Hi, my name is Aleksandra aka Mrs.Craftworld.
For my first post I will write about Craftworld Studio beginnings.
Craftworld Studio appears in the middle of 2015, when Marko and I decided to make a personal page for sharing our miniature projects. It’s a funny story how our studio was actually created.
Marko and I had this studio idea as a sketch in our minds, but we didn't have any clear picture of how this would work.
We were talking, planning. Mostly talking...
One day I called Marko on Skype (We lived on a Belgrade-Vienna relation at that moment), And, I told him that I’m planning to release our Studio page on Facebook, and asked him if he can think of any name for it. We started gathering synonyms and words that have a connection to our art, and something we are planning to work on and share on our page. We had a lot of plans and we always thought more of our friends would join us at this movement. After some time, we had a few examples and Craftworld was one of them. After we decided this was a good name, I started making logo suggestions that would fit this name and our "brand". It was a fun and brief project, since the deadline was RIGHT NOW! So, Marko looked over my examples and explanations of the logo, agreed on one that we are using till this day and we started with making our page.
I always thought we were lucky since the beginning of painting, as we were recognised by the wider public, so we got a lot of commission requests after sharing our first artworks. I call it luck as it was the first step on our miniature art journey.
At that time, I was just introduced to miniatures by Marko and even he was a beginner himself. After sharing our first paintings, we started painting miniatures professionally. We weren't aware of it immediately, but soon it became our only way of income.
As artists and designers, we both planned to work in the art world, but neither of us dreamed we will work as professional miniature artists. It came along with our journey.
How our real painting actually started!? Marko introduced me to miniature wargaming and miniature painting one evening. I remember it like it was yesterday. He came to me with a big box called Warhammer: "Battle For Skull Pass" - I thought to myself, it's a board game!? I knew of Warhammer only from video games.
After I first seen miniatures, I haven’t thought I will ever paint them. I felt a bit scared and excited at a same time. Scared that I will destroy Marko's miniatures and excited that I have a chance to do something this cool.
Well, first introduction on how to paint a miniature was painting "by the book". We have painted our first miniatures in a steps. Priming - basing - shadows - highlights - done.
My first thought on this was - oh, so it is easy painting something this small with paints that work like mediums, and easy techniques. But soon after, it felt a bit boring.
I noticed that Marko wasn't painting much as well. After some time I asked Marko, does he think painting in these steps is mandatory. Is it a rule we have to follow? I referred to Marko's canvas painting at this moment. I asked Marko why don’t we paint models like we paint in traditional art!?As painters, in art schools or in personal painting, we never painted by this kind of steps. Is it not possible to look at a miniature as a 3D canvas!?
I think it was a good notion, as after that both of us started painting miniatures more and more.
Miniature that hit the target was Marko's first Stormcast (that he got in the "White Dwarf" magazine), that was painted in more of an artistic style. The community was intrigued to see more of it and to learn more techniques. Something different, something new.
First wip update of this miniature brought a new light to Craftworld Studio and we got many requests to make our first tutorial.
As Marko painted this model further he started with taking photos for his first "step-by-step".
Since we lived in different countries at a time, while painting, Marko was taking photo by photo and with every new one he was sending them to me for designing and text writing. And we released it very quick.
Here is a link to it: http://craftworldstudio.blogspot.com/2015/07/how-to-paint-non-metalic-gold-step-by.html
Duke of Bavaria 2016 was the first Miniature Show that Marko and I have visited. We never actually planned to visit miniature shows, because we weren't aware of their existence.
As our travel to miniature show in Bavaria happened really spontaneously, I will share with you how it happened.
At this time Marko was at his studies in Austria, and I was in Serbia. It was a good challenge for our studio’s start as every task was a greater dare because of our distance. As Marko's first miniature got famous, when I visited Marko in Vienna, we decided to buy our second (Warhammer)/first Age of Sigmar starter set, for painting and gaming. As it happened, I can remember our proud faces leaving GW store going home with our new models. Today this wouldn't mean this much, but at that time we were students, buying this starter meant that our budget for next few months is zero. Hehe, at least that is what we thought.
As soon as we started assembling our new models, we got a commission request to paint Stormcast army from exact kit.
You can imagine what happened next, we painted all the commissioned models, and our models were still in the box, unpainted …
Ps. They still are.
We started our big commission, but I needed to go back to Belgrade. At home, I had only one set of old acrylic paints, that I bought for practicing painting models (on sale) as well as traditional painting acrylics. And Marko made his colour scheme similar to the tutorial that he made (see above).
I mention all of this, as it made us into who we are today.
As we were painting models for the same person, our painting needed to match. So Marko had a lead, as he was the one who lead us here.
Since I had to do almost the same as Marko, with my limited palette (not only that I didn't had paints from the tutorial, but entirely different paint range and tones). It was a hard time for me, but I haven’t complained, my passion for this new art was burning, and I made it through. Because I knew we both only have one chance in front of us.
Of course, after working hard at home I was every once in a while travelling to Vienna to visit Marko, to paint together. To work more. It is still in a lovely memory to me.
