...
What's going on today?
We gotta break away
We got a problem and
I think it's going to make us go down
Well, these little Songpassage from Korn is just what i actually have in Mind when i look arround (Hobbybased).
When you search the Web for Videotutorials, "How to"-Articles and Stuff like that you´ll be overloaded with tons of Pics, Videos, Articles etc. Sure, this is awesome, there´s quite no aspect of painting you wouldn´t find. But on the other side we have to take a closer look.
Through the past years, the Paintingscene made several "evolutional" steps. (Just remember the introducing of smooth Paintingstyles and NMM when Rackham started to promote theyr "Confrontation"-Minis) A few Years later the SENMM appeared massively... etc...etc...
Well, even this kind of Evolution is great BUT: Things are going to take the wrong Way!
There´s a massive Bandwith of real great Artists in the Scene.... for Example the Guys from Massive Voodoo, Chest of Colours etc... also there are many "solo" Artists like Lester Bursley, Laszlo Jakusovszky (just to name two Names...)
These Artists try to share theyr knowledge with all the interested Painters worldwide. But there are also many many selfcalled "Pro Painters" in the web (mostly in Forums or on theyr Blogs, Videos etc) who are taking all this teqniques to let them appear like "the holy Grail" in Painting. Everyone has to Paint miniature X with Colours Y and ONLY with Techniques they explain (mostly bad) in the Web.
Also it seems that everybody is thinking that Technique XY is the only Way to paint. Inexperienced Painters use the Blogs, Videos etc as a kind of "Bible". They all copy what they see and read... and finally they all create clone Armys! They all look the same. ...same Colours..... same Highlights.... same Techniques..... This is what i call "Meta-Painting"
And it is far from everything..... since about 2 Years a new Plague in underway.... Airbrushing!
Well, i´m a Hobbyist as well, i even use Airbrush, but:
How often you look for an Videotutorial and what you find is a Video named "How to paint XY" and what you see is: airbrush, airbrush, airbrush.....
Please come on! Airbrushing is practical and is simplyfying Painting, but it´s not PAINTING! You don´t even will print a Miniture by using a Rapidprototyper or Laser and wil call that "SCULPTING a Miniature".
In the most Videos the only thing you´ll see which you can take as a Part of "Painting" is the applying of Washes, Inks etc with a Brush! Rest is sprayed.... Another negative Aspect: now it´s much easyer to create clone Armys! Look arround: Necron Armys: Airbrushed.... Greyknight Armys: Airbrushed and so on....
Would be nice if these Videos, Tut´s etc will divided in "Painting XY" and "Airbrushing XY"
Why? Well because inexperienced Painters will allways try to do what they see.... so Minis will be airbrushed and the remaining Techniques will be real prostyled things like SENMM, Hyperreal blendings, Daylight flourescending Colours and Stuff like that.... So they will never learn about painting an Miniature from beginnig to the end with Brushes and/or simple techniques..they will never learn how to blend colours without an Airbrush (or even just the "Standards" in Painting...)
would be nice to get more back to basics!
