Lack of motivation...

[Grumbold Ironbrow]

Hey all!

Well, here it is another Saturday night, wife and kids are in bed. I have at least four hours of uninterupted time to paint, and I can\'t seem to make my self pick up a brush. I\'ve got two pieces I\'m supposed to have finished for friends by next weekend, half a dozen painted minis that I need to base, and I just can\'t get motivated. Thought I\'d browse the site here for a bit, that usually works for me, but that\'s not even doing it tonight. We\'re remodeling and I spent most of the day doing finished capentry. My hands and arms are tired, so I\'d probably screw up anything I tried to paint anyway. That\'s my excuse and I\'m sticken to it.

Anyone else out there suffering this sickness too... I know you\'re there.. ;)

I was just wondering what do you all do to get motivated to paint when you\'re just not in the mood???

Cheers,
Grumb :cool:

[Errex]

\'llo, Grumbold. Same here, I\'m supposed to do some painting , but I\'m just too tired. Not even seeing cool minis seems to do it for me either. Maybe, instead of painting, I\'ll try and clean and glue some of my unpainted ones. Might even try and prime some of them...

Maybe tomorrow I\'ll get to paint some;)

[DennisMech]

Quite the oposite for me. Recently I\'ve been very motivated to paint. I think this stems from that I just got a digital camera, and want to get lots done to show people. Also, my army is finaly taking shape, and it\'s very inspiring that I\'ve acomplished so much. Also, I\'ve been mixing painting with terrain making, so I dont get bored of either. My gaming board is looking great. I\'ll post some WIP pics once I\'ve found a decent host...

[Aryanun]

Ever since Neferu broke (first mini in over a decade for me to finish) I\'ve tried to pick up the brush, but just can\'t find the energy or desire. :(

[wightzombie]

sad but i brainwash or \"pep\" myself when i need to be in the mood to draw and get some mean energy flowing, get a bunch of images of the baddest ass inspirational content you can find of what you wanna do, drop in a image viewer and view semi fast with the fastest baddest music you can rock too. commence artistic mayhem! now goes too hide.....

[darthfoley]

I know exactly where you\'re coming from, Grum. I\'ve been totally unmotivated since DragonCon - about the only thing I\'ve done is basecoat what was going to be my entry into the VA Marine deal. But I just can\'t seem to get my mind in the swing of things.

Which is really bad considering I need all the practice I can get...especially since I hear there will be a GamesDay in Atlanta next year.... :D

[Impernouncable]

I find that if I can get the body started the mind follows. Just sit down and paint, you might be surprised how far you get.

[kittykat23uk]

Maybe you just need to take a break for the weekend. Go spend some time with your wife- I\'m sure she\'ll appreciate it. Then try doing a bit the day after.

I do feel like that sometimes too. But not this weekend. I\'m getting on nicely with a wolfen I\'m working on. :D

Regards

Kat

[klute_in_the_valute]

Talk to them,
I have conversations with my minis and they get v upset if theyre stood a while unpainted (they complain of being naked)
This makes me feel sorry for them but they do nag sometimes,I swear next time that bloody Aragorn complains hes gonna get a fekkin pair of pink boots!!:mad:

[Corvus]

For last 3-4 month I\'ve been painting Confrontation minis non-stop. Last week I had exactly the same feeling... So I digged up some Warhammer 40K minis from the Tau army which were already primed and started working on those. I pain them using a lower skill level than my confrontation minis, so the painting progresses very rapidly, which is real fun.

So my tip is: try another game or army...

[t_haye2]

lately I really have to come up with crazy ways of getting me to paint purely for myself....painting for work, comissions and such can really take the joy out of it. I\'ve decided to paint one model a week for myself, maily during lunchbreaks and then finish it off in the weekend. My first project: and Inquisitor(one of the new ones :P), my next one will be to finish the confrontation Barbarian Standard Bearer that has been sitting on my desk for ages.... It is quite hard to stay motivated, I\'ve had periods where I decide not to paint for a few weeks, just to get the enthusiasm back. i hope this new hairbrain scheme will work, and I can actually post some new stuff on CMON!:flip::flip::flip: Note that the models I\'m painting for my website are being treated as \'work\', just to make sure I\'ll get them done on time....

