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Hi there,

Last year I came back to the grimdark side and restarted my hobby after a 4 year break. During the break I sold everything modelling related (big regret now as there were lots of limited editions in there, but at the time I didn't care, so onto eBay it was all unceremoniously thrown).

So now I'm back since Jan 2010, I painted up some blood angels last year, but only got about 3 marines finished, now I've started a real nice Dark Elf army with 8th coming out, and I've come to realise I have a problem as a similar thing is happening.
It's like I really want to paint, but when i sit down to do it, I just can't, I maybe do five minutes, then I find myself distracted, or just not able to concentrate, so I mess up, get frustrated, and give up. I never used to be like this as I'm primarily a painter, and used to be able to churn out (to me, see my gallery) great looking models all the time in my hobby youth.
I've managed to paint up some cold one knights, and a sorceress etc, but they weren't exactly a breeze, they took weeks, and many mistakes, I'm still not thrilled with them.

My own explanation is I'm older, and have a "real" job now, so when i get in from work my mind isn't in a good place to concentrate, but at work all I want to do is go home and model, I also don't have much free time at weekends due to other life committments, e.g. girlfriend. Also, I don't really play the games, just paint up legal armies tot he best of my abilities, which is satisfying in itself, but perhaps if I was painting up a new unit to beat someone's army it might spur me on to finish it and paint for more than 10 minutes at a time.

Any one else experience a similar thing (if I've even written this well enough for you to know what I mean that is!) with or without a hobby hiatus involved? Appreciate any advice.

Cheers
RB

Just come back after a decade or so, and an abortive attempt for a month last year. Before I became a full time house husband, it was definitely work that impacted how much I would paint. I'd come home tired, and not really in the mood to paint, I would rather have spent time with wifey. I did have the benefit of a couple of hours a night before she got in though, so I tried t paint then.

It was tedious. I wanted great results right away over a lot of models. I'd start a unit, get frustrated and start another one. I think I finished about 3 or 4 before I packed it in again. Funny thing is now that I have time to paint, it's a lot easier. I don't feel like I have to cram it in because I only have X amount of hours free to do it.

It's a lot easier when there's not a rush to finish it. I'm not quite over the hump yet. I've yet to do a real sitting, and prefer to paint a single model at a time to completion. I've got a tac squad I've started that I need to finish. I've been putting off, telling myself I'll get an airbrush first and then crack on, but to be honest I just don't feel like doing them. I've got 3 squads to do and it's a case of over saturation.

If I get them done, then I'll be over the hump, and I know I actually want to rejoin the hobby. If I don't then I imagine I'll probably give up again. Bottom line is that if you really want to, you'll sit down and do it, if you don't you won't - there's no point in forcing it. WHo wants to spend hours doing something you don't enjoy, and spending money on it.

At the moment, I'm enjoying planning forces and conversions most and painting is just something I need to do to get the forces on the table sounds like you have something similar - all wrapped up in planning it out, but now it's ready to go, you can't really be bothered - I know exactly how you feel!

Painting standards are an issue for me too. Posted up my captain, first model I've really bothered to paint properly in nigh on a decade, got some critique and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was. I think I just set my standards too high.

I find painting for a deadline really narrows the mind. Enter into a tournament, or aim to go into a store to play in 2 weeks with a fully painted 500pt force (or whatever point limit you think you can get painted in the time period).

Every couple of weeks aim to go back and play with another unit painted, or another points jump completed.

Also, I find watching TV or listening to the radio helps to free the brain from the whole painting process.

redbristles wrote:It's like I really want to paint, but when i sit down to do it, I just can't, I maybe do five minutes, then I find myself distracted, or just not able to concentrate, so I mess up, get frustrated, and give up.

Well, I had my share of hiatuses (hiati? Dunno what the plural of that is) and just recently returned as well. My last hiatus was only half a year, but still.

Anyway, I had (and still sometimes have) similar problems. Usually it helps when you actually see the whole thing as what it is: A hobby, nothing more or less.

I work from 7 am to 3 pm, have training 3 times a week and work with the local youth. That leaves me with less time to play or paint than I´d like. I don´t build my day around painting, but I paint when I have the time. For example, I usually have an hour or so of free time between coming home from work and getting ready for training. In this time I usually watch some TV I recorded earlier (most stuff I want to watch comes at times when I´m not home ) while painting or building stuff.

Sure, I might get 15-20 time of actual painting/modeling out of it due to other distractions, but slow and steady wins the race. I have no reason to hurry and neither should you if you don´t even play.

