I watched a pretty fantastic short Youtube video on painting trends that I 100% agree with. I'll link it here:
It's not even too long, but it goes into different painting trends quite well and how they change. (I won't say 'come and go' since there are plenty of folks still painting in all of these.) Some of these trends, of course, started before the Internet was a widespread thing(Warhammer Fantasy Battle came out in 1983 or so? I think it still mentioned pre-decimal British currency, given folks playing it in 1983 might actually remember when that was last used.)
When he mentioned goblin green bases, that was just a thing with the models being easy to see(I believe some stores had it as a rule? But you'd have to ask someone that was around at that time in the 1980s.) That was more of a base color choice, but it was a style.
I think, of course, a problem with just about any artistic style is when it devolves to something being right or wrong. Now I of course do know that there are things in art that are objectively good to learn. Learning, say, brush control as ANY painter will help you, etc. Learning more techniques help and so on. This isn't so much speaking about that, though-it's about how certain styles come off as right/wrong/more accepted. Another part that hits home is in regards to the whole social media thing-stuff needs to look good while scrolling those algorithms.
But the line in this video that stuck out the absolute most to me is "Knowing when you're following a trend, and knowing whether you actually enjoy it." I do think that folks get caught up in painting styles they do not enjoy because it's The Style At the Time. I managed to not get too hung up on it since I've only been painting about six months and still learning a lot, but I will say I started to fall into some of those 'cleaner' styles at first, and realized that while it was fun now and then, I wasn't sure if it was something I wanted to do all the time. When I did my first 'nastier' models, I realized that it was fun getting the atmosphere right. I totally respect Golden Demon painters and aspirants, but I remember hearing a video with Vince Venturella, where he decided to not enter Golden Demon anymore, and stated how he wanted to 'Paint things that make him happy.' And those words stuck with me. Like I definitely chafed when I heard people refer to the grimdark style as 'too messy' or by less-flattering ways, when people can spend just as much time on those models than people do with the 'clean styles.' Capturing the whole grim atmosphere between building the bases, kitbashing, adding other materials into the mix with planning and so on, thinking of the 'story' of the piece all the way down, all takes time. They just don't look as 'Typically Pretty', because they are not supposed to. (Of course, you can have a preference. FWIW, I don't think it's right if grimdark style folks talk down on, say, volumetric highlights or whatnot either. But I think everyone should just remember preference is a preference, and that's it.)
I'd say for me, my favorite style is definitely grimdark, but that's been well-determined by now. I've tooled around in a ton of styles so far, since I didn't want to learn on 'Just One.' Contrast/Slapchop, volumetric highlighting, 'eavy metal, wet-blended stuff(this is more of a technique than a 'mini style', though, but it's fun!), I played around with TMM, and NMM and all of that. And I don't think I straight up *dislike* any of it, though I definitely like some less-I am not, for example, a huge fan of edge highlighting. It's not the amount of time it takes-I can sit there and glaze a leather cloak for ages until I think it looks cool. It's just something about it that I don't care for. 'Eavy metal is fun once in awhile, but definitely not a style that stuck with me. I occasionally get in the mood to do a volumetric piece like I did for the frost death knight. I had a ton of fun wet-blending a purple and green plague beholder. I even have a plan soon to do a limited-palette(Zorn) barbarian with NMM, just because I feel like it, and doing more of a 'sketchy/comic' style with it. I think I'm doing this musician I have lying around in an RGB scheme. Maybe with the sponge/drybrush combo, just because I'm in the mood. (I use both of those with any piece, but rarely for an entire piece, so it might be fun.) At the same time, I'm working on this diorama, doing some test parts for it, for Trench Crusade, and assembling some stuff I need to do some actual terrain for that one. (I still have the other half of my warband to finish, as well!)
"Just Doing Stuff I Felt Like at the moment" is how I settled on painting, and most of the time, it turns out I feel like the grimdark, kitbashed style. I like taking random junk, kitbashing a model to look blasphemous and nasty and trying to get the atmosphere right.
I dunno, I just had to talk about this a little, or I felt like doing so. Basically, paint how you want, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Probably preaching to the choir, here, and I think nowadays the community is pretty much open to a big variety of styles now; I don't see the 'style snobbery' too much these days. Hopefully it goes away for good!
No comments:
Post a Comment