Break Through the UGLY PHASE
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- čas přidán 10. 06. 2024
- Does the UGLY PHASE in your miniature painting make you want to stop? Did you know ALL painters have an ugly phase?
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One day my face is gonna get past the ugly phase...40th year's the charm. 😅
Awww
we believe in you 🙂
😂
It works! You start getting distinguished.
I'm holding out for 50.
Small tip for army/batch painters who are struggling with the ugly phase:
Paint a single model to completion first, then the rest of the squad. It's the same concept as painting a single component (leg/head/arm), but on an army scale. It gives you a goal to work towards and a preview of the finished product (the squad/army).
That sounds so good & some what obvious -- but I haven't tried, thanks for sharing :)
I like doing this, too, paint one of the 10 or 20 in a squad and keep it on the table while working on the batch. Particularly if it's a new colour scheme.
Seconded. This is a great motivational aid.
I did this at first, but then realised that I really do love working on just ONE model at a time to completion. It really does help me with keeping motivation and inspiration to complete the unit.
100% agree. Great tip.
"Let him cook"
I repeat to myself as I round hour 9 painting through the ugly.
heck yeah, get some paint on the base early! In addition to being a quick win, it gives the model some context to help you choose accent colors as you're workin along :-)
What happens if you accidentally flick paint onto the base though? Just paint over it?
@@TravisHi_YT yupyup! atom's example here was perfect, the base didn't need to be done, but just having it be a sold gray instead of a solid green like the rest of the model makes a huge difference 🙂
This is something I struggled with for years as an illustrator. What helped me is realising that I never look at the frame of a house and think, "How is somebody supposed to live in that?" I understand that it's not finished yet. The frame is a necessary step and isn't going to be seen.
Oh that's a great analogy.
Big same. I'm an art student atm, and while I've been drawing for ages (older person going back to school), the 'ugly phase' of my drawings used to kill my motivation to get better. One of the biggest things school is helping with is my confidence to keep working at it.
As an art teacher, students struggling with "the ugly phase" in their art is something I deal with often. Its definitely not just a mini thing. Getting kids to push through that requires helping them dealing with the fear of failure and pushing through. We have a society obsessed with success, which ironically, makes us build a lot of bad habits that keep us from succeeding.
I think just understanding that the ugly phase is a thing helps a lot. I've had miniatures I thought I'd ruined but turned out fine at the end. Now I know the ugly phase exists and I just keep going.
Priming a terrain build is always a satisfying moment. One minute it's a mess of disparate materials in lots of different colours, the next it's a single cohesive whole.
Yes, I get that with scratch-built terrain and kitbashed models, too. Thanks for watching!
I've found taking photos through each step helps a lot (much easier now every phone has a camera in easy reach) as it helps see the transition between each step which you otherwise don't notice as you're working, gives you a lot more perspective on how far you've progressed the project and I find that encouraging
This.
I would only add that You should take photos of each phase and when You return to that model first look at all photos by the timeline to see progress made in singular phases. Last photo is what You have in front of You, and You should be able to visualise next progress easier.
This is a great idea - I don’t do this enough myself. Thanks for watching!
Missed an opportunity to relate your office going thru an ugly phase before it can be all fantastic again.
This to me is the main benefit of contrast paints. Depending on how you use them they can skip the ugly phase, getting you to a point of shaded and highlighted early in the workflow, which can keep you motivated to keep going.
Still, when I use contrasts, I don't feel like I'm making any progress/development as a painter. Good for quick army painting, not so good for more serious stuff
@@magostarmus3705 I think that depends on the application, but I generally don't agree. Using contrast type paints effectively requires different brush control techniques to opaque paints, which can help you develop as a painter. And you can thin them into glazes for fancier work too.
Contrast paints alone are not enough for a good paint job. Maybe a fast one, but not a good one. They are 1 tool in the whole hobby tool chest, they have a job, but cant do everything.
