What are your painting/hobby goals?

[Bailey03]

BloodFather of Kharnath started this discussion over on my WIP thread, but it seemed like a good general topic for the community. So...

1) What are your hobby (painting, sculpting, competition, gaming, etc) goals for the next year?

2) If there are any goals from the past year that you achieved, what were they?

 

[MAXXxxx]

1.
- have at least one mini that could get into the CMON annual (I think I achived this),
- have everything I want painted for the hungarian gamesday in december (quite a few missing, but could be done),
- visit at least the model show in Mainz in september (other famous ones are not likely)
- attend yearly painting jam in Budapest. (this is also in danger atm)
- finish as much freebooter minis as I can (this stands really bad, 4 Months gone already, 0 freebooter started)
- complete the M61A5 kit
- Fully painted Vile-Tis army (5% done atm, but is possible)
- sell as many armies and figures I will never paint as I can to free up space

2.
- Fully painted Alahan knight army, was the largest project I had last year. And funny thing is, that the knights I painted are the same ones a friend bought in 2004 and sold to someone else around 2007 (and were the same as they were sold).
- CMON Annual + at least on entry with 9.0+
- HunGD attendance
- MMS2014 attendance, and not only that, but I managed to get prizes, even in the master categories
- complete the Macross Chronicles Magazine collection

 

[Demihuman]

For 2015

-Participation in a live painting comp. A first for me.
-I want to enter every single comp that CMON throws. Even with just a weak entry, just enter something.
-Paint another "9" for the gallery, really I would like to figure out what the formula is so that I can start a project and feel confident it will hit the "9's"
-Play a game with mini's I have painted this year. Should be an easy one, as I am nearly done with my D&D party

My previous goal was to finish one mini a month and post it to the gallery for a year. I did that, and I challenge every beginner out there to do it too.

 

[Gandalf the Grey]

Enter a competition
hit 9 in the gallery
better photography
Link photos together and generally better with editing
move from an okay painter to a good one
complete Glottkin
paint my first bust
move further away from LotR and toward bigger scales.

 

[Rothskin]

Hi! My plan to finish a diorama for Hun GD (hello Max im hun too). Mayb i can do it.
Do 3 mini in this year
Got some point (7 or better) and maybe win a competition.

 

[crystella333]

Thanks for an interesting thread ^_^

Goals for this year....
Paint my raging heroes ladies (they are crying out for some awesome bases too)
To tidy up my paint desk more or at least get it organised.
to make it through the year in one piece as well.

As for last year....
Finally getting around to ordering and painting up my first anime style model.

 

[Maenas]

Lots of plans and illusion for this year!

Start a WIP here at Cmon.
Take some nice (and better) pictures of my past works and post them to my Gallery as I only have two pictures posted there by now xP
Paint my first non 15/32mm whether it be a bust or something of a larger scale it does not matter to me now. ^^
Learn how to and start using my Airbrush (actually bought it yesterday, just waiting for it to be delivered!)
Begin to diminish the gap between miniatures "bought and stored" and the ones that are fully painted.
Improve my general painting skills.

 

[Zab]

I'm eschewing comps again this year - unless one really inspires me.
Concentrating on fun and new subject matter and techniques - less about perfection, more about growth.
MUST. TRY. NEW. SCALES.
Ease into historical. Start with some ninjas, then maybe Attila from scale 75?
Maybe taking a pro class. I think there is one coming to town in June hosted by our local painting group - forget who the artist is, but the class is 200 for two full 8 hour days - historical figures I think.

 

[MrJim]

I am currently working my way through the GW Fantasy Armies, hoping to finish at least one unit and one monster or special character from each army. 3 down, 12 to go.

 

[infelix]

As I wrote in Bailey's thread, having goals helps me focus and I try to have a mix of easier and hard ones to keep my motivated.