No need to force yourself to anything. If you force yourself you only get frustrated quicker.

It helps if you have your painting stuff readily available. You feel like painting? Get them and start. You are done feeling like painting after a few minutes? No harm done since your stuff is easily and quickly packed away.

Phayse wrote: It was tedious. I wanted great results right away over a lot of models. I'd start a unit, get frustrated and start another one.

I know what you mean, I think I'm too harsh on my ability, I know that models usually (for me anyway) can look pretty sloppy for the first few stages of painting then all of a sudden seem to come together at the end and look cohesive. This doesn't make it any easier however as it looks like not much progress is being made...

Thanks for yor replies so far, it's good to know I'm not the only one who feels like this at times.

Vimes wrote:It helps if you have your painting stuff readily available. You feel like painting? Get them and start. You are done feeling like painting after a few minutes? No harm done since your stuff is easily and quickly packed away

I make sure that all my primed models are tucked away out of sight so that doesn't get too depressing! Also my painting setup is always out on my desk so that 5 minutes here and there will hopefully add up eventually.

I'm thinking of maybe going to my local GW on a Thursday game night to sit and paint with other hobbyists, and I've found a club near me too that I'm thinking of going to with a small painted force and building from there.

Thanks everyone with your stories so far.

Jesus....for a second there this sounded like a documentary of my life! I took about a 4 year hiatus, I also started up again last year in January, I also began picking up with Blood Angels, I have other external commitments (family, school, work, etc), and I also have a real job (well the most professional job ive ever had). The only thing that we dont have in common is that I get so amped to paint when I get off work or get done studying that sometimes I will pull all-nighters or neglect any other interests I have to get some good painting time in.

What are you distracted by? I good thing to keep you focus is maybe listen to music or put a movie on, that way if you focus does began to wander, you kinda have a firewall in place to make sure it doesnt wander too far. I think after a day of stressful work, I have no trouble focusing on something as relaxing as painting. Maybe before you paint, close your eyes, relax and clear your mind and take 7-10 deep breaths and then start painting. Sorry I dont have more helpful advice to give.

I have the same problem sometimes. Like others have stated, throwing on a movie or some music can help. I've had a lot of success listening to books and podcasts, since you don't need your eyes to enjoy them and they give your mind something to latch onto while you're basecoating that 10th trooper model.

I paint in bursts generally. It's been a lot slower now that I have one army more or less finished. It's a beast trying to find time from the job, kids, and wife. Usually when I do get home I've got other chores and projects to work on. Aaaaand of course there's the video games and books and the computer and everything else competing for attention.

I paint when I feel like it. Sometimes it's more than others. When I do sit down, I try to get a unit done before my attention wanes. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes I need to push for those last 3-4 guys.

And to think.....
I thought for the longest time it was just me......
Well just reading everyone else's post kind of motivated me (a little) but hey.... I'll take what I can get.

I got a great 45 minutes of painting done last night listening to the Charlie Sheen interview on TMZ.

No really. It was awesome, and probably will be the finest model I've painted, but i've invested probably 10 hours in it so far.

Like a few of the above posters, I came back into the hobby after I got married and realized, like all married men do, that they're not getting sex anymore on a regular basis, and needed the distraction of a tried and true hobby.

The trick is just to have a goal, and make sure you reach it without over extending yourself. Say to yourself "I'm going to paint this 5 man tac squad this week" and move on to the next task after. If you look past the job you're doing onto the 4 unpainted rhinos, and the 10 terminators, and this and that, you'll overload your brain before you've actually done the work.

The thing is, you have to want to PAINT THE MODEL, not HAVE THE MODEL PAINTED. The reality is, painting a model well requires enormous concentration, but like all things that are worth doing, it's hard! And it doesn't get (much) easier!

Blacklining eyesockets and painting in the eyes is always hard. Painting 10 skulls on every fething model is always a pain in the ass. I know this and I think there is a great many of us out there who understand exactly what it's like when you feel like your hobby has become a chore.

The only thing to do is start small, and go through it slowly and systemically. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither was an immaculately painted 2000 points of World Eaters.

Good luck.

I think you might be better off painting lower quality. I know when I get in a funk and don't want to paint, I go back to my Tyranids. I don't need them to look good for my swarm, I just need to DO them. Just the repetitive actions on a few models gets the juices going a little more to paint something nicer and get fully in the swing.

