Painter\'s block?

[redarmy27]

I\'ve been back at the painting routine for some time now since I finally quit World of Warcraft. I\'m getting better and better but I seldom finish a mini without throwing it into the bin of Simple Green to be stripped and redone! I seem to be at a \"painter\'s block\" or the more equivalent of the Mini version of the Bermuda Triangle.

Anyone else ever experience this? I know that we all aspire to be great painters and we have to be our harshest critics, but it\'s to the point now where I get so critical that I nuke the mini before I finish it. I\'ve done the same few a few times each now.

I\'m buckling down and keeping to my grey primer and starting fresh tomorrow. I have to; I have some comissions I need to be tuned up and ready to do. No pressure or anything. I need to keep it simple and get back to the way I used to paint!! Argh!

Anyone else ever have this happen to them?

 

[tagron]

Why dont you finish them? just dont like what you have done?

I usually run into a sort of painters block when i dont know were i want to go with a miniature. If i dont know what the next step is, i tend to drag my heels and lose interest. The best thing for me is to just get together with a friend who has good ideas and paints, and just ask them what they think the mini, where they think it should go, then i bounce my ideas off of them. Usually it ends up that we sort of feed off each others enthusiasm, and when the conversation is done i have a very clear idea or vision, or taste, for what kind of look or feeling i want when its done. Then, keep checking in with that friend and updating them on progress, and consult them with problems your facing.

So, thats how i solve that form of painting block. But maybe yours is different, im not sure.

hope that helps you a bit, but what do i know about painting.


(btw, your painting friend doesnt even have to have a similar style, i always shoot the breeze with Tim Holly when im hitting a creative wall. And i dont know a single painter with a more opposite style to mine than Tim)

 

[mattsterbenz]

Happens to all of us. I\'m going through some painter\'s block right now actually. When I can\'t be motivated, I\'ll try to still do art related things: draw, sculpt, do an oil painting, etc.

Don\'t force yourself to paint if you don\'t feel like it. Do something else for a bit, then come back to the painting table when you feel more motivated.

-Matt

 

[redarmy27]

Thanks for the advice. It\'s just frustrating. I guess part and parcel to the reason why I don\'t finish some minis is that I realize tha I could be doing a much better job at what I\'m doing. A lot of it has to do with brush moisture; it\'s the bane of my existence. It\'s a little tricky to get the right amount of moisture out but still being able to apply the paint correctly. I\'ll get it eventually though.

Tomorrow I\'m going to set a time table for a few minis. I don\'t care if it takes me two weeks to get one done, I just want to knock it out of the park.

Anyways, I put my brushes down tonight and decided to get back to work building my Demon army. I even stopped midway through to make some changes to my Middenheimer squad. I\'m really looking forward to getting those guys completed.

Oh well, I\'ll prime tomorrow, let them cure and then go play some paintball

 

[DaN]

Take em along to paintball for that Impressionist flavour

(Base coat will be much quicker) lol

 

[evil tendencies]

This is why I play DVD commentaries while I paint - I tell myself \"I\'m not painting, I\'m just watching a movie at my paint table.\" Inevitably, I start painting just to give my hands something to do. I don\'t worry about the quality so much because I\'m focused on something else. Oddly enough, these are usually my best paintjobs...

 

[Wren]

I think you need to give yourself space to do different levels of quality on a mini. They\'re not all going to be show winning masterpieces! Go look at the galleries of some painters you admire organized by the order of submissions and you\'ll probably see some score fluctuations. In May I won third place in a contest field of professional painters I admire. I\'m pretty pleased about that, but I don\'t think it means I\'ve solved all my painting problems! I came home from the contest and the second thing I painted after that winner was frustrating to do, bland and had three huge areas I needed to completely repaint or rework. The thing I painted before it had some issues, too.

Every mini\'s different, every colour scheme, every time you paint. Give yourself permission to do something just for fun, or at tabletop quality. Bust your butt doing the cloak or the sword or whatever on a mini to practice a technique, then set the goal for the rest to be just finishing it competently.

Also give it time before you decide to nuke something. If you\'re working on something and you\'re frustrated, that\'s not the moment to decide whether it needs to be repainted or stripped. Put it down and work on something else or go do something else, then look at it again the next day. Take photos and ask for second opinions in the WIP section, or ask a friend or relative to look at it. There\'s a couple of times I\'ve had something that I softened up or painted over and the original way was more interesting. It\'s also easy to get in a mood of thinking something sucks. Sometimes you need to see the whole mini come together before you decide.

Also if you keep stripping all the minis until you achieve perfection, you\'ll never have anything to measure against to see how far you\'ve come! I\'m amazed now when I look back at some of my minis that I thought were pretty good at the time and I see how much better I can do now.

 

[StudioAcorn]

Sometimes I find it best to push through that thought of the stripping bin and complete the mini anyways. Even if its not your best work, the feeling of a completed mini can motivate your next one much more than the feeling of layers upon layers of work being flushed away.

I often feel that every mini I complete could be stripped and repainted in a better, more experienced way. But I\'d rather take that new knowledge and run with it on the next project rather than feeding into the cycle of paint strip paint strip.

 

[Naukhel]

Been there. Done that.
I always found that when I was having the \'can\'tfinishitis\' problem, that if I took
one mini, and made myself speed-paint it, it would get finished. Not necessarily
to the standard I\'d want, but the act of actually completing something always
helped when I slowed down again.

 

[redarmy27]

Thanks for the insight. I\'m just going to roll through a mini this weekend then. I\'m going to take my time of course but it\'ll be a one-way trip from unpainted to complete. It\'s hard seeing stuff that I do that isn\'t great though, I\'m used to really excelling or pushing myself to do so in sports and other activities. It\'s going to be a fun hike though.

Dan, just for you I\'m going to shoot a mini with my paintball gun and post a video on here for you. Just you wait.