Happy New Year everyone!!!

I wish you all a great 2016, may your brushes be ever sharp, your blends be ultrasmooth!

Today I want to take a look back at 2015 and share my resolutions for the coming year :).

The past year has been a great experience for me. For me it was truly the year of commission painting and I painted a lot of miniatures which unfortunately I could not keep for myself. I really enjoyed painting commissions, especially the box arts for Ax Faction remain very dear to me. So sad that the company seized to exist because I thought they made really distinctive, edgy figures.

Towards the end of the year I started working (almost) fulltime at the university and I didn’t have as much time to paint as I did before. So I took on fewer commissions and I started focusing more on what I want to paint for fun! I sometimes struggle to find the motivation to paint, as now there is no deadline, but at the same time that missing deadline is nice ;).

In 2015 I also discovered a lot of great new companies (for me at least). First of all, there is Twisted, with incredible sculpts from Sebastian Archer and Patrick Masson. Another company that really drew my attention was Nocturna: great, unique figures and awesome quality. I also really enjoyed the releases from Scale 75, and how they give you the possibility to choose between larger and smaller versions of their minis. Lastly, there is Ares Mythologic, whose sculpts really interest me and one of them will soon be on my painting desk.

In terms of events, 2015 was not very eventful (in the literal sense :P). At the start of the year I gave a workshop at Poldercon, a new Dutch wargaming event. It was nice to meet new people there and I am looking forward to see the event evolve. In October the SMC took place again, and as always it was great! For the first time the event took two days – one day of workshops and one day show. Next year the show will be two days, which is great as the show day always flies by way too fast!

On the blogging front, things have gone quite well, and there were many new viewers, so that is great! I hope to add more content next year, and hopefully some more tutorials if I find time for that.

In numbers, here is the top 3 of most viewed posts:

1) Painting skintones: Paints, tips & tricks
2) Review: Painting Miniatures from A to Z – Angel Giraldez (+ Joan of Arc mini)
3) Dark Eldar Step-by-Step Part 7: OSL & Cybergreens using Dayglow Pigments

So now it’s time for 2016!!!

Here are my painting resolutions for the coming year

• Take better care of my brushes 🙂
• Keep my desk cleaner. As I don’t have a steady work place, and use it as my computer spot as well, this is quite important!
• Paint larger scaled minis. I’ve grown quite fond of the bigger sculpts, and I am looking forward to paint some. The workshop I attended with Fernando Ruiz has definitely helped clear part of the dear I have for painting them, and now I think it is time!
• Most importantly: Paint for me! I notice that I often paint with the idea of making something other people will like, for example thinking about what will have a chance of winning something at a contest. What goes with the recent “fashion” in miniature painting. Instead, I want to focus on what I like to paint, the style I like to see and the type of minis that I enjoy painting. It’s about happy painting and I hope that I can stop “caring” what other people’s opinions are and just do what I love to do :D.