Among The Way Studio Workshop

ATW-Logo-ShirtI was attending a painting workshop with AmongTheWay studio this weekend and I had a blast! The workshop was held in Uppsala, Sweden in a really nice location just a few minutes drive from the city. The workshop was based around a few subjects, skin and NMM but we also got some bonus pointers at OSL. I was really excited about the weekend since I knew Martin is a great painter and a really nice guy and having the chance to sit together with a few fellow nerds is always fun. So my expectations were high, and was I´m going to be dissapointed or not? Let´s find out!

Ten brave painters gatherd in Uppsala at friday night to paint together during the coaching of Martin (AmongTheWay Studio) who held this workshop. For those of you who are not fimilliar with his work go check out some of his stuff at P&P or his website, there are som great looking stuff there!

Everyone who took part had chosen his own miniature to work with and I decided to paint the Ra´eesah Desert Guard from Pegaso models, who wold be the first time I painted a 75mm miniature. I must say that I have been a bit scared about the size of the mini for quite some time but it was time to stop being afraid and start painting! Before I primed the miniature I added some brass foil to the back to give her some “cover up” since I wasn´t compleatly happy with the back of the mini.primed 1 Primed 2 As seen it´s quite a large miniature mede in metal so it´s also quite heavy. All thos skinparts would sure be a challange for me.

First some pic´s from inside the location during friday night while people was packing up and prepping there workstations and miniatures. At first everyone hold “there space” but man, would that change! As soon as the painting began everyones paintstation kind of spread out across the bord or even the entire room! that´s a sign of people getting relaxed. Martin is prepping something and John is reading for some inspiration(?)Day1-3

Martin brought along some great product from Scale 75, I really love those paints (and after this weekend, I guess I´m not the only one!).Scale75Brushes

Already 100% focus mode!Day1-1 Day1-2

First WIP on my miniature.Day1-3 WIP1

Seeing the picture I can see that I went to heavy on the shading below her eye´s and that will be taken care of later on (once she is finished).

When It was time to wrap it up for the first nigh, John had made this using only oils and my mini looked like this.Day1-6 John1Day1-7 WIP4 Day two started around 10.00 and when I arrived about in time everyone was already painting so there was no time to waste. After some coffe I was back in the seat and struggled with my brushes.

After some casual painting with Martin moving around and giving pointers here and there, asking questions and chatting everyone felt really comfortable and everyones spirit and mood was at top! I got some feeback on my previous works and as I have heard befor, I should realy try to paint using brighter colors. So that´s my comfort zone that I have to leave. So once I have finished my current work it´s time to do something bright!

Martin had a really nice way of walking around and giving pointers to everyone and he sure is good at pushing on the right buttoms to challange everyone. A cheerful spirit and a great teacher made the weekend awsome!

Around lunchtime Martin gave a demonstration using a screen so everyone could see what he was doing, and man…it really look´s simple! He spoke alot about “let it happen” and “make it sloppy at first”, you can always correct it later and that way of painting made everyone even more relaxed.Day2-2 screen

During the day you heard a lot of cursing while people was trying out NMM but the most memorable moment was when one contestor keept cursing, “f**k, this is hard, f**k this is never going to work…grumble…grumble…oh, wait! Wait! Oh, this is awsome!” That´s the sound of a theory/technique clicking!

It might be the NMM that´s seams to confuse a few…Day2-8And some random pic´s while people are painting. Day 2-1 Day2-4 Day2-11 Day2-12And some Work in progress pic´s! Day2-5 Day2-7 And some pics of what we all did this weekend. Big guns2Day2-6Burning ice Conan Hired sword John SantiagoDay2-10 WIP2Nancy

I´m sorry to say that i haven´t got photos of everyones miniatures, but if you have some photos that you want me to add to this post, just contact me.

If I would try to summarize the workshop it would be using the following words, friendly, fun and intresting.

The friendly atmosphere is a most to have when you are trying out something you are not comfortable with, and it sure was a friendly place. Everyone felt welcome and was laughing and chatting with everyone and of course, beeing the crazy spirit Martin is it would have been hard not to! And of course, it wouldn´t have been possible without all those friendly nerds, lovely bunch of guys!

Fun, it was so much fun to be able to be a part of this weekend, I sure took a step out of my comfort zone trying to paint such a large piece, and it wouldn´t have happened if I didn´t know that I had some backup if I would lose my spirit. Whenever I wasn´t sure about my next step or the progress, Martin encurage me to do some “sloppy painting” and then it worked ou somehow. That is one thing I will try to embrace, not try to make it “perfect” at once but instead make progress.

Intresting, I picked up some stuff here and there and even thou I have been painting for some time (not saying that I´m good at it) I learned a lot of stuff.

Would I say that there isn´t room for improvement, of course there is. As always but it´s just some minor things. It would have been nice to gather all piecec a few times and have everyone a chance to get a good look at all pieces and get some feedback that all could hear, but at the same time could that have made some poeple uncomfortable so it might be a chosen decision not to do that. Either way I´m very happy with the weekend!

Moving towards the end of this post, the question is, would I recommend someone to join Martin in one of his workshops and would I do it again? there really is just one simple answer, of course!

Untill next time, keep your brushes pointy and your colors wet! And remember to step out of your comfort zone!

 

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