01 - Painting Class with Privateer Press Studio Painter Meg Maples

This weekend I participated in a painting class at Labyrinth Games in Washington, DC.  It was run by Meg Maples, one of the studio painters for Privateer Press.  The class went for two days, during which time Meg covered many beginner and advanced techniques such as: two-brush blending, OSL, glazes, washes, skin, hair, and basic color theory.

Meg demonstrating some of the techniques to members of the class.

Everyone in the class was given the same model to work with, pNemo 2010.  Below are the end results of the weekend's work:

 

You can read more about Brendon's painting HERE

This is my model from the weekend.  I focused on figuring out how to two-brush blend on his cloak and the center armor plates.  I probably ended up painting over my work multiple times throughout the course of the weekend trying to get the end results I desired.  I'm going to continue working on this model and will post updates of its progress as I continue practicing the techniques I learned over the weekend.

Some pointers from this weekend that I found especially helpful:

• When two-brush blending, it is best to use a dry palette.  This helps prevent the paint from getting too watery, which can make blending harder and leave "bath tub rings" on the model where the pigment dries on the outside of wherever you place the paint.  Ideally, for the two-brush blending, the paint will have the viscosity of cream or whole milk.
• For glazes, a wet palette is a good idea as you want this to be much more fluid, similar to the viscosity of skim milk.  Glazes are a great way to add highlights or shadows to smaller areas where two-brush blending may not be practical, or for OSL.  Layers seemed to be the key, progressively adding more shadows/highlights to smaller and smaller areas.
• BIG BRUSHES!  - Meg recommended Size 2 & 3 brushes and it was noticeably easier to replicate the two-brush blending with bigger brushes.  It made it a lot easier to push the paint around and resulted in smoother transitions.
• If you're having troubles two-brush blending, try wetting the area you wish to blend first, before applying the paint.  Also, start at the end of the color you're blending, rather than in the middle of the paint you just put down on the model.
• Looking for color theory advice?  Meg recommended THIS book, Color by Betty Edwards.

Note - The head was not glued on, thus pNemo suffered from wobbly neck syndrome.
You can read more about Steve's painting HERE.

Note - This was the test model that Meg demonstrated the various techniques on throughout the weekend.

You can read more about Volt_ron's painting HERE.

Group shot!

Thanks again to Labyrinth games for hosting this event and to Meg Maples for taking time out of her vacation to run the painting class!  It was well worth the time getting to see this techniques first hand and to get feedback from such a high caliber painter.

The tower of cider!