Hey there ladies and gentlemen, dear painters!

I always wanted to make an own Logo and did in the last time but it looked odd. Now i made a ne one.

The "S" will serve as an Avatar and to sign my pictures. :)

The "pinselwut.blogspot.de" will bekome my forums signature.


And this is for Wallpaper, T-Shirt  and stuff ;)

Hey there ladies and gentlemen, dear painters!

Today we listen to the words of Stephan Rath known as Derwish in our interview series. Let´s hop right in!

Hi Derwish, first of all, tell us something about yourself and your life in mini painting.

Hi, in my normal life, I'm a shift working technologist in a papermill. As compensatory for my job in the paper industry, I started painting miniatures in late 2005. Next to my work in the papermill and the miniatures, I am a husband and father of two children (5 and 13 years).

Tell us about your painting habits, are you a professional painter or just for the hobby?

Meanwhile I'm a proffesional painter. But I try to seperate the proffesional part from the hobby part. I tink, if you are very successful with something, you should share your skills with the community.



How did you manage to evolve your skills, how do you learn or improve?

Practicing. Thats the only rational explanation. You can read or watch thousands of toturials, but this won't improve your skills. You have to apply these things yourself on your painting table. Nature and other pro painters are the best teachers. Apply what you can see, with the skills you have = practice = improvement of skills.



You are known as the "Kringelmeister" for perfect blendings and incredible free hands. How do you achieve your results?

I was working thousands of hours with paints and brush in the past years. To do color blendings became more and more automatic. It's just a question of time. You have to have a lot of patience. The freehands are a bit more difficult, cause every motif needs a new and special strategy. But one thing, I can say generally... in freehand works you can apply the whole scope of the skills you have.



Do you always wanted to paint neat and clean or did your style evolve from itself?

I think this is a result of my perfectionism :) sometimes I wish I could paint a bit more dirty for a more realistic atmosphere. But I'm working on it.



Lets talk about tools: What paints, brushes, minis are your favorites?

I am using several brushes... Citadel, Raphael, W&N, da Vinci... The manufacturer isn't very important. But I think it's an advantage if you are accustomed to your brush. It's not a good idea, to change the brush, and also the brush size too often, while painting. The sizes, I use mostly are 1, 0, 3/0 and 5/0. I prefer acrylic paints, dilluted with water, which are high picmented and drying very fast... The old citadel paints for example. The new GW paints and Vallejos working as well, but I dillute them with airbrush thinner instead of water. There's not a prefered manufacturer, but I like fantasy and steampunk models most at the moment.



Do you have some Idols? Who are they?
Raffa from MV, for his well balanced mixture of clean areas + atmosphere + basing + detailed freehands. Goatman, I envy him for his unbelievable workflow ;)



And last, but not least: Do you have an advice for the painters out there, some nice words of motivation?

Every miniature painter out there can reach my level of skills. They just have to practice. So move your ass on your painting table and go on with your projects or start a breathtaking new one. To quote Morpheus: "Don't think about it... just do it!" Oops, plug. :)


Thank you for the interview! To all dear painters: be sure to visit and subscribe to derwish´s Blog http://www.rathcore.blogspot.de/!

Hey there ladies and gentlemen, dear painters!

Today i am coming to you with dots! Lots 'a dots! I´m doing the clothes of the Knights right now and one knight has it´s clothes already coloured. It is not finished, as there are coming some freehands on the clothes. :) Every dot is painted seperately, it is time-consuming but at the same time really fun to build up highlights in an absolutely unusual way. Let´s hope i see it this way on the 5th knight as well. ;)

Hope you like it.

Hey there ladies and gentlemen, dear painters!

Today i´m coming to you guys with a medical tutorial wich i think could help many of you painters out there!

I want to talk about back-pain. Many of us know this scenario: You had an awesome painting session, full of painting joy. You finish, stand up and then your back is aching like hell.

Our backs dont like bent posture and punish us for bending over too much time. So how do we prevent this?

If you have a standard desk with approximately 75cm height (as i do) then you have two options:

1. Your seating surface has to be lower.

2. Your Desk surface has to be higher.

Option 1 is not really good, as you are sitting too near to the ground and get problems with your legs.

So option 2, making the desk higher is the better one. And we have plenty of solutions here.
Some may get a cheap goldsmith-desk (they are really high) or any other high desk.

I have build myself a sort of podestal out of a wooden shelf and some pillars. This was cheap and done quick and it fulfills it´s purpose as my working height is now on approx. 88cm. With this height, my back is straight and does not pain after a painting session.

Of course, my podestal is not the best looking one, but i can easily hide it under the desk or in a cupboard.

Here are some pictures:

Place without podestal

place when using the podestal

I hope this article will help you to find a solution for pleasing your back while painting. :)

Hey there ladies and gentlemen, dear painters!

Today i bring you the finished banner pole head and the rider´s shields! :)

Thanks to finecast the shields cast was horrible, but i made the best of them.

I hope you like them, now business is getting serious as i start with the riders themselves. Bones ahead! :)

Banner Pole:

Shields:

Hey there ladies and gentlemen, dear painters!

today i am coming to you with a WIP update of my Black Knight´s banner. I managed to finish both sides of the banner today and now there is just the pole and the decorative helmet/head on the top!

I am very satisfied with the result. The second side of my banner shows an "C" in gothic lettering. This refers to "von Carstein" wich my knights belong to ;)

 I hope you like it!

Hey there ladies and gentlemen, dear painters!

Just a quick update: some nice people from the german Bemalforum gave me an advice about the very artificial looking end of the banner. I made it more "torn". :)

Hey there ladies and gentlemen, dear painters!

Today i´m coming to you guys with the first side of my Black Knights Standart Bearer´s Banner. I painted a freehand picture of an armoured skull, is was inspired by an deviant art pic.

I hope you like it! Now, there is another side of the banner to do, wich will contain gothic tribals and some form of "von Carstein" Sigil as my Black knights will belong to "von Carstein".