Motivation..?

[AinuLainour]

I\'m finding it hard to do anything mini-related right now after a holiday that included more stress than relaxation, moving across the country, and my interest in music which has overshadowed miniatures recently.

I understand that other people have more on their plate than I do, but its just hard to concentrate on writing and painting (for GD Canada) right now (in addition to getting a package together for ME11.. I have a lack of models right now!).

This is one of those threads where there\'ll either be lots of helpful replies or none so lets hope for the former

Thanks in advance.... hate to be so vague.

 

[Dragon Forge Design]

Some times you just move on to new things..Its not unuseual. Don\'t fight it. Go off and try out new stuff.. play music what ever. I bet that if you like miniatures enough in due time you will be back. If not it wasn\'t ment to be.

It\'s life..don\'t fret it.

 

[laurence]

motivation

Hi AinuLainour, see how you go mate. Don\'t put any unnecessary pressure on yourself. If you don\'t feel like painting take a break from it and focus on other stuff. Otherwise just paint something at your own leisure for fun. Playing in a band and touring is a great experience that\'ll help you to grow as a person. And did I mention the chicks. Hehe. You didn\'t hear that from me. Check out a cool little book called \'Zen Guitar\'. In this book, the author uses rock-climbing as a simile to learning guitar (or whatever you\'re trying to learn/achieve). He says that sometimes the only way to advance up the cliff is to turn sideways or even backtrack a little. Occasionally, you even need to stop and take a break in order to re-gather your strength for the rest of the climb. I always liked this. Anyway, the books worth a read if you haven\'t already read it.

http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Guitar-Philip-Toshio-Sudo/dp/068483877X

Best of success to you in all of your endevours.

Cheers,
Chris

 

[supervike]

For me, miniatures used to be a purely cyclical thing....in the cold months, with more time indoors they became a great distraction..come spring they\'d end up back in the closet, with only an occassional glance until the next winter.

Lately though, (last couple of years) they have taken over more and more of my life, and become a year long obsession.

With the committments I\'ve made to the various websites, contests, painting commissions, its hard to be able to find the down time.

T\'ain\'t healthy I tells ye!

Having an ebb and flow of hobbies makes so much more sense....I think you should let it ebb.....

 

[freakinacage]

Originally posted by supervike


Having an ebb and flow of hobbies makes so much more sense....I think you should let it ebb.....

as for not having a hectic lifestyle - i want to paint/sculpt more when i am hectic. it allows me to escape. the less i have to do, the less i want to do!

 

[Gilvan Blight]

My usual responce to a bout of not feeling like doing minis, is to not do any.

Do other things you like, as you mentioned music, or whatever.

No one is forcing you to paint and if you don\'t want to then don\'t it\'s pretty simple.

I quit for years at a time and then usually end up picking it back up when I play some game that uses minis and I think they would look much better painted.

 

[AinuLainour]

Some good responses here

I\'ve decided to keep writing the articles and finish my models for GD, but after that I\'m going to attempt (key word: attempt) to limit the miniature projects I have and keep out of ME\'s for a while

Kudos to DFD, Gilvan, FIAC, Supervike and Laurence (I\'ll need to take a trip to my library sometime for Zen Guitar )

 

[Arkzein]

Motivation has always been an issue with me as well, honestly I don\'t feel like painting too often, more of a side hobby. Still, doesn\'t have to be a bad thing that.

Have to agree with the above, if you don\'t feel like painting and have nothing forcing you (ie a commission deadline, tournament date or in your case GD etc.) then don\'t. At least that\'s what I do, even if it means slow progress. Find if I\'m forcing or rushing myself the finish suffers and the fig will likely be stripped or scrapped. (as happened my last one ). Not to mention wasting time not enjoying myself when I could (should!) be at something else.

If looking for a bit of motivation though I tend to keep back one or two figures I really am looking forward to, gets me back into the swing of enjoying it again. Or go for a change, I keep a couple of side projects I\'m not too worried if I never finish or how they turn out, but picking up something different for a while helps, as does experimenting and having a bit of fun with them knowing the result isn\'t really important. Big one that, find without fretting overly about getting things perfect it\'s a lot more enjoyable.

Anyway that\'s my thoughts on the matter, and good luck with attempting to limit projects, we\'ve all suffered with that. God bless ebay for offloading those \"what was I thinking?\" minis. lol

 

[Modderrhu]

Not to worry, Ainu. I haven\'t painted anything in the last year, though I do hope to get back into it. Times change, life moves on, it\'s not like you owe anything to the miniature hobby. If you come back to it one day, fantastic.

Now get yourself a girlfriend and see how much interest or time you have for minis. lol

 

[AinuLainour]

Originally posted by Arkzein
Have to agree with the above, if you don\'t feel like painting and have nothing forcing you (ie a commission deadline, tournament date or in your case GD etc.) then don\'t. At least that\'s what I do, even if it means slow progress. Find if I\'m forcing or rushing myself the finish suffers and the fig will likely be stripped or scrapped. (as happened my last one ). Not to mention wasting time not enjoying myself when I could (should!) be at something else.

