Enlightened Atmosphere Part 1/2: OSL-Workshop

Introduction 

Finally in spring 2018 i had the chance to travel to Augsburg and meet Roman from MassiveVoodoo again.

Again? Yes...Again! We have met on several workshops over the past years. Roman kickstarted my painting hobby with one of his famous 'beginner classes' and tought me not to only paint better but to enjoy life a lot more.
(Look forward to an upcoming post in several months (or years?) about my personal history of classes and journey of becoming an miniature artist.)

On Friday the 27th of April I arrived after an relaxing 5h travel with the 'Deutsche Bahn' and a short drive via taxi in the studio. Knowing that I will be here for quite a while I was happy to see Roman and some of the other students of the upcoming class already painting and in a brilliant mood.

This was the moment where i realized that this journey and spending my vacation will be worthwhile and very rewarding both in terms of meeting great people and finding disctraction.

Two great events where waiting for me:

• Enlightment (OSL - Workshop):
  1 day of learning how to paint light sources like lamps or magical artifacts
• Atmosphere (Prive Coaching):
  2 days of improving my personal painting abilities coached by Roman
• 
  

Part 1: OSL - Workshop

I have to admit that since my last workshop i didn´t paint too much either because i was too busy (meaning i used my time for other hobbies) or i was not motivated enough. I was really happy that i got the chance to get into painting again and train my 'painting muscles and memories' for the upcoming coaching.

As you might know OSL stands for 'object source lightning'. Goal of the workshop was to understand  how a source of light near the miniature influances color and saturation. ...and of course on how to paint this on the mini itself.

To get started we were looking at some reference images of different painting and even some photos of romans miniatures (and spotted some small errors in Romans older paintings...we are all humans aye? Good to see everyone progress and learn!). We also discussed different types of light and where it needs to be painted in which intensity before we started getting into the painting....and everything in english (thanks Richard...we all know now who you are...). To be honest i think everyone had a ton fun and we had some great discussions!

In contrast to the beginners class Roman had chosen two miniatures from the board game Massive Darkness which needed to be painted. A small orb glued to the base serves as a generic light: clever idea to keep things simple and easy to follow yet intesting to paint!

The first mini was some sort of goblin warrior where we focused only on painting the OSL itself: no other colors or materials were painted. Roman showed all the details step by step and everyone was listening and watching carefully.

Attention Please: Roman shows the first steps.

Base colors and highlites: roman is blowing us away!

My goblin warrior: primed, painted source, light on miniature (finished)

After about 2-3 hours of concentrated work all of the students achieved a great results!

Getting serious now...moving from small to large...from the sneaky tiny goblin to the mighty dual wielding orc!

Following the same principles we already learned we now included different base colors and materials while still using the OSL. As i don´t want to spoil you the fun of taking part in Romans classes i just present you the results:

Great Results? Richard Approved! 

There is not much left to say beside: we all had a ton of fun! Thanks to all of you and especially Roman for being such a great teacher and host (more on this in Part 2).

Enlightened students!

Be prepared for reading about atmosphere in 'Part 2: Private Coaching' soon!

Review Airbrush Workshop with Raffaele Picca

Hello everyone,

over one year has passed since I wrote the last time in my blog...I wrote about a workshop.
You might guess what I will write about now: well of course another workshop!

Even though my Alice is still not finished I took part in Raffa's Airbrush Workshop as I own my airbrush quite a long time now ... but I was always afraid of using it for more than priming (with zenithal light).

TIME TO CHANGE THIS!

The workshop took place at the Harder&Steenbeck Headquarter in Norderstedt near Hamburg (not too far away from "Wu Dao" where quite a lot of the Massive Voodoo workshops happened). Harder & Steenbeck kindly let us use their luxury equipment consisting of an "Infinity" airbrush with a 0.2mm nozzle and an evolution with a sprinkle cap. Free water and coffee included  (...not as paint)!
I took my own "Evolution" to the course...which was a wise decision as it was quite damaged and I bought some replacement parts to get it back to work.

Christian and Christian...suprise! 

I visited my friend Christian who was kind enough to let me sleep on his couch for this weekend.

