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Translation : Daniel Serrano
My name is Marion Ebensperger.I was born in Zurich at the 27th
of March 1963, and am the oldest of
six Children. At this time families
had a lot of Children and not as
much TV,,,that’s probably why
Families were so big.
I had a very good childhood, and it
was obvious from my earliest years
that I had an interest in
Archaeology, and anything to do with
History. When I spent my Holidays
with my poor Grandparents, they
ended up having to follow me to all
the castle, and caves that I found,
but lucky as I was, they showed a
full understanding of the strange
passions of a six or seven year old
girl , and supported me where they
could .
Some years later, when we moved to
St Gallen (ten minutes from both
Germany and Austria) my interest in
Modelling started. I was really
totally different from my sisters,
instead of playing with Dolls etc; I
played football, cowboys and
Indians, built Aeroplanes, castles
and other things like that. I still
remember very well my first Diorama,
which was only a mountain of
Plaster, (unpainted), covered with
soldiers and groundwork, and I
thought it looked fantastic. I was
so full of Joy and showed my
“masterpiece” to my parents ……..they
probably wondered when I would
finally start to act like a normal
girl
J
Okay, that had probably not happened
until now, and my parents probably
gave up on seeing the little girl
they wanted years ago, but are now
proud of their figure painting
daughter
Before
I met Alan I had already been
married for about 22 years. My first
husband died of a deadly illness and
after that I never thought I would
fall in love with another man again.
After that difficult time Alan
showed up slowly and conquered my
heart step by step what was not an
easy task for him. But in the end he
showed me a new different life which
I was always looking for but
believed that wouldn’t exist. In
2002 on a wonderful day on the beach
in Folkestone during the euro
Militaire show he did the most
romantic proposal you can imagine.
And guess what was my answer?...........Yeeeees
of courseJ
Alan moved from England without
knowing my German language into a
foreign country for him but he
adopted very soon and he is getting
used to our different habits here
already as well.
Today
I am an ordinary housewife who cooks,
cleans and takes care for her
husband and paints a bit beside thatJ
seriously, today I am in a very
lucky position to do what I love the
most beside my husband and our cat
Suso I can paint when ever I want! I
am free to paint figures and with
that wonderful combination to get
married to a sculptor we both can
make our dream true and make it for
a living.
That happened in 1988 when I found
accidentally a little figure shop in
Vienna. I was looking for some
figures to put on my wooden ships I
built at that time. There I
discovered for the first time real
figures! Not just Airfix stuff. I
bought my first two Poste Militaire
figures and I was so excited about
them that I couldn’t wait to get
home and paint them.
Some years ago I switched over from
oil colors to the acrylic ones. The
only reason I changed was that our
long time friend Fernando Toro
persuaded me to try out that new
medium. That was when Latorre was
coming up and showing everybody that
you can paint with watercolors much
more impressively then with oils.
Since I was really happy with my
oils at first I didn’t want to
change my medium but my stubborn
head wanted to try out themJ
After many hard and hopeless tries I
almost gave up and wanted to go back
to using my oils again but then
suddenly I found how to use the
acrylic colors. At that time it
seemed almost like a big secret how
to paint with them and nobody could
tell you how to do it. But when I
found out how I had to dilute the
color and make the highlights and
shadows I was then convinced and
changed sides for good. Beside that
there was no drugging smell from the
thinner anymore and I could work
much faster which is really a big
advantage. I still use Andrea,
Vallejo and Maimeri colors which I
take for different parts of the
figure. If I have to paint flesh
then I prefer Vallejo`s and if I
want to be sure that I will get a
real flat finish then I take Andrea
and Maimeri.
-At those times there were no
teachers or books in German which
could have helped you to start with
that hobby. And the other problem
was I didn’t speak English good
enough to understand a magazine or a
book. But fortunately I discovered
the English “Military Modelling” and
the American “Campaign” magazines.
Even if I didn’t understand what
they were describing I still saw the
pictures and used them as my guide.
I experimented and tried to achieve
the same results like on those
pictures. But of course it didn’t
work properly for the first few
years. It was really hard and I
needed much more time then than you
would need today with all those good
books and internet forums where you
get such great help from other
modelers. However, slowly I found my
own way to paint and learnt
everything by myself.
-How shall I answer that question? I
am married with a very very good
sculptor and hopefully all of you
forgive me if I say it is him!!!! I
just can tell him how I would like
to have the figure and he will do it
for me. What more can a painter wish
for?
Okay, beside him (or better said
before we were together) my favorite
sculptor was the late Richard Almond.
He did such different figures for
that time, when all the other
sculptors stayed with pretty much
the same boring static poses. I
painted almost all his figures and I
am still a big fan. The artist who
inspired me mostly was and still is
bill Horan. He was the one who
pushed me forward even if he didn’t
know about that. Then I love the
work of Mike Blank , Raul Latorre
and Christian Petit. But of course
there’s many more that I didn’t
mention otherwise it would fill the
whole magazine
J
-For figure painting I prefer the
time period from the 16 Century till
the 18th. During those
times the people had such different
interesting fashion styles in both
uniforms and civil clothes that you
never get bored to paint such a
figure.
Manufacturer, well, I
always loved Poste Militaire which
still today offer some of the best
quality around, it is a shame that
they haven’t produced stuff for
quite a while. Years ago I didn’t
like Resin figures mostly because
they were of a lower quality and
made always such dirt when cleaning
the figure. Today however the
castings and quality has improved so
much that I very often paint resin
figures and my favorite companys are
United Empire Miniatur, Michael
Roberts .
I am not in a miniature club but I
am a member of our local IPMS club
in St.Gallen for many years. There
actually I started to take part in
national competitions. There I had
my first experience of shows and
competitions.