On a side note, if anyone wants to paint some gaunts...

redbristles wrote:I'm thinking of maybe going to my local GW on a Thursday game night to sit and paint with other hobbyists, and I've found a club near me too that I'm thinking of going to with a small painted force and building from there.

Thats a real good idea. If you were in my area, I would invite you over for a paint night. Eventually if my opponent doest get his figures painted faster than 1 every 3 months, im going to suggest we get together for a paint night....he keeps getting himself distracted by new video games!

hemingway wrote:

Like a few of the above posters, I came back into the hobby after I got married and realized, like all married men do, that they're not getting sex anymore on a regular basis, and needed the distraction of a tried and true hobby.

I suggest masturbation as an alternative.

I often find myself in the same boat as you, not being able to paint when I want to. I get around this by having loads of stuff on the go, so I'll do a bit of rough rider painting here, some tank conversion work there, etc. It takes longer to get stuff finished, but for me it makes it more fun and interesting.

Phayse wrote:
I suggest masturbation as an alternative.

that's the devil's work. i prefer adultery.

Hey redbristles, get a radio! I like to paint with the zane lowe show 7-9 (obviously not an option if you aint a youngster, i think 6music has a good show at this time) and Tony Livesey on Fivelive 22.30-01.00. If i am staying up later Fivelive's up-all-night is like rocket fuel for creativity, i would even suggest hunting up all night down on Iplayer. Wednesday (thursday mornings) one is especially good for Dr Karl's science phone-in, Sunday (monday morning) has a really good book phone in and if you like soccer, friday (saturday morning) has the 'world football phone in' which apparently gets a ridiculously huge listenership.

My biggest issue is that I love all of the models and don't get to paint nearly as often as I'd like, so when things stop churning out I find myself looking at the other armies and models I love.

I have had to reel myself in and my buddies are doing God's work making sure I finish 1 army at a time.

SilverMK2 wrote:I find painting for a deadline really narrows the mind. Enter into a tournament, or aim to go into a store to play in 2 weeks with a fully painted 500pt force (or whatever point limit you think you can get painted in the time period).

Every couple of weeks aim to go back and play with another unit painted, or another points jump completed.

Also, I find watching TV or listening to the radio helps to free the brain from the whole painting process.

+1 I recently finished 15 plaguebearers and 2 demon princes because I have a tourney in about a week and I didn't want to show up with a couple unpainted models so I made myself finish them.

I came back to the hobby in Nov 2009 after an 11ish year break. When I first got back into it I was pulling out old stuff for my Undead (which had been split between VC and TK) and focused on VC because I like zombies a lot. I cranked through over 400 of them in a few months (I like to play Blockhammer with "tarpit" tactics) and also boosted my WoC to about 3,000 pts from around 1,000 before. Then hit a wall dead on. *THUD* I was so sick of painting that I almost stopped. I did get into building terrain though because I host games at my place, so while I didn't leave the hobby I completely shifted gears for a while. In November 2010 I rediscovered my Death Guard and for a while I was cranking out new units and new vehicles and have a pretty decent blog about it going (in my sig, go check it out if you have a chance). The insanity of the holidays took the wind out of me, and I was down for a while. Then I got back into it hard core until about a month ago. I have no idea why I stopped. I just did. I look at my Plague Marines now and would rather go watch reruns of My Three Sons than paint another miniature.

So I'm in a major block right now. Today I worked on the Missile Launchers of a Havoc squad I have been working on for weeks, and it was like long nails on a dry chalkboard. I finished 3 of the 4, but that 4th one may not ever get finished the way I feel right now. I'm just sick of... everything. My life is awesome and I have good friends and a great job and etc... my life doesn't suck, I just feel flat. I love this hobby. I thrive on the positive feedback I rec' when I post an update on my blog. I enjoy posting pics of my really old stuff (Rogue Trader / 2nd Ed) and I enjoy engaging in conversation on interesting threads (like this one).

Picking up a paintbrush feels like work right now. It's not fun. I have no idea how to change that. I tried doing some modeling / conversion on a completely unrelated range of miniatures, the feeling was the same. My work desk is a complete disaster right now. Usually I keep it clean and very well organized. I just don't care.

I looked for an external reason for this, and I can't. I love the hobby... I'm just sick of it right now.

The way I'll get myself back into this is to finish a project. I have a few projects running right now with too many loose ends. It bothers me that I feel I have to "force" myself to finish anything, but once it is done I'll at least be able to look at the completed project and feel some satisfaction from it.

I miss being motivated. I want it back. Maybe complaining about it on a public forum will give me some spark.