[KingM]

Take a break and paint a different kind of mini. When I\'ve got large groups of basic troops to do and I get bored, I sometimes do a simple single character on foot to get motivated again.

But that may be because I really enjoy painting unmounted character figures

[Otter]

I do stories when I work on a character - Where they come from, what they do, what their sense of purpose is, that kind of thing. Sometimes I\'ll do two or more and their stories intertwine.

I\'d like to say it \"shapes the final paintjob\" but that\'s total BS... does make picking the palate easier tho\'.

Then again, there\'s always renting a movie about some kind of human-eating animal and putting the brain on the shelf while painting. :D

- Otter
\"Never send a ferret to do a weasel\'s work.\"

[t_haye2]

my brain goes on holiday when I\'m painting anyway! :D:D:D Anyway, when I\'m not worried about missing deadlines... in about an hour i\'m going to do some more on my Inquisitor, I\'m using a very earthy pallete on him, not the standard red/white/black that was used on the models from the Deamonhunters book. After a certain flamejob aimed at me(don\'t ask, leave it...), I also decided to not use \'crude layering techniques\', and pick up the old wet blending/ transparent layering....it\'s taking a bit longer, but should have it done next weekend. Unfortunately I have to wait untill the model\'s released to show it to you guys:~(:(:(

[frenchkid]

I had that kind of skiness during the summer. Everyday I would tell my self i was going to paint a bit but I would ussualy end up in some swimming pool during the day and in front of my computer at night. The worst part of it is that I wanted to paint, I just couldn\'t bring my self to it. :( But now that cold winter s back, I find myself painting more and more in comfy warmth of my room :D I almost finnished my first army :flip::flip: And next I\'ll be doing some undeads, I was planning on doing wood elfs, but looks like I\'ll have time to do one or two more armies befor they come out :(

[DennisMech]

What helps me is that my painting room is always really nice and comfy. In the summer, It\'s in the basement, so it gets none of the sun, and stays cold. In the winter, it\'s near the heater, and stays warm. Also it\'s such a nice refuge from the rest of the house, because I never asociate it with work (I don\'t do any homework down there) and with my music and all, I really like it.

[No Such Agency]

I hear ya. After finishing minis for the CMON contest and the Headblast.de \"Smurf\" contest, my motivation has gone back down to a very low level. So when I don\'t feel like painting, I work on something else - in my case, sculpting some bookends with Sculpey for a friend of mine. It\'s a different /kind/ of creative, but it gets the juices flowing, and I often end up painting while the clay\'s in the oven.

To be honest, I can\'t imagine how those of you who paint whole units ever get them done. I\'d get soooo bored... But I guess it beats having your opponents laugh at your unfinished army.

[Grumbold Ironbrow]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I actually ended up just packing it in last night and hitting the sack early. Discovered this morning that I have a nasty cold coming on so that might have been part of the motivation issue, cause I feel like crap today.

Did I see someone say that there is actually going to be a GameDay in Atlanta next year? That could be just the motivation I\'m looking for !!!

Cheers All;
Grumb :cool:

[darthfoley]

That is the rumor I\'ve seen; it was discussed on the MasterClass Mini Painter list. Here\'s the quote:

> I haven\'t heard anything about the alternating with
> Dallas, but the GW staff at the Charlotte GT confirmed
> Atlanta will get a Games Day in 2004. They were a
> little cagey about the date, but it is supposedly
> going to be around March-April

[U4-Welcome]

I\'ve been painting all through summer, and now... I\'m currently working on a lil diorama, simple really, a base, a horse, and a rider. I finished the rider, it\'s magnificent and all, and now working on the horse. I wanted to go for an all black and white look, but I swear now I\'ve done half of it, the artistic novelty wears off and it\'s become a technical challenge - black to white blending, I swear it\'s the hardest thing in all things mini. So whenever I have time on my hands, I think about painting, and then I\'m like \"oh no, not freehand and b&w blending again\", and I end up not doing anything. Been lasting for a month now. :(