My Top 10 miniature painting artists!

Top 10 Miniature Painters Who Inspire the Hobby Community

The world of miniature painting is filled with incredibly talented artists who push the boundaries of creativity and technical skill. For years, I have followed some of the best painters in the industry, drawing immense inspiration from their work. The internet has played a huge role in bringing this community together, allowing us to learn from these masters and appreciate their stunning creations.

In this article, I share my top 10 favorite miniature painters, each of whom has made a significant impact on the hobby. Let’s dive in!

Roman Lappat

Sculptor & Painter from Augsburg, Germany

Roman is the founder of the very popular blog Massivevoodoo. It is a blog by a group of friends about the passion of miniature painting as well as sculpting, and is truly the source that has inspired and motivated me by far the most throughout my hobby life! There is so much knowledge, so many hidden gems, so much inspiration to discover. The tutorials on Massive Voodoo have helped me a lot to grow as an artist and to find inspiration and motivation. Currently there are over 300 free tutorials!

Roman is my favorite painter because I love the way he paints. When I look at his paintings, I can really "feel" the creativity. He captures the spirit of happy painting perfectly.

Soon I will have the chance to meet him live in Augsburg and learn from the master himself. I will be attending the beginners course on March 9th. I can hardly wait!

The Nightwatch

The Nightwatch is a huge diorama with so many details and things to discover. There could be dozens of stories hidden behind the scenes.  It is so much fun to spot the different models and think about what is going on with the Nightwatch.

The last Grandmaster 

The last Grandmaster is full of emotion and pain. It hurts just to look at the piece. 

Chimera vs. Bellerophon

I love this piece! Not just is the Chimera from Mierce Miniatures one of my favorite models, the pure epicness of this scene - good vs. evil - is just mesmerizing!

Soulhunter

Such intensity! So much atmosphere and vibrancy - love it!

The Last Light 

This diorama is one of the most awesome things I have ever seen in the miniature painting sphere! It is so massive, heroic, epic, full of drama and motion. I just can`t stop looking at it! A true masterpiece. 

Links:
Blog: www.massivevoodoo.blogspot.de & www.romanlappat.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MassiveV & www.facebook.com/romanlappatpaintedminiatureart
Instagram: www.instagram.com/romanlappat.miniatureart
Putty & Paint: www.puttyandpaint.com/jarhead

Kiril Kanaev

Sculptor & Painter from Balashikha, Russia

Although Kiril paints mainly busts, which I am not a big fan of, his painting style just blows me away! The perfect and hyper-realistic look of his pieces is simply unbelievable. 

Crimson fists 1st company captain

 This model is fully scratchbuild and was over 3 years in progress. It was worth! Everything looks very realistic and just perfect.

Elumbra and the Hashomer

Besides the fact that this sculpt is freekin epic, the paintjob is pure epicness!

Medieval Knight 14th century

Hyperrealistic! The lights are perfectly set. I`ve read the metals are NMM. Still can`t believe it. This paintjob is out of this world!

Hush

Love everything about this paintjob: the contrast, the coldness of the look, the details...it`s so good!

Dimitr

Dimitr looks surreal, more like a painting than a miniature. The contrast and the brightness is stunning!

Links:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/kirill.v.kanaev

Putty & Paint: www.puttyandpaint.com/Yellow_one

Sergio Calvo

Sculptor & Painter from Madrid, Spain

What I like the most of Sergio's painting style are the colors! The color composition in his paintings makes my jaw drop.

Space Wolf

My favourite piece of Segio and of the best painted miniatures I have ever seen! Everything is perfect. So many details, such perfection! When I look at it I can actually feel the coldness and wildness of the scene - lovely!

Barin

The jade head in this piece is stunning! The texture and color are well implemented. Another fantastic detail is the shield (not in this picture, unfortunately).

Guardian

This scene tells so much story. Sergio did an amazing paintjob in bringing it to life. The weathering is king!

Thor vs Hulk

The contrast (warm-cold, reflecting-non reflecting, etc.) on this epic duel is brilliant. The bright,, vibrant colours are perfectly fitting for a Marvel diorama. Love it! Smash smash!

Albrokh, the undead ork pirate

What I like most about this miniature are the sword and the OSL of the gun on the little monkey. So good!

