Today's interviewee is Enrique "Emuse" Velasco. Thank you for sharing in.
Spotlight are short interviews to introduce some of the artists here at Putty&Paint.
Who are you? Tell us a bit about you.
My name is Enrique Velasco, also known as emuse, born in 1980. I am a professional freelance miniature painter from Madrid, Spain.
I finished history degree some years ago with not many professional expectations. I was studying for a public examination but yes, the fu***** economic crisis started and the public jobs were drastically reduced. The inability to work in something connected with my studies made me decant for something completely different, something that had always liked me and I realized it could be an interesting and motivating activity. I have been working the last five years as freelance painter and still I have many doubts about my future.
What are your favorite tools, and why do you use them?
I have no particular attachment to any tool… maybe only the Winsor & Newton brushes. In this life all the material things are replaceable, and the market has plenty of good options to choose from. In fact, I’m very standard in everything that I use: An evolution airbrush, Citadel, Vallejo and Andrea paints, Winsor & Newton brushes as I said, wet palette, pigments, etc… The same as 90% of the painters. What I usually advise is that always, of course if it´s possible, invest money in the best tools. Miniature painting is a complicated labour, so try to avoid external obstacles.
How would you describe your own style?
I think that If you don´t be a conformist person, you always will be absorbed in a learning process, so your painting style always will be changing. In the last year I´ve noticed that a certain style is being formed. All this has been a long process of trial and error that did not bother me find a style but rather try to absorb and practice all possible. Every time I am more aware of what I look for in a figure and I’m starting to feel that I can pull it off, but I still have a lot do. It is obvious that each figure has a style that favors more or less, but overall I love the figures with great contrasts, with a dramatic aspect. Every time I’m more interested in the atmosphere, in represent by the color rather than with the technique, and in achieve a final result near a illustration. It was always said that I am a extremely clean painter, but you should see my way of painting to verify that this is not true! And who knows, maybe in five years I have a different style! Get back to me with this question in a few years!
Show us your workspace. Do not clean it.
I´m very organized. I always clean and arrange my workbench after a working day. I hate chaos.
Who influences your work and what inspires you?
I would not be honest if I did not say that I entered in this world after seeing some of the first works of Alfonso Giraldés like his ogryns, the blood pact or Rawnee. There was nothing for me in the miniature world beyond Games Workshop. I was not aware you could get to that level with a figure, and was what made me start practicing based on what I read and saw online. In that time I followed many artists and their works, initially valuing more technical features and now focusing more on what the artist wants to convey. Artists like Diego Esteban, Fabrizio Russo, Kirill Kanaev, Sang-Eon Lee and of course Alfonso Giraldés are an inspiration and an example to follow in terms of what I get to achieve with my painting. I am strongly influenced by films, comics, illustrations, history and 80s and 90s popular culture. All these influences are captured in some ideas that attempt to express in my works.
What’s your current favourite music/movie/series you enjoy while working?
I hate the silence for work. There is always playing a film on a small tv that I have but obviously I can not see it. The dialogues break the silence, but It’s funny because if a play a record, it distracts my attention, but not the movies. I play all kind of films that I have seen before, mostly fantasy films, from the Universal classics to the latest movies of the genre, but I’m a big fan of cinema and of course I like to see all genres in my free time. An yes, it´s a crime dubbing a film but I must say I love the voices of some old spanish voiceover actors.
Show and tell us what you are currently working on or what you recently finished?
I have a lot of work now. I am working at the same time on several projects, as you can see in the picture. All of them are commissions except the Crystal Brush Project (under the top secret image). I´ll dedicate all February and March to finish the project at time. It has a big conversion process and 12-14 figures will be in the diorama. A lot of work, but I´m very motivated. I hope it will be my best project for the moment. I am also finishing all the details to announce a new round of painting classes in my studio. Oh, and I´m planning my display for the World Expo. I´m exhausted but happy!.
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Visit Enrique “Emuse” Velasco at Putty&Paint
And on his Website emusestudio.blogspot.com
Better late than never. Here is a little review of latest edition of the Scale Model Handbook published by Mr Black Publications.
The Scale Model Handbook – Figure Modellng 8 features step by step tutorials by Ernesto Reyes Stalhuth, Manolis Mitsotakis, Grigoris Marmatakis, Mike Butler and Alex Varella. This time there are only six tutorials but some of them are very detailed and have more pages than usual. Which I think is a good decision. That’s why in my opinion it is the best edition so far.
Viking Chief - Painting Different Textures and Metals by Ernesto Reyes Stalhuth
Praetorian Guard - Painting & Displaying a 75mm Figure in a Realistic Setting by Manolis Mitsotakis
Mamluke Officer 1805 - Painting a Colorful Uniform of the Napoleonic Wars by Grigoris Marmatakis
SS-Standartenführer - Painting a Large Scale Bust by Ernesto Reyes Stalhuth
28th Maori Battalion c. 1941-1943 - How to Paint Realistic Tectures on Large Scale Figures by Mike Butler
WWI Trench Section, Pleogsteert Wood 1915 - Painting WWI Figures and Trenche Section by Alex Varella
As always you can get the book from your favourite hobby shop or directly from Mr Black Publications.