Over the Years I tried many brushes,
until I finally found the best ones
for me and I have now used Finobrush
from a german company and by the
Pèbèo Company for years.
My preferred sizes are No.1 & No.2,
which I can use to paint from 54mm
to 120mm figures problem-free,
smaller brush numbers I only very
rarely use, since the brushes lose
their hair anyway with time and so
automatically become thinner.
As with the brushes, naturally I
also have my favourite colours,
there small differences with these
paints also. I personally use
Andrea, Vallejo and Maimeri colours,
and here I must mention the fact is
that the Andrea & Maimeri
(Polycolor) colours become
absolutely matte. This is sometimes
not so suitable, if one must paint
skin for example.
I prefer the Vallejo colours; they
are softer and tend to have an easy
silk gloss. Which for faces is
ideal, but can be annoying for other
things? So each colour intends their
and disadvantages, and you must
choose which one to use correctly.
To mix the colours I use plastic
pallets of the company Pèbèo,
allegedly one can only get these
here in Switzerland, however, they
are very practical and one can throw
them away, once they are fully caked
with too much colour. This is, as I
said, very practical for me since I
am too lazy to clean everything
fully every time.
Something I find very much as
important is a mounting plate that
the figure is held in while
painting. This way you don’t have to
touch the figure at all. And can get
to it from all sides without any
problems. I have one made from wood,
which is simple and cheap to make.
Naturally there are some other
variations, but I prefer my old
holder.
1. Mix the colours:
When I mix a colour, I always keep
each colour separate and do not mix
everything together from the outset,
but the palette is ideally suited
for this, one can keep each colour
separately ready for use.
Each colour is given a separate
section and more or less of each
colour is added until the desired
hue or tone is reached. Here perhaps
some people will ask themselves, how
many drops have I put out from the
different colours and how much water
to take to each colour, two or
three? That is something I always
rely on my feeling for, and do not
have a standard pallet each time.
My basic colour is in each case has
only enough water added to it until
it gets to the consistency of cream.
It gets diluted more automatically
with each coat as more water is
added to make each coat of paint
thinner than the last..
2. Painting Technique:
I always begin with the face, on
which I lay the basic colour and
then completely paint the eyes. More
exactly the eyes and the position of
the pupils are painted in this
stage, rather than at the end. This
is so I can correct anything I don’t
like again and again problem free,
and without worrying about damaging
the. Because I find the chances of
painting the eyes correctly the
first time improbable, since the
left side is always seemingly more
difficult than the right, I always
need several attempts, until I am
finally content.
I have a rule of thumb, which I
apply to all basics mixtures,
whether it is a face, an article of
clothing or anything else I paint. I
always begin with the middle tone
and work up to the “brighter” or
highlight, like the structure of a
pyramid. Usually four or five stages
are enough for me to get what I
want, and get to the brightest
highlights. I take a little of the
last colour to be used and add that
to blend away any obvious lines
between the layers of colours...
Later I follow the same procedure in
the reverse sequence, and start with
the brightest shade, whereby I make
certain that the colour is kept
extremely aqueous and very thin on
the brush. I also make four to five
layers, until I arrive at the
deepest shade. Afterwards I correct
the whole thing again, by lightening
again a little the appropriate
places since by shading highlights
were automatically slightly
darkened.
When I am finished with the face and
the head, I work downward and from
left to the right from above. … This
is my habitual way of painting a
figure; and I would never begin with
the trousers for instance. In this
way I can still touch the figure on
unpainted parts, if I must, without
worrying about anything happening. I
like to stress all transitions of
clothing or body parts, by taking
the respective colour and
under-painting it with a thin line.
It is a little, like a relief, by
after-drawing everything with the
brush. The whole figure is outlined.
The trick of course is that the
brush line must be kept absolutely
as thin as possible.
At the conclusion of each figure I
use just a little gloss or silk matt
lacquer, in order to stress eyes,
mouth, hands and any sweat, the
remainder of the figure stays as it
is and is not varnished or lacquered
in any way
At the very last I install the
finished figure onto the base and
weather it according to the
groundwork and any other
circumstances that would effect it
with Pastels –and Oils which I lay
on with White Spirit..
I noticed in many shows that a lot
of people imitate painting styles,
which is something I don’t like to
support. They still can take the
best from every painter they like
and use it in their painting but in
the end they have to develop their
own style, there is nothing else for
it. Otherwise we get only copies of
everything which would get really
boring. There are so many new
talents in our hobby that gives me a
good feeling that it will go on. I
also noticed that they are much
faster in their development then
when I was when I started. The
progress they make is amazing .Maybe
it is because the have now books ,
magazines and people who show them
how to do it. In my time there was
nothing and I had to be my own
teacher. Therefore I am feeling very
happy and proud that some of those
new talents chose me as their
inspiration.
I always try to help people if they
and ask for my opinion or advice.I
think it is one of our
responsibilities the old experianced
painters have to help somebody to
improve and encouraging him in his
painting or sculpting.
-My favorite show is still Euro
Militaire. I grew up in that hobby
with that show and for me it was
always the highest you could achieve
in getting a gold medal there. I
have been going there since I
started painting and never missed a
show since then. I like the
surrounding, being directly on the
coast and hearing the waves is
absolutely marvelous.
Of course beside Euro, I love our
Ingolstadt show which is held in the
Bavarian museum with a very
enthusiastic museum director who
supports us greatly.
Last but not least my favorite
American shows are Valley Forge
Chicago and Atlanta. The warm
welcome and friendship you will
receive there is absolutely
outstanding.I see that now at every
American show and I just feel at
home there..
Galeria
Marion
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