Painter\'s block

[Mosch]

It just stopped. I don\'t know why exactly it happened, I just can\'t paint anymore. I can barely get myself to sit down on my table, and when I do, I just can\'t paint. Whatever I do, it looks really, really shitty. People tell me it looks good, but frankly, what the hell do they know? My mother has no idea of painting minis, most of friends do but just don\'t put their heart into it - most of them just slap paint in the general vicinity of their mini.
Everything I paint looks bad. It took me years to come up with a scheme for my Dirz army, only to find out that my girlfriend used that on her Lions and I don\'t want the same colours on my Dirz then (two enemies in similar colours, that feels wrong to me). So I took even more time and thought up another scheme, and when I thought \"That might look good\", I just can\'t paint. Whatever I do, it just looks terrible. Whatever I do, I always find something I don\'t like or something I want to look better. It usually leads to me stopping painting about half an hour after I started and just go fiddle some more on the Arcarde-stick I am trying to scratchbuild, or I go and play Painkiller.
Nothing I paint really satisfies me anymore.
I always knew I have no talent for painting. I thought I could learn how to do it and develop a nice skill.... but when I compare my current minis to my first ones, I see no improvement. My newer ones are shaded and highlighted, but I still don\'t see any improvement over my old, plain minis. Maybe I\'m blind to the change.
Well, I have my army for some time now, and all I was able to do was the crossbowmens\' skin (and it sucks), the leather parts and their skirt. For some reason, I just can\'t go on. I even start to think my minis look better if I only prime them and don\'t paint anything at all. Are there any recipes against my painter\'s block?

 

[Klute]

Go with the flow.Put everything aside and do something else.Youll want to paint again soon,happens to me all the time.If your painting fantasy put LORT on or something that usually gets me going.Maybe a war film for historics,that sort of thing.
Browse cmon for inspiration.That usually works.

 

[Cerridwyn1st]

Painting group

Sounds to me like you are REALLY in need of something to make painting fun again.

What keeps me going, week in and week out, is my painting group. TheDeav is one of my buds; shows up just about every week.

Slapping paint around is a f***ing drag if you do it buy yourself all the time.

 

[Mungo Zen]

It actually sounds to me like you are at a plateau. You can see other minis and understand why the are good. You can envision in your mind what you want to do, but you can\'t achieve it. Rather then beat yourself up and make painting a bad experience that you could walk away from, take a break.

I play guitar and have been doing so for over 14 years. I have taken breaks from a few days to a few months and what always happens is I hear something and just have to pick up my guitar. When I do, I find that the things I was stressing before come naturally.

Painting should be fun, at whatever your skill level. It is a hobby, not a job for you, yes? Take a break from painting, don\'t force it, and perhaps in a short while the bug will hit you. When it does, just go with it and relax and enjoy your work. You may find being patient and calm will elevate your painting.

Good Luck Mate!!

 

[Sand Rat]

To begin with, let me say that in my experience this is nothing new. I\'ve been painting for a long time (23 yrs now) and and have had to come to a couple of realizations about my painting. First and foremost of these is why I paint. I have come to the realization that I paint for me and for the enjoyment I get out of it, and all other reasons are secondary. Sure, like most of the other Coffin Dodgers and proto Coffin Dodgers on the site, I\'ve prolly got 1000 or more minis waiting to be painted, but entire years have gone by in the past without picking up a paintbrush, much less putting paint on a figure.

Having said that, here\'s what I usually do to break a block:

1. Find something else to paint. This helps if I am really frustraited with the peice I am working on, and is one of the reasons I have so many damn minis

2. Walk away from the table. Sometimes the only thing you can do is just put down the brush and walk away.

3. Like Klute says, put on something to inspire your work - movie, music, whatever. I actually do some of my best work to crime shows - CSI, Law and Order, or whatever BBC crime drama they have imported this week.

4. Find a contest that really interests you, and buy a figure for it and enter it. This one really helped me earlier this year when I entered the Metallic Adept Contest - it got me inspired to start painting seriously again.

5. Set a goal for yourself. My current goal works like this - I will finish 4 minis a month. For the first 4 minis I finish, I can buy 1 new mini. For every mini over 4 I finish, I can buy one mini to replace it (or their equivilent in cost). So for example, last month I finished 8 peices - and bought 4 minis total for the month. This month, I\'ve already finished 12 pieces - my GF is not happy with the gleefull looks I am giving the Reaper Catalogue right now.

Really, what I would do is just walk away right now - dont sell or give away your stuff, just take a break. When you are ready, you will come back to it.

 

[DragonPaint]

I\'m just stepping out from a 6 months painting block so I can understand you....

First of all... relax... there\'s nothing wrong and you just need to recharge.

Try to find some painting group or visit a store during some painting demo, just look other people paint and try to discover their tecnique and mental process about conversions and color schemes.

In some time you will have a new impulse and when you sit back to the painting table also new tecniques or colors to try.

Paolo

 

[AlexDaKid]

I\'m having this problem at the moment as well. My intended solution?? Buy some Rackham mini\'s!

I\'ve been painting GW stuff for a gods age now so I\'ve bought some rackham figures as a change and a new challenge. Hopefully they will be something fresh to play with!

 

[Nelson]

Hi, I\'m Owen, and I have a problem.

See, for the past year, I\'ve put on a brave front, painting lots of different minis, but I\'ve really only been shying away from my true problem....

