Shelf of Incompletion

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

It seems 2021 is to be the year of the "painting blehs", where many of us are struggling to find out just where our inspiration has wandered off to. The world seems to be going increasingly mad each passing day, so this isn't surprising. With so much uncertainty about, it's difficult to get back into painting mode with so many other things to worry over. 

Last year I was knocked out of any steady routine for long periods of time, and it appears that for this year that may hold true as well. So how to adapt is the question here. To begin with, to recognize how I wound up with a horde of half finished minis on the table nagging at me. Simple, for the last few years I've had the tendency to bite off far more than I can chew on a regular basis. Between juggling Undead, Witch Hunters, and the Witch/Halloween army, I've put myself in a place where I'm dealing with units on a regular basis, and using pretty much the same palette on all of them. Don't get me wrong, the limited palette achieves what look I'm going for with everything and I'm still just as much in love with all of my factions as I was when I started them, but like with all things there are consequences. My habit of opening a blister of something new to try and feed the motivation also doesn't help me here.

Humans are to a greater or lesser extent novelty seeking creatures. Although I fall into the far end of lesser, sooner or later it catches up. Also part of why I fell into the current structure is logistical, I've lost the knack of small pours, and have a horror of wasting paint, so limiting colors to what can be spread far in the case of overspill makes sense. 

Another contributing factor is that having learned the hard way with drawing, I cannot and will not try to "force it" when it comes to artistic projects. All well and good, but it leaves me in a position where as soon as the muse decides to hide beneath the sofa, the project comes to a screeching halt whether it be painting or writing. 

So what to do about this now? 

Goal setting in the loosest possible sense of the word. Overall objective is to clear everything off of the table before unblistering or opening anything else. I've been doing good here, so it's just a matter of keeping this up.

Outside of my faction projects, these are what's staring at me...

Barbarian Mouslings...

Viking Mouslings...

Eastern Mouslings...

Drangus the Duck Knight, meant as a Christmas gift two years in the running now, saving grace is that the recipient has no clue about this.

Zombie Dragon, also meant as an unexpected gift. The snag here is that this is the first full size dragon I've ever attempted so scale got intimidating quickly and that I was having a difficult time trying to figure out what was rotted flesh and what was muscle. Gluing the wings on this early didn't do me any favors either. I have another one still in it's package that is destined for my undead army, so hopefully by tackling this one I can have an easier time when it comes up in rotation.

 

Even here it's obvious as to how I go strongly with theme, even in my "random" minis. Since I tend to try and paint as large a batch as possible, with this the solution might be to focus on one or two, finishing them before moving on, even though my brain is going to screaming at me otherwise. 

 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Started pecking away at Drangus...

Finished his feet with some of the sample paint from my last Reaper order...

...and used some Heather Blue mixed with Rainy then Misty Grey on his shield...

Gives a nice Winter sky vibe to it I think. 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

A bit of progress...

Some Pine Green on his head, Ancient Bronze on his buckle and bag, some more Ebony Flesh on his belt...

Brown and Black Washes on his bags and bedroll...

More Ancient Bronze on his sword and shield, and blocked in the emblem with Ginger Cookie on the body, Russet Brown on the neck, Pine Green on the head, and Shadowed Stone on the wings, tail, and Drangus's hands.

Spoiler

Not all that much really, yet it took me two hours. This is where my frustration comes in, I know the color schemes I'm going for and I'm happy with them, I'm happy with the level of work I can produce, but I cannot get myself to actually sit and commit to keeping going. I'll get a little bit down, then lose interest, wander off and read something, then wander back, get a bit more done, and so on...

Which granted is far better than letting things sit for days/weeks/months without anything getting done, but there was a time when a solid hour or two of painting was something I could do regularly and that's what I want to get back to, but for some reason I can't get there. 

Spoilered for rambling.

[ManvsMini]

Love the look of that shield. Can't wait to see the whole thing completed.

 

With regards to your frustration, my dad always told me this: if you're going to do something, do it right no matter how long it takes. At the time, teenage MvM hated hearing that, but older MvM now gets that if it takes 2 hours to accomplish something I'm happy with then so be it. I think the 2 hours you invested was time well spent.

