why you can’t improve…

I’ll be honest folks… this is going to be a tough read in some ways. Solving the puzzle of why we hit a wall in our improvement as miniature painters is a quest with more than one outcome. As you can imagine, this makes talking on the subject and reaching any satisfying conclusions a somewhat tricky prospect. But I do think I’ve gathered some thoughts and experience based opinions over the years that might help…

So why aren’t you improving? Lets break it down.

Marneus Calgar, by me, 2020

I want you to take a look-see at the miniature above… I've provided a nice closeup so that you can get a really good look and see all my mistakes. Once you’ve taken it in and had a think about what you might like or dislike about it, I want you to next take a look at this one.

New Calgar, by me, 2025

Whilst they’re not exactly the same sculpt (Calgar got a recent update) they are the same character, with a very similar amount of time spent on the painting and the main difference being that they’re 5 years apart.

Neither are painted to the limit of my ability, I’ll freely admit that - both are commission jobs where the client paid for about a day’s painting and painting a detailed character in a day requires some concession. However I do think they illustrate VERY neatly, what 5 years of improvement looks like, once you have that bit of context.

So what do you notice as the striking differences between them? What do you see as my biggest improvements in 5 years? I’ve added a snazzy new comments box at the bottom of this article, so how about you drop a comment in with how YOU think I've most noticeably improved… then read on and I'll deliver my verdict.

Go on, don’t cheat, do it now!

Goblin bust by Carlo’s Miniatures

This, in my opinion, is the best thing I’ve ever painted… and there’s some anatomical similarities in the presentation that I think will help illustrate my points about what I think are my biggest improvements in the last 5 years. I know this all feels a bit self-indulgent at this stage, but bear with me, because explaining this from my perspective is how I will illustrate how it might also look from yours, regarding your own painting.

So… those improvements.

Firstly, you can clearly see I’ve gotten much more proficient with an airbrush. Being able to use an airbrush to lay down blended basecoats on a wargaming scale figure, or do smooth accented highlights on a display scale figure is a big, clever skill that is WELL worth putting the time in to developing.

There’s this idea that an airbrush is somehow a cheat tool… giving you smooth blends way easier than a brush and therefore being a low effort, chumps version of painting well.

This is… and I cannot state this firmly enough… utter bollocks.

Yes, airbrushes DO blend much smoother than brushes, naturally, and therefore with less effort. But that doesn’t nearly compensate for the effort required to learn to be precise with them, The difference between a well placed spot highlight and a mess can be less than a single millimetre of finger squeeze on that trigger. Being able to consistently do this to the extent you can risk doing it on work you’re being paid for, or hoping to win competitions with? That’s a big ask that takes practice and dedication to hone the necessary skills for.

It’s also pretty clear that my fine lining has improved… which is interesting, because as I’m getting older my eyesight is getting worse and my hands are shaking more. Interestingly, the improvements to my fine lining and brush control in general were both completely free (well, insofar as no practice was needed). I just did two little things to change my approach slightly, and almost overnight I was seeing huge improvements.

Firstly, I got reading glasses to paint with. No matter how good you THINK your eyesight is… whether you wear glasses normally or not… if you’re struggling with precision work, just TRY some kind of magnification.

Personally, I can’t use anything that magnifies too far, because it screws my depth perception and I can’t tell where the model is. In my specific usage case, +2.0 reading glasses have been the solution. Some people use magnified lamps, or those silly headset magnifiers that make you look like Doc Brown. It’s all good… but just stop being proud and bloody try something! If it doesn’t help, it’s not a huge cost. If it does, it’s a HUGE gain.

The other was just… being gentler. Yeah weird right? The more we concentrate, the more we tend to tense up. The more we tense up, the stiffer and heavier we tend to lay strokes in…which means if we jog or shake, the upset becomes WAY heavier as a result, leading to bigger, more noticeable mistakes.

Loosen your grip on your brush, breathe slowly through your nose and most importantly, apply your strokes with calm confidence. This again, almost changed my painting overnight.

I’m gonna show you something kinda wild now.

This is a piece I painted last year. Yes, if we compare it to 2020 Calgar, it DOES show better painting BUT this piece took twice the time of 2020 Calgar and I don’t think it actually looks THAT much better.