@@savannahbrewer6161 Absolutely. But when used well, for example to put down a base coat, perhaps over some dry-brushed pre-highlights, they can avoid the "ugly phase" of flat, boring basecoats, and can be a real benefit.
my favorite method is to actually not think of it as a phase, but a GOAL. I painted my entire 2000 points Ogor army to the "ugly phase", paused a week and then just kept going from there in like 2-4 model increments. I never finished an army as fast as then.
I've never really thought of it like this, for me the only ugly phase is the assembled and unpainted phase or unbased phase.
I follow my paint recipes and smash thru the steps. Once I'm inspired to paint, my models rarely stay unpainted. I'm to excited to see the finished result to leave them stuck at any point too long!
Man this video really speak to me right now. I've just got trough one of the biggest ugly phases i've ever had. I hit the ugly phase with a vampire mini and that blocked me for months. Longest period away from the hobby. Then on e day i've forced myself to finish it and immediately after not only i love that work, but i've started and completed another two minis in very little time. It is truly a terrible mind game after all. Every time you instinctively know it, you know that phase, but sometimes it wins.
I’m still trying to work my way up to ugly phase in my hobby. I’m pretty much still at the “Oh God! What have I done?! The Horror! The HORROR! Phase” . 🤪
lol ... I'm soo there.
Whenever a big kickstarter arrives I get this "OMG what did I do" feeling too.
Same thing when opening an army box and seeing all of the sprues and parts ...
"am I really going to do this?" "Did I really expect this ?"
I’ve found that when my hobby projects are feeling stuck in the ugly, I need to take a break and do a different hobby thing. That might mean different minis, that might mean doing some ship building, that might mean looking at coins, that might mean just reading. But there will be a time when I come back and now the ugly isn’t so ugly and I can start to see the process again.
I am an army painter mainly and my technique is to paint 2 models to finish first. Then I start batch painting the rest of the unit etc. I find that when I thinking this is not working, I can look at the finished ones and see the process in completion. Then I am happy to continue.
It is so reassuring to know that i am not alone in the crowd which has that ugly phase
This vid should be required viewing for everyone in the hobby.
The baking analogy is perfect.
I have A LOT of trouble with the Ugly Phase. I find that one of the only ways I can break through it, nowadays, is to paint in company. Even if it's remote company. Around a table is ideal, but on voice call can work surprisingly well too. Having people remind you that it still looks better than you probably think, and seeing their process as well, is a big help.
Of all the "miniature painting" channels I subscribe to, I always come back to your channel.
I do so because you are the *most* practical channel I've subscribed to.
I thank you for that.
Keep up the great work!
I like to think of this phase as "aesthetically challenged". Also, I almost always get the base mostly done right away. I've had a lot of unfinished models in my battle reports that look alright even when the figure on the base only has a base coat on it. I've also noticed that a fully, well painted model doesn't look that great until it's base is painted.
I think the best way to fight the "ugly phase depression" Is to go through it couple of times. If you force yourself and see by example and by experience that end results are fine, you get more and more comfortable with the ugly phase.
With that experience you realise that the browns from the uniform splashed on the armour will be fixed. You realise that you will fix those wash smudges, and with each mini that you went through the ugly phase, you learn to see those end results in the mid-phase results.
I'm absolutely an Army painter more than a Model painter, so there are whole batch moments of the "Ugly Phase" for me. I normally try to do a test Model for my scheme first, and referring to it as knowing what the end product WILL be helps me push through.
I like the way Jay from Eons of battle really loves the base part after the model is mostly done,so that he can pick colours to make the figure stand out
I have a few techniques: 1- push through, 2 - paint one model for inspiration, and 3 - paint crappily first to get the general idea and then work on all the little details.
It's not fail safe, but sometimes it helps switching between single character work and unit assembly line. The character takes an awful lot of time during which nothing much happens. In contrast the unit benefits from a little progress that looks like more due to sheer quantity. And then it's back to the single mini with fresh determination. I think TTM once had a vid on that...
Everyone experiences the ugly phase. For me it's usually right after the basecoat + recess shade steps. You can only go up from here!
I've got some ECW roundheads in the ugly phase, they've been there for 9 months. I picked something else up instead. My ugly phase is best described as "not feeling the love". Personally I understand my motivation and going squad loads of figures doesn't work, I need variation.
