Titles Are Hard

 Yesterday I worked on a DMC Fury onstream. There are two of them and I had to decide if I wanted to work on them both together or one at a time.

I ended up doing one at a time. Which means I only got one done, but if I had done both together I likely would have only gotten the basecoats finished.

Which, I think would have made for a less engaging stream. I worry about that even though I know most people just listen.

It's also why I don't do model prep on stream. This despite the fact that streamers far more successful than I do it on their streams and nobody seems to mind.

It's quite possible that I worry too much.

Still Going

Been a few days. Last week was stressful, but I did get things done. The War Mammoth is finally ready to be photographed and listed. Just hoping the contact cement attaching it to be the base holds. The super glue sure didn't.

Also got a few Reaper miniatures painted, as well as some DMC. I think they all came out pretty well.

The second Reaper miniature I did was an NPC character. Seems to be some kind of noble. I was going to be "energy efficient" and just leave his boots the basecoat black. I felt it looked good enough.

Then I realized I had missed a few tiny spots, so I broke out the black paint to touch it up. Then I decided the toes of his boots needed highlights. Then I decided it looked strange with just the one highlight on each and did the rest.

One of my issues is I have trouble stopping when it's "Good Enough". I always want to push it further. Which is good as far as developing my skill. But it makes it take longer.

Which, to be quite honest, means I'm working for less than minimum wage. Much less. Sometimes even less than a dollar an hour.

Pricing is so hard, though. Too much and we don't get any sales. Too little and... well it's only worth it right now because I love painting and would be doing it anyway.

I was hoping to go to a painting competition and maybe win something. Something small, to be sure. Like a pin for Golden Demon. Something to up the perceived value of my work so I can charge more.

It's weird. My work has a lot of value to begin with because of the time and skill put into it - skill that took years to develop. But people don't see that. They just see a nobody and a price tag.

I need a reputation.

Nothing

 Sometimes there's just not much to say. I'm on target for my weekly goal of four miniatures painted. Though I need to try for more to make up for last week.

... and I walked away from the computer for hours without finishing this. Forgot it was open.

Oh, well.

Getting it done... or not

Yesterday I didn't get as much done as I had hoped. This is not unusual. It happens almost every day.

I always feel that my goals for the day are reasonable, but I continually fail to meet them. Don't know if I set unrealistic goals, get distracted too much, or am just slow. 

Most likely it's a combination of all three, but I think it's primarily distraction and slowness.

I know speed comes with practice, just like every other kind of improvement. But I've been painting for years. Of course, I have learned that there are other painters, like me, who have been painting for years and are still quite slow. 

I think what I need is more deliberate, focused practice. I need to take some minis and just paint them as fast as I can without being too worried about precision, especially in the early stages.

And that takes us right back to making a mess and fixing it later.      

Fixing it

 Had a little trouble with the War Mammoth because the paint was chipping off while I handled it. 

It's one of the issues with large minis where you can't put it on a holder. Not really much can be done to avoid it sometimes. Especially on a Reaper Bones mini which can't be primed.

But I finished painting it. Ended up having to do a gloss coat over it to stop the chipping after touching it up. Now I just have to hope the matte coat will kill all the gloss. Shiny fur just looks wrong. 

The gloss coat also has a tendency to feel a little tacky. No one wants a sticky miniature. If the matte coat doesn't fix it, I'll have to repaint the whole thing.

Here's hoping...

Relax... or Not

I didn't get the War Mammoth finished again. I think I can finish it today. All I have left to do are the tusks and some touch-ups.

Which is good, but bad. Good because it will finally be done. Bad because this is supposed to be my day to relax. 

Oh, well. I'm bad at relaxing anyway. Wasting time, sure... relaxing, not so much. 

Something else I need to work on.

Maybe I should have called this blog "A journal about miniature painting and self-improvement."

 

 

Balance

 I've had wanted to get the War Mammoth done by last night. Didn't happen. Which puts me behind for the week. 

I have a goal this year of 200 miniatures painted. That means four models a week (with two weeks for catching up). I'm only at two this week because I've been doing so many other things. Usually I keep painting after my stream, but I have a new schedule now that has me busy most of the day.

And then I waste time. 

As I said before - my issue isn't not enough time. It's poor time management. Too much social media, too much feeling like I have to chat when watching Twitch, too much sleeping.

But last night I ended up playing some video games instead of painting. Which I think is actually alright. I can't be productive every moment of every day. I do need breaks, but I need to be more mindful of how I take them. And aware of them just dragging on and on, keeping me from getting back on task.

It's hard to maintain work/life balance when you work at home in every room you spend your "off" time in. I need to find a better way to delineate work time from me time. And I still need to stay off social media.

Lesson Learned

 So, I think I've finally tackled my OSL (Object Source Lighting) problem I was having on my Devil May Cry models.

Turns out I was overdoing it. I was painting the lighting effect onto what would be a deep black surface. And I kept pushing it really bright. 

