Mini Painting is NOT hard you guys…
# One Easy Tip to Level Up Your Painting Skills
## How Time and Experience Influence Your Painting
I often try to avoid topics like easy simple two-step painting improve faster with this one easy tip level up your painting in one hour or one simple trick to pro painting because it’s often not that true. Time and experience really are the greatest teachers, and no matter how many tips or techniques anyone knows about, it all comes down to experience. Hours at the clock will teach you to recognize when to pull off each operation, how to pick your colors, when to dry brush, when to wash, and where to put your highlights.
## The Importance of Enjoying the Painting Process
I also don’t think it’s that important to get good. It’s a hobby, and the most important thing is to be happy with your work regardless of anything else. So, if the undoubtedly inflammatory title I came up with for this video has brought you here and you are nervous that I have click-baited you, just know I have a plan. I really do feel like I have something here that is simple and effective and is pertinent to any painter at any level. It may not turn you into a painting god overnight, but it will help you get stuff done and hopefully be happier about your end results. You have my guarantee. This one tip will be a good one to have in your pocket for the next time you put paint on a model.
## Finding Joy in the Painting Process
Hey guys, Jay here! Welcome to Eons of Battle. I paint a lot, and I have found that I am very consistent. But even when you are very consistent, it doesn’t mean that your end result is going to be very consistent. I definitely have a style, and it’s basically every metal plus I like washes and highlights, and I always pick out every detail. Recently, I have been looking back at my collection of minis and thinking about why some of them really jingle my bells and some are just good.
## Experimenting with Time Investment and Satisfaction
I painted this plague marine in about two hours and I am 100% happy with them. I painted this lady magus in about eight hours and I’d say I’m probably seventy percent satisfied. I painted a director credit in four hours, and boy, I feel like I am a hundred percent proud of this model. Then I painted a primary judo car in 13 hours and I’d say 84% happy. I painted a chaplain and terminator armor in 26 hours, and I would say I am only about 65% happy with the work I did. I painted Captain Cato Sicarius in 17 hours, and I’m 100% happy. And I painted these Black Templar scouts in four hours, and 100% happy with them. It’s basically random how much time I spend on a model versus how much I’m happy with the end result. Time investment is a bad judge of quality because it doesn’t really mean anything. Time does not equal success, so I cannot brute force my own happiness by pouring more time into my model.
## Strategies for a More Enjoyable Painting Process
If the final outcome is out of my control, then the only thing left to do is to come up with strategies to help enjoy the painting process more. My favorite part of the painting process is the last half after all the base coats are applied and the model is starting to come together. The model is in a place where I can see the finish line, and every single brush stroke matters. Every brush stroke is a final brush stroke, and I can do some really fun special effects things like object source lighting, edge highlighting, and freehanding. I love a good freehanding because it’s usually one of the last things I do on a model. That is the space where I most like to live with my painting. So, I want to get there faster.
## Experimenting with Model Completion Levels
But what holds me back? The stuff – every pocket, pouch, clothing, shirt, boot, knife, stitch, all that stuff. I feel like bogs me down, and in the end, I don’t care that I spent all that time on his pants. All that matters is that his gun looks cool. I want to focus on the stuff that matters to me and maybe just not bother with the rest. A model is done when I say it’s done, and maybe that means that I don’t have to finish everything. I have a selection of models in front of me to try this out on – a robotic Necron, a noble Space Marine, and a funky orc. Instead of finishing everything on these models to a hundred and ten percent, I’m going to finish them to 50, maybe less.
## Conclusion
I want to see how much I can lose before the models don’t feel finished because I bet I can lose a lot. And if I can get to that last 20 percent of the painting sooner where I am making the final decisions and just playing around, that will dramatically improve my overall enjoyment of the models immensely. I am here to have fun, and hopefully, I can enjoy the painting process, and regardless of the final product, I can be happy with my work. Now it’s time to give it a try.
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