We want our miniatures painted in a somewhat realistic way. Smooth transitions and god forbid you can see the brushstrokes. We take a box of 10, open it, build them and start to paint with only the boxart as a reference and maybe a couple of images found online.
In the past the painters or apprentice used to spend months of even years painting still life or landscapes and it was very rare that novice painters even tried to do a complex portrait on their first ever paint.
Luckily with the years a lot of different paths were covered: renaissance, impresionism, cubism, avant garde, expresionism and many many more.
I think that we nowadays lack that in our community with very few exceptions of people who want to try something different to what a "good painted miniature" means.
Slowly we are trying different ways of painting and that's cool. They are my main inspiration to this piece. I wanted to try something more close to expresionism, painting as I feel with "unrealistic" colors but letting the brush go, a lot of empasto to achieve a raw look instead of a perfect smooth surface.
It is a "well" painted mini? I don't know but that's a topic for a whole essay
Did I have fun painting it? Absolutely, and that, no more, no less, is what this hobby is about after all.
Cheers