Thanks for the kind words. These DVDs are about the best value on the planet as you get over 10 hours of instruction from amazing world-class painters for about $5.00 an hour. The Marike DVD comes in around $4.00 an hour.

The big thing with filming DVD sets like ours (Jen/Anne and the Marike DVD set from Dark Sword) is what to include and what to not include.

The Jen/Anne DVD is a baseline building block DVD that can take a person from level 1 to level 7. The Marike DVD is an intermediate DVD that can take a person from level 4 to level 9. There is of course some overlap between the two, but this was by design so the DVD sets complimented each other with different approaches on certain topics.

The Jen/Anne DVD touches on more concepts to provide a rock solid baseline understanding/starting point while the Marike DVD has deeper dives on fewer concepts.

Thanks again for the kind words. They are appreciated. It is a good time to be a miniature painter with all these amazing tutorial resources out there. I wish I had these when I was a young painter in the 1980's!

Jim
www.DarkSwordMiniatures.com

I'm a bit late to the party but after meeting both Jen and Anne at ReaperCon this year I knew I HAD to get this vid! (I prefer the download & got mine through Coolminiornot.com.) I have a couple instruction vids - one other by Jen and then some other professional painters and I was concerned this might be redundant.

Not at all! Every mini is different and I learned even more techniques to add to my painter's toolbox. Even if a certain technique was the "same" on another vid, seeing it again, on a different mini, a different angle, etc. improved my understanding.

Anne was great too although my first thought was "this is going to be more than I ever wanted or need to know about paint, especially the manufacturing process." But it was very interesting and Anne did not beat the subject into the ground. Now I find myself using that knowledge more and more when I never thought I would need it.

The only thing I wished for was being able to watch completion of all of the tiny details. Many times because of camera angles or needing a visor to get into the tiniest areas, we can't see the whole thing. I understand although I can't help but wonder if it would ever be possible to take a "helmet-cam" and turn it into a "visor-cam".

I can't wait for Marike's video and hope it will also be offered with a choice of DVD or Download.

Cheers,
Kath

I am almost finished watching the third and last of the three DVDs and have found this DVD set very enlightening and useful, and well worth the purchase price and the time to watch. I had recently watched Hot Lead's instructional DVD, which I also found useful, but I found Jen and Ann's video definitely helped and was not duplicative. Even where they covered the same techniques as that other DVD set, Jen and Ann added information, tips and demonstration that complemented and added to what I learned from the other DVD set, so I'm glad I bought and watched this set as well.

I found having the two painters, Jen and Ann, provide their different perspectives on various techniques, etc., was both useful and also made watching the video more entertaining than having a single person talking throughout. While I was glad I watched Hot Lead's DVDs the little music intro to each and every segment drove me crazy by the end, so I was glad the segments in Jen's/Ann's DVDs were mostly fewer and longer and did not have an annoying music at the beginning of each segment.

I do wish there had been more camera shots of the pallete and paint consistency being used for the different techniques, not every time but on several occasions, in order to demonstrate how thick or thin the paint was when doing certain washes, glazes, blending, etc.

Also, it would be nice to have the color being applied at any given time shown in a caption in writing even for a moment on the bottom of the screen, or to get the names of the paints/colors used in writing enclosed with the DVD. I found myself many times rewinding to catch what color was mentioned here or there, and a few times the color was not specified when it was applied. While of course it is not necessary to have a precise formula, but it helps to know the colors or color mixes are being used as an example, to see how these experienced painters select colors for highlights, shading, etc.

Overall I found this DVD set to be a great resource and would definitely recommend it. It also definitely inspired me to want some of the Dark Sword miniatures used for the demonstrations.