People are coming from far and wide on Sept. 8 to learn from Squamish’s award-winning Clayton Correia.
No, he's not the more typical ‘Hardwired for Adventure’ elite athlete medal winner; he is a winner in the world of miniature painting.
He took home silver in the Golden Demon Awards, the world's foremost Warhammer miniature painting and modelling competition, put on by Games Workshop. The competition began in 1987 in the U.K., making it the longest-running such tournament in the world.
He also holds winning titles from Canada's Sword & Brush competition, which is held annually in Ontario.
On Sept. 8th, the local will be at Arrow Wood Games for a Painting Masterclass aimed at helping fellow miniature painters "level up" their skin tone painting.
The Squamish Chief caught up with Correia late last week in the back games room of Arrow Wood to find out more about him and his unique—to Squamish— hobby.
What follows is an edited version of that conversation.
Q: How long have you been in Squamish, and what brought you here?
A: About six years, and I think for me and my wife, the plan was always to come here. We're both from North Van, and Squamish reminds us of growing up there. That, and the outdoor aspect, the normal stuff that draws people here.
Q: What drew you to painting miniatures originally?
A: I was involved as a very little kid. I probably would have been eight or nine or something like that. I would have started with the Games Workshop Warhammer realm of things. And then it is very common for people to go on a hobby sabbatical, which I did.
You learn about video games and cars, and you kind of lose touch with it. And then, I guess about seven years ago, I was living in a 500-square-foot apartment downtown — I work in software and I was literally on a screen all day at work, I'd come home, I'd be on a screen — and I was like, I just need something to do with my hands, so I picked up miniature painting again.
Q: And now here you are; you have won several awards for your craft, including winning silver in the Golden Demon competition in Chicago in March in the Necromunda category. In your post on Instagram from the event, you seemed shocked to have won?
A: I was hoping, for sure. As a kid, you don't even think of participating in that competition; it is such a far-away idea. Actually, even when I was on my hobby sabbatical, once in a while, I'd kind of check and see the magazine in a store and want to see what people were entering in the competition and stuff like that. So, definitely a lifetime-long thing I wanted to do. And there's a long way to go — there's gold, still.
Q: And you have gone to at least several international competitions for miniature painting, right?
A: In the last few years, I've gone to different international competitions — five Gold Demon events and then the Las Vegas Open. There's another smaller bunch in the U.K. I've been to, and then some in Canada as well.
Q: A tough question to answer given there are a variety of items you paint, but how long does a piece take you?
A: The one I did that I won silver with took about 250 hours.
I had a massive Google document, figuring out all the decisions and what paints I was going to use and thinking about the art theory behind it. That specific competition is a very technical competition, which is why a lot of people like it.
And some other competition ones that have done were in about 100 hour range.
Q: And you have painted about 500 miniatures?
A: Oh, yeah. At least since I got back into it. I just love painting. If I'm watching a hockey game, I might have my stuff out and just be painting. So, you know, it's not all to competition level.
Q: So it kind of calms you, then?
A: There's definitely a strong mental health aspect to it, for sure. Part of that, honestly is it's just not being on a screen, and it is doing a creative activity with your hands.
Q: The class you are teaching on Sept. 8 at Arrow Wood Games is about flesh tones; why is that? Can you explain a bit why that is what you are focusing on?
A: We're going to do two things. One is just general blending techniques, which for a lot of people when they do tabletop miniatures, is one of the more advanced things they want to learn. They want to learn how to blend effectively so it looks smooth and those types of things.
So, we're going to go through a bunch of techniques, and then we'll apply that specifically to painting skin tones.
And again, that is one of the first areas that people want to upgrade. If you're playing a tabletop game and have an army of miniatures, or whatever, generally, some of those miniatures are special characters, and people often want to spend a little bit more time on those, making sure that, for example, the faces look really good.
And then skin in general, is just interesting because it takes a lot of skills. It takes blending. It takes an understanding of light, how the skin is actually somewhat both translucent and shiny to a degree. You have to know a little bit about painting the shapes of muscles.
It's just kind of a good topic to practice.
Q: What is your advice for someone who might want to get into the hobby but finds it a bit intimidating?
A: Don't compare yourself to anyone else. The only person to compare yourself to is yourself. I have one of the first miniatures that I ever painted, and it's worse than most people who start nowadays. And the community here is actually super welcoming. There are communities in this hobby that are not very friendly. There's a lot of sexist activity and that type of thing. This community is not like that at all.
It's actually quite welcoming, and the space that they have here at Arrow Games now, we have events. I like hanging out with the people; it's the social aspect of it.
We have people who maybe painted as a kid and are getting back into it, and they're interested, and people who have never done it before. And one day, they come in and see us playing. Next month, they're there with some miniatures. So it's pretty accessible, and especially nowadays with YouTube—learning how to paint to a basic level, it's so accessible.
Correia's next miniature project is a little different, he and his wife are expecting twins in October.
Find out more about Correia on his Instagram page, clayton_paints. His class at Arrow Wood is on Sunday, Sept. 8 from 1 to 5 p.m.
Check out Arrow Wood's events page for more information.
‘About a local’ is a regular column about interesting Squamish residents. If you know someone (who is willing) who you think we should feature, reach out to us at [email protected].
