Always go right?

[Robin]

Hi all

I was sat at me desk last night painting and I a had to touch up here remix there and it doesn't quite look like what I wanted and I got to wondering...

I see the work that people like Bill, Luca and Jaume do in the SBS that they provide and it all seems to run like clockwork. So I wanna know is there little blemishes that have to be touched up, does your paint always go exactly where you put it, or sometime does the brush fairy nudge your arm and it goes not where you want it.

Also is there highs and lows to the painting. I must point out that this is not just aimed at the guys who I mentioned. Am I the only one doing the touch up routine (do I need new glasses). The good painters make it look so easy I just sorta wondered if it was.

I must point out that I admire all the work here I just want to now if others experience the same road as me towards the finish of a figure.

I am hoping for a glimmer of hope here guys come on tell me your human and bad things happen to you too and that things don't run like clockwork.

looking forward to the replies

Robin

 

[garyjd]

Robin, I'M sure everyone has their frustrating moments. I look at the sbs's just like those dyi programs showing home re-modelling. We're not seeing the moments when something does not quite go right. The edited program fools us into thinking it was easy until we try it ourselves. I guess it's just one part of the learning process.~Gary

 

[Guy]

Ahhh.....the wicked brush fairy...........I swear she lives in my attic. I get visited by the wicked brush fairy every time I pick up a brush. I spend as much time in the "touch-up" stage as I do with the whole figure. I have a battery operated turn-table that I pull out after each figure is "near" done and let the figure slowly revolve around to get a view from every angle. Sometimes I see so much to touch up, I start a list of what needs to be done. Even after the touch-up stage is done, I am quite often "Not satisfied" still, with the results. I have 32 years of figure painting and I don't think I have ever......ever........painted the perfect figure. Afterall........if we all painted perfect figures.........where would the challenge be to start another figure. If we all painted perfect figures, then everyone would get a gold at all the shows and soon tire of competing, and especially tire of painting.

Every time Bill, Luca, Angelo.........hell.....most people I know send me a pic of a figure they have painted, I get juiced and inspired to paint all night. It is the Masters of the Figure Painting world that keep me and alot of us going to the catalog and order another figure.

I remember the first show I attended back in the dark ages of figure painting and after looking with my mouth dropped in utter amazement at some of the most beautiful figures I had ever seen.......walk straight out of the show and get in my car and start home. After driving for quite a few miles, I came to one conclusion.......heck.....if they can di it.....I can do it. That was MFCA at Widner College in 1973. Now I know I have not achieved that goal as yet.....but maybe I will have another 20 years to try. If I had reached that goal..........I would be knitting now instead of painting figures. It's the love of the hobby.....love of history that keeps me reading for days on the historical background of a figure that keeps me going. So what if a judge didn't like the flesh tone.......I painted it for me......not for him.

just my 2 cents
Guy

 

[Figure Mad]

Hi Robin

Everybody has the visit from her from time to time, I have to say she has a bed made up in my workroom, I make mistakes on every figure... so your not alone :lol:

Dave

 

[Roy]

very wise words indeed Guy...sometimes I think that maybe it is actually the smaller challenges that we conquer along the way to reach the goal that we have set that are the true fun parts of the hobby, I too have been painting for a good few years, and I always consider my work as being muddled through to the end...sometimes I am pleased with the results that I achieve, sometimes not so impressed..but I think if we can all learn a little lesson from every one of our creations, and also have fun doing it...then there will be no better hobby for us people here..

enjoy everything you do Robin

Roy.

 

[megroot]

Hey Robin,

For me the wicked brush fairy holds my hand when i am painting. This evening i think i am gonna do a white vest for the 7th time. Yesterday evening some nice red against the white and guess what happens. :angry:

I am all with Guys words. What he has wroten, I gonna say it no better then him.

But it is the mistake's that's make's me paint another in the goal the paint the perfekt figure over let's say hundred years.

Marc

 

[Guy]

Send me an e-mail Charlie with your name and login name and we'll see what we can do.

[email protected]

 

[Brent Fordham]

Although I don't have a lot of experience in figures yet, I've got a few aircraft models under my belt, and I've learned to look at mistakes this way: I think of it like playing a musical instrument. A good musician can make a mistake when playing a piece, but learns to keep playing right through it. Unless you know the song very well, and have an excellent ear, you will never notice he had a problem. As a modeller, you must be prepared to make mistakes, and know that there are very few that can't be fixed. Mistakes are part of anything you do. Relax, fix them, learn from them and keep playing - no one else will notice.

 

[PJ Deluhery]

The brush fairy - that HUSSY! I thought she was faithful only to ME! And those easy SBS's! It's hard to remember they are just summaries of the process and do not represent everything that went on. I think everyone on the Planet has been there. It's part of being your own "harshest critic"!

I read someplace that Leonardo Da Vinci once said that of all his many interests oil painting was the most challenging. I certainly beileve it - whether you use oils or any other medium. This art form is very demanding, and each of us raises the bar as soon as we accomplish what we want.