Enter as many online painting competitions as I can but at a minimum of one.
Keep pushing my painting and keep improving.
Paint at least one miniature that scores around 8.7-9 in the CMoN gallery.
Read up on (and try out) the theoretical aspect of the hobby (color theory etc).
Paint more larger scale miniatures.
Keep blogging as much as I can.
Getting invited to the CMoN Annual.
Getting invited to join P&P (not there yet but one can dream )
Try my hands on painting a historical miniature or bust.

 

[fluisterwoud]

Well my main goal for 2015 was the enter the Crystal Brush and win a trophy. While I did not win anything, two of my entries made the finalist cut so not bad for my first competition.

For the rest of 2015:

- Like everyone else, I hope to paint something that gets rated a 9 on CMON
- Place in the MV contest. Historical is my best shot, last I saw there was 89 entries in the Fantasy Standard and only 14 in the Historical Standard.
- Paint enough quality pieces and get noticed by the right person to get an invite to P&P
- Get proficient at NMM, improve my freehand and blending and get better at base building
- Get better at sculpting
- Paint more than I buy ( I feel I'll have this goal every year and never achieve it)
- Get a majority of my Crystal Brush 2016 pieces done so I'm not scrambling at the last minute
- Keep learning

 

[Dragonsreach]

-I want to enter every single comp that CMON throws. Even with just a weak entry, just enter something.

I'm eschewing comps again this year - unless one really inspires me.
.

I'm going to address these two comments basically because I think both Zab and Demihuman are 'wrong' in their approaches.
Competitions are about stretching yourself, so the "oh that'll do" state of mind (been there) and the uninspired feeling (been there as well) are just blocks to achieving better standards.
OK I Don't enter many CMON comps nowadays, but that doesn't stop me painting something towards one For My Own Pleasure!
And that's the biggest thing we should be doing, consider every figure/diorama/item as if it were for a competition, even if it's never entered.

Remember the saying:-
"Genius is 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration"

 

[Bailey03]

Lots of great responses from everyone! It's neat to see what people are planning and hoping to improve on.

My goals for the next year are to return to the Crystal Brush competition and place in something other than a historical category. I've got a few ideas that could have potential in the large scale category. I'm also waiting on the Creature Caster kickstarter to deliver, so maybe I'll have something cool to enter into the Fantasy Monster/Vehicle category. I'd also like to attend one of the shows in the SF Bay Area this summer.

In regards to my general painting, I want to keep pushing my contrast. I'd also like to work more with color - color variation, more effective use of warm/cool, etc. I recently picked up the Figopedia book and that has definitely given me a lot to think about when it comes to using color. But I know I still have a lot to learn. In addition I'd like to create more narrative basing and scenes. While there's the main scene with the figure, I'd like to work in smaller details so as you look closer there's more to see and more of a story. It's a little hard to explain, but hopefully I'll be able to show you what I mean soon!

As for recently achieved goals, I spent a lot of last year focused on the Crystal Brush competition and was able to win gold in two of the historical categories. I was thrilled with the results and hopefully I will be back there for next years!

 

[Zab]

I have to politely disagree with you on this one DR. Speaking personally, I just find I either rush with the comps and sacrifice my process or push too hard a suck all the joy out of it. Maybe for stuff like MV and Divincis with long lead times, but I always forget about those and then end up too neck deep in other projects to participate. I do like in person painting comps, but it's hard to get out to them with family and travel time/money from Canada. There are a few local comps here each year and I try to get to them, though sometimes they don't have a category for what I paint which is mainly fanasty/scifi as they are historical and military. Trying new things and painting for others seems to be what has pushed me furthest lately so for now I will stick with that formula. I may come back to comps if I plateau with my skills and need a bump again

 

[ten ball]

I'm going to try to find a balance between competition work and my own personal fun projects like the 1980s marine im painting on my wip. Also I'm going for more story telling in the minis which can add weight to the whole miniature.