My latest finish 3 days, 8 British Army (Zulu campaign), 1 Heliograph Team in Home Service Dress and 16 Zulus. Made, primed, painted, based and varnished. It feels good. Better than I was expecting, I amazed myself. Reflecting on your recent vids, some look really great (my frame of refernce), some less so but I haven't fretted about it. Almost great is way better than not even finished.
Can i give this video 100 thumbs up? Your tip about painting the base has worked for me lately. I have even found that just getting an even coat of black on the lip/sides of the base gets me over the 'look like crap' brain lock.
The trick that Uncle Atom mentions with the base vs model, I usually do the "chunk painting".
If there is a larger area that should be different color, leave it until You get demotivated. Watery part of the base? Branch or stump? Leaves or flowers? Hat or bandana? Leave it primed. When You get stuck, do one of the parts. Only base water, or branch, or hat. Significant color change makes significant visual impact. Then glide some part closer to perfection.
Stuck again? Do another part. Basecoated everything as it should be? Do next step - ripples in the water, edge painting on the wood, highlight that hat.
Just don't do everything this step includes if You are prone to being demoralized in the ugly phase.
As another commentor said, "Just understanding there is an ugly phase is important" is truly the biggest help for a lot of newer painters, including myself. Ive only been painting for about 1.5 years, ive painted around 150 minis at this point and i continuously have to tell myself "itll look great when its done", a sort of mantra to break the "that looks terrible" mentality. Currently i have been scratch building a fully useable tavern, at this point ive got 20 hours on it, and ive only finished the roofs... It'll look great when its done.
I have a bunch of models that I base coated black and then zenithal highlighted with white or light gray. They're begging to have the bigger areas blocked in with an airbrush. Which reminds me, I need an airbrush. Glad I remembered on payday, thanks!
Sometimes I fear the ugly phase and not being happy with the outcome so much that I procrastinate with even starting painting past the priming stage. It’s not laziness, it’s more like an analysis paralysis of what I want the model to look like versus my perceived ability. Ironically, painting more is the only path to improving.
Also, I’ve been using Speedpaint a lot to avoid trying more ‘classic’ techniques because I can get a decent looking model on the table quickly. I should be practicing layering, glazing, etc.
Normally, when I encounter this problem. I would let the paint set during the night and then in the morning I see how everything blends together.
I am quite dishearten by my paint job for Be'lakor but that won't stop me from trying new stuff and learning new techniques along the way thank you!!
I go through the ugly phase in my artwork all the time - even client jobs, and especially the color process. It’s hard to push through it, and my strategy usually ends up being something like “fiddle around until it looks good” even though subliminally my gathered knowledge is guiding me in the right direction
I have a massive Spacemarine Spacewolves Force, based on Grimnar's Wolfguard Company, including a Thunderhawk. At the beginning I had a small budget for the paint, so I made the air brush a custom colour, I had a mate paint it all. It sought of turned out like I wanted, a very dark blue grey, and then I had personal family challenges and a "sea change" in where I lived which left the project unfinished for a couple of years.
Looking at it recently (I am old too; recently = years), because of contrast style paints, Army Painter Contrast Paints 2.0 and heaps of suggested slap chop style painting tubes (you included), I could go back thin where I need too and dry brush White these, and contrast them Grey. And they come out just what I wanted, 30kish Grey and Bluish undertones in the shadow recesses... the what I called being Aussie "The Fugly" stage is pretty important when you can't just start over, when it does not work out to your mental plan. From "ugly muddy duckling", to "steel swan".
But at the moment I just created a revenge Company of Blood Drinkers, using MK.6 and Primaris arms and weapons, with 3rd party shoulder pads, and MK.2 Jumppacks... I will use the bodies of Primaris as Space Sharks Company. The reason it's called revenge, is because GW released Primaris rules on me as I had just started painting the Spacewolves, after being a collector since 1989 13 Years of age, I Stopped when I had girls, cars, and "travel the world"... I was lured back into the hobby by a few mates at a car meet in 2010, a few months as 7th Edition was concurrent and GW stores were starting to pop up everywhere. I also have a Company RBT01 Spacemarine and Rogue Trader Metals, from working my ass off as a kid, my mother did not approved of wargaming... So I was not impressed by GW's changes. Don't ask me how many armies I have as a retirement plan now, without a budget to worry about... I will take decades too finish.
