I'm a bit spoiled for painters to learn from in my area. The Master Manipulator (every store needs one) simply can't take half measures: he's too OCD for that. If there's a fault or a blemish, it's going to get fixed. He has to force himself to leave off troops choices and move on... and I suspect he does this by convincing himself he'll come back to it later. He's a great technician, a true student, and he'll finish one mini in the time it takes others to do a squad. He'd rather have his model.
Little Barrera is a prodigy. He's a year or so younger than me. I met him and his older brother when I first moved to Texas at age 16; this was back in 92, so it was the glorious Rogue Trader era, when no deodorant bar went unmolested but was rather quickly converted to a skimmer of some type. Anyway, LB was 14 and I remember a few of the older guys resented his presence, like he was an annoyance his older brother was stuck with - I guess it didn't occur to them the two were really close, since Big Barrera (and now you know where I came up with the nickname) was at least 6 or 7 years older. I know LB carried some resentment since he was always quick to anger.
Funny thing is, so was I. I was always way to quick to run my mouth back then, because I found everything funny. Take a) a small person with a big mouth and b) a jock with an over-sized ego and it's a pretty sure bet you'll find the small person cleaning blood off his shoes with that crappy school toilet paper. Ironically, when I moved to Texas I didn't get into near as many fights in school.
Texas is civilized. You don't fight in school: you fight off the side of the road next to a truck of some sort. Still and all, I finally grew up a bit before my senior year, and you don't get the shit kicked out of you on a semi-regular basis without learning how to fight (or rather, take a punch and not fall over, which is usually enough). Still, my classmates in Texas did something much worse than hit me.
They ignored me. The area I moved to wasn't used to military brats coming and going. It's an insular sort of place and everyone knew everyone from kindergarten. That did something no amount of fights ever did.
Shut me up.
It was miserable, finishing out high school in Texas. Big Barrera was literally my first friend in Texas, and this is a dude who was engaged, living on his own, and attending college. He wasn't some social pariah with no friends, dipping into another generation to find someone to impress. He had zero incentive to treat a 16-year old punk well, but he did and I've always been very appreciative. I suspect, now that I'm older and hopefully wiser, that BB was being nice to the only guy who didn't treat his little brother like a nuisance. Why would I? We were of an age and neither of us very mature. Anyway, not soon after I met Herr Fernseher, who is something of a kindred spirit, except he's a truly decent person and I'm really not, and Texas became an alright place.
Shit, that was a stroll down memory lane. To bring it back to gaming, our interest in 40K was the common ice-breaker. I can still remember picking through Big Barrera's collection, amazed at the quality of his stuff. It was just fucking cool, that's all. He was an artist in his own right, but his little brother was simply amazing. He quickly outdid everyone. I'll have to post some of his work; he was really ahead of his time. You have to remember, this was 92-93, and many of the techniques we take for granted weren't really worked out then. You'd be amazed at what passed for 'good.'
That brings me back to the Mighty Mighty Carlos. He's also an artist - and no, I don't think everyone who graduates with a degree in Art is an artist. I'm picky I am, but I knows 'em when I sees 'em, and Carlos is one. He doesn't over-invest time he doesn't have, so uses technique and color theory to bring out the best in a simple scheme. I say simple but it never really is, is it?
For example with the two miniatures above, he doesn't use metal but rather blends up the grays into whites and blues, contrasting that with the deep red. It's a scheme that pops.
He said the tan and the black are both neutral colors that the eye can easily rest on. Each model has dots of red and white - which I know you can't see, so you'll have to take my word for it - that draw the eye around. Again, simple but well-executed, and in addition well-based. The effect is great. When he's done, I'll get better quality shots to show you.
Blah! Wall of text, end!
3 comments:
I read it.
The only real difference between you and me is that you are easier to fool! ;)
I guess this is the appropriate place to mention that my first games of 40k were when Brent dragged me over to the Barreras'. While I have derived hours and hours of enjoyment from the hobby since that time, anyone who gets tired of me pulling out minis that look like they were painted in '92 (some WERE and, sadly, some were painted by me recently), well, you can blame Brent.
Hopefully he and some of the other local good painters will start to influence my painting as much as they've influenced my gameplay.
I have found it easier of late to allow myself to do lower quality. It's all in the rationalization of unit types. It's something I learned playing fantasy. I would paint the characters and the champions but the units would never see paint. See in addition to OCD I am also ADD. It takes a lot to keep my interest for long enough to paint a full army. So in fantasy I told my self the champion does not get paint till the unit is finished. As should be obvious, I have a lot of unpainted characters.
Now Confrontation changed all that. Since there are no units, I can paint away. Almost all the models are great quality and fairly dynamic. That gives me great things to hold my interest. Same rule though. The character(leader) does not get paint until the rest of the minis are done, or at least the rest for the point value we are playing. I guess I don't have to tell you how many unpainted characters I have. Heh!
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