I want to give a review of Miniature Mentor figure tutorials. Though they have concentrated on the "fantasy" genre, the techniques employed in their thorough, detailed and well edited SBS videos, will directly apply to historical figure painting.

I am very impressed with the quality and explanations employed in their productions. I have subscribed, and have downloaded (2) different videos:
1. Golden Demon winner Laurent Esposito Mas is an internationally recognized miniature painter with numerous awards. His work has been featured in numerous miniature and hobby magazines including Ravage™ and White Dwarf™. He currently resides in the South of France.
2. Painting Monochrome: Master Class with Jennifer Haley dives into the subtle art of monochrome painting. Using only 2 base colors Jennifer brings remarkable realism to this Ranger from DARK SWORD MINIATURES. Observe a true master as she covers all the core concepts of this painting style from shading, highlighting and final touches.



Subscription Service Details

The subscription service is easy to use and understand. $70.00US for the first month and $8.00US for additional months - cancel anytime. You will have download access the entire library of tutorials 24/7. We will keep you informed of any new tutorials available through a special subscribers newsletter (new tutorials are released aprox once every two months).
All you need is valid paypal account or credit card / bankcard to access the files. For security reasons you will be required to use your paypal account or credit card / bankcard to initiate any download. A small fee (0.01¢) will apply. This helps keep content available for subscribers only .
Complete instructions will be provided once you sign up. Canceling your subsription is easy and can be done at anytime. You simply log into your paypal account and cancel the subscription on your end - no questions asked.

The only drawback I encountered was the video format - MP4. I wanted to be able to watch these videos, which can be 3 hours in length, on my DVD player and TV in my shop. I had to download a DVD converter software to burn the segments of each video to DVD, and their files are huge - but it worked perfectly.

I contacted them and suggested them doing a video with a "historical" painter and they agreed! So keep yours eyes open (no, it isn't me - too much to learn yet). I'm very picky when it comes to this type of instructional videos, and they exceeded my expectations. 2 thumbs up.

http://www.miniaturementor.com/index.html

Tony S

Thank you very much Tony. Have you tried playing them on say an iPad or mobile device?

Hey Gordy; the format they use is MP4, and I haven't an iPad (yet) and figured the files would be too huge for my iPhone 4, so no, I haven't tried. With this said, I suppose I could convert the files to a format that will work on mobile devices. The conversion software is $49 and is really simple to use. The files are ginormous! Takes (4)4x speed standard DVD's to copy the 3 hour tutorial. There is a DVD9 out there, but haven't explored it yet.

Hi Tony, I bought the Laurent Esposito Mas dvd and tbh thought it was great for beginners.

I think the only thing in the whole video I found useful to me was the highlights/shadows of the cloak which included an excellent demonstration and explanation regarding the mixes, dilution and the direction of brush strokes.

I personally felt the rest of it was a bit repetitive and I agree doing an historical figure would be an excellent idea.

Ta for reviewing,
Gells

Hi Tony, cool review - I really recommend tutorials from Ben Komets (bases & chaos warrior) and Julian Casses "Giant". Really beautiful techniques and so cool to watch and learn, slightly more for veterans