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Title sums it up. I've got 2 small kids. In the past 2 years I've managed to get a couple of battalions and the skull pass starter prepped (mold lines removed and cleaned).

How do you get motivated to paint and for parents (I have a 3-year old and a 7-month old) how do you find the time/energy to paint?

Thanks!

KT

At night mostly, or during school hours before work. Having a odd work schedule helps. Do 2pm till 10pm most days, so during school term I can grab a couple of hours in the day.

Probably helps two of them are school age, eight and six, although our youngest is only three and a half months, so it might change a little when he starts toddling.

One of the best things I found was making the modelling and painting area have its own space in the house.

I have used the bars of an old baby plan pen to mark off a corner of the living room with the help of the Sofa. Stops any of the kids going in there, plus the doggy.
So I don't have to unpack everything each time I get the urge to paint. Just pop into the corner and grab a brush.

As to motivation, thats always been a stumbling block for me, kids or no kids. I just try and do a little bit, a couple of hours each week. Its surprising what you can get done if you keep to that over time.

Just finished this lot, which I started back in November.

Establish a fixed bed time. Ours came about rather by accident, but its the best thing that ever happened to our family. Bed time starts at 7 and generally ends at 8 with sleeping kids. That leaves me 2 hours before I run out of steam at 10 - 30/60 minutes of house work and 1 hour of painting.

I have 3 kids and Its all I can do to squeeze in a few hours a week to paint. Lucky for me my wife figured out that I get antsy if I haven't painted it a while (its my meditation i guess) and will take the kids out so I can have peace and quiet (yea she is a saint).

This is awesome guys, please keep the replies coming! It's great to know that others have gone through the same thing and prospered!

I've got 5 year old twins, plus two kids in college. I feel your pain. Learned with the first two that if I wanted to get painting done, I needed to properly prepare for it.
-Set up an area to paint, have my figs and paints on a tray I could put on a high shelf.
-Make sure I've got the paints and brushes I need. Nothing like having time, but dried up paints.
-Try to paint 15 minutes a night. The 15 is sometimes just 15, sometimes becomes an hour. But stuff slowly gets done.

I work away from home Monday to Friday, so I'm fortunate to get 4 nights painting and modelling in a week. But the weekend is family time. The missus needs a well deserved break!

1. Have a seperate area to paint in.
2. Send the kids to bed at a fixed time.
3. Commit yourself to painting just one colour a night.
4. Only paint a small number of minis in one batch, say 10.


You will be surprised how just 10 minutes a night builds an army in a few months.

All good ideas above.

I keep my stuff on a tray I can whip out when there's a free moment. My two kids are mostly housebroken so don't require close monitoring any more.

Best investment I made was a magnifying / daylight anglepoise lamp. Night-time is when I get most of my stuff done.

I just switched to night shift so now I get a lot of painting done..not much else since nothing is open at night where I live.

Before I rarely got painting done. When i did my youngest would get into the paints no matter what. I have a station in my bedroom but the lock doesn't work on the door so she would sneak in their all the time and get into stuff. One day she learned how to open the paint up on her own.... needless to say it was not pretty and my howls of anguish could be heard 3 counties away.

So everything gets put up now, which when I had only 30 minutes to paint and 10 minutes is spent getting it out and putting it up, that kind of sucks. Often I would decide not to paint as it was so much bother.

It also helped that I bought them some paint of their own and let my kids loose on old miniatures I don't paint/need such as stuff that came in old basic starter sets, ie. skaven and lizardmen plus some mordheim guys. I wash them off and they have a never ending supply.

3 little ones here, 5 and under.

Painting generally doesn't start until 8:30-9, and I tend to go till 11. Coffee helps.

Having a plan for what you want to get done during a session seems to help. Some nights its nothing but basecoating bone on 30 skeletons. You may not feel like you get a lot accomplished, but over a week or two you'll find yourself finishing that regiment and you'll be able to work on something else.

A neat thing is now my 5 year old is showing interest in painting figures, so occasionally I can work on stuff during the day with him, usually on a weekend when the others are taking naps/out with mom. I have a bunch of cheap seasonal figures from craft stores and some old Ral partha figures that he can mess with and so far he loves it.

The short answer is that I don't paint much.

I find it much easier to make time to build, assemble, and convert than to make time to paint. Painting takes a good deal of setup and cleanup. I can simply put the cover on my hobby knife and lock the door to my workroom, but after I finish painting I have to clean all of the brushes, etc. And even with a wet palette, walking away from the painting table for more than a few minutes can be problematic.

