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| So many happy trees... |
I need to paint. A
lot. I swore that when I started playing
Warmachine/Hordes that "I'll get so much more painting done!" I was a Tyranid player, so the thought of not
having to paint 100+ models of identical poses was a relief. Unfortunately, I still find myself
procrastinating when it comes to painting my models, and it's a problem. I hate being one of those bloggers who uses
my real life as an excuse for not getting stuff done, but I'm not in college
anymore. I'm a real person with a real
job. Unfortunately for me, that job
happens to be being a teacher. Oh, and I
also work in the theater. Two incredibly
time-consuming jobs. While that leaves
me the occasional downtime to play some Skyrim (another reason for no painting)
or play a game of Warmahordes, it's easy for me to avoid painting when I only
have small chunks of time. So today I'm
not going to talk about painting techniques, but rather my thoughts on painting
in general and how the rest of us can get some painting done.
I really admire one of my good friends because he just sits
down and can plow through models. He's
not a particularly quick painter, but all of his paintjobs are neat, clean, and
look good. Not only that, but he really
makes a point to paint almost every day, and I don't know how he can bring
himself to do it. Here are some tips
that I have found help me to get the painting done that I want to, as best as I
can (although remember that my job keeps me busy most days).
Step 1 - Don't fight it!
Okay so let's try an exercise right now, shall we? Stand up, get your paints, and bring them to
your favorite painting location. Get
some water. Take out a primed
model. Take out a brush. Start painting. Chances are, if you do this, you will keep
painting and keep going. Don't spend too
long thinking about it! Just pick a
color and paint. Don't fight it, just do
it. Have somewhere to be in 30
minutes? No big deal, paint a gun, a
leg, some armor, then wash the brush off, and go do what you have to do.
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Ted: "Don't fight it?"
Linda: Hindsight is 20-20, Mr. "I never accidentally
fondled anyone."
Ted: I don't think the words "don't fight it" have
ever been used when someone isn't being sexually harassed.
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Now I have lots of wargaming friends and we all paint. We're not awesome at it, but we do like
playing with fully painted models.
There's something really satisfying about playing with completely
painted models on a well-modeled table.
I don't care who you are, you play miniatures games because you love the
way the models look on the tabletop. To
prove it, just ask yourself if you could play Starcraft with just basic shapes
with different colors instead of the awesome zerglings or marine images. See what I mean? Lots of us don't really like the idea of
sitting by ourselves painting, so when I visited my friend in Savannah, we took
out our models at his kitchen table and just started to paint.
| As fun as they are... I prefer real models |
Step 2 - Misery loves company
I'm not a great painter.
I might be "good", but definitely not great. We love to paint for the end result, the ends
justify the means, and we all agree that the means suck (at least among my
group of friends). What a better way to
do something that sucks than by dragging your friends into it too? I could say it's good to get feedback, but
really I just like doing an awesome job on a model and showing it off to my
friends to make them feel bad. Who says
we can't compete over who's a better painter?
Who knows, it might just be what you need to stay motivated.
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| Pictured: Me |
I strongly recommend reading the book Drive if you get the
chance. It's a fantastic book that
discusses the raw science behind inherent motivation, and it totally changed my
view of the world. Anyway, one of the
best ways to destroy your own motivation for doing something is giving yourself
an if-then reward. So if I said to
myself "if I paint 5 models tonight, then I can play Skyrim," then
that will actually make me less motivated to do it. Strange, right? If someone paid me per model to paint, I
would similarly have less inherent motivation to do it. So how do you stay motivated? Have fun with it! Don't give yourself ultimatums or rewards,
but focus on the satisfaction at the end of having painted models. I find that tournaments and conventions (like
Templecon) are great motivations for me to paint - not because I have to, but
because I want to have fun with fully painted models.
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| Better than some paintjobs I've seen... |
Step 4 - Simplicity
I pride myself on having simple paintjobs. My aforementioned buddy from Savannah spends
a lot of time on his paintjobs and that is great for him. For me, I like to keep things simple. I like to maximize the ratio of appearance to
time invested in the model, so that means that while my models could look
better, I would spend way more time than I want on it, and that's okay! We all see some snazzy paintjobs out there
and want to try it ourselves or do something better, but sometimes it's okay to
keep it simple and be happy with it. I
actually find that keeping things simple just means that later you can touch it
up and make it better when you find you actually have the motivation to do so. For me, I like to keep it simple for now.
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| Maybe someday...? |