Today's interviewee is Fernando Ruiz. Thank you for sharing in.
Spotlight are short interviews to introduce some of the artists here at Putty&Paint.
Who are you? Tell us a bit about you.
My name is Fernando Ruiz, I was born in Málaga but now I live in Barcelona, Spain. I work as a freelance videogames translator and I love painting miniatures.
What are your favorite tools, and why do you use them?
My weapons of choice are brushes and acrylic paints. I also use some other mediums and tools when I need them of course (airbrush, oils, enamels, whatever). I started painting that way and it’s kind of a “comfort zone” for me. But I’m always eager to try new techniques and stuff.
I haven’t tried yet too seriously to sculpt something from scratch, but I’m starting to feel comfortable with putty… Who knows?
How would you describe your own style?
Well, I always try to go for two concepts: balance and naturalism. There are multiple ways to achieve that, depending on the way you use to do things. For me, the real challenge is to make every part of the painted miniature work together as a whole, integrated in your own style and, at the same time, tell something with it. It would be arrogant to say that these two concepts define my style, as these are hard objectives and I’m in the road of improvement, as anyone else. But it would be nice to master that.
My way of doing things has changed a lot along the years but a constant obsession of mine has been cleanliness when painting.
Show us your workspace. Do not clean it.
I try to keep everything as tidy as possible, as I don’t like to have a crowded table, but chaos always finds a way… As I have a table with room for two people, the empty “guest” seat easily ends up as a junkyard. And the junkyard invades also my workspace if I let it be for too much time. The only solution I have found during these 20 years of hobby is to relax and put some order between projects.
Who influences your work and what inspires you?
I have to answer this one from two points of view, as I am involved in this hobby in a professional way.
As a painter, there are too many good artists out there to be able to write down all of them who have served as inspiration. I always say the same three names, as they have been the most direct and continuous influence for my style at some point: Jaume Ortiz, Raúl García Latorre and Pepe Gallardo. Also they are very nice guys and good friends of mine. What more can I say?
From my position at the artistic direction and coordination in Heroes & Villains Miniatures, I’m always inspired by ideas and projects that show some new angle on a theme or tell a story behind the miniature. Also, I like to devise the projects keeping in mind how I (as a modeller) would like things to be, taking care of all small details.
What’s you current favourite music/movie/series you enjoy while working?
I use to listen music while painting, but my preferences are quite eclectic. I like artists like The Beach Boys, David Bowie, Belle and Sebastian, The Who, The Kinks, Red Hot Chili Peppers, B-52’s, Johnny Cash or The Velvet Underground, but also classical music, lots of jazz and old movie scores.
Maybe the most curious fact about the relation I establish between music and miniatures is that I name all my personal ventures after or inspired by songs I love.
Heroes and Villains Miniatures: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blRPcqg6-94
Ziggy Starbrush and the Figures from Mars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsVEWeBkDY0
Also I love cinema of all sorts. My favorite movies are the classic Star Wars trilogy.
Show and tell us what you are currently working on or what you recently finished?
I can’t show you yet the two last finished miniatures, as they are part of a huge release we are planning for this year’s Euromilitaire, but I can show a recent version I did of our medieval knight bust.
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Visit Fernando Ruiz at Putty&Paint
On his Website ziggystarbrush.com
And at at FeR Miniatures
Today's interviewee is Dmitry Fesechko. Thank you for sharing in.
Spotlight are short interviews to introduce some of the artists here at Putty&Paint.
Who are you? Tell us a bit about you.
My name is Dmitry, I live in Moscow, Russia, now I am a freelance artist. As many artists I studied law (there is some trend, isn’t it?) in university, my graduation work was dedicated to copyright law. I always liked art and at the same time when I was studying law I began to draw and paint. When I began to paint, I was really fond of abstraction and pop art and avant-guard ... Mostly because I really did not have any thoughts and ideas about how to work with form. So I tried to work with color, to mix paints, to make something abstract… And then the truth appeared to me - abstract art is not so easy thing as it seemed to me. I also began to paint miniatures, and you know, many people start to paint miniatures when they want to make their own army for tabletop gaming, but it was not so for me. For me from the beginning the miniature painting was art. Then some of my paintings were sold, I began to take commissions on painting miniatures and then I realized that this is what I really want to do. After I graduated from university I began to take some private lessons from one good old artist. I studied anatomy a lot, academic drawing and so on. I also had some training on concept design. I have even worked for some time in one animation project, as a background artist but I really didn’t like working when you have an art director over you, detailed description what you need to do and so on. Now I’m painting miniatures, making paintings, taking part in some exhibitions and enjoying such life.