After a journey of about 1.5h from Christian to Harder&Steenbeck via train and bus I arrived at the workshop location in the industrial area and I instantly recognized some well known faces. Although the weather was very nice and not too warm, it was pretty hot inside the factory due to the corrugated iron roof.
Leaving the work behind after the first day Christian joined the group and we had a nice dinner at the Panthera Rodizio.

Full of motivation the second day was a blast as all the students improved the previously learned skills.

Some impressions of Raffa and his eight (?) students throughout the course:

The painting table at Harder & Steenbeck

Raffa teaching...

... and intense training everywhere else!

Heiko tries so levitate the color with his awesome Kung-Fu powers...

...and Lutz shows off his true skills!

At the end of day two final photos had been taken...but first a proper background had to be built.

I didn´t shoot a photo at every stage of progession of the Miniature "Romero, the Cat"(sculpted by Raffa, more pictures: FeR Miniatures)...

Artwork of "Romero, the Cat"

...but I want to show you the overall change from "zero to hero" in the following photographs. But before I want to briefly sum up what we did during the workshop (for a more detailed explanation I suggest taking part in one of the following airbrush courses from Raffa):

Day 1:

1. Removing moldlines...wait...there is only small moldline at the back. 2 Minutes later the work is done.
2. Basic usage of an airbrush
3. Discussion of typical problems (which of course happen at the beginning)
4. Airbrush: priming with 2 colors (with respect to zenithal lightning). Due to the more precise nature of an airbrush compared to a priming can we were able to pick up important areas much better.
5. Airbrushing base color for the face (several steps with additional detailing using the traditional brush)
6. Summary

Day 2:

1. Finishing the face (brush)
2. Airbrushing the cape (several steps, detailing using the brush)
3. Starting the chest area (not finished at the end of the workshop)
4. Summary & End

So here are some random pics from my unfinished "Romero":

Airbrush basics and sprinkles ... a lot of sprinkles!

Naked Romero (gnihi!)

Primed Romero (Airbrush)

Basic skin tone (airbrush) + brushwork + airbrush sprinkles

Intended exaggerated highlights after airbrushing... we should call them "ultrahighlites"...

Ultrahighlites (different view)

Skin improved with airbrush and eyes finished

Different view

Group shot at the end of the workshop...all busts turned out really well as you can see.

All the work from day 2...finishing touches (all leather, knives, correction of eye position...) coming soon.

I had a lot of fun at this workshop and I´m really satisfied with the result.

Raffa did a really great job at teaching us both the basics of using an airbrush and the advanced usage of different techniques like using sprinkles and translucency and reminded us that some simple techniques like using washes yield great results too if done properly.

He also tought us which colors and thinners work together and recommended us good brands...good bye "trial and error" :-)

Do I recommend this course to you? Yes (at least if you own or plan to own an airbrush).

Greetings,

Christian

Alice continued...

...nachdem der Workshop in Hamburg hinter mir liegt, liegt noch viel Alice vor mir.

Die Haut wurde noch etwas aufgehellt an den Melonen (der Modellierer gehört gehauen!) und dem Bein.
Die Harre wurden angefangen, Augen etwas korrigiert und der Fliegenpilz hat ein paar Pünkte bekommen :)
Aber nun zu den Bildern:

Kampfkunst und Pinsel: Alice im Wunderland

Ja, das sind Dinge die zusammen passen.

Wie?
Einfach!

Vom 01.05.2015-03.05.2015 hat der beliebte Figuren-Mal-Workshop mit Roman von Massive Voodoo  erneut stattgefunden.

Die Pinsel wurde von 25 TeilnehmerInnen in Hamburg in der Schule für traditionelle Kampfkunst Wu Dao geschwungen:

Ein Großteil der Teilnehmer hat den Kurs zum ersten Mal besucht. Unabhängig von vorhandenen Vorkenntnissen konnten sich jedoch alle Teilnehmer durch Romans theoretische oder auch "emotionale" Einführung gut auf das bevorstehende Malen einstimmen.

