Art first. This is a somewhat unique sentiment in event planning for the miniature community – since so much energy is spent on gaming and creating pieces with a utilitarian angle, creating an “Art First” event is kind of an obvious reaction. Art shows and gatherings are of course quite common, but the US miniature painting scene is dominated by gaming shows- LVO, NOVA, and of course Adepticon. All three of those have excellent art shows within them and an incredible set of instructors and artists. At Adepticon, painting and modelling is essentially a whole mini-con within a con.
And that’s where Pigment is trying to step in- establish a US, “Art First” kind of convention. A group of dedicated volunteers down in Texas have been running and hosting painting classes and events for years in Austin, and decided to expand it to a whole convention! The approach is modeled loosely on 1) the art shows in Europe like Monte San Sevino or World Model Expo and 2) the scale modelling (IPMS) type shows like MFCA (which I’ve written about before: MFCA 2026). This event was going to focus on the art exhibition as it’s core, with a supporting network of classes, fun events (speedpainting yay!), and cool vendors. I only saw a couple folks playing any games, and that was all set up ad hoc just to pass the time with friends.
I think this is a cool new direction for miniature art in the states, really putting the focus on the art show and techniques. The closest equivalent is MFCA and the IPMS shows, which draw from the scale modelling community and don’t have a traditional gaming component. As places like MFCA broaden to accept a wider range of figure painting, techniques, and styles, this could merge with events like Pigment and the newly announce BMAS (https://www.bmashow.com/home) to create a network of shows around the country focused on all ranges of models, miniatures, painting, and dioramas! I’m pretty excited about it.
So looking at my calendar this year- I had to miss Historicon this last weekend as I had a wedding to go to, and I’m giving NOVA a pass later this year. So I thought it would be a summer without cons. But then I learned about this first ever Pigment show and decided to roll the dice!
So, was the first (hopefully annual) Pigment 2026 show worth the trip?
The Venue and Community
So I flew out to scenic Pfluggerville, TX, just outside of Austin. The show was in a Marriott conference center in the suburbs- hardly an inspiring venue but serviceable. I’m told it lacked the charm of Monte (someday I will get there). But it didn’t matter too much to me- I was there to meet and hang out with other painters, see cool painted models, and paint!
Everything in the hotel was perfectly serviceable, and the staff seemed charmed by this weird little con going on in this business hotel. I had some fun hanging out and chatting with folks at the bar. I was able to sneak out to go running and even make it over to the HEB for some provisions (need to keep that energy up!).
The convention had 6-8 classrooms, the main exhibition hall, and a modest but well curated vendor hall (Dracoya, Turbodork, Verko’s, Lionheart hobbies and others made up a nice selection there). I definitely spent a little money, and ended up with more (small) projects than I started with!
I know an explicit goal of the con was trying to create the sort of small interactions between painters and attendees, and the organizers specifically pointed out that Saturday night they were really looking to get a community feel going, with a buffet dinner at community tables, followed by the exhibition. As someone flying solo at this convention, it worked great. I felt sucked into a milieu of cool people hanging out and painting, a lot of folks who had never traveled to Adepticon or east coast cons. I think that was a real blast, and a unique feature of this vs Adepticon (which is too huge) or MFCA (which is more narrow in its scope and community). It was a blast. The dinner and post-exhibition show were great, and sitting there and dissecting our favorite pieces as a group was an amazing experience.
I hope they find a way to make this sustainable, and I hope the Baltimore BMAS show works out this same way. It feels like the beginning of something. Maybe I’m just being too hopeful. But between Pigment and the shift in the previous few years in MFCA and other shows to be more inclusive of other work, I hope there is going to be a real set of cool painting cons in the US. We’ll probably never have anything quite as quaint and one-of-a-kind as Monte, but I think we could have a network of really satisfying art and miniatures shows. Here’s hoping they do it again!
The Classes
So again, flying solo, and missing out on Historicon (tear) and other cons, I wanted to make sure I made this ‘worth it.’ I figured the best way to make this worth it was make sure I had a large number of things booked, but to not be fully booked. So I left Saturday afternoon free for hanging out and fun, but did a whooping 5 classes! While an investment in $$s, I had luckily set this aside in the hobby fund and was fine on budget due to the lack of cons this year. I maxed it out, but I made it, haha.
On Friday I did:
Designing freehand patterns with Kaha: after her Adepticon class, I knew I wanted to sign up for another. While my Suvia bust was inspired by work with her, I didn’t capture all the nuance of what we were discussing. To get back into my comfort and execution zone, we had to walk back some of the bolder choices. This seemed like a great way to dive back in. She gave us another bust (which again isn’t exactly my cup of tea, but I’ll use it as a serious practice piece I plan to finish) and we focused on patterns on the wings. I only got part way through sketching, but I think a number of the ideas around the intersection of shape and color stuck. I hope to look at this from the position of a warm ‘ruby demon’, with geometric shapes on the wings and more variable organic shapes to better integrate this work. It was a blast!
