I am definitely riding the high from this year’s 2025 Nova open. And what a treat it has been to go to and see my friends. I always walk away full of inspiration, a bag full of goodies and a mind full of creative endeavors to do for next year.
Heading to the event I had a mix and a flurry of feelings. I’m was immensely excited to catch up with friends that I’ve made last year. And made new friends while experiencing new things. I always feel anxious and guilty to take time off, to be away from my family. The Nova Open is turning into being a very special time of year for me. Most of my year is spent focused on playing games and growing my local community specifically for Age of Sigmar. However, I approach the Nova open specifically to grow and listen to experts for painting my models.
I have never quite considered myself a creative person. I see myself as an optimizer. I struggle to see something in my mind’s eye and then recreate it visually. So I spend close to an entire week surrounding myself with painters who are better than me. Surrounding myself with experts to get constructive criticism and feedback helps me grow leaps and bounds faster than what I would have if I was aimlessly scrolling through YouTube hoping to find the video with the piece of feedback that I need. This is my second year going to the Nova Open volunteering to work the capital palette. This large-scale artistic painting competition allows me the opportunity to see close up all of the incredible, beautiful models that others have created. It is an incredibly humbling experience.
My Capital Palette Entry
I submit a model to the apprentice category where this year I will be submitting my very first bust I’ve ever painted, which is a Baba Yaga bust by abysmal alchemy. And was something that I found from a fellow community painter called Evans paints. I stumbled upon the model as he was trying to reduce his pile of shame or opportunity, depending on how you think of it, and I decided to tackle it. I’m really, really proud of what I have accomplished. I think that I have improved on feedback that I was given from the previous year, and I’m interested to see the feedback that I will get now, I definitely want to write its own post and where I started and where I’ve gone and what my dream for this piece has been. But before I get biased and the lens of my mind’s eye changes, I must write and note that while I have not painted much this year due to prioritizing other activities and life above my miniature painting and playing hobby, I have done enough where I am not embarrassed by the model I am submitting. I am trying to stay open minded about what feedback I will be giving, and I hope that the fact that I rushed it two weeks before the event does not quite show as much on the model (it definitely showed in feedback)
The Feedback
Below is the notes I captured from the feedback session with the judges.
It was really good, okay. The issue is a lot of this is pretty so we just need more.
- Direction of the face itself needs some more.
- Same with a hair we should see a halo up here, and a little lighter around here
- The little ropes each one of those ropes has a texture you want to, like, go in and find that texture, that stuff out.
- With things like the necklace, you can bring that up a little bit
- Make sure with your skin tone, you’ve got to just add more
Generic Bust Feedback:
With busts is you just have to go so much farther than you do with the normal model. Like the baseline fork is so much higher because everything is zoomed in.
The Positives
The little birdie looks great. He’s absolutely fantastic. That’s really nice.
Fedback Conclusion
“I have a feeling you’re like, you’re you’re gonna rock and roll it next year” – Vincey V
Classes
One thing I’m most proud of myself this year is that already knew the areas I needed to grow on specifically with color and doing “more” with my model. That I took some fantastic classes from some phenomenal painters. Overall I feel like I grew as a painter but it will definitely take a considerable amount of time to fully absorb the information.
Understanding light and color composition by Krzysztof Kobalczyk
This was by far my favorite class and we worked on color theory from just three primary colors. I selected Orange, A teal green and Magenta.
The Hidden Layer: Fast Underpainting Techniques by Francesco Farabi – Kimera
This was essentially teaching that using hues of grey helps reinforce highlights and adding color for improved volumes. Of which was applied as essentially a study of non metallic metal which I’ve never done before.
Deciding Color Composition & Palette Selection by KAHA – Katarzyna Gorska
This was the most interesting class for theory but the most frustrating for paint. I found myself struggling with a hydrophobic primed model and couldn’t put paint on the model. This was really fascinating as it was sketching out colors on the model before really applying the paint to see how you want to finally set the tone and composition of color on the model.
Composition in Miniature Art with Chris Suhre
Suhre just gave a lecture here with no paint. We listened to theory of art and compoisition of dioramas. A lot of the information is similar to that from his book “The Art of Chris Suhre” made with Dave Taylor but talking about it in the class really helped reinforce the information I started to absorb reading the book.
Shopping
One thing I know for certain, going to Nova is that I definitely could not go into the exhibitor Hall without walking away with something new and inspiring. Some things I’ve been waiting for years to buy and waiting for the perfect opportunity. Other situations were well more spontaneous.
