Painting self-esteem

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**Banateanţepeş**

Hi Folks

sadly I have to admit that lately I'm finding it increasingly difficult to sit down and paint. Compared to what I see on the internet and boxes my own painting seems unsatisfactory to me. Well they say you're always your own harshest critic but still...any advice?

**bubber**

See your doctor - you might be suffering from depression.
Read this link to see if you have any of the symptoms:
http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/depression.aspx

This illness has had a major affect on my life. Please check it out before it really gets hold of you.

**StormKing**

Well noone can just sit down and paint their first thing and expect it to be a masterpiece

Just practice more, learn more techniques whenever you can. Put your first ever miniature aside and then take it out after a year of painting if you haven't already. You will see your progress and be happy with that progress.
Just remember we all can't paint like pros haha

**winterdyne**

Just keep at it - every trick you learn pushes the next model or batch further.

**nerdfest09**

Find something you want to really work on, wether it be faces' a colour for instance or a technique for gold/metal/bone? then look around the web and find tutorials and artists who do it how you like, then ask questions and keep practicing, your work will flow on from you learning that one thing :-) trust me!

**PrehistoricUFO**

winterdyne wrote:
Just keep at it - every trick you learn pushes the next model or batch further.

Yeah basically this, keep trying to learn new things, you'll do some of it really well and then combine them all on individual minis, then as time goes on you're doing mint models and even have the urge to strip old ones to be born anew! It takes time, but it happens.

**40KNobz11**

Just keep working at it! That's the only way to get better! Don't feel discouraged, just keep at it! Skill comes in time

Heck im not even there yet and I still love painting most days

**JohnDoe1990**

I agree with the previous posters that learning new techniques is a great way to improve your confidence in painting. I watch TONS of videos before trying something new usually. The more techniques you learn, the more excited you will be to try them out and it will help keep you motivated to sit down and paint. You might also increase your range of paint and brushes so that your techniques come out properly. One thing I cannot suggest enough is buying some Lahmian Medium(if you don't already have some) for doing detail work, It will greatly improve the way your paint flows, allowing you to do the tiny details much easier.

**Sledgio**

I agree with everything written above, however personally I find the best motivation for me to sit down and paint is the thought of having a fully painted army to sit upon the battlefield. My painting isn't great, I do basic highlights and such, nothing special. However, when I field this army of nothing-special-marines, I see why I've painted them all, I've got past the years of fielding swathes of grey, and it looks fantastic, whatever skill level you are. Again, this might just be me, but I think of fielding whichever unit I'm painting in my army when complete, and that pushes me further.

**zammerak**

Yes to above, also do you prime the models before painting? It's amazing how much of a diference that makes. Also washes are painting magic in a bottle.

**Kaiserbudheim**

You're right, we tend to be our own worst critics. But this is a pretty welcoming community, especially the painting and aspect part. Do you have samples of your paint jobs? We all love to share pointers and critiques. For me, I have a buddy at the office who paints as well, and it's a joy for us to try and one up each other…and that makes for icing on already a super fun cake. If you don't mind, show us your paints! Use us all here as friendly competition to up your game (or inspire some of us to up ours)!

Automatically Appended Next Post:
If you're beginning, as mentioned before - a nice coat of primer goes a long way. Washes are an invaluable skill set. But for me, 90% of my battles is getting a nice foundation and clean blocking. Even with the most basic of palettes, a clean painted model goes a real long way...

**soitra**

I think depression might be a bit extreme we all look at the top rated images on here and think we will never be that good! But just keep at it and aim to improve slightly with each model.
I find putting some crappy manga on my laptop helps me. Something in the background but that I don't have to overly pay attention to

**granander**

At our gamingclub we do paintdays when we gather to get some painting done and just hang out. We share tips and techniques and learn from each other, works to keep me going.

**bubber**

I always enjoyed painting in GW - it's a shame you can't do that any more. Making it a social activity is a great way to get into the swing of things.

**thenoobbomb**

Continue painting! You'll improve over time.
Perhaps you can post pictures of your work on Dakka - chances are they actually look okay to good, and if you ask for it, you'll get tons of painting tips and advice!

**Nevelon**

There are some mind-blowing paint jobs out there. Photorealistic stiff on 28mm minis. Crazy, how-does-this-exist-type stuff.

I am not that guy. I paint at a solid, tabletop quality. And I’m good with that. I try out new techniques from time to time. Just did some work with blending folds into fabric. Turned out great (by my standards) I plan on using that for the next line of guys with tabards.

Start a blog, post pictures of your work. People here are more then willing to offer constructive criticism. Learn to listen. Getting better will take time, but will happen.

Nobody just wakes up one day, picks up a brush, and wins a golden demon. In some dark hole there are the master’s first poorly painted minis. Assuming they haven’t been stripped and repainted.

**wufai**

Don't worry about your results now, keep at it. with practise you will definetly see improvement.

Here's a picture of one of my first painted model (that I was proud off) at the beginning and another one that's recently repainted.

**ScootyPuffJunior**

Nevelon wrote:
Start a blog, post pictures of your work. People here are more then willing to offer constructive criticism. Learn to listen. Getting better will take time, but will happen.

Nobody just wakes up one day, picks up a brush, and wins a golden demon. In some dark hole there are the master’s first poorly painted minis. Assuming they haven’t been stripped and repainted.

This is absolutely true.

Also I might add to look for and enter local painting competitions. Even if you don't win, it's good to help you improve because the judges will inspect your entry and give you (hopefully) an unbiased and straightforward critique of your work. Of course since we tend to be our own harshest critics, you might surprise yourself and win!

While I am nothing close to a "master" when it comes to painting, I still have every mini I have painted in the original state that I left them displayed on my shelf. My skill has progressed tons since I first began, but I like to keep those old minis around for those times I get bummed about something I painted to remind myself just how far I've come.

**Banateanţepeş**

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate all of your comments. Gonna post some pics of my models for you to have a look at. Sorry for the bad qualitiy though, only got a mobile phone cam.

**Banateanţepeş**

Sternguard Veteran Sergeant Severus, currently unnamed dreadnought and Comissar Anton Viliescu about whose exploits I'm currently writing a short story. When I find the time to translate the first chapter to english and do some detail work on it I'll share it with you in the Fanfiction section

**tomcat31**

ScootyPuffJunior wrote:
Nevelon wrote:
Start a blog, post pictures of your work. People here are more then willing to offer constructive criticism. Learn to listen. Getting better will take time, but will happen.

Nobody just wakes up one day, picks up a brush, and wins a golden demon. In some dark hole there are the master’s first poorly painted minis. Assuming they haven’t been stripped and repainted.
This is absolutely true.

Also I might add to look for and enter local painting competitions. Even if you don't win, it's good to help you improve because the judges will inspect your entry and give you (hopefully) an unbiased and straightforward critique of your work. Of course since we tend to be our own harshest critics, you might surprise yourself and win!

While I am nothing close to a "master" when it comes to painting, I still have every mini I have painted in the original state that I left them displayed on my shelf. My skill has progressed tons since I first began, but I like to keep those old minis around for those times I get bummed about something I painted to remind myself just how far I've come.

I also agree with the above. It's surprising how far you will develop as a painter without even noticing.
I try to grt at least a couple of hours a night practice. Believe me the feeling when you win your first painting comp will make it all worth while.
The pics below show two years worth of my progression. Keeping a record will help you to see your improvement.

**Nevelon**

One thing that might help is to wash your metals with a black or brown ink (for silver/gold respectively), then re-highlight in the original color. This will add a lot of depth to your metallics, and is fairly easy to do.

The commissar looks quite nice. What I can see of his face looks really good, and that’s always a tricky thing to get right.

As I mentioned upthread, I just started working with fabric on the sternguard tabards. Here is the part of my blog I start. I’m an average joe of middling talent; I’m convinced that if I can do something, anyone can. If not, there are plenty of threads on how to strip paint off of models to give it another try. The only thing you have to loose is a few cents in paint and an hour or so of time, and will defiantly gain experience, succeed or fail.

**Zygrot24**

I have a metal space marine terminator librarian that I strip and repaint probably every year. And every year it gets a little better and becomes my yardstick. It really helps me see where I was, how far I've come, and where I have left to go. =D

**MrFlutterPie**

I'm no golden demon painter and I will never be amazing however I measure my progress against myself. As long as I am improving that's all that matters to me.

I know I see a big difference from my orks from 1997 and my current work

**Mr Nobody**

Looking at your stuff, it looks like you should invest in some washes. Fill those recesses with some black wash and I think your models will start looking pretty good.

**SRSFACE**

If you have a FLGS with a Warhammer scene, go down there sometime when people meet to play and rather than bring an army, bring a brush and a squad you plan to work on! I guarantee you'll get tips from the guys who enjoy painting more than playing, and if there's one thing I've noticed about the WH40k community is we all seem to drop our WAAC TFG tendencies when it comes to the actual painting/modeling side of things. People are much more inclined to be genuinely helpful over something that doesn't involve the gamestate.