Vorgeführt wurden viele Abbildungen, die das Verständnis für Licht (zenital!), Farben (Farbkreis nach Itten) und deren Zusammenspiel (Kontrast) an Zeichnungen oder realen Fotos perfekt erläutern. Angeregt durch diese Beispiele und durch die Diskussion um das Erlernte, ging es an den Basen-Bau für die zu bemalenden Dämonetten von Games Workshop.
Exemplarisch hier Romans "Demo-Netten":

Da ich bereits das 5. (oder 6. ?) Mal an diesem Workshop teilgenommen habe, habe ich mich etwas aus dem Theorieteil zurückgezogen und nebenher Pilze aus Milliput geknetet.

Wiederholungstäter dürfen sich während des Kurses eine Figur eigener Wahl als Bemalobjekt vornehmen. In meinem Fall handelt es sich um "Alice" von Kabuki:

Nach einem Intensiven Base-Bau-Abend mit Kork, Milliput, Sand und anderen Utensilien,

wurde der offizielle Teil um ca. 00:30 beendet.

Einige Teilnehmer haben den Abend noch mit einem Bier und interessanten Gesprächen bis ca. 02:30 gemütlich ausklingen lassen (aber ich würde sowas niemals tun!).

Nachdem die Miniaturen entgratet und die Base fertig gebaut waren, ging es direkt  für alle zum Grundieren. Ich habe leider noch mit einer leichten Verzögerung zu kämpfen gehabt, da mir Alice´ Hand mit allen Fingern abgebrochen war, sodass ich hier einigen Reparaturaufwand hatte. Das Ergebnis entschädigt jedoch für die Mühe:

Weiter ging es mit der Bemalung der Base mit einer einfachen, aber effektiven "Nass in Nass"-Technik:

Details wurden nach und nach hinzugefügt. Zwischendurch ging es noch zu einem nahe gelegenen Geschäft, um sich mit notwendigen Lebensmitteln einzudecken:

In den restlichen 1,5 Tagen demonstrierte Roman Techniken (Lasuren, Layer), die nachfolgend von allen auf ihre Figuren angewendet wurden. Zwischendurch gab es weitere Theorie-Einlagen, zum Beispiel zum Thema Leder.

Ich habe mich während des restlichen Workshops primär um die Haut und das Gesicht von Alice gekümmert:

Parallel habe ich Roman etwas unterstützt, um eine möglichst intensive Einzelbetreuung zu ermöglichen.

Leider musste ich am Sonntagabend etwas überstürzt plötzlich abreisen, da ich mich mit der Zugbuchung um eine Stunde vertan hatte, sodass ich kein normales Foto von Alice am Workshop-Ende habe, sondern nur ein "Im-Zug-mit-Blitz"-Foto:

Es war erstaunlich, wie konzentriert alle selbst kurz vor Ende noch gepinselt haben.

Ich denke so eine Motivation und so viel Hingabe erlebt man nur selten, aber jedes Mal wieder auf Romans Workshop.

Daher möchte ich mich an dieser Stelle noch einmal ganz herzlich bei Roman für seine super Arbeit und bei Heiko, unserem Gastgeber, bedanken!

Some work on the skin

Leather on Legolas

After a long period without painting i finally managed to paint some leather on Legolas.
Somehow i`ve forgotten how to paint so i had to paint longer as planned (and somehow i feel the leather is still not finished yet..).
I started quite desaturated but i still recognized that leather needs colors to "live". I added a lot of green, red and yellow glazes to achieve a realistic look.
Somehow i think some "scratches" will be added in the future, so it looks more worn.

The result:

Eine Basis...

...damit auch Legolas im Alter noch festen Halt hat!

Ein schlichtes Naturbase, bemalt in ca. 1-2 Stunden.
Es herrscht ein kunterbuntes Chaos aus braun (Boden), grün (Moos), grau (Stein) und rotbraun (Wurzel).
Weitere Details folgen, wenn Legolas steht!

Laub, evtl kleine Äste,... evtl Tiere.

Bald geht es mit Legolas los. Vielen Dank an Solmar für die kleine Motivationsspritze: "Arreat Crater Level II" (Klicken und Staunen!) Ich denke, was haut angeht, habe ich nun definitiv ein neues Ziel!

Stay tuned,
Slidr

Green Evil

Finished this evening: Splig, the Goblin King (from the Descent Lieutenant-Packs)

Splig

Total Painting Time about 3-4 hours.