Know the feeling well.
What I find "works" for me (by which I mean about 50/50) is that if I'm working on a unit and I've lost motivation, box it up, put it out of sight, and pick up just one figure. Any figure frankly, just something small and simple. Quickly smash that figure out, get it done in an hour or less, but finish it. That gives me a dopamine boost, yay, I can still paint.... then go back to the figures I was mentally fighting with and just start..... that kind of gets the momentum moving again and usually gets me over a hump.
I also think it helps that I'm just painting to get paint of a mountain of figures, so 1 done is still one more towards my years target.
Lately I've been having a couple of easier/fun models to one side to help. So when the 'ugly phase' starts to affect me, I paint them instead and because they are simpler and/or not for anything in particular, the pressure is off and I can face the 'ugly' miniatures again with greater enthusiasm 😁
I hear that. Recently got back into the groove with painting and hit the ugly wall hard last week trying to finish a squad of Relics Orcnar for a community challenge. Things just weren't clicking after the basecoating, just getting started on the skin tones, the largest part of those models, changed everything. Just seeing that flat colour surface get definition got things rolling again. Trust the process, also realize it is a process and sometimes things take longer to come together. But even a quick highlight, drybrush or inkwash can really make it feel like you're moving things along despite not having put a ton of effort into that single task.
Your thumbnail got me cuz im halfway through painting an army of those dinos and i lost motivation entirely. They are a pain in the ass to paint to boot.
My first gut reaction was "No, I don't have that, contrast paints have fixed models not looking good at all for me" and then halfway through I remembered how edge highlighting a space marine feels like... I haven't touched that one test model for a month at least. I also never do the "finish one part" strat, because I'll surely smudge something over it when painting an adjacent part, but I might give it a try for this particular problem.
I've never heard "the ugly phase" before, but about half way through every model I really start to hate the the model and myself. It starts to go away once I hit the highlighting phase. I feel better knowing others hit this phase, so thanks for making this video!
I generally take pictures during the process so I can look at the model when I'm away from painting and get ideas and/or see that it's not really so bad.
I've been painting miniatures for about 3 years now and I'm just starting on more details and edge highlights. This video is perfect. The certain processes where I've taken two and a half to three hours on a model and I feel like it should look decent. But I still have two more hours of details to put on. I think we live in a world that is fed up and we don't take the time to enjoy the process and I think this video helps reimagine it. Thank you!!!!
So true - it's very important as Miniature Painters, that we stay disciplined throughout the whole painting. Many times it's not until we're like half way through a model that it starts to come together and look half decent. Only the final finishes does it really look like it's ready to go. Trust the process!
Something I tell all of my friends who are just starting out is "The mini is not done until your final brush stroke. Be that in 5 minutes or 5 years. So just keep on plugging away." If it's not done, then it's not done. There is no point in stopping half way through.
And another tip "Balance your expectations with your practiced skill set. You won't be an amazing painter right away. You can learn 1000 skills in theory, but if you never practice them, you don't actually know them." I use wet blending as an example. I know exactly how to wet blend. Can I wet blend anything that isn't contrast paints? Hell no. Why? Because it's something I have only done once (I didn't like the result), and since then I have shifted from army painting to interest painting. So it's a skill I know a lot about but haven't used in years. So I can't expect to even be good at it.
Practicing anything will alleviate the ugly phase mentally. You have done it before, so you know you'll get passed it in a few colors. If you take the chore part out of it and make it relaxing and fun, you'll stop thinking about it and just paint. You'll enter the flow state and the ugly phase wont even register.
I've been painting for many years. This is one of the most useful/valuable videos that I've seen concerning the psychology of completing your models/army. Fantastic advice! I too begin to finish the bases of my models earlier in the process many years ago and it make a huge difference for such a small step.
