Dmitry Bogdanov

Hi! I'm Dmitry, miniature painter from Moscow, Russia.

I love speedpainting and smart color schemes creation. I enjoy painting nice-looking miniatures in an unbelievably small amount of time. And I also love to see painted armies across the gaming table. That's why...

I'm on a quest to inspire other hobbyists with this speedpainting approach.

Over the years I've developed this method for myself. But slowly, answering questions over the Internet and in real life, I began sharing the method with fellow painters all over the globe.

In this article I'll share some insights into my personal journey.

I've been painting minis since around 2005. Back then, there were almost no guides, tutorials, Patreons and YouTube channels on the topic. Actually, one can say Internet was almost non-existent.

It's been a long way, to say the least. But looks like I still love blue color:

If you're in the beginning of your hobby journey, and sometimes struggle with miniature painting, — I've been there and know the feeling. I spent countless hours trying to do layering and highlights on a mini, still getting mediocre results (at best) in the end.

In 2000s, Warhammer Fantasy and 40k dominated the market completely, without skirmish games like Infinity of Malifaux being present. That means, you had to paint 70-100 miniatures to start playing.

And when each mini takes several hours to finish... and after a couple of months you have one finished regiment of rank-n-file... and you still can't play a game with it...

The goal of actually playing the game was always somewhere in the far future.

But I kept my hopes and struggled forward.

The real breakthrough happened much later, in December 2011 to be precise. That month I grabbed a fresh copy of White Dwarf, not knowing the impact it would have.

There was Blanchitsu article about a guy named Steve Buddle. He talked very briefly about his painting approach, using washes over bright basecoats, and general idea of painting a mini under an hour.

Actually, I still keep my copy:

Following his advice, I tried to apply that "bright basecoat + wash" idea. That gave me an immediate boost to painting speed, leading to several shelves of painted Warhammer minis.

May 2013, I started painting and playing Infinity, and my speedpainting skills paid off. I bought a starter pack, painted it in one night, and next day I was in my LFGS already playing. With painted minis.

Later in 2013 I also hit the 23 minutes per model record with Shasvastii squad. It was so stupidly fast and effective, that I knew I must share the method with other hobby folks.

Basically, that's how the speedpainting journey started.

July-August 2014 was my first GenCon (for me that's quite literally across the globe). Luckily, I was able to participate in a demo with Angel Giraldez, Corvus Belli lead painter. That demo, and a brief talk with Angel, gave me enough motivation to try painting miniatures with an airbrush.

When I got back home after GenCon, I immediately unpacked my copy of "Operation Icestorm", took my airbrush, and started experimenting.

It felt magical and exhilarating. I couldn't get anywhere even close with a brush:

That PanO squad took a lot of time (around 5-6 hours per model), since I was learning to use an airbrush. But before that, I couldn't achieve such result in even more time per model.

Later, when I developed some airbrushing skills, my time costs improved even further.

Now I consider 2 - 2.5 hours per model to be my sweet spot for skirmish-level games, giving me an "almost display quality" for tabletop pieces. And I can push myself to 20-30 minutes per model if I really need to (say, the tourney is tomorrow — we've all been there).

These are 20 minutes per model gaming pieces (static grass, moss and pigments included):

And this is how I prefer to paint my gaming pieces if I have time:

This painting level takes me 2 - 2.5 hours per model (on average) to achieve, regardless of "brush + airbrush" or "brush only" approach.

I'd say it's pretty decent result in terms of quality vs time cost. Especially for someone who is not a pro-painter, and paints only occasionally.

When I started sharing my works (an my time costs), naturally a lot of question arose from hobby folks. First locally, and then internationally. Which led me to the next step of the journey.

October 2014 I lauched lazypainting.blogspot.com, a simple blog for miniature painting guides in my native language.

It's been a huge success. A lot of people used it, referenced it, and generally got a lot of value from it. Even some international viewers read it using Google Translate.

Later I've also done some live training sessions, which were a blast for every participant. I bet the reason was ChocoPies in the center of the table:

Naturally, at some point I just had to do all that in English, to reach out for broader audience.

November 2018, Ben Addison from awesome White Noise podcast (my #1 Infinity-related show) invited me to talk about miniature painting on air.

While the opportunity was absolutely amazing, the task itself wasn't easy. I had to speak in non-native language, about a visual hobby without a visual medium.

Have you ever tried to describe painting techniques or colors with your voice only, without photos or videos?

Well, I did my best:

White Noise Episode 57 — The Russian Sphinx

It ended up well. The episode was quite popular, achieving higher than average downloads score. And, several months after, I even heard a guy saying it completely changed his painting.

But that was only the beginning.

In my normal non-hobby life I'm a professional educator, doing live training, one-on-one consulting, online courses and educational content since 2008.

I love to explain complex matters in simple words, to structure information into digestible chunks. I've been creating educational courses and doing personal feedback for years now.

That (plus A LOT of encouragement and support from my wife) is why doing an educational project on miniature painting seemed like something very natural to do.

So this is what we have at the moment:

• PDF primer on the LazyPainter Method. A compact booklet where I explain the basics of the method, like "PSR formula" and "Speedpainting SAW".
  

• Miniature painting articles. Oldie but goodie "text + photo" format. Techniques, step-by-step guides and miniature showcases with behind-the-scene explanations.
  

• Private chat and personal feedback (available as Patreon reward). The option to message me directly in Discord, or get focused critique and advice on your miniature painting.

Also, if you just like this project and want to support me on this quest (even if you don't need personal feedback or coaching) — you can do it via Patreon.

Every bit of support is much appreciated. Doing miniature painting content takes A LOT of time, and all the web services, domain, hosting and equipment costs money, with considerable expense on a regular basis.

First of all, I'll be doing more articles for this website. There's a big backlog already, since I have 23 articles in Russian that have yet to be translated, and also all required material (photos and processes) for 22 more.

In parallel to that, I'll be doing video content. I'm still trying to figure that out though. Not a professional video guy in any way, so that's the hard part, but I'm doing my baby steps.

When I'll be satisfied with video quality and editing, I'll use my experience in online education to create full-scale online courses. Speedpainting (both brush and airbrush) and smart color schemes creation are the first topics on the list.

If you haven't done that already, check out LazyPainter Method PDF:

If you want to ask me something, or share your experience on a hobby journey — please drop a comment below.

And of course...

Paint smarter, not harder.

Dmitry Bogdanov
LazyPainter