Why Do We Paint?

When you come to think about it, painting miniatures could very well be the oddest part of this entire hobby, particularly in this day and age of pre-painted miniatures and professional painting services. Why spend countless eye-straining hours laboring over tiny figures long into the night? Even if you are lucky enough to get in multiple games a week, it's likely that you'll never spend as much time playing as you do painting. And then there's all the additional cost (both time and money) involved in gaining proficiency in painting itself!

And yet most of us persevere. Why?

My answer: self-expression.

We want to feel like our miniatures reflect a bit of our own creative vision. In fantasy wargaming (and the more obscure historical genres), this includes things like choosing uniform colors and other details of the figures' appearance, but even in your more rigidly-proscribed historical genres like Napoleonics or WWII, there's often room for more than a bit of creative flourish amongst the uniform plates and camo swatches.

And then there's your own personal style. Everyone has one, even if it's subtle. To my mind, there is no point in painting miniatures yourself if the result isn't obviously your own "brand" of painting, as it were. Yes, most of us watch tutorials and try to emulate a particular favored style. But if the end goal is to look just like a Kev Dallimore or Duncan Rhodes piece, I have to question why you would bother painting your own minis at all. Just find a professional painter who can ape your favored style and spend the money you would have otherwise on paints and painting supplies on commissions instead.

So that's all my subjective opinion, and YMMV and all that. Where I start to get a bit tetchy, as the Brits say, is when emulation of a particular style gets confused with being a "good" painter. It's all a bit Académie des Beaux-Arts, if you will.

A personal anecdote to illustrate my point:

I've been painting miniatures for literally 30 years at this point. I am happy with my level of painting proficiency, though I'm always pushing myself to try new techniques or up my skill level in this way or that. But, ultimately, I would call myself a "good" painter.

To that end, I have periodically engaged in painting miniatures for commission. I have never had an unhappy client, and have frequently had to turn down work because my queue got too full.

A few years ago, I was looking into taking my commission work to a more regular gig and so was looking to put my name out there. One of the bigger GW-adjacent wargaming YouTube channels at the time ran a painting service (they may still, for all I know) and had an offer for commission painters where, if you did some painting for them, they would advertise your services on their channel. I submitted a portfolio.

The response I got was one of the most condescending rejections I've ever received; it more or less said, "Hey, great effort buddy! Keep practicing and in a few years you might actually get good!"

At first, this really threw me for a loop, I have to say. But as I thought it over, I realized where they were coming from: I don't paint to GW standards. And in their world, painting to the GW standard is the sole marker for what constitutes "good" painting. How clean are those edge highlights? Tighten them up, or you'll never be a "good" painter! That kind of nonsense. After that insight, I had a good laugh and moved on.

But that insight has stuck with me ever since as illustrative of a much more pervasive attitude. And it's frankly bullshit. It's an attitude that turns the art of miniatures painting into a craft of paint-by-numbers.

Do your figures look badass on the table? Are you happy with them? Then you're a "good" painter. End of story.

Timely insights courtesy of @sonicsledge.

Yes, there are certain minimum technical bars we all should be clearing. There is, I believe, an objective definition of what constitutes a "bad" paint job. Beyond that, anything is fair game. Paint for yourself and your own enjoyment and satisfaction; nobody else's.

(Okay, you can also paint for the enjoyment of your gaming buddies who appreciate your efforts and ogle your figures when you put them on the table, but that's it!)