 

[Bailey03]

Zab, I agree with you on that. While I do paint a lot for competitions, some of the pieces that have helped me grow the most are the ones I've done just for fun (ie - because I just wanted to paint them, not because I had a competition or anything special planned for them). When I approach a piece for competition, I'm less likely to try out a new technique or approach because I'm not sure if it will work. When I painting something just for the hell of it, it's easier to push myself to try something new. My most successful piece (the hobbit one) was a figure I painted just to try out something new. If they turn out well, then I can find a competition to enter them in.

Of course I think DR's point that you should approach every piece as if it were for competition can be good advice too. If you feel like you're not improving or need help pushing yourself, that's definitely a good way to go about it.

PS - I'm surprised some of your local shows don't have a fantasy/sci-fi category. I paint mostly historical and have been involved with historical/military focused painting groups... but I can't think of a show or competition that I've been to that hasn't had at least something for fantasy/sci-fi. You can tell those shows that don't also include fantasy/sci-fi that Bailey thinks they're stupid. :smile:

 

[Khonner]

I saw this thread and thought I would put in my goals..

1.
- Improve my NMM and flesh tone skills
- Going to the Capitial Pallet at NOVA this year again, I hope to have an entry in the finals.
- Finish more of the Trollbloods
- Reboot Nocturna's Lilith, I'm seriously considering doing sheer clothing for the dress since taking the class at Adepticon this year.
- More airbrushing practice.
- Get my first 8 score on CMON

2.
- A gold award for, in my opinion, the worst piece submitted, my gladitor in the single historical figure at NOVA 2014. It was a nice surprise, but airport security gave me some hassles on my way home..
- I wanted to make the first cut with Crystal Brush 2015, but that didn't happen, it was pretty disappointing for me. I think I fell into the trap that I heard about, I think it was an article or something here at CMON. Getting bit by the winning bug or something like that.. Coming off the win at NOVA, I felt that my skills finally reached the level of skill needed to be at the adult table of miniature painting. Since I worked on my CB pieces with the same or even more effort than my NOVA piece, I believed that would earn me at least a first cut. That in my mind was the next step in the journey and when that didn't happen, it felt like the whole set of stairs just caved in. Over the next several days, I questioned everything to the point where I think my wife was gonna crack me in the head with a cast iron frypan. It might have helped, but giving it more thought, what I'm planning for next year is to use CB to show my friends here, my pieces in RL. There is a difference between taking pictures and seeing a mini in person, if nothing else but to get honest feedback regarding them. So I will paint to the best of my limited abilities and if something happens, it happens, it would be gravy at that point. By doing this, hopefully I won't fall down that dark hole again.

 

[AndyG]

I'd like to Finnish a squad and a few other entries for GD this year and really try for a Demon.........purely to piss off 10ball

to get another colour medal at Euro to prove last year wasn't a flash in the pan and enter historical as well.

try a bit more on the basing as I feel this is were I'm lacking dedication.

 

[Zab]

I'd like to Finnish a squad and a few other entries for GD this year and really try for a Demon.........purely to piss off 10ball

to get another colour medal at Euro to prove last year wasn't a flash in the pan and enter historical as well.

try a bit more on the basing as I feel this is were I'm lacking dedication.

I just had a weird idea... I'm thinking of taking some time this year to just do bases since i like it so much. Maybe I should do a bunch and ship them off to various folks to put minis on

 

[Demihuman]

DR I think you misunderstand my intentions, I do want to push myself with my painting every time I pick up the brush, but I also want to support the community and try out new things. I feel like an online contest entry that is less than my very best is still very fun for me to paint, forces me to fit my work into the contest format, and also supports the people throwing the contest along with the folks entering the contest.

Since I was able to sneak away with 3rd in the Dark Age contest I feel a karmic debt to be involved in as many as I can be. I entered the monochrome contest with a quick-paint project and I learned a ton of stuff about shifting focus with shading that I might not have learned about if I hadn't decided to knock out a less than stellar entry.

Having fun is primary goal. Improving is fun, wining is very fun, but just participating or trying out a new idea is fun too.