Hi all,
This is a continuation of our series interviewing the FLG commission painters. You may see some references to images in the responses, sadly these were lost in our communication.
As a refresher, here is a little bit about our respondents.
A) Remote artist, started working with FLG in 2023
B) Full time, in house artist with FLG 4 years
C) Full time in house artist, working with FLG 5 years
D) Remote artist, working with FLG since 2020
E) Remote artist, working with FLG since 2022
F) Remote artist, working with FLG since 2018
G) Remote artist, working with FLG since 2017
H) Remote artist, painting for FLG since 2020
I) Remote artist, working with FLG since 2017
J) Remote artist, working with FLG since 2018
K) Remote artist, working with FLG since 2020
4. Are there any really cool commissions or models you have worked on that stick with you
- A: Helbrecht in an alternate color scheme that I didn’t think was going to work but actually turned out really cool. The client asked me for oranges and colors i really didn’t think would compliment the model
- B: I painted a Warlord Titan once. Such a cool model and fun painting a detailed model that’s the size of a small child.
- C: I did a commission once that was a warmachine colossal that had a diorama on the base, it came out pretty good and clients request had a fun little narrative. basically the client wanted to show on the base that he had defeated his friends army, so it had a bunch of squished and destroyed models and the a wrecked warjack in it’s hand.
- D:Recently a friend had me paint their Angron model. I had rather large free rein on it and while I followed mostly the box art idea both me and him were not excited about the wings being simple black. I had the bright idea of giving it airbrushed layers of flesh tones (from a dark tones to mid Mediterranean tones) and honestly at first it actually creeped me out. I did knock it back with some dark washes but the effect makes them look more like leathery/fleshy wings than just dark black demon wings.
- E: The funnest projects are when I can get creative and scratch build/ sculpt and go a llittle extra with basing. My favorite this year was a forgeworld ork stompa. I got to sculpt a pirate hat on him and the client supplied a bunch of 2nd edition orks and grots that I painted and perched all over the titanic ork.
- F: I completed a large number of Horus Heresy characters that were fun and different.
- G: Yes! I once got to build a huge metal Reaper dragon and create a diorama display piece for it. I used water effects to create a waterfall for the first time ever.
- H: 2 projects come to mind, a warmachine model as a “test my skills” 1st project for FLG. Secondly an entire OOP wood elf army that was fall themed.also for FLG.
- I: Oh, indeed! I have an entire Oceanic T’au army with coral reef bases that is in process currently and just completed a commission that had a full scenic base with a deep resin pour for a stream.
- J: For me the ones I loved working the most are fantasy related models. They have so much detail and I can be able to express more of my style of painting more with them. Thinks like big monsters (like Angron) or deamons are the ones I have enjoyed the most.
- K: The more custom the better. Love kitbashing things. Other than the two projects I mentioned before, I built a very very custom Nurgle Chaos knight way before the actual kit came out. I combined the standard knight kit with a Marvels Venom action figure and Great unclean one to make something truly unique. It was my very first serious attempt at a custom mini. It involved sculpting, freehanding, TMM, NMM, osl and just about every technique I could come up with at the time to finish.
5. What about any weird or wonky customer requests that made you laugh?
- A: Not yet but I want some.
- B: I painted a My Little Pony themed Imperial Knights commission. Each knight was painted in the bright pastel colors of a MLP character, with their little emblem and all. The bases were themed after MLP land with green pastures, picket fences, cobblestones roads and all.
- C: I didn’t do this commission myself but back in the old days we did a commission that was a warhammer fantasy banner with freehand of joe Pesci’s face on it, kinda hilarious.
- D: The only one was with the previously mentioned Angron, my friend always asks for more skulls. Skulls are almost a meme with him. I added like 20 something more skulls to the base.
- E: Nothing too weird, the ork clients always have wacky requests which is fun.
- F: Being a teacher, nothing to me is weird or wonky. Everyone has their own agenda, so my job to try my best to paint that agenda for the client.
- G: Sigh lol… yes, being asked to magnetize arms on tiny figures… Can it be done? yes, lol should it be done? definitely not. It always makes me think back to Ian Malcom in Jurassic Park: “Your scientists were so preoccupied about whether or not they could, they didnt stop to think if they should” it becomes impossible to handle the tiny parts and paint them, and keep them from magnetizing together and then chipping paint. I’ve also noticed a trend with GW where they have gone to greater and greater lengths to make it more difficult if not impossible to magnetize figure options.
- H: I painted some eldar warp spiders like spider man for someone, but that’s about it.
- I: Yes. I still giggle about it too. A client asked to have a primaris dread made out to inter Grumpy Cat for the Angry Marines custom chapter.
- J: So far I been lucky with my customers requests, but recently I got a commission request that made me laugh a lot. It was an imperial guard with Tau crisis suits as sentinels, 18 of them. All magnetized with 30k weapons, drones used as vox casters and a hydra with floating drones loading ammo. I’m a Tau player since 4th edition, so having got this request made me laugh a lot, but I really enjoyed and the final results came well and the customer was very happy with it.
- K: Haven’t had too many strange requests, but I did sneak some Easter eggs into some commissions. I made a nurgling riding a tiny undead unicorn carrying a scythe. Built a Nurgling into Batman and another into Pennywise from It. I have an upcoming small project that involves a Nightlord Raptor tearing apart a UPS truck for a client. Story behind that was I did a very special project for his wife and even though it was triple boxed and overnighted, UPS managed to completely destroy the display piece. So turnabouts fair play yeah? Lol
6. What do you like most about this job?
- A: I REALLY enjoy painting miniatures and one of the great things about commission painting is getting an opportunity to paint models that I’ll probably will never paint for myself.
- B: I love art in all its incarnations, so the ability to paint all day every day feeds my soul. It’s so much fun to figure out how to make a model as beautiful and unique as possible.
- C: I really like the people i work with and the the job is pretty chill. I can listen to music and just work on painting and assembling models.
- D: I like that I can just work to myself and not get shuffled around to a different thing constantly. Compared to when I was working in a big box store where Im trying to do a specific task like say mop a dairy cooler but then have a manager tell me to go zone up (like pull forward product on the shelf) the cheese or yogurt. Here I can put on blinders and just work on one task till it is complete.
- E: I really like being able to try different techniques and in some case paint models I have never played.
- F:I love getting to paint the new models that I would never be able to touch before. I’d love to get everything new that comes out, but my time is limited.
- G: What do I like most? Not one thing more than another but: being my own boss, working from home, working in a creative field and the satisfaction I get from clients that are thrilled with the final product they receive. At this point there must be several thousand figures out there on table tops that I have painted, making people happy.
- H: I love how, even after grinding a huge project out for a month, it’s immediately refreshing to start on a new one. Just painting a new scheme makes it seem like some thing I haven’t done before.
- I: Bringing a clients vision to completion but getting to do it with my own flair and style
- J: What I enjoyed the most it’s painting, really. I don’t need to buy models anymore just to be able to paint them. I used to do that before working as a commissioner painter. Every time a new model comes out I have this urge to paint it, but didn’t have the time or money to do so, but now I can, and get paid to it too! Also, working at home it’s a blessing. I have a daughter with autism and been able to work at home has gave me the time she needs from me to help her with all her needs.
- K: I love to paint. I love to be creative. It allows me to paint minis/projects that I normally wouldn’t get the chance to paint or collect. It pushes me everytime to refine my skills and test my abilities. I pushes me out of my comfort zone (grimdark/realistic) and forces me learn new techniques.
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