I am one of those guys that will keep banging my head against a challenge until I get it right. But, I began to truly enjoy my painting when I learned how to correct my mistakes. Until then, I focused too hard on not making any - and since it's inevitable that I will - the whole painting process became very anxious for me. Now, I have learned to expect mistakes, and I just correct them as part of the process of touching up or finishing a piece. I have looked at a figure 6 months after I finished it and found something to correct. Now, I put a finished figure away for a week or so after it is done, and then look at it again a-fresh. I sometimes find something that I missed before. Using a mirror helps also.

So take heart, and accept the fact that it happens to us all. (Is this feeling part of why so many in the arts seem to run to drugs and alcohol??) However, I am also convinced that it is not always your fault. I have had what I am sure are "cursed" figures on which NOTHING seems to go right. In that case, just do your best and move on. It ain't your fault.

Happy Painting

 

[Guy]

We used to have an old saying back before the days of resin..........if all else fails.........melt it, make sinkers and go fishing. :lol: Then go open up another kit.......it'll be better.

 

[thegoodsgt]

It's amazing how one microscopic error can all but ruin a figure! So yea, I think we all have figures that don't measure up to our expectations. My 28th Dragoon (viewable in my V-Bench) is my latest disappointment.

The gods of the hobby do make it look easy, but I suspect they have figures that they're not happy with either.

 

[Chazman]

Does everyone finish all their figures?

I can't count how many 50%-90% finished figures I have...which have been laying around for years.

 

[diosytexas]

hi robin. i thought that was the hobby. get it nearly finished strip it off and start again. do you mean i have to buy another figure. dave.

 

[btavis]

Originally posted by Chazman@Jan 28 2005, 12:08 PM
Does everyone finish all their figures?

There was a joke going around recently about the fact that the secret to bliss and enlightenment was in finishing everything you start. So this morning I finished off a bottle of scotch, a partially eaten cheesecake and what was left in my hash pipe and it works - I feel great!

All kidding aside I think it is important to finish what you start for a number of reasons. Discpline is probably the foremost reason and I think it goes without saying that most, if not all accomplished artists are only as successful as self discipline affords them.

Maybe Schubert got kudos for his unfinished symphony but he is one of the exceptions and only because he died before its completion.

Since I started only doing scratchbuilt pieces I have had to have complete control over my own discipline to finish what I start and since they all take many months to complete requires the stamina and patience to keep it going at a specific pace from start to finish without losing interest.

I have probably learned more from my own mistakes than anything else and the trick is to apply the knowledge as soon as possible so you can instill better habits/techniques in the future.

 

[homellop]

Yes Robin.
I think every painter is sometimes vidsited by your w.b. fairy,he,he.Me too,and a lot of times.Now I'm unable to put the paint properly over a hat I'm painting...
One thing I do now is not let any mistake on a part of the figure,thinking "I'll touch it up at the end...".Because at the end you're sick to do it.
Try again and enjoy yourself
cheers
jaume

 

[jjgurk]

Everytime I finish a figure I set it aside for a time, go back to it, frown in frustration at what seems to me some glaring 'how in the world did I miss it' mistake and re apply touches here and there. And that's just one of the many things that I truly enjoy about this hobby (read: art form). With each subsequent effort I strive not only to improve upon the previous, but to experiment with new techniques many of them gleaned from visiting this site. Sometimes they work sometimes they don't, but it's all fun anyhow.

 

[amherbert]

Originally posted by btavis@Jan 28 2005, 01:31 PM
...
All kidding aside I think it is important to finish what you start for a number of reasons. Discpline is probably the foremost reason and I think it goes without saying that most, if not all accomplished artists are only as successful as self discipline affords them.

Maybe Schubert got kudos for his unfinished symphony but he is one of the exceptions and only because he died before its completion.

Since I started only doing scratchbuilt pieces I have had to have complete control over my own discipline to finish what I start and since they all take many months to complete requires the stamina and patience to keep it going at a specific pace from start to finish without losing interest.

I have probably learned more from my own mistakes than anything else and the trick is to apply the knowledge as soon as possible so you can instill better habits/techniques in the future.

Hi Bob

Well said, although I have given up on one model and one figure thus far (not counting those in progress that have been that way for months/years!!!), and that was because it was no longer fun.

This is a hobby for me, and after I repainted the surcoat twice, and had the figure fall apart once, fall down once, and faced with starting over again, I just didn't care any more. It was no longer relaxing or diverting! Of course I have the figure in a box still, so perhaps it's just in progress...

I agree there is a certain amount of discipline involved, but it is a hobby...

Cheers
Andy

 

[Randy Myers]

Some famous guy once said:"We don't do these things because they are easy, we do them because they are hard". I have agonized for days over re-painting, or re-sculpting a portion of a figure, but I never regret doing it afterward; the second try is always an improvement. On the other hand, "There comes a time in life of every project when you have to shoot the engineers and begin production". Spending too much time fiddling with a figure can kill the enthusiasm, and you either give up, or do an indifferent job on the rest of the work. Then it's time to move on, and appy what you've learned to the next project.

 

[KeithP]

When it stops being fun, I'll stop painting. That' why I quit playing golf. :lol:

Keith

 

[RobH]

Robin..........not just the slip of the brush but the cursed glue while assembling!
Or "I'm sure that looked ok when I dry fitted it........what's going on!" which is usually after painting in sub assemblies.............so I'm always amazed when I see SBS's of part assembled figures........


How do they do that?