You can see that I’m still struggling with fine brush control. I’m leaning much more on deliberate texture to make up for my lack of precision. The truth that this piece reveals, I think… is that I did most of my “getting good” just this year. And that’s a really nice segue.

I joined the GitGud Discord this year. For those of you who don’t know, its a place where most of the UK competitive painting community hang out alongside a bunch of well known folks from overseas too. There’s a TON of incredible painting in this Discord and so you might think it’s the last place you want to be to stay motivated…you’d be wrong.

Firstly, I’d already started consciously trying to push myself past my wall, before I joined this server so I'll preface this by saying that I do think being a member is MOST fruitful if you are actively trying to improve and open to changing what you do. If you’re not…you’re probably gonna have to deal with a lot of “I’ll never be that good” feelings, and that likely won’t help you.

BUT if you’re a member of a community like that, what you DO get is something Instagram will never be able to offer, because not only is the painting channel in there like a feed of everyone you aspire to be as good as, but all of their generosity and kindness means that they also share their thoughts and experience. They keep each other motivated, they give each other tips.

It’s honestly a pretty similar environment to that which I try to cultivate in my own Discord and in my own teaching. The idea that seeing painting that you think is better than yours is a gift, a chance to dissect and brainstorm. I LOVE being surrounded with people who not just inspire me, but also spark my ASPIRATION.

All of this neatly brings me on to my next key point of improvement. Ego.

My American Bolt Action Army

Ya see… Ego isn’t BAD. Ego protects us from self-doubt. As a business owner, I often have to rely on my ego when I’m “selling” my business to potential clients…after all who wants to hear about the weaknesses of someone they’re about to invest money in? If my pitch includes “I do sometimes need reminding of stuff, because I’m terribly scatter-brained” there’s every possibility I could lose the faith of a client before I’ve even gained it. But Ego allows me to proudly focus on the positives and assure myself that I'll overcome my weaknesses and give the customer the best experience possible.

The trick with ego isn’t to never be proud…and that was my mistake. I always told myself I had to shrink myself for others. That unless I was the best, I didn’t deserve a voice. What I’ve learned lately though (and partially thanks to the GitGud fam) is that a little ego, channelled correctly, is a POWERFUL tool for self improvement.

I need you all to know something, and it’s really important.

Being proud of what you’ve achieved, isn’t the same as being egotistical. That’s the trick. Enjoy.

That picture just above… the American Bolt Action army? Probably felt a bit out of context whilst I was waffling on there. It wasn’t. That right there is the miniature painting “W” I'm most proud of this year. It has been YEARS since I finished a playable army for any game bigger than a 10 model skirmish jobber. I am over the damn moon with that army and I show it to everyone.

But notice something… the painting isn’t even that great? It’s fine like…for my skill level, it feels passable. There’s models that I really like looking at even. But realistically, it’s not even in the same tier as my best work.

What I’m trying to communicate to you here is that you need to learn when to take the dub. When to be proud of breaking new ground. When to be willing to say “Ya done good” to yourself. I’m proud of my Silver at Fen, I’m proud that people are PAYING ME to teach them to paint, I’m proud that I own a brush brand…and I should be. I worked hard for these things. If the internet thinks I’m egotistical for being pleased with myself for working hard and being rewarded…that’s not a negative reflection on me.

Getting my thick skull around this fact has been HUGE in improving my painting. Because I've learned to accept that they don’t all have to be bangers, because I’ve learned that they don’t all have to break 1000 likes on Instagram, because I’ve learned that sometimes the goal isn’t even to PRODUCE your best work… I am able to just channel my inspiration in to that miniature and make what my body and brain want to make on that day. There’s a purity to that which is so unbelievably valuable to improving in one’s creative endeavours.

And with that established, and you hopefully feeling comfortable to be proud of your achievements… it’s now time for the last point. The final thing that improved my miniature painting isn’t even miniature painting related.

It’s this…

This is my camera, there are many like it, but this one is mine. Without me, my camera is nothing. Without my camera, I am nothing.

If you didn’t already notice that every single photo I’ve put in this article showed a HUGE range of photographic quality… have a scroll back, because you will now, and that tells a deeper story that links a lot of these points together.

Without quality photography it is so much harder to see your improvements, to share them with others. It’s harder for people to give you much needed feedback. It’s harder for you to spot your mistakes. It’s also much harder for you to express your pride in your best work, when it’s shown off by a bad photo.

