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Attention left brain painting enthusiasts! Success at artistic activities like miniature painting is not open only to those with innate skill or intuitive art sense. Critical thinking skills like analysis, devising and testing theories, and conducting tests and experiments are all tools you can use to paint a better miniature and improve your overall mini painting abilities.
This didn’t quite work out how I’d hoped.
Recently I painted something I wasn’t very happy with. You can see a picture above. I know that is a pretty common experience! I decided to use it as an opportunity to demonstrate how you can use critical thinking skills to identify and solve painting issues and grow from mistakes instead of just beating yourself up about them. And because I’m testing some new video equipment, I also decided to do it as a video instead of written blog post!
Link to video example of using critical skills to analyze and improve figure painting.
In the video, I compared the figure I didn’t like to a couple of other figures that had similarities to try to help me identify the issues. Here’s a still picture of the main comparison figures.
The riddle of the Sphy…snakes.
After I came up with some theories about what the problem(s) could be, I got out some paints and couple of more snakes and did some tests based on my theories. In the picture below, the original snakes is in the middle and the tests of two theories are to either side.
I learned some things!
The first snake I painted was a test colour scheme for a class I’m working on for Reaper Virtual Expo, which is coming up March 5-7, 2021. One of the classes I’m teaching is on scales. I ended up going with the colour scheme below for the class figure. I’ll post more about that once the class schedule comes out. Reaper Virtual Expo classes will be free! The event will also include free games, panels, paint challenges, and other activities. I hope you’ll hop online and join us.
I’ve written several articles in the past that discussed ideas of problem solving during process of painting a miniature, so if you prefer written material or want to see some more complex examples of the ideas discussed in the video, you may enjoy reading these.
Bones 5 Goblin band – evaluating and adjusting colour choices
Seated Succubus from Demonic Temptations – adapting paint application process to respond to frustrations and challenges
Problem Solving series on Tara the Silent – part one, part two, part three, part four
Part Four may be of particular interest if you enjoyed the video as it outlines factors to consider when comparing figures.
Figures Included in this Post
The Giant Cobra is available in plastic or in metal. (The one on the largest base is metal, the others pictured are Bones plastic.)
The snakeman is in the Nagendra Swordsmen pack in plastic. Also sold individually in metal.
Bird with a Brush 