"Does Your Painting Sometimes Get Stuck?" Topic

Do you sometimes reach a point where you're not making any progress on your painting – you're just stuck where you are?

Yes.

Cheers Roger.

Oh yes, and I've got to the age where my painting skills are deteriorating too.

Yes

Yes.

The thing to do is not worry about it, and get back to painting when the mood is right. (The Napoleonic Royal Marines will get finished one day…..).

Many times. Sometimes you start a new project full of excitement but then, somewhere along the line, that enthusiasm just peters out.

Maybe the project isn't turning out how you wanted, maybe you realize that the 3rd Ruritanian Grenadiers have a really hard uniform to paint or maybe the Perry twins have just released yet another " must have" range of minis that's turned your head.

I had a whole painting shelf of shame earlier this year. I knuckled down and finished off a lot of those projects due to giving my wargames room a make over. I still have a couple of projects to finish before I start anything new…and I might even manage it.

Yes. Sometimes I just have to walk away for a while from the whole hobby and just read or do other things. Eventually something gets me back to wanting one more unit or the ability to set up a battle scene that I cannot do with my current troops. Recently I just up and got rid of a whole army which I had only begun by default and never really wanted. It got me moving in new directions.

Yes. Often, but I've always managed to restart.

I do slow down sometimes, but I always get back on track.
Painting is something I enjoy very much, but like everything else, sometimes I'm not in any type of mood to paint.

All the time.

Yep ! Like now <sigh>

Yes

Yes.
Especially when your local club moves on to a new area and you have yet to finish yours.

Oh yes. It is start/stop, start/stop all the time. I think for me it is more endemic of having other hobbies/work/life.

Yes. Hopefully that ice dam has burst, and Lake Missoula is now heading for Dry Falls to channel more scablands.

Yep!

Yes, usually its not a general stop, though sometimes I take a break for a day or two. Usually if I am really stuck it is because I am having trouble with a particular unit type, like Samurai , or most recently, landsknechts. I just set them aside and work on something else till I feel like doing them.

Yes, I'm stuck right now looking at three different projects that I just can't seem to get done

Well Duh! – isn't that a curse of all figure painters at one time or another?

yes….have gone a few weeks with hardly NO painting…then it goes away and for months I cheerfully paint all sorts of things

Stuck now

Yes, I go months without touching a paintbrush.

Yep

True for me as well. Sometimes progress seems to be pretty fast but at other times it seems to be really slow.

A case in point is my current project, Russian WWII infantry.
I have 7 squad stands done. I am making some progress on getting more done but it just seems to be taking forever.

The culprit is really me. I could just finish off the remaining 2 squad stands and the HQ stands if I would just concentrate on getting those done.

I have decided to go for 2 companies worth of infantry so I have added more figures to the mix. They are getting done but seems very slowly as there are more figures to paint.

The cure is simple. Just paint enough to finish the first company and then move to the second once they are done but apparently paint "mission creep" has set in.

I have some unfinished zombies that have been standing(?) around for years because I can't decide what colors to paint their shoes…

Just pick one color to do on the figures per day and then stop. Eventually you will either finish or the muse will strike and you will finish.

Yes. Only because we own and operate two restaurants. The last time I was able and motivated to paint anything was to meet a deadline to have some troops ready for Huzzah 2018. I did assemble and prime some figures in early 2019, before you know what happened.
Since then we are working long hours and almost every day to keep up with the business. Sales are great despite that we have had to restrict our hours of operation (we're open 5.5 days instead of 7) and struggle to hire more staff. After being on my feet serving customers 10-12 hours a day, I generally lack the energy to paint.
More to the point of the OP, my painting was improving when I was doing it. I was trying new techniques and converting to all acrylics as well. Some of our members of the Maine Historical Wargamers Association are outstanding painters, and are very generous of their time to help others with tips and answers to questions when asked.

Mike

Yes, been bumbling and dragging my heels on 4 AWI 40mm horsemen recently, and after starting some 28mm Brigade native Americans for F&IW or AWI, stopped on those too. However, I have resumed painting my 28mm Perry WotRs figures, and even some 28mm Chinese Boxers, so all is not lost … lol.

I find that moving around from one project to another helps me get more done, and keep painting. If I focused on only one project, then my painting tends to grind to more of a halt.

yes! I've stuck for the past several months.

I agree with mildbill in that sometimes when I am not too in the mood to paint, I just do something small. It could be some small uniform items or touching something up.

Sometimes, once I get going then momentum takes over and I keep plugging away. If that does not happen, at least I have done something which is progress.

Yes. In the past I would reach a point where the figure or unit had all its colors blocked out but just looked blah. Obviously I would need to proceed with next steps of detailing, blacklining, highlighting, flocking, etc. But I would lose inspiration.

Sooner or later I would find the urge to do a chore and pick up where I left off and usually that would break the block and I would continue.

Block has gone on for some years at this point though. I am working on terrain and that kind of thing but not finishing miniatures.

Part of the reason may be my eyes aging and I should invest in a strong light or magnifier.

Certainly another reason is I'm running D&D and have nearly enough figures painted; versus for a while I was doing Warhammer and working on army units, but we don't play that around here any more.

Yes. Haven't put paint to mini in almost 2 years. My gaming has been all solo board wargaming since fall of 2019.

Definitely .. in a rut now

Currently where I am right now. Bones V just came in a little over a month ago, and I have absolutely no desire to go down to my painting area or my game room….

Sad isn't it?

I had about a decade of virtually no painting, which I broke in the last year. At first I had to almost force myself to put paint to brush (to figure!) – but I've actually enjoyed it in the last few months!

I've finished a whole load of "half done" figures that had hung around for…well, a decade or more I suppose, done everything from a couple of GW "starter sets" and when Bones V arrived I prioritised some of them straight onto the painting table to keep the interest in them!

No amount of "pep talks" could have got me painting en masse again – I just didn't want to, I had other things to do that I preferred doing. But I'm really glad to have found the interest again this year.

One way that got me going again was picking some figures that needed a limited palette. I just put the figures and the eight or so paints needed on the table, cleared the rest out of sight, and thought "yeah, that's not so bad."

I may have also lowered my painting expectations – as McCoy might have said "Damn it Jim, I'm a wargamer not a diorama ready figure painter."

Every 10 months or so. Sometimes it's having worked on the same types of figures for a few months in a row (ACW) and some times it's getting to the the more intricate parts of the figure or the figures aren't coming out the way I wanted.

I enjoy painting enough that it only takes a few weeks to get back into it.

Yes all the time