I rather think a change in POV is required. I don't have an ugly phase, just an incomplete one. I learned this many a moon ago before even 40K was a thing. I was painting 25mm Napoleonics and the first thing I did was obviously put down the primer. For the 10 figures that represented that regiment I had a nice matt black finish which I loved. No longer were these figures a non descript metal finish. I also knew this was the beginning of the journey and every stage was a success because it was finished. Though I got to admit layering brown, orange and then red for the jackets got old. Why did I not think of just using brown as the primer.
When I first started painting, I was merrily following along the army painter guide.
Primed the models and they looked cool!
Then started painting. I had an army to so so there were a lot of models.
Hit the "ugly phase" hard.
They looked really bad, I mean to the "I clearly can't do this" kinda bad.
But the models I'd started with were already ruined so how bad could it get?
So finished my little process and whadda ya know? They weren't terrible!!
That's when I learned about the ugly phase and the "trust the process".
The gut wrenching, soul crushing despair of not being any good and disliking my work that comprises the ugly phase.
But I know better, now. Every model I paint has to pass through, and I pass through with them.
I'll try the base coat the base trick.
Great video!! Good subject!
Comparing painting with baking is such a great idea to overcome any mid-process despair.
Thanks for creating a video about this. This is a very real struggle for me and I appreciate someone shining some light on it. Keep doing what you do!
My ugly Phase I had most recent issue with was when I was painting Death guard... I got Green all over them, I did the trim in brass and then I SLATHERED THEM ALL WITH BROWN RUST LIKE COLOURS and went "OH GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE", "This looked so much better in the mental image I had of it... But a few more layers of different rust like colours and I went "WOW this is exactly what I wanted!" But I almost gave up at that first brown layer. Glad I didn't
Oh yeah. I know exactly where the ugly phase is for me. Once I get all my grey blue armor done for my space wolves and see all the details I still have to paint, i start to get bored or discouraged. I recently started pushing through that by painting shoulder pads the typical space wolves yellow and red/white/yellow, painting the skin color for the face, and also painting my base my typical Lothern blue with black trim.
This gets me to want to push a little further and at least finish getting base colors on the rest of the details like weapons and pouches and be a respectable attempt to put on a gaming table. I personally love the shading and highlighting process so then I am excited to finish that last stretch to make a model look very nice.
I have certainly faces the ugly phase. My go-to solution is usually to do something else I like, and if that happens to be painting a different miniature, I usually get my confidence back pretty quickly and go back and fix up my "ugly" model.
I also do the bases to partial completion early in the process, it does make things look closer to done and tricks you into feeling motivated
Great advice for all artistic endeavors
Having been drawing and painting with watercolors for a long time, even before starting painting minis (started 2 years ago), taught me something important about painting that not a lot of mini painters realize. You need to break the process into stages. That will help you move quicker and break away from the ugly phase with ease.
This will help you to not get discouraged as you basically set yourself with tiny and achievable goals, that will encourage you to advance.
That's why I always recommend to miniature painters to break through their painting process into stages. Because at the end of the day, painting is a process and not something you will see immediate results unlike with other stuff.
So, what I mean by this, is something like this when I paint:
First, I choose the colors. Once I know the colors I paint the base colors of the whole minis, then correct the errors that I made when applying the base colors. Then I start painting the highlights and shadows, but I do it by parts. Meaning that I start (for example) with the chest. Once finished, I go with the other part, and on and on. Sometimes in between I correct other parts or improve them. And then go back to painting other parts.
This is a rough example of what I do. And this helps you get through any phase because as you know it's a process and you won't see major results until you're almost complete.
Obviously your break through process can be different than mine. The important thing is to realize that you will see results later on and that's okay, as painting is a process, not a race with immediate results.
I think many people assume that the painting process will be a direct linear progression of gradually increasing shading and highlighting, but the process can also require steps that appear jarring to the eye, such as applying patches of highlights before blending them in with the base colors, or painting an area much brighter than you'd think is right before applying an oil wash.
