With only a few POST-CENTAUR
PAINTING-booklets left I am quite pleased about the venture. I have already recieved several
comments and bits of feedback but I thought it would be nice to have
a post reserved for feedback.
Overall, the feedback I have got so far has been quite
positive and encouraging.
However, these are some of the wishes:
- Closer looks at the miniatures. So bigger detail-shots.
- More text as an improvement was also mentioned. I wonder if I could have taken the type-size down by one or two to make room for a few sentences more?
- More sketches if possible.
- WIP-images has also been asked for.
- Also, the spiral binding does take it a bit from a ”proper” book.
Lots of great feedback. Thanks a lot.
Of course I can only show sketches for
a project if I actually made the drawings. As mentioned in the
booklet I consider sketches a kind of visual notes. For me it is a
combination of trying out a composition and planning what bits to
use. Sometimes I do a sketch, at other times I just go directly into
the conversion.
More text (and space for it) would be
great in some places. For some of the models I could easily har used more space, but
for one or two I felt like I could not add more using ”mere”
words. Instead I left it to a short presentation and let the
miniature speak by itself. But if more text is requested overall, then it is something to shoot for in the future.
The spiral-binding was a tricky one
since the small format makes it hard to glue properly. The risk was
that the pages might get loose and fall out if glued. However, a plus for the
spiral-binding solution is that you never have to bend the paper to
show a page-spread properly. I have actually come to like the spiral-binding very much, although I had my doubts about it at first.
So far it has actually been a lot of
different things that people point out as their favorite bit. Some
people like the my Mordheim gaming miniatures, some like the
inquisitor characters, others comment on the overall stylistic
journey.
But anyway, any comments on other
issues or just a repetition of some of the pointers above will be greatly
appreciated. Feedback is crucial - certainly if I am to look into
doing a second booklet. Of course, you cannot make everyone happy and the topic or theme of a publication will always create some limitation. But that is part of the game!
* * *
For those who did not see the
POST-CENTAUR PAINTING release post back in April, the booklet can be
purchased through Runic Miniatures at the following stand-alone
site,
Happy Painting!
Hi Jakob,
ReplyDeleteI bought the booklet too. At the beginning I was really expecting painting guides, but now I really like it like this...I see it more of a way of thinking miniature painting and the hobby, which "helped" me alot because I was extremely harch with myself, which took away a big chunk of the fun. Through your booklet I have now a very different approach, I really see it more as a fun past-time, instead of trying all the time to copy someone else.
I think this is the most important thing such a booklet could do for a painter. Therefore my favourite miniature of the book is the little halfling vingette :)
What I really like too, is that you wrote down which parts you did use to create the minis...I only recently started warhammer kitbashing (thanks to the guys at spikyratpack) and this helped me a lot, because it showed me that you really have to think outside the box, and find many unexpected bits in different places.
In general I like the format, size and layout alot, it's very handy and I have it laying next to me on my painting most of the time (together with some really old white dwarf magazines). I wished though there were even more pictures in the book, just because I like your style so very much.
All in all it's one of my hobby purchases that makes me the happiest, so thank you for this!
Cheers, Marc
I rather liked the spiral binding, for just the reasons you point out above.
ReplyDelete".I see it more of a way of thinking miniature painting and the hobby, which "helped" me alot because I was extremely harch with myself, which took away a big chunk of the fun. Through your booklet I have now a very different approach, I really see it more as a fun past-time"
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt that I really would like to be a better painter, but I look at the booklet just like this :-)
There is also no doubt, that all the Wishes for the next booklet, is also a thing I´d like to see.
Hi Jakob,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the booklet, the content was very much what I expected it to be. I agree with the suggestion of including some WIP shots, perhaps even including some ideas and mock-ups that you decided against, it's always interesting to see the how the creative process works.
I very much like how every model retains its "feel" even though they're all quite heavily converted. Another thing I noted was that almost every model was based on a Brian Nelson sculpt. Being a fan of his work myself I would love to hear your thoughts on his miniatures, perhaps a future blog post?
I enjoyed the book, and I like the sprial binding; it seemsappropriate for the sort of booklet that it is.
ReplyDeleteBigger photos would be a plus. We are spoiled by lots of high quality photos available on-line these days so print expectations are much above what they were even 10 years ago.
More text could not be a bad thing, and though I understand itn is not a painting guide, some words on techniques and why they were chosen would be of benefit.
I really enjoyed the booklet. I found it very inspirational.
ReplyDeleteThe ringbinding is not particularly to my taste but I don't think it detracts from the booklet overall. I just worry about damaging it or the covers of my other art books when I'm moving stuff around with my big clumsy hands :)
A few more notes on techniques would be wonderful if space would allow it.
I really loved the sketches, I'd love to see more sketches, especially of things that didn't make it to miniature form . Because I love to see those vestigial ideas that in and of themselves are also quite inspirational.
Maybe some more "group shots" of the miniatures that ended up as warbands etc. To see how they compliment each other.
I think it was a great first product but I would have liked larger pages with larger photos. My copy also seemed to have pixelated pictures....a little bit. So I would have liked better quality photos as well. Overall I thought the amount of text was fine. I hope you do another one, but of a wider range of your work. I guess what I mean is, give us more!!! :)
ReplyDeletePros - Spiral bound, I like having a flat page when looking at an image. Its my main gripe with new white dwarf layout, small book, lots of pages and images go to the center so you never really see the image that great.
ReplyDeleteCons - I had already seen most of what was in the book on your blog, I was hoping for something extra for the money that I hadnt already seen. No details, extra angles or even new models.
In future - Similar to how well your website goes through tutorials it would be great to see some more tutorials, WIP shots and explanations on your techniques, how and why it was used etc. Maybe thats just me but I am as intrested in the final product as I am in how it was made. Your website has some great tutorials so I was hoping for more in the book.
Overall glad I bought it but I was slightly underwhelmed as I had already seen most of what was in there on this blog.
Thanks all for the feedback.
ReplyDeleteLots of great points and reminders.
A lot of obvious stuff really, but all worthy wishes.
Especially the praise of the "inspirational" impact of the booklet is nice to hear since it was probably my main goal. To create something which was very pure and simple hobby stuff. So I might have taken a break from competition painting, but I also dived back into just enjoying the hobby.
The wish for previously unseen stuff is a very valid point that I will definately take up, should I do another booklet. And idea could be to have exclusively the WIP-material for a series of project in a booklet. Kind of like the "behind-the-scenes"-stuff on dvd-releases. Sketches and some more photos of models - moody and group shots - could also be great to explore more.
Also, I see a general wish for a few more words. That should also be taken into account. For my part I also enjoy to read about considerations and process stuff, so a little more writing would probably be great.
Thanks a lot for the comments so far.
I've just been having a look back through your blog, I'm making a point of visiting a lot of blogs around the web lately as I've just started my own blog. Shame that I only just found out about this, it looks amazing! By the way it would be great if you could have a look at my blog: Krokodiltears.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteThanks, Gabe
I've just been having a look back through your blog, I'm making a point of visiting a lot of blogs around the web lately as I've just started my own blog. Shame that I only just found out about this, it looks amazing! By the way it would be great if you could have a look at my blog: Krokodiltears.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteThanks, Gabe