I hope you find your muse again. Good luck with your endeavors.

I've modelling 40k stuff for about two years now, i had a good solid six months to start but slowly you get distracted and find it hard to find time to paint and stuff. Since then its off and on, i'll start a model and get really into and finish it, others though get put to the side and start something else,so i've always got a few on the go. I used to think this helped keep it fresh but i never seem to get anywhere, just loads of half done mini's.

I recently moved everything into my cellar, away from girlfriend moaning about space, so i have a 24/7 set-up.

I find inspiration from you folks on sites like this and galleries. Also i go to the odd model show or game day for inspiration.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Forgot to mention that i have a portable dvd player on the table to watch films or music while i paint, i recently got some audio books and i found i wanted to paint just to listen to the story.

Above all as people have said its just a hobby and i find if you give yourself too many targets and deadlines it spoils it, but everyone works differently, i dont paint for any reason just that its relaxing and rewarding. I still don't know how to play 40k but i have decent sized army that will never see battle,but thats just me.

A quick update, I really appreciate you guys posting your (frequently very similar to mine) stories of painting enthusiasm on here, it's made me take a fresh look at things. I did a few hours painting with my gf this weekend, I gave her a moria goblin to paint (she was very good actually, excellent brush control) and I've thought about adjusting my DE colour schemes to try some new techniques, all in all I found painting with someone very fun, and I'm going to try and do it some more.

To go slightly off on a tangent, I was discussing in GW over the weekend how to get over what i see as a plateau in ability, I mean I'm ok at painting, I know a fair few techniques and I feel confident enought to experiment with colour etc, but I certainly won't win any competitions at my current level. I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good book perhaps that discusses some advanced painting techniques in general, as the black shirt at GW said to me, you'll only get reaaaaally good at painting if you actively try to. Spurred me on a bit as I was hoping of having a pop at golden daemon this year...

Cheers

redbristles wrote:A quick update, I really appreciate you guys posting your (frequently very similar to mine) stories of painting enthusiasm on here, it's made me take a fresh look at things. I did a few hours painting with my gf this weekend, I gave her a moria goblin to paint (she was very good actually, excellent brush control) and I've thought about adjusting my DE colour schemes to try some new techniques, all in all I found painting with someone very fun, and I'm going to try and do it some more.

To go slightly off on a tangent, I was discussing in GW over the weekend how to get over what i see as a plateau in ability, I mean I'm ok at painting, I know a fair few techniques and I feel confident enought to experiment with colour etc, but I certainly won't win any competitions at my current level. I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good book perhaps that discusses some advanced painting techniques in general, as the black shirt at GW said to me, you'll only get reaaaaally good at painting if you actively try to. Spurred me on a bit as I was hoping of having a pop at golden daemon this year...

Cheers

Couldn't recomend a book really. I learned a lot of my chops from the degree I was on.

Even then, a lot of the progress I've made has been researching approaches to painting minis. Theory only takes you so far though. Just keep practising and don't expect miracles. Get a decent light set up, a magnifier if need be, and some good brushes.

Experiment with how you load your brush with paint. Mess around with consistency. Try a few manufacturers.

Post. Often.

More importantly, get a bottle of dettol and a few different test minis. One with nice flat areas, one with curved flat areas, one with surface detail and one with fabrics. Hone your techniques on them, strip them, and repeat. Try any new schemes on the test mini that has the closest similarity to your new purchase to see how different types of detail can affect the paint job you're planning.

More importantly, don't expect miracles. Take your time. Watch a few videos for good ideas about consistency of paint and brush application - it's amazing how important consistency is - too thick and you work hard to get the paint to sit where you want it - increasing the risk of getting it everywhere. Too thin and it runs everywhere. Too much on the brush and it floods, too little and again, you have to work to hard for coverage, getting it everywhere!

EDIT -

Having read your blog, I'm inclined to say you seriously undervalue your ability.

I think I started getting back into the hobby by painting special characters and one-off models. That let me play around with getting my feel for different techniques at my own speed without having to worry about cranking out x of something.

I just started again in January. The last time I touched a brush to paint I was 13 years old. My girlfriend bought me AOBR for Christmas, and now I am hooked again, 27 years later. Betwen spending time with her, Judo and BJJ, I don't get all the time I would like either. I too, have these great ideas of what kind of paint scheme I want to do, but then I get distracted by lifes other occupants, and find that I either have to put it on hold. or scrap the idea completely. Right now, I am going for table top standard until I figure out what it is.