About Jake
I've been painting miniatures full time “professionally” now for over a decade, running Chief Live Gaming as an in home commission studio. I am 35 years old. I live in Wisconsin, USA with my amazing wife and our pet rabbit, Baxter! I started painting miniatures and playing Warhammer Fantasy sometime back in high school, but set the hobby aside for a number of years during college.
In 2013, I got in a pretty nasty motorcycle accident that led to me dropping out of college and re-evaluating what I wanted to do with my life. While recovering from my injuries, I decided to pick up some brushes again. I painted some models for a few friends, and all of the sudden, people I didn't know started asking me to paint for them!
Other Interests
I love learning. I am always obsessively studying new things. I am a self taught artist and have learned most of what I know about miniature painting through books, videos, and practice. I am fascinated by a wide variety of subjects, and I love to dive deep into new hobbies and interests.
A few other things I'm into outside of miniature painting:
- Woodworking
- Painting, Sketching, pretty much any art medium
- Coding / Development
- I built this site!
- Games
- Video Games!
- Board Games!
- Dungeons and Dragons
- While Painting
- Audiobooks/Podcasts are my go to!
At the time, I was streaming video games on Twitch as a hobby and making gaming content on YouTube. I'm Native American, and I have always used “Chief” as my online handle. The name Chief Live Gaming has its roots in those days of streaming- it's the name I used for my channel. I decided to use that name for my painting commissions as well, since I figured it would be a short term thing. Well, here we are over a decade later!
I feel so fortunate to be able to do what I love every day, and to have the support of such an amazing community of hobbyists and miniature painters. I have had the opportunity to work with many talented artists and collectors over the years. I have painted more models than I can count, and had the privilege of working on models that I would have never been able to otherwise. Thank you all for being a part of this journey with me!
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