I definitely do the base coat on the base as well when I need a quick fix of progress. My process of painting 1-5 models at a time is usually split into a base coat/speedpaint session and then a second session for edge highlights, drybrushing the base and final details. I feel like this minimises the ugly phase to a pretty good extent!
Definitely something that has helped derail me, I tend to paint area by area unless everything is getting hit with a wash, just blocking in the surrounding colours can make the work pop out and move beyond the ugly phase. Although the biggest leap forward was the chaps at Atomic Mass Games fix stuff in their streams, Peachy is doing it in his videos as well it helps you see that point Vince has always made ... it's just paint, if it doesn't work you can just fix it
Problem with this ugly phase is that beginners very often just get things very wrong. They apply wrong colours, throw on washes then highlights then washes then highlights, only to end up with a splotchy mess, etc. Its not that you dont trust the process enough, it's that you dont have enough skill to actually have a reason to trust it. So after three consecutive failures and wasted hours and hours, you just start looking at the model halfway through: "Is this going in the right direction, or am I wasting another complete afternoon."
Once you have painted for 40 years, trusting the process is much easier as you have a prediction skill.
I recently had a significant improvement in my skills after a long plateau, and almost all of it has to do with planning ahead and being able to predict how certain steps are going to look in the end. That comes with experience, including numerous failures. So I would say for most painters who have to worry about the ugly phase, its not at all this simple.
That said, my method includes shortening the ugly phase as much as possible:
1. Use airbrush (or heavy drybrush) to zenithal highlight. Even fairly rough zenithal wont make your eyes bleed.
2. Manually lock in shadows, avoid washes if possible. This is a sort of ugly phase but just one quick layer to sketch shadow.
3. Glaze up from there avoiding pure white colour. Now every layer looks gradually better and none of them are completely terrible.
4. improve details with more specific step by step processes, while most of the mini already looks decent, so ugly phase is limited to some small areas.
ya know, I think I've been having this EXACT problem with my current mini. This video couldn't have come at a better time
Health!
I need to say that the intro to your videos, the swords sound, the machine gun, and the beam is what drew me to your site.
Yes. Sometimes it's thinking about the sweet, sweet highlights I get to paint near the end, that gives me the energy to go all the way through ich the ugly.
When I feel like this I move over to a brand new painting project, different army, figure, everything. Breaks up the monotony a bit and helps me come back with fresh eyes and excitement, for example giant, to ghoul, to orc shaman, to an armor clad warrior.
I walk away for a while, sometimes an hour, maybe a day, and come back.
But I do agree that when you finish the base midway, it makes the project pop, and you start seeing it come alive.
Your reflections on the 'hobbyproces' are really helpful. It gave me an insight on the reason why son likes the building proces but gets discouraged in the painting proces.
The ugly phase hit me hard while I was painting my Tau Riptide. I just set it down for a few days and got back to it when I was less disheartened.
Interesting! I noticed years ago that after the first couple of steps, like priming, base coating, everything I did seemed to make the project worse. It was only near the end, say the final 5%-10% of the project, that it all started to come together and finally start to look finished. My Dad and I called it the "it's going to get worse before it gets better" effect. Ugly Phase is much simpler to say!
Currently I have over 100 models in this phase and I totally see where you are coming from. I love making the early progress with the airbrush, but the detail creep on my 40k is really getting to me because when I look at my models I am overwhelmed by the prospect of so many leather pouches and terminator harnesses to paint.
One of that uncle Atom's videos that boost my motivation to paint more mini and I think that I have at minimum one hole grey knights army living in the ugly phase with all the metal zenithal and no other color, thank so much 4 this kind of videos.
I always feel that once you’ve got some base colours down on the figure getting a colour on the base is a massive step forward. Not so much the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning. At this stage I know that I’m only a wash away from being ½ way through the base which means that in a certain light (candle) this figure could be put on the table, at a a push.
Love this. I cannot agree enough about getting the base done. Last few projects my faith was starting to wane, so I did the bases and went from feeling I was only 40% done to suddenly (an easily) feeling 80% done. The base as such an exponential effect on the models overall look.