Meanwhile, we bacome friends with person who commissioned us. He was also hardworking, and he learned a lot by watching models that he had us paint for him.
He is from Munich, so when he heard there is a miniature exhibition in Ingolstadh he thought it would very nice opportunity for us to meet, and visit this show together. As it seemed easy travelling from Vienna to Munich, we thought it is great idea. I already was in traveling routine, so.. of course, we both were excited . We are thankful to our friend, as this was a great new experience.
- New step for us:
Since our first experience, meeting other artists, we were fans of some (so you can imagine our happiness), making new friends, gathering inspiration from so many wonderful artworks. It was a new experience for us. Experience that pushed us further.
Marko had the courage to exhibit his works in Master Painting. I was a bit afraid, but eventually exhibited my display in Standard.
I painted for almost a year at that time and Marko wasn't painting for much longer than me. I only wished I had his confidence.
His art was recognized, and Marko won a gold medal on his first competition in Fantasy Master Category. I exhibited my display in Standard Category, and on the second day of show I came to my display, and I couldn't find it..
I was in shock, must admit I almost cried. Few moment after, I found out that my display was moved to Master Category, I was recognised and I got bronze medal.
I had so many mixed feelings - in summary I realised that it means a lot for my beginning and it is not only a push further, it is a push to my greatest challenge. Marko and I got ourselves in competitions against people that are in Miniature Art for a very long time and have so much experience. We were at our level one - but we deserved to be there. It was a great honour.
What left a big impression on us, was that the artists that we followed on social media, wanted to meet with us telling us that they follow us as well. This connection and good vibes lead us deeper into miniature community and got us realising there is so much more.
One more highlight from that period was that we met one company which noticed our style and supported us on our first steps. Now we are good friends, and their miniatures were among our first big scale display models for painting.
Good thing was and still is, that we really never cared a lot about these medals. What we loved at miniature events is that we can talk with so many people with the same interest, getting inspired by so much talent and hang out with friends from all around the world. Competition was always a side quest for us, we never realised that we should prepare a piece especially for competing, probably because we’ve never seen it that way.
Our painting was recognised as a different style, and we finally saw it this way for ourselves. Because, for us it was normal way of interpreting art on models. But, having our artworks in a competition, seeing it very different from every other, made us realised we paint different.
After Bavaria, we got many new friends and followers of our work. But, there was a catch:
Half of people loved our style. Half of people were under a belief that our style is good for 28mm scale models, but surely it would never work on bigger scales. Now when I remember these challenging comments, they sometimes hurt a bit. You think to yourself – why don’t these people trust in me...but then I remember how I actually felt. I trusted in Marko and me, and he trusted in us. That pushed us further, as well as these people and their comments, they were a challenge and people who liked what we do, were support. We are thankful for everything.
Our second Miniature Show. It was in Eindhoven, Scale Model Challenge.
Traveling to Eindhoven seemed as a fairy tale. Hehe, the truth behind this travel was that Marko and I spent our last dinar (Serbian currency, lol) to pay of this travel and visit this show. The thing that made us venture though this, was love and passion. After a wonderful first model show, after amazing experience, after meeting so many artist's and seeing so much art, we wanted to experience it again.
So we did, we gave everything for one more opportunity.
Now I guess there comes our luck again, after the show when we went to pick up our models and prepare to go home, as at most shows in the future (for people who know us) we were last to do so.
What was strange, as we were late, our models were moved to one table on a side, and there was one couple next to it. They were waiting for us. Soon we found out why. This was a collector who wanted to buy some of our artworks. We were in a shock, as we didn't consider this could happen. But at the end, we sold almost all of our available artworks and our travel did not just payed off itself, we also earned a profit. But more important than that, we made new friends and had an amazing time.
After SMC, as it was a much bigger show with lots of different artists, we gathered new inspiration. Realised there is so much more to explore and learn in this art, and we were ready to step out and do more.
Finally, we learned there is so much amazing paint ranges that is very important knowing. There is so many things to learn from. Styles and techniques. There is so many miniature companies out there.
There is a whole new world of this Art field that should be explored, and since our first miniature show we are part of it.
Our beginning wasn’t easy, we risked and sacrificed a lot. But our goal was clear, we followed our passion. And it worked after all.
I have guided you through nicest moments of our beginnings. Still, it wouldn’t be a complete truth If i didn’t mention that there were a lot of obstacles on our miniature art journey and on some of them we have stumbled, but it taught us a lesson.
There will be more chapters of our painting journey, this was a story of our beginning and first year of travels.
In later chapters I will go through different experiences and stories.
Also, this is introduction to my miniature art blog as Mrs. Craftworld. Next to #tb and other #miniatureartistlife stories, I will share with you my insights on miniature world (shows, models, paints, gadgets, brushes, mediums, etc...)
Thank you for reading, hope you will find our story inspirational, and hopefully it will help you on your painting journey.
Through this blog you will meet Marko and me in the most honest way possible and venture with us into new miniature art adventures.