My dwarf army. The living hell that was painting over a hundred dwarf warriors caused me to throw my paintbrushes down, weeping, and pray to Grimnir and Grugni to forgive me. I haven\'t painted a dwarf for a while now, and I think it worked, cause I\'m gradually drifting back to them, after a year of just buying models that caught my fancy.

So just buy some random stuff that looks really cool, experiment with some new techniques, and you\'ll be better in no time.

 

[Chrispy]

I don\'t have a problem! I can get up off of this computer and paint my commissions whenever I want!.... Just not now. ..

 

[Grizzix]

what is the best way to find painters in your area without going on to every painting forum on the net and acting like a kid who just got AOL. . .\"anyone from :enter location:?\"lol A/S check:bouncy:

 

[Sand Rat]

Have you got a local store? Worst case you could see about putting up a flyer to see about meeting folks - or they might let you paint there for a while to see if anyone else is interested.

 

[Chrispy]

The easiest way for me was looking on people\'s webpages. Y\'know Jason Moses who runs Chick Challange lives in my city? I have to drive 20 minutes to see him, tough so it\'s not like I can yell at him.
\"Hey man, check out channel 9!\" -Office Space

 

[airhead]

Mosh, I wrote about this not too long ago. I am a man of too many hobbies. In addition to painting minis, my table is also used to tie flies (so if you see any strange feathers in my paint jobs, that is why.)

If the sun is shinning outside and the honey-do\'s are nearly cought up (never completely). I will grab a fly rod and a camera and head for the coast. Fishing and photographing landscapes, wildlife, wild flowers, or anything else that catches my eye in the way that light plays on it. It is good to let the old eyeballs focus out to beyond our reach every now and then.

 

[Gypsy]

Mosch, I feel your pain, bro. I\'m going through the exact same crisis right now.
You look at magazines and on the internet for inspiration and you really feel motivated but the minute you sit down and grab a brush the miniature shrinks to ant size and your brush looks like the size of a baseball bat. And to make it all worse your hand starts shaking. You really have to put your stuff away and as much as it might hurt: wait (and pray and sometimes physical exercise helps).
My brother plays billards and once had a low that lasted 3 long years. Okay...perhaps that wasn\'t the most encouraging thing to say.

 

[Sand Rat]

Damn, guys, you got it bad. Like I said, I\'ve been through periods where I didnt even paint. Forcing yourself to sit down and try to paint, is worse than not trying to paint at all. Here again, when you are ready you will come back to it. Patience, young padwan, is your best option here.

 

[Chrispy]

Actually, I\'ve found (have a problem with) a good reason to be quick: mold. Not mold lines, actual mold. Even though my wet pallette keeps stuf moist for weeks, recently all my paint has been getting moldy. Silly, cause there\'s nothing really in paint for micorbes to eat that much. After the current batch is done, I\'m taking everything in contact with my paint (brushes and bottles excluded for obvious reasons) and bleaching them. But for now, time is of the essence lest I loose my carfully mixed colors.

 

[U4-Welcome]

I haven\'t picked up a brush in 6 months either. At the start if frustrated me, like \"why the hell won\'t I paint anymore ?\" But then I remembered that it was just a hobby ; if I don\'t want to paint, I don\'t paint and do something else - it\'s not like somebody\'s going to blame me. My minis and brushes aren\'t going anywhere, and if/when I want to pick them up again, they\'ll be there. Maybe the skills will have dulled a little, but after 1 or 2 minis they\'ll be back to what they were. In the mean time, I\'m perfectly content playing Warcraft 3 or socializing or reading or whatever else I do.

I agree with Klute : go with the flow.

 

[Bala]

I haven\'t painted for months neither, because I had too much work and... I can\'t bear painting during winter, when u have to use artificial light (It\'s always the evening when I have time to paint)! I tried to do something for a Christmas contest but my painting job sucked , I\'m sure it was because of the light. Now,.. good days are back I\'m going to paint again !

My advice to your problem is : try to get back to painting (on a sunny day) by buying a really beautiful mini, the hero type (but not too big) ; and try an effect you\'ve never tried before, like new skin color, tartan, SENMM... That\'s what I call motivating

Bala

 

[airhead]

Originally posted by Chrispy
... mold. Not mold lines, actual mold. Even though my wet pallette keeps stuf moist for weeks, recently all my paint has been getting moldy....

May not be the paints, probably the paper/celulose fibers in the pallet. After you are finished with that layer of paper, peel it off & throw it away. Then put your wet pallet in the microwave until it starts to steam. Should kill off the mold. Might try mixing a little Lysol (liquid) or pine sol in your wet pallet water.

Obviously, you are keeping it sealed when not in use or you wouldn\'t be able to use the colors for that long. Is it out of sunlight? not under your painting lamps?in a cool place? tried putting it in the fridge? - that would slow the paint reactions and keep the mold in check.

Just some ideas to throw at the problem.

 

[supervike]

painters constipation....

Some things that cause me to have \"painters block\"

Too many minis on my table. Put everything away, except the one you really want to get done.

Don\'t force it, just like Steelcult says, relax and let it come back naturally.

I too have gone years in between painting things. I have also gone through spurts where I painted ever day for a month or so.

Movies, visiting CMON, etc are great ideas, but I have noticed that actually reading a book helps the most. It forces that visual side of your brain to have to imagine what things would look like, and that seems to get the creative juices flowing again.

Unless you are doing this as a career, just have fun with it. You\'ll know when it feels right to begin again.