I always have finished models on my paint table as a paint so you trust yourself in what you can accomplish and what ressult you can expect. Maby one that looks very good and som in the more fast painted range. Another tip is to also have models in different stages of completion to have variation in what you do to not get stuck in a certain place and it also helps since you get to se different stages of the painting process.
Its the last 10% of painting a model that makes it look nice.
The ugly phase is a real thing, especially when army painting, when you have 4/5 models in a batch and then kinda multiplies the ulgy phase effect
I try and paint one model from the unit to complishion and then leave it on the desk, and use it both as a template as well as an inspiration to push painting the rest of the unit.
Having a display case as part of the set up helps the process, where you can keep the painted model behind glass/plexiglass safe from overspray and stuff.
Love the t-shirt :D
I like to prime the sprue, glue the legs (if that’s where I want to start) and build it so on
Always some great suggestions. Thanks so much. . This actually happens to me, mostly with minis that aren't wearing a uniform or pre-determined livery. Fantasy minis, Gauls, Renaissance troops, etc. I say to myself "What the heck kind of look are you going for?" But with uniform wearing historicals you can talk yourself through it. You know a Napoleonic Hussar when you finally have them in uniform is going to look right. So, having trained myself through the ugly phase with historicals it is, a little easier to fool myself into thinking it's all going to work out with the fantasy and SciFi miniatures. Another reason to maybe start with historicals where the painting challenges aren't as complex or unknown. I started with Romans and Successor Greeks.
I recently had a halfling mini I was painting that just wasn't going right. But once I added the little silver rivets, and changed up his shield trim color at the very end he looked dramatically better. Still not my best work, but he looks okay and I learned a lot - and since I'm a beginner the latter is a large part of the point!
I don't have a single project go by without muttering "Trust the process" at LEAST once. I try to tackle the Hobby Doldrums by having a side project or two (usually a single mini or small unit) that I can turn to to get my brain out of its rut and make some progress elsewhere. This allows my brain to kind of reset and I'm able to come back to my project feeling fresher.
My mini's uglyphase is from the moment i touch it to the moment i relinquish it to a new owner like a child being taken by DHS
Also... For those batch painting, l have four tips :
1) Only have a single squad in front of you at a time, that is not finished. It helps me personally more, to see where l have been { finished minis } that where l am going { Mt. Primer }.
2) Put on some tunes, or stream a movie/tv show you have seen so many times, you can read the credits outloud without looking. My personal go-to is Stargate SG-1.
3) Getting up to stretch your legs every hour or so for a few minutes, will also give your eyes a break.
4) Hydration and not messy snacks help. Mental tasks, like focusing on miniature details, can put a physical toll on you. A small bowl of cheese and fruit will keep you going.
I actually approach the ugly phase in the same way I do burnout. I take a step back and either work on a different project, usually with different colors or a different scheme, or watch some lore videos/other artists' work for inspiration over the following days during a break period. Then come back. Usually either inspired, or reinvigorated and motivated to push toward the end product again. I also do this if I think I'm rushing myself and getting sloppy, much like getting tired behind the wheel while driving.
Having to paint anything can be intimidating, especially larger projects. When you have about 3 weeks to finish a 740h print for Comic Con that was even worse. It consisted of about 39 pieces and some of them took over 50 hours to paint. Printing the first piece was exicing, when I was about 40% done, I thought it would never be done in time. As it progressed it took more shape, when we finally had the entire print done it was awesome! Okay now we just need to paint all of this. The entire model was about 4' / 120cm long, 3' / 90cm wide and about 3' / 90cm as the highest spot as well. Once it got the basecoat it looked good. Once we started painting it felt like the neverending story. We managed to get it done (except for the secret cave with crystals, which no one could see anyways). It was a massive show stopper and I cannot wait to add more details to it. Realising that we had about 150 models on the table as well... I can see why so many people found it shocking to see something that size.
I started doing the base paint thing myself maybe late last year. It really does help me. Its a total mind game but seems to work to keep me going and feel a progress. I dont finish all the details of the base but just that core color and separate the fig helps out.