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

I don't know how or why it happened, but I was able to finally get back into the groove of things! Unlike the last two hour session, I managed to stay seated and working the whole time, and thus brought Drangus to the state of "More or less complete"...

His face was done in several layers of Pine/Leaf Green, Leaf/Viper Green, and straight Viper Green. On his shield, the same greens were applied as well as Dark Highlight on the neck, dabs of Dirty Bone on the body, New Sample color with Buckskin Pale on the Bill and feet, Stone Grey on the wing tips and Drangus's hands, a patch of Linen White on his inner wing, some GW Balthazar Gold on the shield, and a thin tint of Heather Blue over the background.

The bits of clothing peeking out are a mix of Stormy/Cloudy/Rainy Greys, some Dark Highlights on the leather, and various mixtures and washes of New Sample and Buckskin Pale on his bill, as well as a thin Black Wash about his mouth line and nostrils. 

I'm currently waiting for his arm to dry, as I search for an appropriate base for him. 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Found the base I was looking for. Now to wait for the other arm and wood putty to dry...

[Samedi]

On 1/16/2021 at 10:39 PM, Lord of the Dish Pit said:

Which granted is far better than letting things sit for days/weeks/months without anything getting done, but there was a time when a solid hour or two of painting was something I could do regularly and that's what I want to get back to, but for some reason I can't get there. 

 

Well, in my experience there are times to paint and then there are times to do something else. And at those times, for me it's often better not to paint, because I'll mess up and hate the experience. After all, it's just a hobby, not a job (at least for me, that is)...

 

Great progress on the duck! It has come to life, and I wouldn't want to be in his way. 

 

 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Got the first colors down, Steel Legion Drab for the dirt, Misty Grey over the putty for the snow...

This will give me an excuse to test out this...

The plan is to use my usual grass mix over the brown, then a few layers of the Scene-a-rama stuff over the puttied parts, maybe a light sprinkle over the grasses, and some Army Painter tufts I forgot I had. 

7 hours ago, Samedi said:

 

Well, in my experience there are times to paint and then there are times to do something else. And at those times, for me it's often better not to paint, because I'll mess up and hate the experience. After all, it's just a hobby, not a job (at least for me, that is)...

 

Great progress on the duck! It has come to life, and I wouldn't want to be in his way. 

 

 

I don't try to force it, I just remember a time when I would sit down to paint then find that what felt to me to be only a short while, was in fact the quick passage of hours, and I was completing things on a regular basis. Over the last year, that focus and attention span has been harder to find. I'm facing similar blockage with writing, and even video games I can't concentrate on like I once did. 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Managed to finish Drangus and got some further progress on the Mouslings...

His expression of irritation probably has to do with the fact his feet are cold.

Finished highlights on the fur, Harvest Brown base coat, then Harvest Brown/Blonde Hair mix, then dry brush of Blonde Shadow. On the white parts, Rainy Grey base coat, then Misty Grey, then Linen white drybrush. Oiled Leather on the spear wrapping, Viper Green on the armor, Honed Steel on shield, spear, and mail. Ancient Bronze on the shield, spear and crown.

Dragon Blue on the cloak, Oiled Leather on the hair bands, Blonde Shadow on the hair, Cursed Gold on the wings and arm band.

Same colors used here.

On to the barbarian mice...

Same fur mixes as the vikings, Honed Steel and Cursed Gold on the armor and arm bands.

Same colors again on "Conan"...

With the addition of Oiled Leather on his loincloth and sword hilt.

My unit painting tendencies are coming to the fore again, but I wanted a "realistic" color scheme on them to tone down the fantasy elements. But with the fur out of the way it should be a relatively quick finish seeing as how they have a lot of metallics that only need an armor wash. 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Viking and Barbarian mouslings are in Show Off, and I made a bit more progress on the Eastern mouslings...

Deep Twilight and Dragon Red. Part of what had me stalled on these was trying to figure out what to do with the mask, since I'm going for a grey/white fur on these, a white mask wouldn't work. So after some time going thru google images, I came across a red demon mask, which would also let me tie the two together a bit more with the purples and reds.