What to do?

[Brokenblade]

Hey all,

I\'ll cut to the chase, i have serious painters block, i used to work full time painting minis, but now have a new job, which allows me 2 days off a week, and a few hours every night, the plan was to do both things (half and half) but on my days off i just want to rest, it wouldn\'t bother me so much, but i have serious commission work to be done (commission work that i\'m not too interested in particularly),

I\'ve had painters block before, but not like this, does anyone have any recommendations to help overcome it?
especially if you\'ve been in that kind of situation before.

Thanks everyone.

Joe.

 

[Ritual]

If you have a regular job you will likely earn a LOT more money from that than by painting minis. Stuffing your free time (which now has become much more valuable) with commission work can easily kill your desire to paint so my advice is to cut back on the commission work and use your free time to paint more for your own sake and/or only accept stimulating commission work.

Maybe this wasn\'t exactly an answer to the question you had, but this is my viewpoint on this situation (which I happen to be in myself...).

 

[james sequeira]

im finding this at the moment start a figure and do a bit every night like all the flesh or the armour.spead it out into managable bits

 

[Naukhel]

Buy yourself a membership at a local gym.
I guarantee that, in the face of exercise, painting will suddenly become a lot more interesting.

 

[EricJ]

I agree with Anders, once I was able to make good money the idea of painting for money really lost all interest to me, which is why I don\'t do it! I want to keep my hobby fun.

Naukhel is also onto something, the gym is good, either to movitate you to paint so you don\'t have to go. Or rather in my case, keeps my back/shoulders feeling good when I do paint.

 

[laurence]

Painting again.

Hi Brokenblade,

Here\'s a couple of suggestions that might hopefully work for you.

Write up a weekly schedule that includes painting time and try to stick to it. After a week or two of regular painting you\'ll find that you\'re in a good painting routine and will definately start making progress.

I went a year and a half without painting and have just recently got back into it by following my new time schedule. A schedule that also includes six days a week teaching English, Chinese Mandarin language studies, Playing guitar (music), time with my wonderful girlfriend and of course a social life as well.

You\'ll be suprised at what you can get done by organising your time.

Step by step mate.

Also, I agree with EricJ and Ritual that it may be a good idea to drop future commission work or at least cut down on it. I\'d don\'t think I could ever do commission work because I wouldn\'t like to paint because I had to. I prefer to paint because I love to or at least want to. I\'m sure that the pressure that goes with commission work must in some way add to a lack of enthusiasm and motivation when it comes to painting minis. (Of course the opposite could be true).

You\'ll be right. Now what are you doing reading this thread? Go paint!

Cheers.

 

[Sand Rat]

Originally posted by Naukhel
Buy yourself a membership at a local gym.
I guarantee that, in the face of exercise, painting will suddenly become a lot more interesting.

Yup - thats how I did it !!!

 

[Ogrebane]

Make a list of chores to do around the house. Make sure your minis are on display and all the paints and brushes are ready to go.

read the first chore. Sit in front of mini whilst contemplating chore. You should get your minis painted before you finish your chores.

 

[Dragon Forge Design]

Id return everything thats a commission with a letter stateing that you have taken a full time job and no longer have the free time to paint right now. Add to it that at a later time if you figure out you have more freetime you will let hem know.

I find most people will appreciate the honesty and look for another painter, than be pissed off cause its a year later and your still sitting on their gear.

Lifes to short to fret about it.. Move along

 

[EricJ]

Originally posted by Dragon Forge Design
Id return everything thats a commission with a letter stateing that you have taken a full time job and no longer have the free time to paint right now. Add to it that at a later time if you figure out you have more freetime you will let hem know.

I find most people will appreciate the honesty and look for another painter, than be pissed off cause its a year later and your still sitting on their gear.

Lifes to short to fret about it.. Move along

I agree with everything here

 

[Infidel Castro]

Make it fun - try dressing up and getting \'in character.\' Try painting with the other hand. lol

Definitely do get shed-loads of exercise (mountain-biking is my saviour) and also just ignore the paints for a little while. Don\'t think about it, and then out of the blue one Saturday morning, wake up, eat your Shreddies, have a cuppa and then just plough into the day with a brush and some paint. I\'m a bad one to talk but I did paint for a living for a year and I\'m still trying to forget that period and the scars it left lol

One fine winter morning you\'ll just slip back into it...honest!

 

[Brokenblade]

wow, thanks for the quick replies everyone, they are all extremely helpful, the thing is, i make more painting minis than at my job lol, yep it\'s minimum wage £4.25 an hour for my age, and painting minis i could pretty easily get £6 an hour (the original plan of painting minis full time after college was good, but the idea of sitting in my room paintingg 9 till 5 every day was pretty scary, and i really needed experience in the real working world),

the commission work i have is almost done, so i dont really want to give them back, and is again money i cannot turn down, however a couple of other people have asked for commissions lately, and i might just have to say no to them. excersing is a good one, probably don\'t do enough as it is but as we speak i\'m starting to do more and more, so i hope that will help, time organisation is a key too as laurence started, i\'m gonna start today writing what particular things need sorting.

Many thanks everyone, this is what cmon is really about, IT REALLY HAS HELPED SO MUCH :bouncy::bouncy::bouncy:

 

[Infidel Castro]

I\'ll raise a glass to that.

 

[Dammekkos2]

If you\'re determined to get it done you could try using some sort of stimulant ie cocaine. However this is hideously expensive, so if you use it simply to plough through a commission, you could effectively be working for free, depending on how much you use and how much you are paid. There is possibly a cheaper alternative, but this might require experimentation, inadvisable to say the least.

 

[Einion]

Of course caffeine might just be an alternative, without many of the more unpleasant side effects of cocaine. Plus, no risk of incarceration!

Einion

 

[Brokenblade]

i already use cocaine, i hide it in a tub on my desk where the techstars snowflakes are normally kept, no one suspects a thing

Got a bit of painting done this morning (woke up early especially), and will be able to get some done tonight too :bouncy:

 

[dauber22]

Originally posted by Einion
Of course caffeine might just be an alternative, without many of the more unpleasant side effects of cocaine. Plus, no risk of incarceration!

Einion

Yes, of course. But I think the risk of incarceration is part of why you stay so awake and alert Whereas with caffeine (coffee in particular) I believe part of the effect lies in the bladder. Everytime I start to nod off, I find I have to get up and go pee.

 

[Ritual]

Originally posted by dauber22
But I think the risk of incarceration is part of why you stay so awake and alert

\"I got to finish this commission work before the cops come and put me in jail!!\" :innocent:

 

[Dammekkos2]

Originally posted by Einion
Of course caffeine might just be an alternative, without many of the more unpleasant side effects of cocaine. Plus, no risk of incarceration!

Einion

I dunno, this would work for tiredness and general alertness, but possibly wouldn\'t get you through a painting block whereas my suggestion gives a massive boost to concentration and, far more importantly, enthusiasm.

Plus, loads caffine can make your hands tremble a bit I think, not good for painting.

 

[Evil Dave]

Originally posted by Dragon Forge Design
Id return everything thats a commission with a letter stateing that you have taken a full time job and no longer have the free time to paint right now. Add to it that at a later time if you figure out you have more freetime you will let hem know.

I find most people will appreciate the honesty and look for another painter, than be pissed off cause its a year later and your still sitting on their gear.

Lifes to short to fret about it.. Move along

Well said, after this though, simply stop painting. Give it a rest for a while it will return. It may be after a few weeks it may be a year or two, but it will return.

Forcing yourself to paint will only add resentment of the hobby.