Figure Painting, does it get easier or better?

..........or worse?

A friend of mine approached me a month ago with some figures he wanted me to paint (28mm wargames foundry ancient german warriors) because five years earlier I had painted hundreds of them for him and he now wanted to add another unit of 24 but painted the same way to match all the others I had done all those years ago.

To help he included some of the older figures I had done and when I looked at them I couldn't tell wether they were bad or good or how to copy the style but I painted them anyway in a vain hope to match them up.

What I'm trying to say is has your painting ability got better over the years of your figure painting or do we try to improve at all, I paint to a wargaming standard as I want to get figures done and move onto the next batch so I can get them on the table and game with them, the only thing that has changed over the years in my painting is washes and inks and my frequent use of them but I don't think my skill has.

A few years ago members of the Posties Rejects would gather every couple of months and paint another members figures for them in somebody's house and everybody got a turn and you could depending on scale get a lot of figures painted, I would give certain units of mine to a certain painter because they were quicker or a better painters but I hated this process because I wasn't that quick and really they only invited me because I cooked a certain pasta dish.

Last night I started painting 20mm for myself and I struggled but maybe I'm going blind in my old age aswell as I normally paint 28mm, well heres to winning the lottery and getting somebody to paint my figures, I wonder what Pamela Anderson is doing these days and what's her painting skill like ?