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Hi, I am an experienced army painter.

I'm thinking about starting an online business around teaching army painting. What's the biggest problem around army painting? When you talk to friends about painting armies, what do you say?

Are you asking people to tell you how to paint armies so you can start a business teaching it..?

I'll just say it: that won't work.

If you mean you'd like to teach painting on the side as a gig, maybe. As a business, to support yourself? It's like pulling teeth to get most people to pay to attend a class, particularly a hobby one. You'd have to live in a huge market area where people have a lot of time and spare money to invest in such a thing.

To answer your question: the biggest problem with painting is people being lazy or simply not wanting to paint.

Firstly you might have a problem selling this kind of advice because there are so many free tutorials out there. Good luck with it anyway

My biggest issue is always finding the right balance between nice looking models and time efficiency. Most tutorials I look up are good at providing a scheme that produces great looking models, but I find they tend to involve so many stages that it just isn't practical to reproduce over an entire army. I much prefer basecoat, wash and drybrush over endless stages of highlighting, paint mixes, glazes, line highlights etc., because I just don't have time to be spending weeks on a unit when I could paint that unit in three evenings and have it look pretty much the same on the table

The obstacles are vast -- too many to name in a forum.

The first thing I'd do if I were committed and serious about starting such a business is buy several boxes of miniatures that interest me and dive into the hobby myself -- set yourself up with some paint brushes, buy an array of different brand paints, read some tutorials, pose questions to the community, and be willing to accept critique of your work. Nothing beats firsthand experience, especially in a business venture. You'll be able to answer many of your own questions simply by participating. Certainly helps understanding your clientele a lot better and the nuances and caveats of the craft. From the knowledge drawn from the months or few years of experience gained during your endeavor, you can then craft a curriculum based on what you've learned.

You are also wanting to charge for what people can essentially get for free. There are hundreds of articles and youtube videos out there, plus forums where people are happy to help for free. Last year I emailed one of the best commission painters who posts on dakka offering to pay for an hours tuition with an airbrush. Rather than take any money he just told me everything I needed to know in a very lengthy email. Unless you have something exceptional to share, I can't see it being anything more than a minor sideline. Good luck with it though if you go ahead.

PossumCraft wrote:
Are you asking people to tell you how to paint armies so you can start a business teaching it..?

I know how to paint armies, what I'm trying to do is find out if there is a market for teaching it. Don't want to spend months on something that nobody actually wants.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 hybridmoments82 wrote:
The obstacles are vast -- too many to name in a forum.

The first thing I'd do if I were committed and serious about starting such a business is buy several boxes of miniatures that interest me and dive into the hobby myself -- set yourself up with some paint brushes, buy an array of different brand paints, read some tutorials, pose questions to the community, and be willing to accept critique of your work. Nothing beats firsthand experience, especially in a business venture. You'll be able to answer many of your own questions simply by participating. Certainly helps understanding your clientele a lot better and the nuances and caveats of the craft. From the knowledge drawn from the months or few years of experience gained during your endeavor, you can then craft a curriculum based on what you've learned.

I'm sorry my post was probably too vague. I am an experienced army painter that is looking to teach others.

 Elbows wrote:
I'll just say it: that won't work.

If you mean you'd like to teach painting on the side as a gig, maybe. As a business, to support yourself? It's like pulling teeth to get most people to pay to attend a class, particularly a hobby one. You'd have to live in a huge market area where people have a lot of time and spare money to invest in such a thing.

To answer your question: the biggest problem with painting is people being lazy or simply not wanting to paint.

No it will i have a friend that does it professionally on a single model, and sets date for it.

I've met plenty of people who would like to learn how to improve their painting skills or speed, and seen a lot of people visit specific skill hobby workshop, like how to airbrush.

However, most of those workshops are free or nearly-free events hosted by a hobby shop and taught by an enthusiast who volunteers to do so. I don't know if you'd be able to make a living or a decent wage out of it.

 Elbows wrote:
I'll just say it: that won't work.

If you mean you'd like to teach painting on the side as a gig, maybe. As a business, to support yourself? It's like pulling teeth to get most people to pay to attend a class, particularly a hobby one. You'd have to live in a huge market area where people have a lot of time and spare money to invest in such a thing.

To answer your question: the biggest problem with painting is people being lazy or simply not wanting to paint.

It would be an online business, sorry for not being clear enough. I have updated the original post now. Thank you for the feedback!

@OP: As someone who's paid for instruction in the past - I'd like to make two observations:

1. The content is very important. Nobody is going to want to shell out for basic techniques, as these can be easily found for free (or are already known to your audience).

