Every three years, I redraw a set of doodles from 2016.

With today's... trends, to put it lightly, it's nice to remind myself that #Art is made through #SkillNotTalent, and that it takes time and effort to get better it – but the important thing is that you do get better!

So while I was finding all my magic cards to sell off, I found my other, much larger miniatures case, with some unpainted minis (including a couple star wars mini commissions I never got around to, sorry to whoever I cheated in college). These are the painted ones. The clown-lookin guy is supposed to be a high elf holding a sword overhead, I think, but the paint job was awful and the sword broke.

#paintingMinis #miniatures #painting #paintingMiniatures #miniaturePainting #SkillNotTalent

The guy on the left was my attempt to paint the guy from the cover of Weasel's Luck, which the mini was obviously based on. The pose was probably altered to make the mold easier in metal.

I think I didn't do too bad for a guy with basically no paints and no tutoring in how to paint minis.

#paintingMinis #miniatures #painting #paintingMiniatures #miniaturePainting #skillNotTalent

I was digging through post-moving boxes from 5 years ago for a specific sort of electronics cable and happened upon my old box of minis.

These minis date back to late high school, early college, when I had a few pots of Testors paints, two brushes, and had no idea what a "wash" or "dry brushing" were.

What a difference a year of practice and the internet makes.

To strip, or not to strip?

#paintingMinis #miniatures #painting #paintingMiniatures #miniaturePainting #skillNotTalent

Steps along the path, Non-Metallic Metal edition

June 2022.
August 2022
December 2022
March 2023

#paintingMinis #miniatures #painting #paintingMiniatures #miniaturePainting #skillNotTalent

Sharing this article on the developmental stages of drawing ability in early childhood, because I'm probably not the only illustrator who repeatedly has conversations like this:

Parent: "My child loves to draw, but they have no talent for it!"
Me: "Oh? How old are they?"
Parent: "Four."
Me: "..."

I guarantee you wouldn't see a difference between my drawings at age 4 and theirs - and probably Leonardo da Vinci's, if we still had those. #skillnottalent
https://www.drawingdemystified.com/2019/08/01/the-stages-of-drawing-part-1/