What are your favorite tools, and why do you use them?
I really like oils a lot. Good oil paints are made of natural pigments and the colors really have a very natural look. It is easier to work with large surfaces on miniatures and to make some freehands (but not the patterns – for patterns I use mostly acrylics) with oils. But painting in oils has some negatives too. You really need to have a good experience to predict the result because when you lay down the paint it is very shiny. Also you need to use varnishes, to wait some time when oil dries. As acrylic paints I use Vallejo, games workshop and andrea paints. In fact I don’t have a large pallete of acrylic paints, the habit that comes from working with oils. I very much like to mix colors. I also have an airbrush – H&S Infinity, but I don’t use it much, I don’t like the “glamour” look of works where airbrush is used a lot. I use kolinsky (best for acrylics for me) and synthetic brushes.
How would you describe your own style?
I like realistic looking painted miniatures and I really don’t like miniatures painted In kind of comic book looking style and too much stylized. There are some good artists using stylization a lot and their works are really awesome but I just like the realism more. I try to use vivid colors carefully, but also try not to do “only earth neutral colors miniatures”. I Don’t think that I can describe my own style in miniature painting itself and I don’t know if it is unique, but I like to do freehands, spend some time designing it, I like the realistic looking pictures on miniatures, like some soft edges on freehand drawings.
Show us your workspace. Do not clean it.
Who influences your work and what inspires you?
I think it is really better when nobody influences your work. Really. And no other works should inspire you. You should be inspired by your emotions, which you get from other works, but not those works itself, there is difference. Other wise you’ll be making replicas and can lose yourself. So a lot of emotions which I am inspired by I get from classical art. My favorite period is 19th century. I very much like orientalists, like Lecomte du Nouy. I have a very good book – Orientalism in western art, there are about 1000 orientalism art works from different periods. Vasiliy Vereshchagin (Василий Верещагин if you want to google it) is a really awesome Russian orientalist artist (although he was a soldier he fought in Asia all of his life). I really like works of Caspar David Friedrich, Peter Arbo, and of course Russian artists – Konstantin Makovsky (Константин Маковский), Vrubel (Врубель). Modern Russian artist Pavel Ryzhenko (Павел Рыженко) is also really awesome. And of course many many many others. Also I very much like the Spectrum annual artbooks. So the emotions is what really inspires us, I think.
What’s you current favourite music/movie/series you enjoy while working?
I like documental historical films, like travelling channel, like audiobooks (some of last – John Fowles – The Magus, Haruki Murakami - 1Q84). I like different music – classical rock like Led Zeppelin or Jefferson Airplane, Nick Cave and Tom Waits. One of my favorite bands is Morphine.
Show and tell us what you are currently working on or what you recently finished?
All the works I recently finished are here – on Putty and Paint: Samurai bust, Time composition, S’erum and Knights. I really should mention that all of them were done for Russian Alternative contest. There is also my last painting (though it was done in the beginning of this year) “Time Smoker” on the photo and one painting I’ve just started. It should be still life in classic glazing technique – some robotic mask or something like this ) I also just started some miniature projects – giant (and there would be archers with him I think and somebody killed) and model from Warmachine (If I’m right), hope I’ll finish them (cause sometime I don’t finish what I’ve started).
Regards,
Дмитрий
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Visit Dmitry Fesechko at Putty&Paint and on his Website fesechko.com
The latest edition of the Scale Model Handbook published by Mr Black Publication is out for a few weeks now. Here is a little review for you.
This time The Scale Model Handbook - Figure Modelling 7 features step by step tutorials by Javier González, Ernesto Reyes Stalhuth, Kazufumi Tomori, Man Jin Kim, Grigoris Marmatakis, Romano Navarro, Sergey Popovichenko, and Christos Stamatopoulos.
Again it’s a wide range of contents, from painting faces, to clothes, from 54mm to 200mm and this time also basing.
Claus von Stauffenberg - Techniques For Combining Acrylic and Oil Colours For Skin Tones & Leather Clothing by Man Jin Kim
French Gentilhomme - Painting a French Gentleman in Vivid Colours by Grigoris Marmatakis
Heinz Guderian - “Panzer Leader” - Painting a Large Scale Bust by Ernesto Reyes Stalhuth
Brünnhilde, Die Walküre - Painting a Female Figure by Kazufumi Tomori
Creating Bases & Scenic Settings for Dioramas & Figures by Sergey Popovichenko
Marshal Ney, Russia 1812 - Painting a 75mm Napoleonic Period Figure by Christos Stamatopoulos
U.S. 82nd Airborne in “Desert Shield” - Painting a Modern Camouflage Uniform by Roman Navarro
Nokjagerin - Painting in Cold Tones by Javier González
Here are some impressions of the The Scale Model Handbook - Figure Modelling 7.
You can get the book for a very reasonable price from you favourite speciality dealer or directly from Mr Black Publications.
