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I have been 40k-ing for about a year now, and I almost always listen to music when I paint. I was wondering what effect does different stlyes, bands, albums, etc, have on painitng. I will try to do some songs/ albums from a lot of different genres. When I am done with one, then I will post picutres of what I acheived, as well as a little summary of how it went. I will be primarily be painting my Khorne CSM army. When I am finished, I will add a chart, graph, and summary of overall what was best, worst, etc.

In the comments, please put any recomendations for Albums for me to use/ songs. I am mostly a rock fan, so I don't have many othe genres. Please suggest anything, classical, pop, etc. Anything but rap, because I hate rap.
Also, feel free to vote for any songs or albums in the poll. I will be starting off with some classics like Dark Side of the Moon, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, OK Computer, and Exile on Main Street.

Please do not fill this thread with a barrage of "That band/songs/album sucks, this is so much better."

If any songs/albums get more than 5 votes I will add them to the poll.

EDIT- Can people please give ideas that they think I or any other member who wants to take part in this can use for the experiment. Also, PM me if you want to take part in this experiment, I can send some details.

An interesting idea! A lot of psychological studies have examined the effects of music on performance at various tasks, it'll be interesting to see if painting is influenced significantly by a choice in music. I predict that calmer music would help, while more energetic music like metal might hinder somewhat.

If I may, I'd suggest you consider asking for other Dakka users to participate too. It's always good for your validity to include more participants, after all. Also minimises the effect any of your personal mannerisms or habits might have on the results.

I once painted 40 Hormagaunts with nothing but Abbey Road playing on repeat. It turned out a lot better than when I played Margaritaville while painting the AOBR Marines.

Dubstep.



I paint rather badly, though. Just take a llook in my gallery

I usually listen to music that "fits" to the miniatures backround and it works quiet well. Mostly it is metal but when I like to accomplish more how to say? smooth blendings, freehands and such things I am listening a lot to Heather Dale or Celtic Folk. Painting without music isnt possible for me, I need music to paint good.
The listed examples are mostly in my "every day painting tasks" list though and they are pretty good for the "common" painting sessions - not meant in a downgrading way.

I'd suggest just putting on music that you like listening to as it will keep you enthused with your painting, I recently painted a chaplain to the sound of Metallica's master of puppets and ride the lightning albums and it was one of the best jobs i've ever done

I paint better when i listen to Two steps from hell, srsly... its nuts but i do.. (then again most stuff is 100% more epic when listening to it )

I paint while I listen to whatever is inside my stereo, so mostly its metal of some sort

I'm a metalhead to the core, however I rarely listen to metal while painting. I'm usually watching TV shows or something, however, I found classical music is actually the most "productive" music to listen to. Try it, I think you'll find the results to be pleasing.

I listen to Sarah Brightman's "La Luna" album while painting, but that's because I enjoy pop-opera. Can't go wrong with Floyd, though.

SJ

Does a Black Library audiobook count as a song? When painting I like to go full nerd.

I really like movie/game soundtracks for some reason, stuff like Pirates of the Caribbean or Mass Effect will keep me going for ages.

 Rippy wrote:
Does a Black Library audiobook count as a song? When painting I like to go full nerd.

That's actually a really good idea. I think I'll see if they have some stuff for Ultramarines while I work on my 2nd Company.

I usually paint whilst having a film on in the background. The only caveat is that it has to be a film that i've seen a few times so I can just listen. Recently, however, I've been listening to a lot of Jethro Tull and Marillion whilst painting my Slaanesh 2nd Ed force. They seem to fit the music well for some reason?

Occasionally I'll have Classic FM on, or even Radio 4.

I listen to trance all the time, including when I'm painting. It's music I love and really understand. I can quite easily do over an hour of painting without pause when I've got trance playing and no other distractions. The less you have to put down the brush and change tracks/check facebook/ect, the better your painting should go.

Only exception is when I'm painting with friends, then we like to just chat idly with long pauses of silence in between. Oddly, we're extremely productive that way too...

The Time Warp. Or, when all else fails, Lux Aeterna.

I actually had Mystery Science Theater 3000 playing on my laptop while doing my fire warriors. I usually find that most of those movies are so bad that I can hardly pay attention even with the funny commentary, so I figured I might as well just use it for background noise and occasionally glance up to chuckle at a funny line or two.

I got the suggestion to use the Tron or Mirror's Edge soundtrack. I think I'll put those two on shuffle repeat for my next painting session. They fit the Tau army amazingly well.

