Shortbeard Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 So I find myself suffering from the blahs. I have a freshly primed mini awaiting my return from work and no pep to step up to a brush. Recently I had a mini I was working on and quite excited about have to be stripped and started from scratch. So the question I have to all you more experienced painters is how do you stay motivated? Especially in a situation where you have to redo a bunch of work you just did. Or are in the end phase of a model dealing with all the fiddly bits how do you keep patient to maintain your quality but not look at it as a chore? Yeah so what keeps you coming back for more? Reveal your Secrets!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshuaslater Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 Level of painting matters not. Whether you are an army/tabletop painter, or someone painting award winning models, the blah feeling of coming back to painting can strike you. Sometimes it comes at the end when it's the fine details, but for me, it's usually right after priming. That being said, I find that getting away from the paints and brushes sometimes can break the monotony. Assemble some other models, or tons of other models. It gets things done to a point, and may inspire you to go back. Game. Push some unpainted models in a game, and hopefully win!! I'm working on twelve Dwarf models that have sat primed for over a year now. They kicked butt last weekend, and now they are almost entirely covered. I'm making progress, albeit slow. If you roleplay, that's gaming too. Maybe a friend needs a model painted. That can help propel you back to your own models, or maybe you have a character that could use the right paint. Be cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Froggy the Great Posted March 18, 2011 Moderator Share Posted March 18, 2011 Yeah, I find that I periodically get the blahs, particularly if I've just painted a lot, have a deadline, or in this specific current case, a cold and headache the size of southwestern Berlin. Let it happen, and paint when and what you want to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leader of the Rats Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 The same thing that keeps me from exercising is the same thing that keeps me from painting. When it comes down to it, I either do it or put it off. If I just don't feel like finishing a model now I put it away and pick one out that I do want to at least prepare (file, putty, clean mold lines, prime) then get back to the other models at a later time. I only paint for myself so I'm never in any hurry. I have several models in various states of painting. Most of the time my worst "blahs" come when I paint batches of 20-40 models. I try to avoid doing that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferox Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 I don't worry about it. Painting is something I do for fun. If I'm not fired up about painting, I don't paint -- I do something else instead. Eventually I find myself flipping through my tutorials links and ogling the Show Off section and I start to want to paint again. It's okay to not want to paint for a while, especially when something frustrating happens like Anirion's trip to the brush cleaner. It sure beats training yourself to think of painting as a chore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psyberwolfe1 Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 I push through it. I either keep working or like others here do something else. You suffered a pretty huge set back. It happened to me once when my dog chewed off the head on a conversion. It took me weeks to get back to it, but I eventually finished him after the redo of the conversion work. Either do something else, or push on. Sometimes just futzing around where you paint can re-inspire you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angorak Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 I find that if my urge to paint has waned then a good movie in the same genre as what I need to do helps to get me back into the mood. And as far as doing the fiddly bits I listen to talk radio...usually late at night when George Norrey is on discussing some ludicrous alien invasion with some nutcase who is convinced he has implants controlling his thoughts...LOL And if it's a forced redo then just strive to do better..that way you get some satisfaction from the mishap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Froggy the Great Posted March 19, 2011 Moderator Share Posted March 19, 2011 You could set yourself a goal - paint X per day, or Paint an average X per day for a year, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inarah Posted March 19, 2011 Share Posted March 19, 2011 I don't push it. When I don't feel like painting I do something else, watch a movie, work on another hobby, go for a walk. When I want to paint but can't get motivated, or can't get inspired for a particular model I sit at my paint desk and do anything but paint. Put fresh newspaper down. Clean up the little bits of crap. Mix more magic wash. Get out fresh figures that need filing and prep.... pretty soon the urge to put brush to paint strikes me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psyberwolfe1 Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 I find that if my urge to paint has waned then a good movie in the same genre as what I need to do helps to get me back into the mood. And as far as doing the fiddly bits I listen to talk radio...usually late at night when George Norrey is on discussing some ludicrous alien invasion with some nutcase who is convinced he has implants controlling his thoughts...LOL And if it's a forced redo then just strive to do better..that way you get some satisfaction from the mishap. George Norrey... LOL. If I listen to talk radio I get distracted and want to do other things like read or prove why the nut cases are wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimL Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 I find looking at the painting forums makes me want to paint more, seeing other people's work is great inspiration. Also visiting my FLGS or perusing the online stores works for me as well, but beware shopping is the number one cause of buying and is directly linked to over-flowing shelves of shame! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shortbeard Posted March 21, 2011 Author Share Posted March 21, 2011 So, I ignored everything mini related this weekend. I didn't look at my mountain of lead, a rulebook or a webpage that was mini related (I may have sneaked a peak on here Sunday night). And last night just because of where my painting area is, the wife made me clean it up. So sitting there cleaning it up I saw the dreaded Anirion looking back at me all accusatory as I had left him in a state of primer only. Well I examined why I was painting him in the first place. He is to be a gift for a friend the whole purpose of being a gift was to keep my motivation up. The second reason for him to be a gift was to avoid the "good enough" syndrome that effects all my own minis and actually pout the effort into him to produce an above tabletop quality mini. So attempt one had me learn some new techniques and improve why should I not do better on attempt two I thought. So needless to say Anirion has some basecoat work done on him now. His colour scheme will remain the same as being a gift I want him to fit with my friends painted minis schemes but I am looking to improve on the technique discoveries I made in attempt one. So the "Blahs" have passed and painting is fun again or I should say as it has always been when I actually get brush to paint. The work area still is not cleaned.(My wife is less than happy) I thank everyone for their suggestions on how to beat the "blahs". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lionheart12 Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Honestly, the one thing that gets me back into painting is to actually FORCE myself to do it. Sure, I'll paint a little bit at first, but then the next day I'll want to paint a little more, then a little more the next day, so on and so forth until I'm done with the figure in question. I dunno if that helps, but that's how I operate. *shrug* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Jack Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 I usually make myself sit down at the painting table and then grab something random out of my "this mini is hideous and why the hell did I ever buy it?" bitz box. I then begin to inflict as much atrocity upon it as I can imagine - painting undead in neon colors, inflicting "battle damage" on chicks-in-chainmail-bikinis with a hobby knife and painting them like zombies, drilling a hole in some minis head and playing pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey by mounting an arm or hand in the center of their face, etc... In the middle of one particularly dry spell, I lined up about a dozen old Grenadier minis I knew I'd never get around to painting and viciously executed them all with a large auto body repair hammer. It rarely fails to get the creative juices flowing again, and about halfway through it my mind usually starts wandering back to thinking about painting my main project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shortbeard Posted March 27, 2011 Author Share Posted March 27, 2011 Jack remind me not to be a failed piece of pewter in your house. You leave me speechless. Destroying the pretties. I don't thing the dark lords of pewter would be appeased by such sacrafices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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