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This always happens to me.....I have a good idea...I do all the modeling, converting, green stuffing, and priming....but...when it comes down to painting I always lose my way...I pride myself on my painting...I'm above average, and often get many compliments on the models that I actually finished....but it requires me to put the brush to the model.

So....what I want to know is: What do you do to motivate yourself, when you're not in the mood to paint? I have a tournament coming up in 3 weeks, and would like to get these damn models painted.

Please, your feedback would be appreciated!

Im fairly certian what causes it, it has something do with the daunting task of painting for hours on end. Then throw in things like work, girlfriends, family, and just the urge do what you want to do.

Ultimately in the end you realize that the only thing you are getting in return is some satisfaction. It also doesnt help when GW changes the rules on us forcing us back to the painting table.

Honestly what I started doing was spaning out the time and doing only 1 model a day, but with the constant changing the game does it makes it hard.

I suggest dipping because it's so much faster to do, the only down side is that your models wont look as good as when you painted them normally.

Oh and if that tournament is at Gamers Lair I'll see you there

I'm writing an article on this for the forthcoming articles system we are adding to dakka, so anything others can add is appreciated. So far I have:
- Paint with friends at pre-organised times
- Have a target to work to (like a tournament or big game)
- Paint in stages of quality (so paint up all your forces at mediocre quality, then go back over them and clean them up a bit and so on)
- Get some driving audiobooks / education that are not too distracting to put on in the background. I am using Pimsleur's 'Learn Japanese' audio CDs
- Put a movie or tv program on in the background that you have seen many times (so dont need to look at the screen too much)
- Have a single musical artist that you listen to when painting, so that any time you hear their music you feel like you want to paint. (Pavlov's dogs response)
- Have your painting area always set up and ready to go so that you can just sit down and start painting at any time
- Keep your painting area well away from distractions like xbox, work areas, etc so that you dont get drawn away easily.

Please suggest more!

Painting with friends or have your girl friend talking to you is really good (that is if she likes 40k). As long as there are people there it can be good.

Targets and Deadlines I find make me rush though :\

Music distractions are best, but I also find that I paint better when I'm mad.

legoburner wrote:Paint in stages of quality (so paint up all your forces at mediocre quality, then go back over them and clean them up a bit and so on)
- Get some driving audiobooks / education that are not too distracting to put on in the background. I am using Pimsleur's 'Learn Japanese' audio CDs

While I used to find I painted better after I had been drinking, with a bit of practice I know that I find painting to be genuinely relaxing and satisfying in it's own right.

The first is what I do, targets and deadlines just make me a really gakky painter. Three colours is just fine, thanks, I can touch it up later.

What I like to do is I watch Letterman every night and hockey on the weekends so I just slap the paint on while it's on. If I want to do something fancy I'll just sit down and work on it, I'll probably get pissed off if I get distracted by something. I can always put the movie or whatever back on after I'm done.

I used to work manual labour I think I'm just used to monotonous tasks.

What you _really_ want to do is get someone to paint with, but get them to paint YOUR models .

Paint on a weekend evenings when you haven't made any plans. I alway lose track of time and finish a lot more.

Almost nothing. I hate painting. I like conversions. I just paint to cover the greenstuff

I get motivated to paint by tournaments. For instance, I found out in December about a big tournament this saturday. The tournament requires 3 colors of paint and based models. I hate going to tournaments with unpaintied models, so regardless of the requirement I would have finished painting and basing my whole army, but all my work the past two months to make my Imperial Fists army has been so I can go to the tournament this weekend in style. 2 Land Speeders, 3 servitors, and 3 acolytes to go...

ohm242 wrote:This always happens to me.....I have a good idea...I do all the modeling, converting, green stuffing, and priming....but...when it comes down to painting I always lose my way...I pride myself on my painting...I'm above average, and often get many compliments on the models that I actually finished....but it requires me to put the brush to the model.

So....what I want to know is: What do you do to motivate yourself, when you're not in the mood to paint? I have a tournament coming up in 3 weeks, and would like to get these damn models painted.

Please, your feedback would be appreciated!

as with anything you plan to accomplish you should set up goals.. long term (the final drop dead date you need things done and what those things are) intermidiate goals (goals set up to reach the long term goal) and short term goals (goals set up to reach the intermidiate ones)

for example..

