I’ll admit it. I am not a great painter. I have been part of the wargaming hobby for thirty years, and my painting ebbs and flows–some years it’s really good and some years it’s not so good.

This is not because I don’t try to improve. Probably the #1 YouTube videos that I watch are miniature painting videos. I hear everything that they say in these videos and then I try to paint my own, and they’re just… not as good.

But that’s the problem: I watch too many videos and it gives me the impression that this level of miniature painting is normal. I scroll through Instagram where I follow incredible painters, and I get the feeling that the pictures I post to Instagram are inferior.

But the truth is that my painting is JUST FINE. In fact, it’s not only just fine, it’s pretty good. No, I’m never going to win any awards. Yes, I’m always going to go to the game club and feel like my miniatures aren’t painted as well as they should be. But, at the same time, I’m going to go to the game club and see that I’m fielding armies that are fully painted, which can’t be said about a lot of the people who come. I may not be good, but I’m working on it.

The Hobby Streak

At the beginning of 2021 I started the Hobby Streak, which I heard about from the amazing painter Dana Howl. The purpose of the Hobby Streak is that you spend at least 30 minutes a day painting–good, bad, ugly–and then you post a picture of what you’ve done on Instagram. It’s about creating habits, not producing finished products.

And I think that’s incredibly healthy, because Dana Howl is an absolutely amazing painter, but sometimes she posts pictures of gray, unpainted miniatures because she’s spent her time assembling.

This is a kind of mindset that you don’t get from watching miniature painting YouTube videos. Or, I should say, it’s not the type of painting that you see from most painting channels. There are a lot of painting channels where they start the video with an unpainted miniature, and they end the video with something that is completely finished and beautiful.

And I think that sometimes it doesn’t reflect reality. There are miniature painters, who make their living on YouTube, who put out a video once a week and in that entire week the only thing they have painted is that one single miniature they’re featuring in the video.

The Award Winning Miniature Painters

And I’m not trying to throw any shade at these painters: they produce some really amazing content, and they’re the types of painters who talk about how they’re aspiring to Golden Demons or Crystal Brushes. And when they teach you how to paint, they are teaching advanced techniques.

One of the miniature painters that I’m talking about here is Miniac. If you haven’t watched his videos, take a look at the link below. Scott from Miniac is entertaining to watch, but when I watch his videos I never think “I bet I could do that.” In other words, these types of painters are aspirational. They’re the ones you watch knowing that you are simply not there yet, but maybe one day, if you really apply yourself, you can be.

Comparison is the Mind Killer

Here’s the problem: when you watch award-winning YouTubers and Instagramers produce gorgeous work, you need to realize that these people paint miniatures for a living. If someone makes a living off their YouTube painting channel–and I’m talking about channels like Miniac and Squidmar and Vince Venturella and Sam Lenz–odds are pretty good that you are not going to be painting at the same level as them.

It’s not a matter of innate skill or talent–I firmly believe that there’s no such thing as talent–but if you have a job and no sponsors, then you’re just not going to have time and resources to devote to miniature painting that these YouTubers do.

THIS IS NOTHING TO FEEL BAD ABOUT. Could you become like them? Yes, for sure. But are you going to do so without putting in a lot of work, and I’m talking thousands of hours of work? No. I don’t believe in skill, but I do believe in what Malcolm Gladwell calls the 10,000 hour rule: to be an expert in anything, you need to spend 10,000 hours doing it. To do some quick math, that’s the equivalent of working 40 hours a week for five years. That’s a lot of work.

So am I saying that you need to be doing that level of practice and learning to become an expert? Sure, if you want, but honestly, probably not.

What you need to do instead is say “I’m not an expert painter. I’m a good painter who is trying to get better. But that’s good enough.”

Accessible Miniature Painting

One of the things that gives me the most hope is that there are miniature painters on YouTube who are accessible, and they’re not even little channels. Some of the biggest channels are completely accessible. I love Hobby Night’s videos that use mostly Contrast paints. I love Sonic Sledgehammer’s videos that paint a mini from start to finish in about an hour.

One of the biggest miniature painters on YouTube is Guy at Midwinter Minis. Guy would be the first one to tell you that he is not shooting for any awards. His channel started because he had a clever idea for painting Necrons–nothing spectacular, but interesting. Then he did about 30 videos speed painting Blackstone Fortress. He did so with a limited number of colors, with a synthetic brush, without a wet palette–and he’s colorblind.

You see, there are levels of miniature painters in the world. Some are aspiring award winners, and some just want to get some good models out on the table.

Enjoy the Journey

It may sound trite, but mini painters need to enjoy the journey. Whether you’re planning on entering a competition or whether you just want to look prepared at your FLGS game night, you need to enjoy the process.

All of the pictures that I’ve included in this article are models that I have painted. And, more importantly, these are the models that I consider to be my very best. I’m really proud of every one of these.

And they’re never going to win anything! And that’s okay! I’m on Day 173 of the Hobby Streak. If you look at the Gallery on this website you’ll see the link to my Instagram feed. There’s an awful lot of mediocre paint jobs on there. And I’m fine with that, because, while I definitely want to improve, I paint every morning before I go to work, and sometimes 30 minutes a day is all I get. I’m not going to produce at the same level as the professionals.

There’s a danger when you follow great painters on Instagram, when you scroll through the feed and it’s expert paint job after expert paint job. You get the idea that this is what everyone else is doing–and why can’t you be that good? The answer, of course, is that those painters have 1) put in thousands of hours, and 2) paint more hours a day than you do.

Paint with confidence, but be patient with yourself. Set realistic expectations. Don’t compare your early work to someone else’s advanced work.

This hobby is supposed to be fun. Enjoy the process.