The first thing I tried was the ridiculously quick win. I'd already prepped and based up this Gray Maiden figure by Reaper I'd picked up from Bad Squiddo Games. She's going to be part of my Chaos Warrior unit. So, a quick trip outside to do some undercoating meant that a miniature was ready for painting for very little effort. And she looks darned awesome, so there's that little happy success feel.
I then got onto something a little more involved - prepping up Bad Squiddo's take on a Chaos Warrior. (She's currently out of stock while they redo her in metal, but expect to see her here when she's back.)
This is a little more involved, and the right arm was being a pain, so I left it until I had more cope - and the second layer of basing paste was also left while the first one dried. One figure significantly more advanced, definite feeling of progress!
I thought I'd get a little progress done on the Chaos Spawn. Has anyone else used this kit? It feels like there's quite a gap where they join at the bottom of the ribs. I'll be breaking out the liquid green stuff for sure!
At this point, I got as far as picking the heads I'm going to use for the spawn (so many pieces! so many options) before reaching Sunday bedtime, and deciding to tap out. They'll need cleaning up and gluing on over the next few days.
Looking forward, the deadline for the Oldhammer Forum Chaos Villager challenge is looming, so a quick divert from the Tale of Gamers challenge to get a certain evil blacksmith painted up will be a Thing.
The other thing to do when you're short on cope for actual painting is to read up on inspiration. You've got to be in the right mindset - I can sometimes find it intensely frustrating if my mind is active / over-active while I can't bring myself to the actual painting. In those cases, things like tidying or other "making things more ordered" tasks help more.
You can get inspiration from all over - this is JRN's "Post Centaur Painting", but the new White Dwarf is also excellent material. Blogs like Massive Voodoo or Iron Sleet can also refresh the creative batteries.
I did find doing a little simple assembly and miniature prep in front of the recorded episodes of GBBO we were watching quite productive. I may repeat that experiment and see if it leads to more stuff getting done...
Great techniques, and very thoughtful. I'm really happy you posted this.
ReplyDeleteLike you (I think), I find it takes a lot of energy and mental effort to do proper painting, so I try to keep lower gear stuff to do when I'm feeling low. But low gear stuff that also gives me a sense of accomplishment (since that sense of accomplishment usually helps me feel a little better). Recently, I've discovered the joy of speed painting, which fits this bill nicely. (I've been speed painting a lot of shittily sculpted miniatures for Mansions of Madness. It's nice not to care too much about whether you're doing a good job or not).
I find assembly, clean up and basing is my relaxing easy stuff. Maybe speed painting an individual model? But at the moment, most of the speed painting I need to hit is big units, so I'm not getting the sense of accomplishment on that easily!
DeleteI am a great believer in doing what feels right, whilst my painting will never be considered careful, when I get bored I make terrain😀
ReplyDeleteIt's a pretty good guideline - if having motivation trouble, do something you want to do. :)
DeleteCurrently in an ugly mojo-less state myself. :(
ReplyDeleteNormally just picking something up that could be interesting and an aside from a project that originally required my attention helps cure that, but for some reason my painting motors are out of juice. ~_~
Don't hestitate to take a break from painting and do Something Else until it returns. It will eventually!
DeleteWhat a refreshing and thoughtful post. Thanks, mate!
ReplyDeleteAnd you're not alone...
:D
I think anyone doing any creative work has it at some point. I thought sharing some of my coping techniques might be helpful.
DeleteAnd thanks. :-)