Hey, there everyone!
I know it’s been a while since I’ve done any writing but with the new year inching closer every day I want to get back in the habit!
After looking over reviews I’ve found that for myself the letter grading A-F as well as a 5 or 10-star system was simply not working! With that being said new reviews will have only 4 options.
Highly Recommended, Recommended, Acceptable, Unacceptable.
Not only will this allow me to be more precise but I want these to be my recommendation that I would give to close friends. My goal will be to give my honest opinion and feedback. I will never put down any company or producer but there will be tactful brutal honesty.
I also understand that there are many stages in the production of the miniature from sculpting to casting to quality control. Each group has the ability to control the quality at each stage and thusly the feedback will be directed at each group. I do believe though that the producer should bear the most weight as he is the one who is directing the piece and the final quality control before the product leaves the store. That being said let me make a quick outline of the feedback I will give each group.
Sculptor
The sculpture is the most creative aspect of this process as the artist’s heart and soul goes into creating a new wonder for us to apply our brushes too. All efforts will be made to respect the style and efforts of the artist. Feedback will be given for issues in anatomy, realism within the style (misformed objects/improper volumes) and continuity (ex. missing fingers or straps that should exist). We will also chat about the ease of which the sculpture will take paint as some are easier to paint than others.
Caster
Casting feedback will be looking for glaring issues such as Poor Cuts, Large Cast Lines, Bubbles and poor quality control (ex. pieces of mold in the model and missing chunks of the model due to mold deterioration).
Producer
The producer bears some of the weight of the previous two as this is the person or persons in charge of art direction and final quality control. If there are glaring issues the producer also takes a modicum of blame as they need to have the same attention to detail as the sculptor and caster.
I know that all of this sounds rather serious but I just want to set forth a mission statement for reviews as I feel as though many reviews tiptoe around or outright ignore problems. It is difficult as the community is small and we don’t want to hurt others. I understand this as a creative professional myself. But feedback is needed for growth and that is why feedback is given.
That being said I’m looking forward to the upcoming reviews I have in store for you all!
piratemonkeypainting 