I enjoy doing it, and my deadline is GD, but there are other things that are simply more fun!

Originally posted by Modderrhu
Now get yourself a girlfriend and see how much interest or time you have for minis lol

We\'re not getting into that. :drunk:lol

 

[frenchkid]

well I find that in time of stress and intense work I never really find like painting minis.
Considering the amount of movies I watch I do have time, it\'s just that I don\'t feel like painting when I get home. Takes too much concentration

So go with the flow and wait for more peacfull times. The urge to paint always comes back :twisted:

 

[uberdark]

for me i started by just buying an army and painting an entire army and painting it in 2months. this has proven to be quite taxing so i have stopped this. after my tau are finished i am only painting what i like. i used to think golden demon was the be all, end all of the world. but there is so much more. i guess the thing is to never be so one sided on things and look at the world as a whole broad spectrum of colors to dazzle you with, then you will get some amazing beauty that will start to show through in what you do. dont just plug on to the golden demons, if you feel you have to. thats when your artwork becomes work and art leaves the room.

just my opinion. hope it helps.

 

[lono]

I know exactly where you are coming from too. Over the last 5 or so years I have struggled to paint things in more than short (10 or so hours out of a month or there abouts) bursts of focus. What makes it worse is that for every mini I have painted I\'ve bought a hundred!

Like some others here I find painting pretty stressful. At least it is when I am trying to do the best I can, and in recent years I\'ve just struggled to conquer that and make any sort of progress with completing minis. It\'s an intensive and very focused process for me, where the smallest slip up is a real pain, which makes it hard for me to want to do it. When I was younger and less bothered about my models being a masterpiece (or at least less aware that they weren\'t masterpieces!) I enjoyed painting more and found myself getting motivated more. As you are always casting your critical eye over things with your articles, and the stuff you are painting now is for GD, perhaps you have burnt yourself out by trying too hard to achieve, and have forgotten how nice it is to just finish off some minis.

I rushed a batch of Tyranids out in a few days a while back and although they were nowhere near my ideal standard it felt good to just paint and complete some stuff all the same. Maybe trying some speedier painting would help you get motivated again. If you are a gamer try and get an army, or at the very least a warband together for gaming. If you aren\'t you could still do an army quickly and sell it. Perhaps it is madness suggesting you try and paint more in order to motivate yourself, but it worked for me.

I have recently discovered that unlike the trials of painting, sculpting is utterly relaxing to me. It may be because I am naturally better at sculpting than painting, or it may be that the process is different enough to what I have grown used to, and the improvements I am making are spurring me on, but sculpting is how I\'m currently keeping my hobby interest really going.

If you don\'t feel like painting try something else. Have a go at sculpting, do some gaming, make some scenery, mix it up.

Or, just chill and do the things that you are currently enjoying. If you want to do mini related things further down the line you will come back to it. I gave it all up when I went to university, but had felt the pull of the hobby and bought some new minis and paints by the time I left.

 

[ilynx2k4]

I think the same thing happens to all of us once in a while. Ive been painting on and off for around twelve years now, but im willing to bet ive spent only around half of that regularly painting. The important thing is to remmber that it is a hobby, something to be enjoyed, you dont want it to seem like a chore.

 

[emopainterguy]

Originally posted by Modderrhu
Now get yourself a girlfriend and see how much interest or time you have for minis. lol

My girlfriend has picked up the habbit of calling me right when I get into a good painting groove, and I can\'t just tell her I\'m busy and call her back as she lives over 3000km away... She\'s really great about it though so I guess I\'m just lucky.

Now. Onto Ainu. In my view there are three things you can do. A) Stop painting untill there is a drive to do so, ii) find something FUN to paint, that you can paint in more or less one sitting, or 3) Find something that grabs your interest so strongly that you must do it, and paint it to the best of your abilities and push limits, post pictures and ask for feedback (Now thats some interesting numbering there lol... don\'t know what I was thinking). Now the first two are easy, and generally work very well. The third can be a little more difficult, and tends to backfire and can make matters worse. I personally would go with the first two, and just see what happens. It\'s no good trying to force anything. I have been off an on painting for a while, lately we\'ve had a fair share of competitions around here so I\'ve been painting quite a bit, but earlier this year/late last year I was rarely painting anything. I find it\'s the same with many things. Sometimes I play ridiculous amounts of Wii (Zelda for the win), or a lot of guitar. Sometimes I can\'t even bring myself to pick up the wii-mote and swing my way through a dungeon or two, or strum my guitar. Painting is like writing a song I think. If you sit yourself down with a guitar and say \"write a song\" you\'re not gonna get much done, so I write songs when the mood strikes, much like I paint when I\'m deprived of the taste of paint (yummy yummy paint... oh so good).

I hope I\'ve been of some help here, and I hope you manage to sort yourself out soon.
:yes: