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Standing on the Shoulders of Primarchs - or - Breaking the Glass Ceiling
All right, here goes…
My best friend, for literally, 25+ years now and myself are the best painters in our area. We know how to paint, we do it well, and are ok at it but neither of us can get to that next level. I want to know how someone goes about breaking the glass ceiling. How do we get better?

Let me qualify that statement. We both know how to highlight; we both know how to wash, blend colors, detail, and dry brush. We know how to base models, and how to use the color wheel to blend colors to get the results we are after. Sadly though, saying we are the best doesn’t mean that we are amazing, or that we are golden Demon quality, all it means is that we are both big fish in a very small pond.

I am always on the hunt for how to make myself better, and for that, all of the abilities I have now as a painter have evolved from reading tutorials like those here and from going to bigger tournaments and talking to people. Unfortunately, however, outside of these hallowed cyber-halls, people are not so friendly to share their experiences and are not so willing to give their advice for how to paint or to achieve the next level of detail that they do. In fact, many view it as a closely kept secret, almost as though they would lose their ability if they shared their technique with someone who wants nothing more than to make his armies look better. Those abilities I do have I have learned, as stated earlier by reading blogs on modeling from people like Grey_Death, and using some of the techniques he has given us from his Angels Sanguine army, which he recently posted up for us to drool over, or by buying the “How to paint space marines” book from Citadel Miniatures. I have found both to be very helpful, and very enlightening, but now I have gotten as far as I can go on my own.

I need a mentor, someone who can guide me, and help me out when I make a mistake, and congratulate me when I get something right. In short, I need a Primarch whose shoulders I am allowed to stand on.

It seems to me that every area has its “Primarchs” in the painting arena. For me, it was a few really close friends of mine, that through life, have either passed away or do not play or paint anymore. Now, with time passing, my friend and I have come to the conclusion that we are the Primarchs the neophytes are standing on, but quite frankly, I feel ill equipped to handle that kind of task. My models don’t look great, they look OK at best and I am struggling to find a way to get better on my own, no matter how much harder I try.

For those of you, either new painters looking to get better, or for the veterans of a thousand campaigns out there, what did you do when you felt like you hit a glass ceiling that you couldn’t break? What did you do to learn new techniques to get your models to the next level? What did you utilize, and what process did you put in place to ensure you were always getting the most out of the paint you threw onto a model? Did you get better on your own? Did you have a break through one day and it just clicked? Did you refer to different books or different techniques to help you learn what to do and how to do it? Did you too stand on the shoulder of a Primarch and if so, how did you meet them?

I love this game. It’s a hobby since 1992 for me and I have enjoyed it ever since. Off and on, I have always kept the models that I liked the most, and always tried to be better than I was yesterday, not just on the gaming table but off it as well. I want to be the guy that brings the models into the store and people can’t believe they are seeing it with their eyes. I want to be the next Angels Sanguine; I just don’t know how to get there.
Any advice is greatly appreciated. For a reference of my current skill set, please visit my gallery images, as I will be uploading a few more to the gallery very soon.

I haven't been painting for very long but I do understand what you mean. You are stuck in your skill and you can't see how to improve, right?
I have had the same issue with my drawing. Been doing that ever since I can remember but after a while I stopped making progress and everything I produced looked the same. And, most importantly, not good enough.
What really helped me break that barrier is trying something completely different. Instead of drawing characters my boyfriend got me a book on how to draw objects and backgrounds. I started playing around with that and I learned a lot of new techniques. It helped me approach the usual idea with a different view.

Changing direction like that teaches you new skills and gives you new ideas you can then bring back and use in your old projects.

I don't know what you have been painting so far, but I suggest you try something totally different for a while. Instead of painting models paint terrain, big terrain! Instead of using blue use red, things like that.

Good luck anyway, I hope you can get through this.

Some of it can't be taught I reckon. People like Dallimore, when you look at what they do, is not that "hard" but they do it right, and their colour selections are spot on. The amount of times I look at a figure from a great painter and think " I would never have thought of those tones".....

My advice: Try new techniques and maybe even more important, try new models. When I look through your gallery I see that you only paint Ultramarines, which tells me you probably never painted fur before for example.

Now when you start painting new colors on new models you come across other techniques which work best on the model your painting. You can take that experience to the next model and that is how a painter 'levels up' in my opinion.

For example, I took Tyranids as my first army. It wasn't for two more years before I started a new army (SM) where learnt how to highlight properly. Then I went back to my Nids and to my suprise the Nidz came out much better then they ever did, dispite the fact that I had been painting Marines, not Nidz, for six months!

Hopefully that was usefull!

Feluca

Have you looked at CMON?
I've seen a lot of tutorials there. Much of the community seems eager to help each other out.

Eric

feluca wrote:My advice: Try new techniques and maybe even more important, try new models. When I look through your gallery I see that you only paint Ultramarines, which tells me you probably never painted fur before for example.

Now when you start painting new colors on new models you come across other techniques which work best on the model your painting. You can take that experience to the next model and that is how a painter 'levels up' in my opinion.

For example, I took Tyranids as my first army. It wasn't for two more years before I started a new army (SM) where learnt how to highlight properly. Then I went back to my Nids and to my suprise the Nidz came out much better then they ever did, dispite the fact that I had been painting Marines, not Nidz, for six months!

Hopefully that was usefull!

Feluca

Well I am certainly trying to reach out. I recently got an air brush and am desperately trying to learn that, and the videos make it look much easier than it seems! I will buy a box of something, try to paint it, (probably skaven troops) and see if I can't makebit look better by trying some new techniques. Maybe do a progress thread and see if feedback throughout the process will help me get a little better.

Is there a particular model you would recommend that I should start with that could broaden my horizons? Are there any other techniques that you would recommend?

@ Scotty: I would recommend to paint something with alot of exposed skin, as all your current models wear power armour. A Skaven regiment sounds perfect for that job! And please show us the results, I can't wait!

Get a box of something featuring lots of barechested barbarians - either the GW Marauders or the Avarats of War Dwarf Berserkers (basically plastic slayers) then paint your way through the box starting at either slaaneshi-pale or nubian-dark and ending at the other extreme, using progressively lighter or darker skin tones and through all the different richnesses of human skin tones.

From the palest scotsman or innuit >>>>>>> the darkest of dark African skin tones, and finally some "weird" ones, like unearthly ethereal pale, undead pale, pale greens shaded into purples, etc.

Don't worry about them being a unit of anything - they're just a box of figures for you to paint and practice your craft on.