Links:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sergiocalvominiatures 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/sergiocalvominiatures 

Putty & Paint: www.puttyandpaint.com/sergiocalvo 

Ben Komets

I have been a huge fan of Painting Buddha and watched every video of Ben painting miniatures with his famous loaded brush technique and Michael commenting and asking questions. I bought all the Painting Buddha DVDs and learned so much!
When I look at his painted miniatures there are so many WOW-moments! He is such a remarkable painter that everything he paints is totally different and a masterpiece of its own. Most painters are

Links:
Blog: www.benkomets.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Ben-Komets-Miniatures-584195438419033/ 
Instagram: www.instagram.com/benkomets/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCO40_JujA_zPWJ52AMA-X1A
Putty & Paint: www.puttyandpaint.com/jarhead

Painting Buddha:
YouTube:  www.youtube.com/user/paintingbuddha
Facebook: www.facebook.com/paintingbuddha

David Soper "Sproket"

Painter from Southampton, England

All of David`s paint jobs have this touch of perfect smoothness. He also posts a lot of step-by-step tutorials

Eldar Farseer

Gutrot Spume

Dark Eldar Scourge Diorama

Death Guard Plaque Marine

Links:
Blog: https://sproketsmallworld.blogspot.de/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/david.soper.351 
Putty & Paint: www.puttyandpaint.com/Sproket

Karol Rudyk

Sculptor & Painter from Poland

Karol likes Monsters, Undead and sinister dioramas - like me! I love his very unique painting style and his skills in painting, as well as sculpting, are out of this world!

Gorthang the swamp master

 I love dragons and this sculpt is absolutely epic! The color scheme creates an amazing dark atmosphere. The reddish-blue-black skin is really cool.

Dread Saurian

The Dread Saurian of Karol is one of my favorite paint jobs of all time. Everything about it is just incredible and massive! The inverted highlighted (I don`t now how this technique is called) just blews me away.

Orc warboss

The limited color palette of greens and browns creates a sinister atmosphere which I really like. Also just look at the banner. The pure detail makes me speechless.

Glory of Khorne 

Speaking of banner, check this one out. Although I am not the biggest fan of the base and model, the freehands on the banner is absolutely unbelievable.  

When the Death Rising

Links: 
Blog: http://karolrudykart.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/KarolRudykArt/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/karolrudyk/
Putty & Paint: http://www.puttyandpaint.com/Karolrudyk

Alfonso Giraldes Banshee

Sculptor & Painter from Madrid, Spain

Alfonso is a really talented artist which is pretty good in painting emotions.

Anakin vs Obi Wan

What a masterpiece! As a Star Wars fan this diorama makes me happy. The expression, the determination in Anakin’s face is really powerful! The use of light is truly inspirational. A true piece of art.

Who is the chosen one?

 The fearlessness, power, and determination of the Chaos Space Marine's look is blowing me away. 100% Awesomeness!

TrollSlayer

Have you ever read Gotrek & Felix? This is how I imagined Gotrek when I was young reading the book series. Pure power and wildness. Going berserk and slay for glory and death!

Links:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Alfonso.Giraldes.Banshee

Instagram: www.instagram.com/alfonso_giraldes_banshee

Putty & Paint: www.puttyandpaint.com/BansheeArtStudio

Angel Giraldez

Painter from Spain

As my major gaming system is the Sci-Fi skirmish Infinity the game from Corvus Belli, there is no way around the studio painter Angel Giraldez who does a phenomenal job in painting these excellent miniatures. 

I also really like his miniature painting book. It helped me a lot in developing my painting skills. 

Busts from Luxumbra

Gujia

Links:

Website: www.studiogiraldez.com/ 

Blog: http://studiogiraldez.blogspot.de/ 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/StudioGiraldez/ 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/angel_giraldez/ 

YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCQVY6ZD9YjxwPzJqJ6DcHgA 

Made by Shizune

Painter from Poland

When it comes to bloody amazing painted Infinity miniatures Made by Shizune is one of the painters who produce some lovely eye candy. The intensity of the colors and the strong highlights make the miniatures really pop. I am a big fan of her painting style and recognize it instantly when I see pics on the internet. 

Links:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/madebyshizune/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/mbshizune/

RUSTO art and craft show Fabrizio Russo

Sculptor & Painter from Milan, Italy

Fabrizio is a stunning artist who creates jaw-dropping dioramas! It was so hard to choose the five one I liked the most.

For whom the bell tolls

Jack in the Plucker

Froo la Zoik, gobelin wanderer

May the 4th be with you

Deus ex machina

Links:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rustoart/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/rusto_art/
Putty & Paint: www.puttyandpaint.com/rusto

Final Thoughts

That`s it! Although there are plenty more amazing artists out there, I had to limit myself to only 10 - very difficult!

I think these pictures have so much inspiration and power. I hope you liked the article and maybe you found some artist you surprisingly didn`t know about :)

I would like to know, what are your favorite miniature painters? Who did I miss?