For hobby time, I use opportunities when my wife and baby are both asleep, or when my wife is willing to watch the baby by herself for an hour or so. I also have a designated room for hobby stuff, so I've been able to ignore a lot of cleanup. I usually just do a big clean and reorganization once every couple of months instead of sprucing up the hobby area when I am finished working on something.

On the advice of another hobbyist/parent friend of mine, I've decided to start using Army Painter on most of my models. It won't look as nice, but I'll be able to have the satisfaction of putting fully painted units on the table again. For the times that I can paint, I'm saving models from small model count skirmish games, like Freebooter's Fate. Those models will get my full time and attention when it is available. Everything else, well, block painting and dip here we go!

I get bored with batch painting very quickly, so I've never been able to sustain the paint 15 min. every night method. I tried it for a while, but would sometimes wind up staring at a row of ghouls and a paint pot for 15 minutes instead of actually doing anything. If I'm doing any painting these days it is something that I'm spending time on and almost always one mini at a time. I tend to shelve such projects until I can weasel my way into several hours of uninterrupted hobby time.

I began modeling when I was too young to be allowed to hold a knife and not allowed to work with paints myself. My father used to spend hours with me constructing the models. One of the happiest childhood memories I have, good how I loved spending time with him.

Of course I wasn't a match for him. I spilled glue all over the miniatures and painted them unbelievably bad. A few years later My painting looked stunning all thanks to the enjoyment I got from doing something with him together. His models always looked perfect and I never dared touch those. My models were repainted years later because they where embarrassing. Do it with your children. Hold through until they are 4 or 5 and do it with them, this will create a deep bond you will not forget, not in decades I promise!

Buy them cheaper miniatures, let them learn responsibility, patience, how to hold a hand without shaking. They will learn and very very fast, mark my words! And best of all, they will admire and love you for every minute you spend with them.

My FLGS sells 2nd hand miniatures, every time I take my 5 year old with me I let him choose some cheap models and he paints them while I paint mine.

Other than that I paint after he's gone to bed while the Mrs is watching all manner of rubbish on the TV. Luckily I seem to function best on around 7 hours sleep so I still get time to watch my own stuff and do other things once she's gone to bed.

Aside from kids, I have the issue of no set painting area. I end up having to set up, paint, clean up a chunk of the table we eat meals at.

Now the OP's kids are too young, but once mine were about 4-5 I got them stuff to paint and some brushes they could use.

Now, my daughter who is 9, enjoys helping me with terrain items, basing, and working on figures as well. She also gets some wood items from a craft store to paint (currently working on a couple horses).

It takes patience on my part, and willingness to accept 'help' when I don't really need (and sometimes don't want) it, but it is worth it.

I still don't get near as much hobby time as I would like though.

Jake

Figure out how to break your painting down into little bits at a time. Have a painting station so that you can just grab it and get to painting when you have a chance. Figure out when you can grab 10-20 minutes, and when you have a chance, do a base color, or add a wash, or a quick drybrush of a couple of parts. Incremental progress adds up.

I have 2 kids, 3 and 8. Hobby time is whenever I have the time and motivation. It really varies. Usually on the weekends after they go to bed.

CptJake wrote:Aside from kids, I have the issue of no set painting area. I end up having to set up, paint, clean up a chunk of the table we eat meals at.

You want to set up a small tray, with some models paints etc on it. Then you can just plonk it down whereever. I do most of my painting in the living room these days.

They have to sleep sometime...

Keep all of your stuff in a ready state to start painting and work on it when they're out.

That assumes you don't have cooking, cleaning, or work to do.

I put in 10-12 hour days and often have to do work from home after dinner. I can usually squeeze in 2-4 hours a week.

Being able to use short, infrequent sessions to good effect is difficult, and it can require even more discipline than those marathon sessions we all love. There is something uniquely satisfying about seeing your efforts slowly come to fruition through dedication and consistency. There are advantages of taking your time, too! For instance, waiting for a glaze of oil paint to dry is not so much of an issue, because the extra time you'll have to plan and adjust can lead to important breakthroughs. Artists often mistake the momentum of inspiration as some kind of time limit on the outcome of their work, when in reality they're finding themselves in a state they've been capable of all along.

Sign up for a tournament in a few months, one that requires you to paint some models that aren't painted yet. You'll find the time, somehow.

Edit: In fact, the way I found the time, pre-tournament, was to ban myself from reading or posting here till I'd done at least an hour of painting that day.

My little dudes have driven me to the point of insomnia so after they pass out at night I get to paint. Really I find the kids schedual at any age have provided ample time to paint. The wife is the real problem with the painting, all this 'quality time' and 'I need a break and someone to talk too' and the most famous "Why the hell are you painting and hanging out with your friends every space moment you have off."

