Healthy Painting
Painting is something I see turn toxic, at least online. Why? Well for a number of reasons.
Upwards comparisons
What is an upward comparison?
This is where you compare yourself to someone/thing you think is better than yourself. As an example, you would be comparing yourself to say Miniac and saying he is so much more famous than me. Or perhaps you may look at Alfonso Giraldes and think I will never be as talented as him!
So what should you do?
Like with girls and upwards comparisons to movie actresses and such, you should move away from the fantastical and back to reality. For girls that means sports, seeing real people move means they see what a normal human body looks like. For us miniature painters, that means seeing real people too. Or at least the products of their work, but it is much better when you see their process. Connect with local painters and you will see… hey… I am not quite as bad I thought I am, I am actually a decent painter I can reach that level.
2. Form healthy painting habits
Form healthy painting habits, not a painting obsession.
Zumikito Miniatures is a YouTuber who explains how to paint in very simple steps. I cannot recommend him enough, seriously forget Duncan Rodes, this is the guy for you if you are new to painting miniatures this is the guy for you, he explains things clearly and concisely.
In the video linked he talks about forming healthy painting habits. Just like if you’re overweight the simple solution is… don’t eat. The simple solution to getting your miniatures painted… paint them all. Both solutions lead to burnout very, very quickly. Instead, form healthy painting habits. For example, once a day set up at your paint station and put paint on a brush. You don’t have to paint a miniature but if you’re there why not. BUT! If you have things you need doing you can do them instead.
Healthy gaming habits will win the day every day better than a short term push.
3. Make goals
Just before I said painting all your miniatures could lead to burnout… but what are you going to do? Not paint them?! No, see the problem is doing things in an uncontrolled way. For example, let’s say you have to paint say 820 miniatures in a year. A number and time I completely plucked from thin air. That is quite a goal. But the problem is its too big if you just do it like that and your brain becomes quickly overwhelmed. Instead, you break these down into more manageable goals, like I must paint 16 miniatures a week. This is something your brain can process.
BIG BIG NOTE
Sometimes breaking things down can become a process in of itself, don’t let the task of breaking things down become a task in of itself I have seen a lot of people spend more time on planning than doing. I have a plan to release an article every week. Some weeks like this they have links and such, other weeks they are super quick like last week’s. I still released an article.
4. Don’t let painting depress you
Painting miniatures can be a very painful process for one reason above all others. It doesn’t look any good until very close to the very end. I do commission painting (Mandatory plug) and when I am commissioned one of the things I am often commissioned to do is teams/armies/sets which means everyone has to have a unified look. That means batch painting. Doing all of the cloth, then all the armour then, all the depression… wait what was that last one?
So, what should you do? You need to complete whatever task you have set, be it completing 820 miniatures or if it is completing a character level commission work.
The answer is simple to take a break and I don’t mean from the work. I was doing a great deal of batch painting. Batch painting bores me to tears but you know what I love? I love doing up models to character level so I took a break but working one all the way up to almost complete all except the boots whose colour was undecided at the time. Making a lustrous beard gleam, giving a sexy shine on metallics, double glossing black to make it look like obsidian glass. Your break may be different or the complete opposite, such as not doing a guy up to character level but instead speed painting for once, or doing up a big guy.
What matters is that you do what you need to do to keep going.
5. Allow yourself to be rewarded
SHOW YOUR STUFF OFF!
We are social animals, it is largely thought by Dunbar and others that, this not tool use is what developed our big brains. For 90 percent of you, showing the end product of your work is what motivates you, sure there is the sense of accomplishment and such, or the need to have a team ready… BUT I am talking about most people.
SHOW YOUR STUFF OFF!
But don’t show it off in a way doomed to failure! How many Facebook friends do you have? 30? How active are you how likely are they actually see your work if you put it up? Don’t set yourself up for failure, put your stuff up in gaming/painting groups. GOOD ONES. Don’t just put your stuff up in the pro paint 9000 group where everyone is looking to enter the golden demon (Apologies to pro paint 9000 if the group I just made up actually exists and are good guys). Show it in local groups, in friendly areas.
SHOW YOUR STUFF OFF!
Show it in the store you bought it at! You know why?! There is a good chance that they… maybe people might like it. Because they are seeing painted minis! Not a grey sea! People in real life can see just how freaking small the thing is, and the human eye is more discerning than any camera will ever be. Seeing at 1000x zoom doesn’t help a lot if no one is going to be seeing at that level. Even the Mona Lisa isn’t that great at even 100x zoom.
6. Treat yourself like a real person
Would you have such high standards of your mate Steve? Barry? Jessica? Sue?
Then stop being so hard on yourself.
Until next time friends.
Keep those brushes wet.