Cyberpunk in Oils
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
Time to credit the inspiration for this new diversion into oils and lay down some links for anyone who might fancy giving it a go!
In some ways it started way back in the late 90s. As a jobless teenager I had a lot of spare time on my hands. Much of that time was spent watching Bob Ross on the tele!
I picked up a few paints and canvas boards and had a brief foray into having a go myself. It didn’t last long, but the seeds were sown and oil paints gained a reverence in my mind. Today the smell of them takes me back to simpler times and Bob’s assortment of critters and happy accidents.
Like most people, when I started miniature painting, it was a case of following convention – acrylic paint – base, wash, highlight kind of stuff. Eventually I learned that oil paints made great washes and weathering materials and dabbled with those.
It was Marco Frisoni who opened my eyes to using oils more widely and he has a number of great tutorials on his YouTube channel.
Marco has done a video on painting “entirely” in oils albeit that was still a little mixed media.
More good inspiration comes from our very own (and quite literally giant) Gerry of the Can fame who has done some great oil washing tutorials here on the site. Need to paint a horse? Gerr has you covered.
Most recently however, my main inspiration had been James Wappel.
As a former professional 2D artist and a multi Golden Demon award winner, Jim has done it all in painting, and recently he has converted to using oil paints on models start-to-finish most of the time.
You can watch him streaming several times a week on his Twitch Channel “Wappellious” and he also has a YouTube channel
His mastery of the medium, colours and technique are incredible, and well beyond my skill level, but I am learning a lot of tips I can bring into my own work. Long may the journey continue!
[Edit: Thanks to @Shingen who dropped me a line with some more useful resources:
Vince Venturella who uses oils as part of a mixed media process
Dmitry Fesechko who is a 2D artist who has a number of demonstrations for miniature painting
Always good to have more inspiration!]
Well, I grew up on the continent and have no idea who Bob Ross is, however, he looks ace on your picture, I particularly approve his hair-style (after half a year without haircut I’m reaching his level of ridicules – damn pandemics).
But I’m not here to write about hair.
You may know those guys as well, but I started with advise from Dmitry Fesechko (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT82veXhZsIbQHFhT1ID7nQ and Vince Venturella (https://www.youtube.com/c/VinceVenturella/videos), after a year of painting mostly in oils I’ve blended Wappel’s method with those two guys’.
Bob Ross is a legend – his show “The Joy of Painting” seems to be on TV quite a lot again recently. He uses a 4” paintbrush a lot so no use for miniatures!!
Thanks for tips, I was suggested Vince V a while back and subbed to his YouTube, although I’ve yet to some across a video I’ve really gotten into. Dmitry is entirely new to me though, and looks very interesting, so I am going to take a look – thanks!!
As for Bob Ross, I hear his name often, I just haven’t seen any of his shows. Maybe it is time to change it.
With Vince’s large library of videos, I’d recommend starting with two listed below, as they both show his technique with oils (mixed media to be exact) quite well on different colours and the same shapes.
Red: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiOuVWAIezw
Blue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qs5G9JIS30
Awesome thanks – I’ve saved them to watch later!