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Author Topic: How do you motivate yourself to paint?  (Read 3420 times)

Offline Ahistorian

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 596
    • A-Historical Wargaming
How do you motivate yourself to paint?
« on: November 02, 2019, 06:14:06 PM »
Title says it all really. I'm in the house on sick leave, this sort of free time should be hobby manna from heaven! But I can't get meself on the brushes. Can barely get a conversion done a week.

Anyone got advice on cracking on with the wet stuff?

Offline dadlamassu

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1535
    • http://www.morvalearth.co.uk
Re: How do you motivate yourself to paint?
« Reply #1 on: November 02, 2019, 06:16:22 PM »
Have a look at the figures - decide on a scenario - set a date fairly close for the game - invite the players and get going!
'He could have lived a risk-free, moneyed life, but he preferred to whittle away his fortune on warfare.'
-- Xenophon, The Anabasis

Gabbi

  • Guest
Re: How do you motivate yourself to paint?
« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2019, 08:30:42 PM »
Playing. Really. Playing more games, motivates me to paint more. And getting more models painted motivates me to play more games.
I just have to try not losing the momentum, and things keep flowing by themselves :D

Offline Tomsche

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1225
  • Crescat Scientia, Vita Excolatur
    • Società di archeologia e cimeli
Re: How do you motivate yourself to paint?
« Reply #3 on: November 02, 2019, 08:33:02 PM »
For me, it's actually work.  After a long and stressful day, it relieves the tension of sitting down even as little as half an hour behind the burshes and make some sort of progress.

Offline traveller

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 3743
Re: How do you motivate yourself to paint?
« Reply #4 on: November 02, 2019, 09:13:34 PM »
Read a book or watch a movie or a documentary on the period you are painting  ;)

Offline Inkpaduta

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Mastermind
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  • Posts: 1323
Re: How do you motivate yourself to paint?
« Reply #5 on: November 03, 2019, 02:11:20 AM »
Focus on the figures that you really want to paint.
I can find it hard to paint when I am working on some line
of figures, I've gotten bored and slow, and feel I must finish
them before I can move on to what I would really like to paint.
Set aside what you are painting and paint what you want to paint.

Offline FierceKitty

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1718
Re: How do you motivate yourself to paint?
« Reply #6 on: November 03, 2019, 03:49:24 AM »
Do a little every day. It adds up. If you want to motivate yourself for a marathon, opera on headphones sometimes keeps me going.
The laws of probability do not apply to my dice in wargames or to my finesses in bridge.

Offline Codsticker

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Scatterbrained Genius
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  • Posts: 3276
    • Kodsticklerburg: A Mordheim project
Re: How do you motivate yourself to paint?
« Reply #7 on: November 03, 2019, 04:06:29 AM »
Do a little every day. It adds up.
I agree with FK. Furthermore, it can  become a habit.  If you start picking up a brush after dinner then pretty soon you find yourself heading to the painting desk without thinking about it.

Offline Burgundavia

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 705
    • Coreyburger.ca
Re: How do you motivate yourself to paint?
« Reply #8 on: November 03, 2019, 04:45:57 AM »
Move your painting stuff to where you spend the most amount of time. I created a paint box, because I wasn't making it upstairs to the office/hobby room. I got an old artists paint box from the local thrift store, 3D printed some inserts to hold my hobby paints and because it is pretty, my wife lets me keep in the living room. So I can paint on the coffee table while we are both watching TV.

Offline FifteensAway

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 4608
Re: How do you motivate yourself to paint?
« Reply #9 on: November 03, 2019, 05:21:02 AM »
A certain amount of time - every single day - for 42 days straight and you will have developed a habit.  And then just don't break the habit.

Offline fred

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 4360
    • Miniature Gaming
Re: How do you motivate yourself to paint?
« Reply #10 on: November 03, 2019, 08:00:26 AM »
I find less is more. Select a reasonable number of figures to paint, and have those out. Clear all the rest away, out of sight.

Then you can focus on those figures and progress them, without be distracted by all the other stuff calling out to you. Once these are finished - or you are really really bored of them, swap them out for another reasonable number of figures.

What constitutes a reasonable number of figures is very much up to you - but I would err on the lower side to start with, better to get something finished than have a bunch of half-done stuff.

Offline FierceKitty

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1718
Re: How do you motivate yourself to paint?
« Reply #11 on: November 04, 2019, 01:06:21 AM »
I find less is more. Select a reasonable number of figures to paint, and have those out. Clear all the rest away, out of sight.

Then you can focus on those figures and progress them, without be distracted by all the other stuff calling out to you. Once these are finished - or you are really really bored of them, swap them out for another reasonable number of figures.

What constitutes a reasonable number of figures is very much up to you - but I would err on the lower side to start with, better to get something finished than have a bunch of half-done stuff.

Strongly agree with the last point. A lot of half-painted figures reproach and demoralise you with your failures in a way that the shiny raw recruits can't.

In fact, it's a good idea to start with something small and flashy that you're drawn to - a small unit of samurai, one tercio, a unit of gaesati, your favourite tank - so it'll encourage you to go on.

Offline has.been

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 8236
Re: How do you motivate yourself to paint?
« Reply #12 on: November 04, 2019, 07:15:40 AM »
'Journey of a thousand miles begins with one step'
As the others have said, clear the table of all the half finished stuff.
Find a FEW figures that interest (NOT something you think you MUST do).
Put on some nice music & START to paint. I find finishing 4 skirmish figures,
say a Western Gunfight group, motivates me far more than undercoating 50 or 60.

Offline Aerendar Valandil

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 119
    • Amsterdam6Shooters Wargames Club
Re: How do you motivate yourself to paint?
« Reply #13 on: November 04, 2019, 07:26:28 AM »
I have to get up again as well, but especially last year doing a bit each day when my girfriend was cooking really worked.

I work at home, just having models and brushes next to my working place works as well: doing just a little bit every time you take a break. Have been working in the living this summer though, which immediately broke that habit.

And 'push yourself without pushing yourself'. Do one colour or two, and just stop if you feel like it. Progress, however slow, motivates.

Offline Atheling

  • Elder God
  • Posts: 11906
    • Just Add Water Wargaming Blog
Re: How do you motivate yourself to paint?
« Reply #14 on: November 04, 2019, 08:26:08 AM »
Plan a specific game/battle, or several and go for it!
« Last Edit: November 06, 2019, 04:36:03 PM by Atheling »