My first ever oil-painted miniature + online workshop announcement!!!

I vividly remember the smell of oil paints and the thickness in the air as twenty-some miniature nerds packed into a cool basement on a hot summer Saturday in 2023.

Our teacher, Jakob Villien, gave each of us a small ceramic tile to use as a palette, a miniature, and a few brushes.

Jakob talked for a while about the almost occult secrets of oil painting, and we were mesmerised as he passed around his painted models.

One had been painted in a single evening and still, it had smooth even blends and a freehand so fine, it looked like it was painted with a single hair. Another combined oils and acrylics, getting the best of both smooth oily blends and the sharper contrasts and textures of acrylics.

We were all impressed and excited to get started on our own miniatures. As I put the paints on my ceramic tile and started caking them onto the model, the experience felt magical.

The paint flowed off the brush in a completely different way from the acrylic miniature paints I knew. The colours felt rich, the paint stayed workable, and I could keep blending directly on the miniature.

The further I got, the more I enjoyed that continuous wet-blending process: refining highlights and shadows together in one wet layer.

I also felt the limitations of my own technique.

The paint was thicker and more buttery than I was used to. I had a hard time achieving the sharp edge highlights I wanted, and my details weren’t nearly as precise as they would have been with acrylics.

Truthfully, I sucked. And I was loving every moment of it.

When you’re bad at something, you can only go upward.

As I continued working with oils on my own, I gradually developed an approach centred around transparent paints and multiple layers. With practice, that awkward first attempt had developed into a solid method, like what I used on this orc.

I used transparent Blues in the shadows, then blended the midtones and highlights directly into the wet blue layer. That created rich greens and surprisingly saturated colours in the process.

Over the course of several layers I could push the highlights and variation in colors.

The approach felt artistically satisfying. And best of all, it was super fast fast.

I recently sat down with Jakob again to talk about oil painting and compare how our approaches have developed since he first taught me in 2023. You can watch that conversation here.

That first workshop opened the door for me, but much of the learning happened afterwards through experimentation, failed attempts, and trying to solve problems on my own.

That experience is why I created Introduction to Display Painting in Oils.

It’s a seven-week online cohort where we paint a beautiful academic bust from Under the Odd Willow together.

We’ll work through multiple layers of oil paint, covering the foundational process as well as a deeper look at the female face, black hair, fabric, and small details.

You’ll also have regular assignments, opportunities for feedback on your progress, and a community of painters working through the same challenges alongside you.

The goal is not only to help you finish one model.

It’s to give you a repeatable oil-painting process you can adapt to your own future projects.

From August 14–16, those on my email waitlist and members of my paid Patreon tiers will get 48 hours of early access to the workshop, including the early-bird price, before enrollment opens to everyone else.

If you’re a free Patreon member and want early access, join the waitlist for free here:

If you’re already on a paid Patreon tier, you’re all set. I’ll post the early-access link here for you on August 14.

I look forward to oil-painting with you!