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Anybody been there recently?

Yesterday i Could not be bothered painting, actually spent most of the day playing M2tw: crusades.
however, later on the wife is watching tv and i thought to myself i really must crack on with my horses (bretonnian)

So i cracked on, mostly i was doing the leather and metalwork on them, painted, washed, highlighted etc. i must have started at about 10pm, when i looked up it was 1am!
i can only assume that i was either abducted by aliens or i was in "the painting zone" whereby you wake up and realise that the sections you were working on are done..

anybody else get this?
i'm going to have to force myself to paint more often i think.
ta
pete

Oh, I get this a lot. The worst part, though?

While I'm in the painting zone, especially when painting fine detail, I regularly forget to breathe.

I really wish I was joking here. Most of the time I don't even notice, I'll just take a breath here and there (usually when brush is no longer on model) and then go back to not breathing for a while again. At least one of my mates who's usually around while I'm painting has definitely noticed this, and will occasionally go "Hey, Skits, take a breath!" XD

Luckily, I've never passed out from this forgetfulness. XD

You are not alone, Skits. I do the breathing-thing too.

I hold my breath a lot while painting, especially if I'm doing some kind of detail work. You're not alone, Skits!

"The Painting Zone", as it were, is something we almost all get lost in. There's a zen-like frame of mind you can fall into when painting hordes of plastic spacemen or what have you, and you can really lose track of time. I listen to podcasts a lot while I paint and I take note of how long they are so I know how long I'm working for. It usually keeps me from staying up til 4am working on my Marines or what have you.

Man, I've been there. Although not so much recently. That 'time warp' effect is kinda weird though!
The most recent time, probably 6 months ago working on an RT era all metal Chaplain on bike. Started at around 11am, next time I looked at the clock it was 17:00....I had barely moved for 6 hours and then had to go and collect the wife from London! Painful.....

I use to lose time when I was working on stuff all the time. I started to put on movies and tv shows from Netflix so it would give a rough timer on how long I worked. It sucked when I would paint during the weekdays and I still had to be at work at 6 AM.

Sadly, wife and kid have done their damndest to NOT let me "achieve" the painting zone... about the only way ive ever gotten there is when one or both of them are gone.

But, I can't paint a whole unit.. rather i paint a string of random, unrelated minis which often times, depending on the mini goes into a unit, so this change of pace always helps to keep the focus there, and the "time warp" away.

I'm in the painting zone right now. Too bad I'm at work. I just wanted say "F this work day. I want to go home and paint!"

Forget to breathe while doing detail work....check...the way I breathe during painting, you'd think I was a trained sniper.
Netflix some old movie I've seen a 1000 times....check.
Stay up all night when I have to work in the morning....check,
How about this one, have you ever put off eating till you've gotten to a certain painting waypoint?

I usually play a CD to time myself and stay out of "The Painting Zone", only painting until the end of the CD, and putting in another if I feel like doing more.
Usually I don't go over 2 CDs in a painting session, but I haven't been painting much recently, anyhow.

I recently experienced this. I have started my first real painting project (I need to post pics) of deathwing and ... you'd be surprised how much time just ... passes by.

I go to sub space more often than the painting zone nowadays. I miss it dearly ;_; I used to leave a crappy show on in the background that I didn't really have to follow and I could go for hours.

Happened to me the other day. Got up and started painting in the morning (after putting in season two of Highlander) and before I knew it, it was night, and I'd painted three squads of Guardians.

Happens all the time. This weekend I started at 22.00 and before I knew it it was almost 3 in the morning. Thank Gork I didn't have to work in the morning so I stayed until 4 until the last member of the Rock Lobber crew (the Orc Bully) was finished. All that in complete silence - it was late after all.

I listen to podcasts while I'm painting, so it's a bit easier to keep track of time - and unfortunately, my laptop is right on my desk for said podcasts, so it's easy to get distracted and check the internets for half an hour. I've zoned out in the middle of podcasts while painting before, though, and gotten to the end without realizing until later that there's suddenly been silence for however long.

MightyGodzilla wrote:
How about this one, have you ever put off eating till you've gotten to a certain painting waypoint?

Oh hell yes. Not just eating, either. ¬_¬

And I am SO glad I'm not the only one who forgets to breathe. XD Although I will admit, painting isn't the only time I forget about breathing.

It's actually a pretty common occurrence in most artsy endeavors. I believe it's down to left/right brain functions to get all scientifical about it. The right side of the brain gets all in the zone and ignores the analytical left side, which also happens to be the one who knows it's well past bedtime

I love the painting zone yet everything conspires to keep me from it, the other evening whilst the gf was watching x-factor I said I'd be a couple of minutes- just needed to apply a little wash - 3 hours later a rather upset gf appeared...

I've got to admit everything everyone has posted so far has me nodding my head in agreement, sometimes forgetting to breathe, eating, oh man i go for a long time before realizing i'm really hungy or desperate for the loo!

regarding the missus and painting, i now use the GW painting tray so i can sit on the couch whilst she watches horrors like strictly come dancing and paint away.
also retain my man card because technically i'm not watching that train wreck of a show...

i've taken to putting whole series' on my pendrive and just plugging that into the tv when i paint also. i think the worse one was when i had 3 bond films in a row on and only afterwards realising when the missus and the kids showed up from her mums and she berated me for not tidying up lol.

Skits wrote:

MightyGodzilla wrote:
How about this one, have you ever put off eating till you've gotten to a certain painting waypoint?

Oh hell yes. Not just eating, either. ¬_¬

Dude.....Skits. You better not be putting off what I think you're putting off. Gamers gotta get their sex.

A lot of the time I paint oh yes, as many will testify to . Mostly when I am staying in London and I have a day to myself start around 8am and only stop when my girlfriend is calling saying she has finished work and seeing if I want to go anywhere.
Any time I don't get into that zen state when painting it just seems like a chore that must be done...

MightyGodzilla wrote:

Skits wrote:

MightyGodzilla wrote:
How about this one, have you ever put off eating till you've gotten to a certain painting waypoint?

Oh hell yes. Not just eating, either. ¬_¬

Dude.....Skits. You better not be putting off what I think you're putting off. Gamers gotta get their sex.

Pfhahaha I was just referring to the bathroom. What you're thinking would require me actually having a partner in the first place. XD I'm quite happy with single life!

I have never reached this state of mind before. I am always interrupted by my stupid sensibility and get up from my hobby to go do something important like eating or cleaning.
It must be nice to get lost in something you enjoy.

I do however sometimes forget to breathe while concentrating on painting some tiny details so I guess that one is normal.

I work at night and spend a lot of weekends "on call" at night. That time is when I get most of my painting done. Painting until the sun comes up is the norm at my house.

happened to me just the other day, started painting at about 8pm, with randomly chosen music on itunes going, then, when i next looked at the clock, it was 3am, damn i was tired the next day...