For those who don’t know him, Rafael Garcia Marin aka Volomir is a very well-known spanish painter. Owner of Volomir’s Blog, incredible painter and winner of multiples prizes in Open Contest and Golden Demon show, he also wrote some very interesting articles. In fact, Rafael is definitly an active member in the hobby community.

- Hello Rafael, first can you present yourself ? Like the way you discover the hobby.

Hi Julien! Thank you so much for inviting me over! It’s a great pleasure for me.

Let me present myself by saying: Hello! My name is Rafael García Marín. I am also known as Volomir in all the painting circles. I was born in 1985 so as of today I am 27 years old, and I’ve been painting for showcase since 2006. I started in the hobby way earlier, when I discovered Warhammer as a kid, and I instantly fell in love with those fantastic little miniatures. I just wanted to build armies and armies of them as an early teenager! But soon, social life and girls would take me from my beloved hobby (being a teenager, trying to be cool and playing with plastic toys was not compatible).

It wasn’t until college, when I started my degree in Engineering, that I was surrounded by huge nerds like me and by girls who weren’t scared of those little soldiers (or at least that’s what they said). I got lured by the hobby again and even played every now and then some Warhammer 40k with my friends from university. But my real interest was purely aesthetic. I wanted super cool painted armies and miniatures. It was then when I found the early Spanish Team, met Alfonso Giraldes, and decided to start painting for a greater purpose. It was 2006 and it was the true beginning of my life as I know it now.

- You are the creator of Volomir’s blog. How come the idea of creating it ?

I was working as an intern in university, and we did research and development on new technologies around the Internet. We were particularly interested in social networks and the blogosphere, and because of that, I thought that I should have a blog of mine, to be able to better understand the whole picture. Obviously, it had to be themed around my miniatures!

It started as a very simple gallery, in 2008. The blog still says on the main page “This is my little space in the internet. I will keep photos of my figures, things that catch my attention and other stupid things.” Nearly five years after, I am still true to that phrase, but the blog has grown to be something I never expected. I will happily see it turn 5 years old in October, I will celebrate greatly, and I have awesome future plans for my humble space in the web.

- How many people are following your website? Because as you probably know, he is very popular ! If I remember well, you were very well placed on the Wamp best internet website “survey”.

It is difficult to measure really, nowadays the blog itself isn’t the only way to create communication. With Facebook and without Google Reader, the blogosphere is changing. But as of natural visits, I count around 500 visitors per day on average.

You can’t imagine how happy this makes me! I am grateful for each and every one of them, and I try to correspond making tons of photos of my creations and trying to help in the learning process of as many painters as I can. I received the same help when I began and I like to give back! Community is one of the most important things that I found in this hobby.

- Have you any idea about the number of post that was written on it? Are you happy, or surprise by the success of your website ?

There are around 350 posts in the blog as of today. At first I posted very little, maybe once a week or less. In the first year, I counted around 25 posts. But as the site began to be followed more and more, I started writing more. The last three years I’ve written on average twice a week or so, around 85 posts per year. And it is growing! I was really surprised to see so many people follow it.

Now I work hard to maintain the interest, and it is sometimes difficult because sadly painting is not my job so I can’t dedicate as much time as I would like. I am very happy with the blog but I’m sure I can do even more things. Who knows what the future might bring!

- What is your future in terms of miniatures ? Any new project you start working on ? Even if you just finish a very big project with your stunning dragon ?

I have so many things I want to do that I don’t even know where to start! I think I’m going to spend some time relaxing on more units of elves because the army I’m building is turning out really nicely and I’m very excited to see the family grow. But I also want to do some more big projects, maybe a huge diorama with lots of minis.

I still want to explore the 360º view concept that I tried with the Last Stand of the Crimson Fists, or start with some other big monster, and I want to keep sculpting some more full scratch minis like the Kasrkin Sergeant I did in 54mm. But nothing is for sure right now!

- You recently take part into the Painting Bhudda DVD. How was your experience by taking part in such a big project ?

It was really awesome! The Painting Buddha crew are very good friends of mine and it was such a nice surprise when they offered me to be part of the project. I accepted without hesitation! Even so, I have to say that when I arrived in Berlin there were moments when I felt a little overwhelmed to paint so much in so little time.

I don’t normally paint full time so those 5 days of hardcore painting and the discomfort of the heavy lighting were a little tough in the beginning. But Michael, Ben and Mati are awesome friends, they made the recording an absolute delight and I had the best of times. I am only sad that I won’t be participating any more in the near future!

Other painters need to take over now!

- Can you describe your way of thinking, about the hobby and your personal approach of it.

Painting and modelling are my passion. I get endless joy from this activity, from the people I have the chance to meet, and from the beauty of the art we create. I will keep on doing it because it makes me happy and I hope that this never ends. It is a very emotional activity: I paint a lot when I’m happy but I find it very hard to sit down and do stuff when I am unhappy.

I think I wouldn’t be able to commit to make a living on it because there’s times when I really don’t feel like painting. For me life is a rollercoaster we ride blindfolded and you never know if the next slope will go up or down. But when you feel the muse, it is unstoppable. Everything else does not matter, and you want to feel the vibe. Even during the process of creating a big project you ride that rollercoaster.

It takes a lot of courage to make it to the end, and I use contests to put deadlines to myself. It helps with the most difficult of tasks: considering the moment when a miniature is done.