(long term goal)dec 15 must have 1500 point army finished for tournament (long term goal)

(intermediate goals)create army list, buy army, paint army, convert army, travel arrangements, get cash, play practice games, rework army if necessary, etc

(short term goals)

start date feb 05 2008. need to purchase models for army list created in weekly increments (list each weeks purchases) must be accomplished by end of March.

after each weeks purchases, assembly and conversion must take place. (list out each conversion seperately so that bitz can be arranged ahead of time) also make sure that hobby items are available, glue, clippers, pins, pin vice, etc. (make this list specific so that you know what you might be missing)

while modeling and converting, play a few games to get the feel of the army, see what weaknesses you ahve that might need a tweak. (adjust your army accordingly)

march-june (get in as many games as you can to make sure that you have the army you want, this will also give you time to buy new models if necessary. etc)

June (purchase tickets for travel and hotel arrangements etc) yes, sometimes even 6 months isn't enough advance time, adjust this according to the popularity of the tournament)

july start plans for your display base,

aug-sept. build the diplay base (all the while, keep playing games with that army and fine tune it.

march -oct (paint your army.) you should be able to split up each unit a week and still have time to spend extra on your leaders and center pieces. work this in as you are able to. remember that it only has to be table top ready, anything after that is icing on the cake.

(at this poitn you still have 2 months to enjoy thanksgiving and halloween and can still make adjustments as you see fit. also, feel free to add in or take out any other short term goals and adjust them if you "missed" a goal. always factor in for the unforseen .

as for motivation, that really comes from within. if you can't muster it up, there is no way anyone can help you do it. Try music or a movie while you do things or invite friends over. see a cool movie on your own (or with a date) that might get the juices flowing.. but all in all, you just have to want to do it.

i hope that helps some..

I tend to get excited about painting up one model. Since that isn't a good way to get an army done, I will often try and keep 1-3 other models that I want to get done handy and primed. Then every time I put a color on the model I am excited about, I don't put down the brush or color until I have that color in the appropriate places on the others. Especially when I am using Foundations for a base coat of red or skin tone etc. over black, I can get a lot of basic color done on a few different models with little extra effort. It generally breaks down when I am on a roll, but it helps get something done on the others, which means I don't feel that overwhelming blank canvass feeling. Finishing the other models becomes a question of adding a few colors and highlighting, not starting from black.

Still, and all, I find I get in moods where I really want to paint something, and after doing say 5 marines, I want to kill myself. Then I either do a more interesting special sort of character, or do some pvp with the wife.

Music really helps too. That Pavlovian response really helps you get in the mood, and even when you are not painting, hearing snippets of the songs will get you thinking about painting, which will help you overcome painters block when you sit down.

Wehrkind wrote:Music really helps too. That Pavlovian response really helps you get in the mood, and even when you are not painting, hearing snippets of the songs will get you thinking about painting, which will help you overcome painters block when you sit down.

Music I think does help, though there's something to be said for painting in silence too, total focus time then. I've actually been listening to a different artist every night on Imeem while I paint, to expand my musical knowledge, hear new stuff and also get models painted. Thursday I listened to only Nine Inch Nails, Sunday was a Cake extravaganza, and last night was The Kovenant. But in general I set the player to random and let the computer DJ for me, keeps me on my toes.

As to the Pavlov thing, I'm pretty sure it would backfire on me if I burned through only one artist while painting. Years ago I assembled 40 of the (then new) multi-part night goblins in a week, including totally cleaning off all the moldlines. I listened to one CD only, and the songs on there will forever remind me of that painful week of (what turned out to be pointless) building

What motivates me to actually paint? Primarily the pride of having fully-painted models, and then armies once all is said and done. Playing with a painted army, against another painted army, on solid terrain, is where it's at. Win, loss, whatever. One of the reasons I love playing my Chaos boys so much, because they are the first and only army I have painted for 40k, and am still expanding on to boot. I have since then painted a 2000 point fantasy army and am closing in on another 1000 point ogre force. I bought warhammer fantasy almost 13 years ago, and it took me 12 years to finally paint an army. It's an investment well worth the time (and abuse from the fiancee).

I also make a checklist of what I'm painting for the next few months, with boxes for BUILT, PRIMED, PAINTED, BASED, SEALED. Helps keep me focused and feeling like progress is made nigh daily

- Salvage

Boss_Salvage wrote:I also make a checklist of what I'm painting for the next few months, with boxes for BUILT, PRIMED, PAINTED, BASED, SEALED. Helps keep me focused and feeling like progress is made nigh daily

- Salvage

I like that idea, I think I might borrow it for myself.

Here's an example from my current project list (categories are as noted above):



Getting close!

- Salvage

I listen to usually one CD, though it is an MP3 cd with some 14 hours on it. For a while when I was up all night on my nights off painting I knew what time it was based on the track. "Wow, Tiger Army is playing already? Better get a snack before sleeping!"

I mix it up a bit, but I find that if I don't have music it gets too easy to be distracted by cars, the cat, random neighbor noises, etc. I try to pick things that either I know backwards and forewards, or have no lyrics though. I find with new music it is too easy to stop painting and just listen and try to figure out the words. But then I am pretty ADD, so it might be more of a problem just for me.

What motivates me to paint:

The undying adoration of the masses.

