Lets start dreaming...

Hello from Dresden,
where rain and storm rule with an iron fist. Well, at least they do this since weeks and no end in sight.
Perfect weather to write down some thoughts.
This post will introduce one of my hobbies, maybe the most important for me.
Its is painting, which is therapy and relaxation for me.
I paint since I can remember, on the walls of my parents house, in the kindergarten, my parents attic is full of boxes, which are filled with hundreds of sheets from this time.
I never really stopped it, whether its acrylic, aquarelle, oil, whatever I find.
But there is one medium that really caught me, and while canvas and paper just come and go, the miniatures never really stop fascinate me.
I started when....well I don't know. Its been a long time, thats for sure.
My way led from the tabletop to showcase and today I try to unite both.
I would like to show you some of my stuff, and then tell you my way to see this hobby, why it is so important to me and what I want to achieve with it.

This is my favorite project, inspired by an competition over at Massive Voodoo, I think everyone who paints the Minis today knows them.
It is called Bobo the Brobus and was the cumulation of a dream, the dream of owning a Volkswagen T1 Bus.
The task was to built your own car in an apocalyptic world, with all the things you would need, reflecting your lifestyle and character.
It took bronze at the Herzog von Bayern in Ingolstadt, which is an international competition with an open voting system, where everyone can get a medal and you don't compete against each other.
And it also took my heart during the creation.

If you want to read some more information, you can find it here on Coolminiornot: http://www.coolminiornot.com/276673
There you will find the initiate text I wrote before starting and a link to the WIP Thread in my forum.

The second one is a mini I did on a painting class of Roman Lappat, aka Jarhead in Berlin.
I like this one, because it has a lot of  sentimental value for me.
Years back, I was at a low point, with my life, my hobby, everything I did I guess today.
I almost quit painting, felt really empty and burnt out.
My last try was a painting class with Roman, where I found my love for miniatures again, and in many ways, my love for this world and live. Some personal struggles had given me a really bad view and I couldn't see anything positive anymore.
I did learn many things there, painting related during the class, live related during the free time.
I won't go into detail, but in the aftermath it was one of the best decisions I made to join in.
The miniature was never finished (I just hate demonettes too much, and this was the workshop mini)
but from then I started again with other goals and a new perspective. Two years later, I came back, joined another class and this time painted with heart, not with head and it was a really pleasing feeling to see, that I finally found my way.
The fact that I did this mini in just 3 days of class (and some final blood effects at home) made me proud somehow.
So here he is, Hackepeter, ready to bring some steaks right to your plate ;)

There will be better pictures for sure when I got new equipment.
Thanks Roman, not for showing me my way, but for the fact you teached me I had to find it on my own.
I definitely learned that lesson.

The last one for today is one of my running projects, which will be completed during the next month I guess.
Its called Lost fidelity and shows a once noble war engine of the empire of mankind, which now has found new masters. I love the theme of war turning against its former masters, a thing I often thought about while working on it. Kind of losing the control over the horrors you brought to the world and being consumed by them, as it happens way to often in our world.

And now the words.
I spoke of finding the own way of painting. Used to, I just wanted to be like all the painters around the internet, create stuff like them and be as good as they were.
I failed really hard.
The reason was, that I tried to copy their style and technique, but there is one thing you can never copy...and that is the heart of the painter.
You can paint the same way, you can use tricks and paint recipes but the very own character of another person? No chance.
I learned, that I could never achieve their results and after a few months I realized that was the greatest gift an artist could imagine.
Would be really lame if everyone would present the same stuff.
So I went back to the beginning and asked myself, what do you want?
I came to the conclusion, that I love to tell stories ( I am Games Master in many RPG groups, write short novels and poetry from time to time) and expanded this to my projects.
Then I asked, why do you paint?
I think my reason to take the brush is simple, I had a bad childhood, many troubles and always saw the world in grayish tones...till I took my first brush stroke and it was never the same again.
I explored I was able to bring color to my world and soon I realized, there were some people who also loved to see this color. This was the moment when I really knew why I was looking on cmon for hours, just because all this people add color to our world, they tell stories and give us short moments of happiness and hope. We can forget our troubles for a few minutes and this is the greatest gift you can get. ( Well, for me it is)
From this on I never painted again to get trophies or to push my ego, I just wanted to share my color to other people, tell them stories and give them a few minutes of joy as all my "heros" did.
 I think the miniature painting scene is way more then compete, bring color to little toy soldiers and show them around...it is a whole movement, a lifestyle if you want to call it like that.
It is family, friends, drama and countless ways for people to express themselves.
For me...it is everything.
As long as we all are out there, no one of us is alone and the world will never be gray.
That is why I paint.

I would be happy if you visit us from time to time, leave a few words or just find a few seconds of beeing happy, find color when your day is bad and take power to go on.

Read you soon,
Martin