 The strict techno-mancer that is Vinci V. Let us get to the technique and learn it Vinci V style Hello everybody and welcome to another hobby cheating video And today is going to be a slightly unusual one because today we're gonna talk about what I think are the three most important questions You can ask yourself before you start any painting project And I think this is really important Oftentimes, especially when we start out we're painting to a specific purpose often without thought or intent But as we continue to grow in this hobby the opportunities to learn to paint for different reasons and to Expand the way we practice our hobby just continues to grow So I'm gonna give you the three questions that I ask myself every time I start a project Because the answers that you give Can lead to very very different Things being done throughout the process So what are the three questions? The first question we're gonna ask ourselves is what am I trying to create? What am I doing it and why? The second question we're gonna ask ourselves is what tools make sense for me to use here The third question is what am I trying to learn or practice? How do I want to grow when this project is complete? So let's break down each one of those questions in turn looking at some video that I've done over the past That are examples of putting each of these things in play So first off What am I trying to create? When you ask yourself the question, what am I trying to create you should be thinking why am I doing this? Is this a speed paint? Am I painting miniatures for a board game that I just want to get them finished and on the table and ready to play? And they're gonna get packed up into a box and played every so often So let's just get them done Maybe this is just for fun. It's a one-off. Hey, I got this weird miniature. It seemed cool I'd like to just paint it because I think it looks neat Okay, that's fine Maybe it's for an army. That's often where we start out when we first start hobbying and If it's for an army, then it has to look like everything else in the army. There's a particular scheme. I'm going for Maybe the pieces for display or competition and that can dictate different things When you think about what this piece is for What you're really deciding is how much time am I going to invest into this? And is time going to be the determinative factor? I've talked about this before But when you're talking about speed painting or maybe doing a fun one-off or sometimes even army painting Time becomes the governing element. It's the most important thing in our life. It's the only thing we'll never get back You'll make more money. You can do moat. You can get most anything you lose back except time So quality is what's sacrificed because in the end the painted figure is more important than the not painted figure And so when you know, that's the goal set it accordingly Get the colors on there establish the contrast achieve what you wanted to achieve and move on And if it's not perfect, don't beat yourself up over it. Who cares? It's painted, which means it's always better than unpainted However, if it's for display or competition Then time no longer becomes a factor Instead quality is the determinant of element Instead we keep painting until we achieve the level of quality That's at the top of our skill the most we're capable of and whatever we think we need to do to achieve What we're trying to achieve The third category here. I mentioned the fun one-off it matters Sometimes you don't want to worry about either. You're not really painting for time Because you don't need to achieve anything and you're not really painting to quality You're just painting to fun and this shouldn't be lost. I paint figures like this all the time I mentioned it in the claw lords video my painting Zen. You can see that up in the right now figures like this You do them every so often because It's important to just have fun and remember that this is art and about expression and creativity and Just fun So it's okay Sometimes you just paint a figure you play around with new colors or new paints or a new product And you see where it ends up and when it's done it's done you put it away on the shelf And you're happy with it question the second What tools make sense to use? What paint types are we gonna use is this oils? We're gonna use some streaking grime here. We're gonna use acrylics What about the actual tools we're gonna use the airbrush we're getting out inks we're using traditional paints maybe crazier things What about what colors what color palette are we gonna use now oftentimes the first question will lead you to an answer on the second When you've decided that the project is for fun well then use whatever you want Maybe this is the chance to break out that streaking grime that you've never used but you heard about and give it a shot Or maybe it's the time to hate, you know, I got those oils I wanted to give them a try I see people use them in videos But I just I've never had the guts because I don't want to do something that's gonna detract from my army And I don't want it on a display piece. Okay, then that's what a fun piece is for Use those oils Play around with them if it messes up who cares it was for fun and you learned move on if it's for the army If we're painting for an army well then oftentimes things like the color scheme is important and decided once but from there We're more or less just executing But never miss the opportunity to ask yourself this question When you approach new figures or new units or centerpieces and say I've got my standard scheme Could I all treat just slightly could I experiment just a little could I do something slightly different? That'll both make this figure stand out But also make this a more interesting project for me and those little bits of spice Often keep army painting fresh and allow you to get to the end of a 2000-point army If it's for display or competition Then the tools you use might be as wide as you can cast your net because it's whatever tools you think you're going to need To achieve the level of quality that this project demands Maybe that means working with your airbrush first to lay down the tones then brush and then the airbrush to smooth it out and Then a little bit of oils to add tones and ambiance and then back to the airbrush for some universal highlighting Whatever, maybe it means brush work throughout because that's where you're the most confident that you will be able to achieve exactly what you want to But think about those tools in advance and how they relate to the first question By having the colors you're going to use the tools that you're going to put into practice and The types of paint or the mediums that you're going to bring this project to life in by having that stuff arranged and Prepped in advance the more likely you are to set yourself up for success because a lot of times It's easy to get painting and know you should be using a different tool and Then not going and getting it because you don't want to stand up You don't want to dig through a box. You don't want to figure out where it is You don't want to get it out put it on the pallet start something new I'd rather just keep painting. We all do it So decide in advance think of the project through even a minimal amount of planning can lead to a lot of success later Finally the last question and maybe the most important one What am I trying to learn or practice? Every single miniature we paint Can be can be a learning opportunity It doesn't have to be Sometimes you can just paint for fun and you can just Repeat something using all of the same stuff But when you are painting for display or for an army and even sometimes yes for fun and even sometimes yes when speed painting We can still be asking ourselves the question What do we want to learn or practice? That might be a certain technique So it might be something like oh, I want to work on my non-metallic metal or my OSL or my environmental lighting Whatever those are often the most common things people think of they're sort of the stuff That's right at the top of their mind because there are these very technical Painting things that are hard to achieve right maybe freehand falls into this category as well But that's not actually the things I'm talking about completely I mean yes, it counts and yes It is important to practice all that stuff and if you really want to get good at non-metallic metal Well, the answer is do a whole army in non-metallic metal. It'll kill you But you'll get better at it Because each piece will be a new chance to learn about light and reflections and placements So when you're staring down anything from a single model to a unit to an army Always be asking yourself the question. What am I practicing? What's the deliberate thing? I'm going to try here Maybe it's just working on my brush control Maybe it's establishing a solid clean base coat. Maybe it's pushing my contrast and really identifying where the light falls Maybe it's using texture and identifying Materials and making sure that the materials are reflective in the appropriate way i.e. Metal is higher contrast than matte wool cloth Maybe it's you get the composition of your scheme and how you work with colors and balance them across the miniature Maybe it's just how you tell a story With the miniature the emotion the ambiance and what you communicate to the viewer Whatever it is Think about that element and laser focus on it throughout Practice that element and you'll see how quickly your painting will improve If you ask yourself these three questions the start of every project Not only will you have more fun and more success during your painting? But you'll learn a lot quicker as well and be amazed at how fast you grow So thank you very much for watching this. I hope you enjoyed it. Give it a like Subscribe for additional hobby cheating in the future. You've got any questions drop them that down below But I thank you for watching this one and we'll see you next time