So I've been painting a lot of Battletech these days. Hands down, the WORST ugly phase I've ever experienced is any time I'm painting a camouflage scheme. Without fail, every camouflaged mech I paint will get to a point where I second guess my colors, patterns, or the whole project in general. Somehow I have managed to push through to completion each time, and it has ALWAYS paid off. My camo mechs are some of my favorite minis.
11:16 I’ve been painting bases early too and it really helps. Plus if you make any mistakes you can do one big tidy up at the end rather than doing one for the mini and then another after the base. Cheers Uncle A keep the content coming! 😊
Sometimes batch painting gets me burned out. When I was painting my Darkoath warband for Warcry I've painted them one at a time. This both helped me focus on them more and make each mini more unique. I've also had dopamine hit on each completed mini more spread out throught the painting, instead of only at the end.
In this phase now. Been painting for about 2 years but not nearly enough. I have to take 2 or 3 month long breaks for work and life and then come back to it and feel like I'm back at the beginning. Years of painting and still feel like a beginning painter and my final results are light years away from other people in my FLGS community.
When you get to the Ugly Phase as we all sometimes do, I have found if I just walk away, start something new or just leave it (just for a few days) when I come back to it later it doesn’t seem so bad. Also I have found the more complicated a model is the more likely you will experience an ugly phase heh heh. 👍
I do like the idea of base coating the base early, getting the model to 3 colours and a base quickly (is that still a typical gaming standard??)
I had a Venom and Raidrer crafts for the Drukhari (also called Dark Eldar) that I had for years and haven't decided on the way I've painted them.
It took me a while after watching a few content creators videos on stippling that I thought I'll give a go on the Venom. Using four colour paints to build up the stippling effect on the raise areas it had got me back to painting the Drukhari vehichles more recently than before.
I mostly drybrush tanks and vehicles, the method didn't work for me on Drukhari skycrafts which is why I held back from paintong them in the past, the stipple effect with the right brush got me through to finishing them faster and looking better for my skirmish force.
The way I painted them, I meant when I painted them using the drybrush method. I got a bit typo at the start of the comments.
I had a big ugly phase project a while back, where it felt like Inwas putting more and more paint on it, and still not feeling like it looked any closer to done. Just had to chip away at it little by little, and eventually call it done.
In everything I do, the ugly phase is always the hardest part to get through. And every single time I've pushed myself to get through it, I've been supremely pleased with the result.
I don't know how much of that satisfaction comes from the objective quality of the result, or the knowledge that I got past the hesitation and self-doubt, and made it. I'm sure it's a blend of the two.
I began with the basic "basecoat/wash/highlight" and often I found it boring to just put the basecoat. So now I'm focusing on one part, usually the "deepest" and finish it so my brain go the excitment of finishing something and I can continue to the next part and so on !
I always have the last two or three units, or single hero model, sitting at eye level at the back of my painting table ( an old writing desk ). If I find myself lagging, I have finished models there to look at or handle to remind me of the end result. It has the added bonus of occasionally noticing missed bits on models that had eluded me the first time around. Once the current project is done, it replaces the oldest project at the back. If I'm not particularly happy with how a project turned out, it skips this phase. and goes straight to a more permanent home -probably a box.
It kind of reminds me of how people prepare for those insane long distance rides ...
The trick appears to be to think of the tiny steps you can comprehend instead of the final goal.
Don't think of the thousands of steps between you and the finish line.
Instead think of only the next step.
This may be why speed paints work so well.
You get a result instead of having to do 2+ layers just to see something that can be used in a game.
I played with a lot of tactics for the ugly phase, once I found my painting style and what I like to do I found I struggle with it a lot less.
I found my recipe for ugly phase, when I get into one.
It's quite simple - SHADE IT. Basecoat, then SHADE IT =) Army painter shades, agrax earthshade, nuln oil, tamiya panel accent liner... You get your eye candy instantly, and all the steps afterwards only make things bettter. Edge highlighting. a bit of layering highlighting of flat areas and such.