OK, I am going to start today. I will do Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. I am working on refurbishing my Vindicator, my Lord, helbrute, and some KBs. I can post before and afters, and when I'm all done with the experiment, everyone can vote for favorite, and etc. This will help with determining which style of music is best for panting. I will be attempting to paint the same way each time. Yes, I already know my painting isn't that good, but I've been working in making it better.

First of all, you're proposing a within subjects design, with a sample size of ~1. This is hugely problematic. Second, unless you're painting the exact same model, at the exact same time of day, trying to use the exact same paint scheme, in the same position, using the same brushes and paints, you will introduce noise into your data set from the beginning. You need repeated standardization. In addition, since you can't paint 5 of the same minis at the same time, and you only have one subject, your sample will be inherently subject to practice effects. Finally, you've operationalized painting quality very subjectively...it's not something that you can quantitatively evaluate in any objective sense.

Long story short: such a study will not yield any usable information. It's a cute idea, and by all means have fun, but there is absolutely nothing scientific about this experiment whatsoever.

I apologize if this post comes off as hostile. I have nothing against you at all, only with misappropriations of the term "scientific". It's offensive to scientists I suppose for the same reason that calling homeopathy "medicine" to a medical doctor is offensive.

For some reason, I find that I can't listen to my normal heavy metal and paint without getting distracted. Instead, I tend to use old ambient like Klaus Schulze as background music.

I think theres an issue with this thread in that it says a "scientific" experiment yet I see no evidence of the scientific method being utilized or applied, no explanation of procedures to be used or background research, no hypothesis, etc. etc. etc.

The biggest qiestion I have is how are you going to eliminate subject bias? People familiar with 40k have an expectation of what the minis should look like, particularly in regards to the color schemes based on the models being painted. How are you going to eliminate this bias from your experiment so as not to contaminate the results with pre-existing notions of how something should be painted?

 dementedwombat wrote:
I actually had Mystery Science Theater 3000 playing on my laptop while doing my fire warriors. I usually find that most of those movies are so bad that I can hardly pay attention even with the funny commentary, so I figured I might as well just use it for background noise and occasionally glance up to chuckle at a funny line or two.

I got the suggestion to use the Tron or Mirror's Edge soundtrack. I think I'll put those two on shuffle repeat for my next painting session. They fit the Tau army amazingly well.

MST3K is the only way to roll. Of course it helps when you're a mistie too and own most of the episodes =P

 NuggzTheNinja wrote:
First of all, you're proposing a within subjects design, with a sample size of ~1. This is hugely problematic. Second, unless you're painting the exact same model, at the exact same time of day, trying to use the exact same paint scheme, in the same position, using the same brushes and paints, you will introduce noise into your data set from the beginning. You need repeated standardization. In addition, since you can't paint 5 of the same minis at the same time, and you only have one subject, your sample will be inherently subject to practice effects. Finally, you've operationalized painting quality very subjectively...it's not something that you can quantitatively evaluate in any objective sense.

Long story short: such a study will not yield any usable information. It's a cute idea, and by all means have fun, but there is absolutely nothing scientific about this experiment whatsoever.

I apologize if this post comes off as hostile. I have nothing against you at all, only with misappropriations of the term "scientific". It's offensive to scientists I suppose for the same reason that calling homeopathy "medicine" to a medical doctor is offensive.

+1 I too am missing the "science" in this non-experiment

Music playing has no effect on my painting.
If I'm concentrating on the painting, I won't (and don't) hear the music. I block it out.
If I can hear the music, I'm not concentrating on what I'm supposed to be doing.

Although for my poll choice, it would be radiohead. Because at least then I wouldn't be wasting time actually listening to it whilst painting.

I rarely listen to music whilst painting; rather, I prefer to listen to podcasts or other banter from people like. For example the TGS podcast, or Totalbiscuit and Jesse Cox playing Terraria. I find listening to this sort of thing keeps me focused and entertained. Painting is not an intellectually strenuous task so the mind has ample capacity to listen whilst maintaining full ability to paint.

If I did listen to music, chances are it would be jpop, ie. my avatar ; p Not to most peoples taste!

Ben Fold's Five. Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris.

A lot of piano helps focus.

Title is misleading; I see no control subjects. Also sample size is incredibly small, and I feel like funding the project via private interests can skew the results; have you thought about seeking a grant?