Er... seriously though, I do like having painted armies, though I find it hard to scrape together the consecutive hours needed to really get at it.

1. Monthly goals. How are yours?
2. New army/project. Especially if it's something that can be done in a small way (skirmish, small armies, etc.).
3. games with friends.
4. Interesting concepts/looks like it'll be fun to paint.
5. Wanting to reduce my lead mountain.

Boss_Salvage wrote:Here's an example from my current project list (categories are as noted above):



Getting close!

- Salvage

That's brutal.

I tried to make checklists, but it turned into a shopping list.

malfred wrote:

Boss_Salvage wrote:Here's an example from my current project list (categories are as noted above):



Getting close!

- Salvage

That's brutal.

I tried to make checklists, but it turned into a shopping list.

I wonder if that means I'm going to end up with a house full of painted miniatures.

I find that working on multiple projects helps alot with the painting blockage.
Right now I'm building 4 warhounds and building/painting a blood angels army (in the Ultramarines 8th Company colors).
When ever I get stuck on the hounds I spend a little time putting colors on the marines until I come up with an idea.
Of course I've done very little painting and more titan construction.

I'm also doing a checklist like Boss_Salvage. I always keep a notebook on me to sketch out ideas for poses, or to keep track of what I have left to do in the army.
A good motivator for getting figures finished is seeing that awesome conversion you did in all its painted glory.
If that doesn't work you can always use the idea of finally finishing an army to motivate you, I know its alot easier to crank out the last few squads than it is to do the first couple.

If you listen to Freude, then your answer is SEX! How sex motivates you to paint models for a game that is dominated, populated, and observed almost entirely by males is either highly complex, or about sex of a totally different objective.

I paint to complete. Challenging myself really. Same reason many people make conversions for models that already exist. The challenge and curiousity of it. That's how I look at it at least. Some people just do it for the glory though.

Tacobake wrote:I wonder if that means I'm going to end up with a house full of painted miniatures.

Definitely worse things in life

- Salvage

Vitually nothing can motivate me to paint. Its embaassing how many unpainted and part painted armies I have.

I set a time in my schedule when I can paint, at least once a week, and keep a checklist like others do too. I also watch (mostly listen) either The Office or Arrested Development when I paint as well which makes the process more enjoyable.

Foda_Bett wrote:I find that working on multiple projects helps alot with the painting blockage.

I can attest to the greatness that is Multiple Projects.

Right now I've got 3 full blown projects and another one off project. Not including any other side projects that might crop up as time goes on.

Whenever I get sick of one I'll find something to do with another one.

Right now my list of projects is:

Grey Death Marines
Stormtrooper Skirmish Squad
Autumn Foothills Table (Magnetic Trees!!)
Tau One Off
1/48 Scale US Infantry Boxed set


And I'm sure I'll end up adding to that list as time goes on and I get more modeling A.D.D. when something else catches my eye (I'm looking at you new Ork line...).

I haven't done much painting in probably a year.

A lot of this is due to my preference for building and painting entire armies en masse. I don't like to do individual models, but rather groups and blocks.

But that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. Lately, I've been building and converting the pile of Guard vehicles that have been sitting on the shelf for *years*.

Once they're all built, I'll prime and paint them, assembly-line, step-by-step.

I also second the multiple project statement.

1. Playing in a tournament. I’d be embarrassed to field unpainted models, even if there wasn’t paint scoring. But the scoring really clinches it.

2. Playing against friends’ nicely-painted armies. Shame motivates me to get my stuff looking nice. I’ve never played a Hardcore tournament, but I’ve got almost all my Warmachine stuff painted.

3. Playing against strangers. Again, I’d be ashamed to field unpainted stuff, unless we agreed ahead of time that we were screwing around and trying stuff out. This has been working for me since I began playing. When I first started the game, I had a mostly unpainted army and joined a big ongoing league. In what was probably my 6th or 7th game ever, I played against a guy with a really gorgeous Dark Eldar force, and was so embarrassed by my unpainted stuff that I painted an entire unit of Dire Avengers before the next week’s league night. By the end of the league (11 weeks) I had a painted army.

Even beyond the above, at this point what looks the best is the dominant factor in determining what army I bring to a tournament. I don’t want to be publicly associated with my older/worse work.

1. Painting with friends!!! Simple, you chat and enjoy the company of your friends and get finished models as a by product.

2. The feeling you get for getting stuff finished - so nice, always results into a nice, long session to finish a model.

I second Mannahnin's list. The shame one usually works on me at some point. Usually a friend will lay down the gauntlet.

Also getting a nice looking model or 2. After that I get more motivated then when the models are unfinished or the scheme isn't quite working. Unfortunately that is where I am at now, i have a scheme that isn't quite right and I am unsure how to get past it.

Knowing that my conversions and painting will be better than my opponent