Historical textures with Jerry Allen: So I had seen Jerry Allen’s work at MFCA and was wowed. As I wandered through that show, I took pictures of a half dozen pieces, and after the fact realized they were all his. Across fantasy and historical painting, I was wowed. So when I saw him signed up to teach, I was excited to sign up! Little did I know, this was his first time teaching a painting class. Clearly an able teacher and facilitator from professional life, the class was well run and focused on the use of reference images and texture in historical painting. We focused on fur and wood using a cool roman bust. I’ve worked on some of these things before, but it was great to have a comprehensive deep dive and I hope to revisit this roman bust, perhaps converted to be an early Byzantine (just to mix it up)!
Composition Essentials with Matt DiPietro: So this was my last class of a 12 hour day (with some work meetings stuck in the middle lol), and I was feeling a little burnt. Luckily for me, this was a little different than a painting deep dive. Instead of doing a deep dive on painting technique, we zoomed out to focus on composition. The core of it was discussing the principles of composition in terms of 1) basics of painting contrast as we understand it as mini painters and 2) basics of layout and structure. Instead of painting, we focused on dissecting painting. Using books on Brom, Frazetta, and James Gurney, we broke into small groups to select pieces and analyze them to dive into the details of how they paintings were structured and planned. This included color choice, contrast, and the use of negative space. It was an absolute blast, and given the hands on group activities also a way to get to know my fellow painters! This is something I hope to repeat with pieces in the future, whether fellow miniature artists, fantasy artists, or pieces from a museum! What a blast.
On Saturday, I had merely one class (I reserved Sat afternoon and evening for vendors, events, and the show)
Color Theory with Borja: I of course wanted to sign up with another one of the international painters flying in for this one! This covered the essentials of color theory (from Borja’s perspective), color mixing, and paints, and we practiced by color matching and over painting magic cards! It was a great exercise. So I think for a lot of people this was mind blowing. For myself, this had a lot of echos of Banshee’s workshop in OEC (this is a good thing) retreading some ground that I’ve covered before. But Borja is continuing to push his art and had exciting new insights to add on top of Banshee. While the core was the same, much of the detail and nuance was not. I had a lot of fun exploring paint, and revisiting some of my assumptions particularly around hobbyist paint and mixing with inks.
Finally, Sunday, before my flight, I managed to squeeze in one more class with Orion’s Belt Minis.
Underpainting with Orion’s Belt Minis: So this workshop focused on something I’ve done, but not so intentionally. This was about underpainting, as traditionally understood in 2D art, laying down a dark region on which one builds. I’ve done a bit of this as I’ve followed along with Bob Ross and also done some for particular lighting conditions in minis. Here, we focused on selecting a two-color underpainting palette and laying down a compelling lighting situation for a mini. We sketched an entire relicblades mini with NMM in a couple of hours. I think this is a really powerful technique I had not fully appreciated before. For both minis and busts, but perhaps most especially dioramas, this might be the best way to lay in light and contrast rapidly and establish a dynamic setup. I hope to use this a lot more in my sketching and will be deliberately trying this on a bust soon. Also, her enthusiasm for miniature painting was beyond infectious and the 80s dance party got my pumped.
Overall our room setups were on par with Adepticon or Nova- great donated lights, palettes and a sensible water/bucket system. The volunteers did a great job routing folks around and we had just one snafu with someone being in the wrong place in Borja’s class. For a first time out, they had clearly learned from the best- it was a super positive learning experience.
The Show
The core of the event was, of course, the Exhibition! I always like to think of these more as ‘art shows’ than ‘competitions’ partially because I am a non-competitive person and partially because if you want a sensible competition get into footraces or something.
But, the organizers had a fantastic room for the show, with plenty of space on tables, in a style more like MFCA. You had to be careful not to touch anything, but you could get up close and personal (which I love). It was good they were over prepared as I heard they got about double (300+) of their initial expectations of entries. Steve Garcia was the head judge, backed up by Matt, Kaha, and Borja. So an all-star crew.
They did close the exhibition Saturday around 1 to do judging, but wrapped up by the dinner. While this was a bit of a bummer as it was prime viewing time for the public, they had a lot of work to do and did have it wrapped up by dinner, so we could go hang out at the exhibition post-dinner. I dont know how many folks from the general public made it, but I hope they are able to advertise more over time!
Of course many things could be improved (especially the lighting- but isn’t that a perennial complaint?) their app and organizers did the damn thing. It was really cool. Quality was stealer- some things I had seen at Golden Demon and MFCA, but a lot of stuff that (for me at least) was brand new. And the Judge’s display ruled. I think it was a big hit, and I hope they do it again!
I also had a blast with speedpainting (and was voted winner of my round, gosh) and I heard the four color challenge and other events were cool. Everyone seemed to have a blast just hanging at the painting tables.
So the first (hopefully annual) show was a big hit from the perspective of a rando who read about it online and said ‘ay, what the hell, I’m free that weekend’. I hope they do it again! And if they do, I’ll see if I can make it. Any maybe next time, I’ll finally get to check if Casey is a real person or not.
-BS