. Stuff like NMM (Non-Metal Metallic) and SE-NMM (Sky to Earth Non-Metal Metallic) and Lightsourcing have really taken flight since I stopped painting.

You may be asking, what exactly is miniature painting?

Miniature painting is similar to canvas or 2D painting, but our 'canvas' is 3D. We paint miniature figures made of pewter, and sometimes plastic or resin. I generally paint wargame miniatures that are 20 - 30mm scale. For some sense of scale, that means that the average upper body of a human mini is the size of my thumbnail. I stick with the sci-fi and fantasy genres, with some historical mixed in. Since we paint in 3D, our trick is to shade and highlight accordingly, and bring the mini to life. The goal is to try and make it look like the mini could move at any minute. Mini painting often leads to other things, including modeling terrain (as a base or diorama for the mini), and sculpting (to modify, or make your own mini).

That's about it on that. I'm going to start painting in a few. Hopefully I'll have one done by the time I get a digital camera so I can post it.