When my two were very little, I'd often wake up early (about 3 am) and I'd get a solid three to four hours of painting in before anyone woke up. Now, they are ages 5 and 7 and it's not an issue to squeeze in an hour here and there to paint.

In my current work situation(or lack thereof) I just stay up late to do my hobbies like video gaming and painting. If my kids are up, I'll offer to have my oldest paint with me while the younger takes his nap.

I'm sure once I'm working that will all change, but hopefully I find a job that offers 4 10 hour shifts or 3 12's.

Bedtime really is a wonderful thing.

It took a long time for me to get up the energy to deal with kid/work/hobby all in one day, but I use painting and modeling as my comedown time, usually for a bit after work and after the wife's turned in on weekends. Having everything set and ready to go really helps, as does realizing that not getting things done isn't that big a deal sometimes. Even if you have a set time for hobby, sometimes family time is just more important, but don't let that put you off making the effort.

Parent of a 6 year old and a 3 year old here

I have a paint tray, which i take to the living room of an evening. My wife is usually tapping away at her laptop or occasionally painting her Eldar. She's not as obsessive about 40K as I am, but she is way more obsessive about Pathfinder, and that's usually what she's tinkering with on the computer..

The kids are watching a movie until bedtime, and I am usually sloooowly painting up my Orks.

I recommend painting a few models at a time, and not getting too frustrated if the moppets simply WILL NOT LET YOU PAINT :(

Painting after bedtime also works, if they'll just stay there!

My wife understands that painting is my stress valve, so i generally can paint as much as i need, which is good because my job is stroke-inducing at times

I also try to do a tournament every month (barring birthdays happening on the same say, etc) which spurs me to paint.


My 6 year old is just starting to get into 40K (in a very stripped down form) but hasn't yet got to try painting. I have some old models she can abuse when i think she's ready.

I have a gaming room, which stores out gaming table, scenery, my three armies, my wife's army and all our Pathfinder books etc. It has a baby-gate across the doorway to keep mini-moppet out

King Thor wrote:Title sums it up. I've got 2 small kids. In the past 2 years I've managed to get a couple of battalions and the skull pass starter prepped (mold lines removed and cleaned).

How do you get motivated to paint and for parents (I have a 3-year old and a 7-month old) how do you find the time/energy to paint?

Thanks!

KT

I definitely do not have kids but I am a full time college student and the thing I try to do is set mini-goals to keep myself motivated. It is hard looking at a whole army and wondering how long it will take to paint. If you set goals like "This week I wanna get this 10 man squad done, or based, or highlighted etc etc" then it becomes small projects rather than big ones and each completed units, vehicle, HQ and so forth is a little more off of the shoulders so to speak.

/\ a full time student has trouble making time - good one!

Soo much familar stuff here.

I'm in much he same boat as the Op, I have a 3 yo but with #2 due in a couple of months.

First things priorities, junior first hobbies second. This also helps.

Get Jr into a routine. Here mine has dinner at 5, bath at 6 and bed at 7. It doesn't always work out like that but 9/10 shes alseep by 7.20 and I can be at my desk by 7.30 assuming the mrs doesn't find a ton of jobs to do (she always does but that's another story!).

Next I have everything packed in boxes on shelves, not exactly user friendly but we have never had any accidents either.

I have four 4litre "really useful" brand boxes each holding a project. This minimises clutter and distractions, i find this very important for productivity when time is tight.

They double as trays so I work in front of the Tv, have lids and clasps, and stack. Then when I'm done I can throw my stuff back in and put it away. It works really well for me.

Finally i'll second Ian Sturrock with the tournament suggestion. It really focuses the mind having a deadline like that. My mrs even went out for the day to allow me to finish for a tourny a few times. She never does that!

Makes me wonder what i was doing with my time before i had kids!

Have a 3yr old and 1yr who just had their birthday last friday. They turned their respective ages on the same day (don't know how we managed the same bday!).

We have a cool 2 bedroom unit on the beach here and their room is also the study, office and playroom in one. Suffice to say it's a real challenge to get some time alone in there.

I generally just paint when they have morning/afternoon naps or later in the evening. The 1yr old usually is in bed by 7:30 and the 3yr old will go to her room, but doesn't sleep until around 10-11pm. I'll just take a couple of paints + brushes into the lounge and just work on the dining table instead.

As for motivation, I started a blog. That's definitely kept me going. The link to it is in the sig if you feel inclined to check it out...

I don't have kids, but I have an attention whore of a dog. It probably doesn't compare, but the way I generally get motivated to paint is by enrolling in a major tournament that requires painted models, and then letting the panic usually drive me to rush it done before the tournament. That was how I got my 2250 IG painted last year.