2. The credentials of the instructor are very important to would-be customers. The normal metrics are: Portfolio (either, examples of painted work, commissions, box-arts etc) and show awards (gold/silver/bronze medals, best-in-shows, P3 Grandmasters, Crystal Brush finishes, Golden Demons etc). Generally, the more impressive the portfolio and show award resume, the more likely that customers will be interested in purchasing instructional materials on offer.

To give you an idea of what kind of video content is out there: I have the Dark Sword Miniatures Marike Reimer instructional DVDs. It's $50 for 4 dvds of instruction and she goes over some pretty intense stuff on those discs!

On a side note: I can only speak for myself, but seminars are much better learning experiences as you can get direct feedback over any techniques that are stumbling blocks.

Best of luck in your endeavor.

 JamesY wrote:
You are also wanting to charge for what people can essentially get for free. There are hundreds of articles and youtube videos out there, plus forums where people are happy to help for free. Last year I emailed one of the best commission painters who posts on dakka offering to pay for an hours tuition with an airbrush. Rather than take any money he just told me everything I needed to know in a very lengthy email. Unless you have something exceptional to share, I can't see it being anything more than a minor sideline. Good luck with it though if you go ahead.

Then again you have tons of guides etc for studying languages with people giving help for free. You can even find people to practice with for free. Yet people are willing to go to lessons and pay for it...

tneva82 wrote:

 JamesY wrote:
You are also wanting to charge for what people can essentially get for free. There are hundreds of articles and youtube videos out there, plus forums where people are happy to help for free. Last year I emailed one of the best commission painters who posts on dakka offering to pay for an hours tuition with an airbrush. Rather than take any money he just told me everything I needed to know in a very lengthy email. Unless you have something exceptional to share, I can't see it being anything more than a minor sideline. Good luck with it though if you go ahead.

Then again you have tons of guides etc for studying languages with people giving help for free. You can even find people to practice with for free. Yet people are willing to go to lessons and pay for it...

I'd guess that most people who are paying to study languages are doing it for a recognised qualification.

I have paid for bass guitar lessons and for me it came down to two main reasons:
1. Motivation, if I have paid for something and it is at a specific time I have to go otherwise I let them down and myself. A structured organised time/place with real world face to face contact creates a strong social pressure to attend.
2. Immediate feedback, I can watch so many instructionals online but having somebody show you and watch you and correct you in real time is always better.

With regards to online only I think it will be very difficult to get something going. A lot of what you pay for when you go to a training workshop is the socialisation and the motivation and the immediate feedback which you just don't get online.

I think the best "getting started" video is the Citadel DVD from the how to paint book featuring Duncan -- that should be the gold standard for anyone doing a basic techniques video. It's so much better than the P3 video that it's not funny. The GW book is also of a high quality, but I understand the price of the pair is prohibitive for a some people. I think, given the high quality of the book and video, it's worthwhile.

On the flip side, the Warhammer TV videos on YouTube -- again, mostly featuring Duncan Rhodes -- are amazing for a free resource. Really, they're better than most paid resources. There's such a huge variety of them, and they go from really basic to moderately skilled tasks, covering enough of a spectrum that anyone who paints to the standards illustrated will have a collection of minis that others are envious of.

You could always do the youtube thing.

bunch of free basic tutorials

and have youtube red stuff for advance techniques.

you could get ad revenue that way though its probably going to be meager.

tneva82 wrote:

 JamesY wrote:
You are also wanting to charge for what people can essentially get for free. There are hundreds of articles and youtube videos out there, plus forums where people are happy to help for free. Last year I emailed one of the best commission painters who posts on dakka offering to pay for an hours tuition with an airbrush. Rather than take any money he just told me everything I needed to know in a very lengthy email. Unless you have something exceptional to share, I can't see it being anything more than a minor sideline. Good luck with it though if you go ahead.

Then again you have tons of guides etc for studying languages with people giving help for free. You can even find people to practice with for free. Yet people are willing to go to lessons and pay for it...

l

I see your point, but it isn't a direct comparison. Toy soldiers are painted as a hobby, with only a small percentage of those who do it doing so for another reason (i.e for an income). However, of all the people learning languages, only a small percentage do it purely as a hobby, most do it for practical reasons, i.e work, emigration, travel. Better tuition in languages can have a very real impact on quality of life, better opportunities, more likely to get promoted etc, and so is more worth investing in than learning to paint toy soldiers better.

theres no way you make money doing this

also the problem is a problem you cant fix.

- painting armys takes TIME. time to get good results or even just get it done

you could teach people what drybrush and washes are. thats not a "business" worthy

I would say getting traffic. That is the hard part. Unless you go Viral or something. However, if you enjoy it, then just stick with it and eventually you'll get the results. Consistency is the key. Good Luck!

Talk to the guys at Painting Budda. They had one of the best painters around, Ben Kommets, and still couldn't make a go of it. They put out some great videos though while they were in business.