Evolution of a Mediocre Painter, the first

Moving on to more light-hearted and game-related things. I decided to post a series about the development of my painting skills for a couple of reasons. The first is because I want to really examine how I have become a (somewhat) better painter, mainly so I can stop giving myself such a hard time. I think I am now getting a reasonably consistent tabletop quality, and I think I am fine with that. If I have a really special model, well it's probably sitting way at the back of my painting queue, waiting for a moment when I have sufficient time and  skills to do it justice. But since I have hoarding tendencies when it comes to models, I have such a backlog of what I want to get done and so little time that I am okay with doing acceptable but not awesome work. I have probably reached my apex at mediocre for now.

So I am posting my really old, really, really bad stuff in part to make myself feel pretty good about where I am now. I also hope it will make some of you feel better about your own skills. I can't offer much in the way of advice if you want to produce display quality work, but later on I will give some explanation of what I do now, in case you find it acceptable enough and, like me, get really freaked out when good painters try telling you what you should be doing. They're right, by the way, and I'm just lazy and sloppy. As I post some of this old crap, I can also offer some very good advice on what not to do. And make (hopefully) comedic observations.

So first up, I present a Blood Angels squad, with some really old style Scouts. This may not be the first thing I painted, but was probably near there. I'm thinking around 1993-1994 when I painted it. BTW, I am a lazy photographer generally. In future, I will try taking better photos, but no promises.

Do I really need to add any funny commentary?

The scouts left this photo shoot to audition for a Twisted Sister cover band (thankfully, they left their wigs in the car).

And for those who didn't know, it used to be that your rank as a space marine was determined by the poofiness of your sleeves. Really poofy = cleaning latrines and almost certain death.

Subtitle for this thread "When varnish attacks"

I think the Sergeant was on his way to a Christmas party so he decked himself out in a mistletoe wreath.

Lessons to take away from this:

When people tell you to thin your paint do it. Don't use the .50 craft store kind straight from the bottle and try to get everything done in one coat.

When it comes to varnish, matte is your friend. And don't hold the can half an inch away from the models.

Don't use the "flock" that is really dyed sawdust. If you really feel you must, cover it in glue. A lot of glue. Otherwise, it will keep showing up in your model cases forever. And yeah, I suck at basing. Thankfully, there are now lots of people who make nice resin ones.

I can't paint faces. Sadly, in this I have not really improved.

That's all for now.