One of the largest purchases that I acquired at this year’s exhibitor Hall is not one, but two, A-cases for my miniature hobby. I have had plastic totes with cut metal and epoxy carrying cases for a long time, but I have considered consistently encountered issues with different size pieces, damaging those models, and I want something that I can carry on my back, walk into an event and not have my hands completely full. Getting the A-case also allows me to put my books and my dice inside the backpack to reduce the overall load of what I have to carry. My giant backpack doesn’t necessarily have to be as giant anymore, and I’m, frankly, really, really excited. I also ended up purchasing a carry case from a case, it’s one of its smallest bags to provide an alternative if I’m just doing a small war band for frost grave, you know, Blood Bowl teams and those types of things to not have to require carrying something absolutely massive. This was such an exciting purchase for me, as I have been trying to purchase one for quite some time. I even went to a case last year at NOVA, and they were completely sold out. So, I’m excited to walk away with something that I know I have been really, really thinking hard and long about for quite some time. I’ve kind of really fallen in love with the brand after listening to the interview of the founder of a case and what he was trying to achieve on the listening to paint dry podcast.
Another big purchase that I ended up making for this year was P3 paint I have been a long-time user of P3 paint. It is one of the first brands of paint I have ever used for my miniature painting hobby going back to 2018. It’s been really hard to buy P3 paint over the course of the years, since Privateer Press has sold and edited the line and gone out of business, but seeing Steam Forge games bring this paint back to life with a Kickstarter last year, it was the first time I’ve ever seen the paint for sale in retail. I decided not to back the entire Kickstarter last year because I told myself I didn’t need the whole line and I only wanted a few paint, but going to the booth, talking to them about the colors, the pigments, what’s new, what’s different, I found myself wanting to replace some of my favorite paints, but also I wanted to try new things, and before I knew it, I had way too much paint, and I ended up buying the whole line because it knew it was cheaper in the long run. Yes, do I potentially need intervention because I already have too much paint? Do I even have the storage capacity for this paint? Yes most likely need the intervention and definitely don’t have the space.
I’ve also purchased long needed upgrades like a new wet palette and several art books.
I have also been always looking for new models, new experiences and new challenges. ZabaArt is one person who has such an incredible, enthusiastic and positive personality. I just had to support him. I bought not one, but two of his models. I’m so excited to get the opportunity to paint them. One will be a large scale model, and one will be a bust. It was very cool to see them in the cabinets, as well as he paints and sculpts his own models to submit for competition, which is really cool. And I’ve also gotten a few models from other sculptors and companies as well.
Where have I been?
This year, I struggle to make time for myself. Make time for my hobby and everything in life always took precedence, taking care of the family, doing house chores, with the added stress from work. There’s always something, some reason, some excuse that takes over, and I found myself in a state of life, survival mode. And in doing so, I sacrificed time for myself, in painting, in models and playing table top games. I even stopped going out and seeing my friends and talking to my friends online. Which they are endlessly giving me crap about as good friends should.
All these areas, I found myself lacking, and it was definitely very evident when I traveled to Nova this year, only submitted one piece. I think it’s the only model I finished for the entirety of the 2025 year so far, it was rushed. It was not finished in most places. And I acknowledge that I have lots of room for improvement for myself and desire to hold myself accountable for my projects, hobbies, dreams and so on.
I found myself struggling and not being as caught up or well versed in what was going on with my friends and what they’re experiencing in their life, checking in on them, and I’m ready to be better.
I’m ready to make myself a priority. And in doing so, I found myself really thinking and processing and deciding that in writing these things down, I have a significantly increased likelihood chance of following through with it. I like looking back at my mental state throughout the years as I hobby, it shows a lot of self-growth, where I’m at and how I perceive and think about each and every project. And part of me really considered, do I need to continue to write this blog down. Do I need to publish for the world to see and the world to read? So much of our consumption and media these days are videos? For me, I enjoy being able to go back look at my things, look at my thoughts, look at my write ups, no matter where I’m at in the world, I can Google and pull it up. I can see it on any device, and I can also be dynamic in what I post and how I organize it, as opposed to a very linear book, like a journal. I have so many things that I link and embed and cross reference to let myself dynamically consume my own projects and publications, and so after coming back from Nova, I’ve decided to really try to resurrect the site, resurrect who I am and how I choose to become an artist and an analysis, analyst and observer of what I am.
Thank you for taking the time to catch up with me and I’m looking forward to all the projects to come.
Happy Hobby,
crazmadsci