Physical improvement, equipment based improvement, ego and attitude adjustment… it all leans on a good photo, in some way or another.

And that’s probably a shit thing to hear right, because cameras are expensive.

Well no… they’re kinda not actually. But more on that in a sec, because first I have to clear up a really important point.

Modern phones are shit for photographing miniatures. Top lit light boxes are also shit (you want primarily front facing light).

Modern phones ALL use AI auto-processing, and even in “pro mode” a lot of this can’t be turned off. One of the main things is AI auto-sharpening, which is used by default to make up for the tiny sensor size that all phone camera have. Artificial sharpening is the absolute worst thing for your mini pics, because it crushes out all of the hard work you did on blending.

I’m not saying you can’t get a good photo from a phone, but I AM saying it’s so much harder to fight the hardware, than it is to just use decent equipment. Which now lets me circle back to the cost problem.

See my camera up there? That’s a Nikon D3200 and all the nicest pics in this article were taken with it. Here’s another one, just for the sake of the point.

Connor Bust, 2000×2000px at 72DPi

The D3200 is an OLD ass camera. You can grab a decent condition used body for £80 on ebay right now.

See, the thing with DSLRs is that glass matters a lot more than the body. Even that D3200 is still, in 2025, capable of the 2000x2000px edited images that I use for Instagram, with resolution to spare. In fact, before we talk glass, here’s that exact same image, but close cropped at actual size, rather than shrunk down.

2000×2000px actual size version

If that doesn’t show just how capable this 13 year old, £80 camera is, nothing will.

So back to glass.

I’m using a Nikkor 35-105mm macro lens, specifically the macro portion of the focus range. This lens cost me £40 second hand, again on ebay. My total camera setup is £120. The latest phones are…well quite a bit more than that.

I shoot on an L-shaped backdrop made of cardboard with my painting light (a wide LED) focused directly at the front of the piece. The backdrop can be made for free, the light you should already have.

Now I’m not saying we all have £120 knocking about spare. In fact, my camera was actually gifted to me when I started to have trouble with my other one and couldn’t afford a replacement, so I know just how shit it can be needing to spend money when you don’t have it.

However, the point I’m trying to make here is that professional quality miniature photography isn’t about ridiculous, several-thousand pound costing setups with professional lighting rigs. It’s about a good enough body, decent glass and learning how to use them. I’m actually planning to upgrade my D3200 when I can afford to and will be gifting it to someone else in the community at the time. However the camera I have my eye on to upgrade to is… a 2017 model, that is a third the price of the latest models. Why?

Because it uses the same glass as my current one, the glass I’ve learned to use well… and it has a few quality of life features added that I want. Oh and it’ll shoot 4K video, so I can use it for Youtube.

But, the fact that for £120 you can go out right now and buy exactly the equipment I shoot with, then learn to use it and produce great shots, should tell you all you need to know. It’s not about barriers, it’s about skill and dedication to learning. Just like miniature painting.

I said that some of what I needed to write today might be hard to hear…and more than anything else in the article, this might be the bit that’s hardest.

If you want to get better, like if it REALLY means a lot to you to improve, you need to realise that the biggest wall to your progress is very likely to be you.

Painting the same kinds of figures all the time, won’t improve your range.

Painting according to hot social media trends will grow your followers, but not your repertoire.

Being too proud to use glasses or magnifiers will protect your image, but harm your progress.

Not being proud enough, when you truly have achieved something will sap any energy you have to keep pushing.

Assuming that its too expensive, too hard, or too baffling to find the things you need to change… is well… just really sad, to be honest.

But most importantly… the idea that its all a grind is just a lie. A lie we maybe tell ourselves, to soothe the fact that we aren’t seeing improvement? I don’t know… but I DO know that plenty of my gains happened over night. Plenty of them were eureka moments, or just finding the right inspiration or environment.

I genuinely believe that every single person on the planet has the ability to exceed their own expectations in miniature painting if they want to. I am honoured that some people choose to learn with me, in an effort to do so. I absolutely love this artform with every fibre of my being and I hope that if you love it even a little bit, then some of what I’ve said today can help you grab for the next rung on the ladder.

That is of course if you want to, because you’re never obliged to improve and if you’ve just had to read all of this to be told that…

LOL

Stu