How different is it to go from painting, to painting mini's

[War Angel]

My mother-in-law is a painter, and has painted things like murals and the like. She's offered to paint some of GW's terrain sets for me.

 

But she's never painted miniatures before, and I feel like there's a difference that would result in her realizing she hates it about half way through.

 

Any thoughts to this?

[Gurth]

Easy enough to find out: give her a few small pieces for her to try and practice on. If she doesn’t like it, then it’s not like she’d still have to spend ages to finish it all, and it gives her an idea of how different it is to paint 3D pieces from painting “flat”.

 

As for the actual differences, I’m no (flat) painter, but I would imagine the main thing to keep in mind is that the sculpting of the piece will determine where light and shadows fall, rather than that you’re basically free to decide that yourself.

[marine7312000]

Something to consider is that models have details that already exist. She won't have to add detail on her own. However, if you've ever considered doing NMM, a "normal" artist would probably be able to give you tips. I'm saying this as I look at the painting my mother-in-law did of one of our dogs. I'll ask if she's ever done models\ figurines and get back to you. I know she works in mainly acrylics.

[madscuzzy]

While there are many very similar and translatable aspects, canvas painting is different from miniature painting as it very dependent on the type of mediums she is comfortable with.  

 

Assuming that she has experience with acrylics, artist acrylics have a different composition from our types of acrylics.  Artist acrylics are designed to go on thicker, with a coverage that spreads better over a large surface.  Our paints are formulated with very thin binders with a strong pigment count, as opposed to thicker binders in artist acrylics.  She just has to take note of that.  She has to learn how to be less... liberal... with her paints.  We function with drops or small blobs of paint, rather than a toothpaste tube that many artist acrylics come in. 

 

Otherwise washing, drybrushing, layering, blending etc... the techniques are very cross platform, so she shouldn't have problems getting into the groove.

[marine7312000]

While there are many very similar and translatable aspects, canvas painting is different from miniature painting as it very dependent on the type of mediums she is comfortable with.  

 

Assuming that she has experience with acrylics, artist acrylics have a different composition from our types of acrylics.  Artist acrylics are designed to go on thicker, with a coverage that spreads better over a large surface.  Our paints are formulated with very thin binders with a strong pigment count, as opposed to thicker binders in artist acrylics.  She just has to take note of that.  She has to learn how to be less... liberal... with her paints.  We function with drops or small blobs of paint, rather than a toothpaste tube that many artist acrylics come in. 

 

Otherwise washing, drybrushing, layering, blending etc... the techniques are very cross platform, so she shouldn't have problems getting into the groove.

This brings up a very good side point, do not purchase artist acrylics to "save" money vs buying our hobby paints. You may be able to get a tube of paint with 10x the volume that you'll be paying for a normal pot but you'll have to invest in something else to store that paint in once you've mixed in enough paint thinner to get close to the same consistency.