Improvements

Someone close to me suggested that ‘art is a journey’. I’m not one to wax lyrical about the intricacies of art and what it means. I paint miniatures because I enjoy it, I find it calming and it is a great way to unwind after a day at work. I have been painting figures on and off since I was about 13 years old. The first model that I owned and painted was  an undead banshee – she is still in the house somewhere I think. I have come a long way since then.

What I want to focus on today is how far I have come over the past few months since finding my way back into the hobby. I managed to pick out one of my first Space Marines and took a picture – here he is in all his Black Hand glory.

When I look at him now, I see the thickness of the edge highlighting and how wonky the lines are. He was a good start however and since then, I have painted a ‘few’ more marines and practiced my brush techniques. Then the Primaris made an appearance and I was faced with new challenges. Here’s the first Intercessor I put my brush to a few short weeks ago:

Since painting this fella, I have improved on my line work and feel the coat of paint looked a lot more even too. I’m more confident in the style of painting – highlighting rather than blending and think the flat colour is really striking when the edges are picked out in a brighter shade. There is always room for improving however and we are always more inclined to see the flaws! The last model I painted was this one:

I am very proud of the ancient and feel it is the best work I have done so far, better even than the Deredeo dreadnought I was pleased with! People have been kind and commented on him on Twitter and Facebook, some going so far as to say it puts theirs to shame. I don’t like such comments! We are all working to improve ourselves and the only people we are comparable to is our self! I’ve compared and shown my progress against my own models, not anyone else’s. So long as we are constantly getting better at what we do, and that there is visible progress to a better looking model, then that is a win!