And it looked not so great. Because it was wrong. A super-black surface wouldn't reflect like that. I repainted the base with dark colors and it looks much better.

I still have much to learn about materials and reflections, but this is an important step for me, I think.

Finding Time

 I haven't mentioned this yet, but on top of painting miniatures I'm trying to write a book, and draw more... and learn to make digital music. I've also just become motivated to get back into learning digital sculpting again.

The result is that I'm not getting as much painting time in as I want to. It's not so much that I have too much on my plate, I don't think. I believe it's just that I have terrible time management skills.

I'm starting to become more aware of when I'm wasting time. Realizing I'm wasting time on social media again. (Honestly, how many times a minute must I refresh a page before I accept there's nothing new?) Then refocusing.

I've also made a schedule for myself. It's helping but I don't quite stick to it. In fact, right at this moment I'm supposed to be doing something else.

I'll just be a few minutes late, but then that's only because I got up early and got started early. Maybe that will be the key. Getting up earlier to get more painting time in.

Honestly, I sleep too much as it is.

Taking a Chance

 I had a cupcake this morning. Lime with cream cheese frosting.

I ended up with the lime one because no one seemed to want it. Probably because it was green and they couldn't tell what it was. It looked funny. 

They say "The proof is in the pudding." Which is short for "The proof of the pudding is in its tasting." While this wasn't pudding, the proof definitely was in its tasting.

Never judge a book by its cover. I hadn't planned on relating this to miniature painting, but it does relate. You can't tell a paint color by looking at it through the bottle. Not only does the bottle itself dull down what you are seeing, but paint usually dries darker than what it looks like when wet.

This isn't a problem with paints you use often and know well. But when it comes to a new one, sometimes you just have to make your best guess and take a chance.

It's funny how many things come back to making a decision and fixing it later.

But the cupcake didn't need fixing; it was delicious.

The Hard Parts

 For those who don't know, I stream on Twitch. Yesterday I was streaming a Devil May Cry board game project. The miniature I'm currently working on for that has a fire effect on the base, so it needs lighting effects.

I'm not good at lighting effects. I'm alright with basic highlighting and shading as if a neutral light is being cast onto the model. But once color is introduced, I'm just not sure how to achieve the effect.

I have four miniatures like this to do. I know it will be good practice, but right now I'm just a little in over my head trying to think of how to tackle it.

"Make a mess then fix it" is advice I often hear with miniature painting, or art in general. It's what I'm doing. I know that sometimes getting started, looking at the blank page, or canvass... or that next stage of painting, can be the hardest part.

Just getting something on there gets your brain working on the problem. It helps. We may not know what the right path is, but once we start, we can tell if we're on the wrong one and change course.

Decision

I ended up completely assembling the 13-part War Mammoth. I was starting to rub off paint by handling it while I fitted some of the pieces together over and over checking to make sure everything was painted that needed to be.

I ended up discovering quite a few places that needed paint even though, when unassembled, they looked like they would be hidden. Lots of touching up will be needed.

The downside is that now things will be harder to reach. More care and precision will be needed to get into some areas. And some places will be impossible to reach without getting paint onto other areas. Which means more touching up.

So, it's all together now. Some things will be easier, some harder. There isn't always an ideal choice.  

Errors

 So, I was painting a miniature yesterday, a War Mammoth, and realized I had painted something the wrong material. I had it painted as metal, and it turned out that it should have been leather.

This happens quite a bit in miniature painting but doesn't often get discussed. Trying to figure out what's what on a sculpt done by a stranger can be hard. Especially once you factor in mold-lines and the imperfect duplication that occurs with cheaper materials and processes.  

Cheaper miniatures often have soft features which can distort our perception of what they are supposed to be. It can be quite frustrating when you paint something and halfway through realize you need to completely repaint an entire section.

But the good news is you can repaint it. That's the beauty of miniature painting. You can always fix it. And I did.   

Here's the thing

Basically, the three things I talk about the most are politics, Warframe, and miniature painting. 

Politics is something I don't really want to blog about. I'm using politics as a broad term for the state of the world and current events. If you want that I suggest Ramblings from the Path of Bones. I try to keep my online voice positive, and it's hard to be positive about politics these days.

Warframe would be hard for me to blog about. I could talk about updates? But I am completely biased when it comes to this game. I love it. I love the people making it. I love their community. Because of this I am blind to their mistakes most of the time. All I'd be doing is cheerleading and that's not very interesting.

Miniature painting is something else I'm not sure people would be interested in. And I'm not sure how to blog about it. I might try it, though. I could use this as a journal of my progress as a painter. I still have a lot to learn, though I've been painting for over a decade all told. I didn't take it very seriously for most of that time, but in the past few years I've really wanted to improve. And I have, but there are techniques I have barely attempted and don't have a great understanding of.

So, this was me pretty much decision making in real-time on the internet. Looks like miniature painting might be the way I go. Still leaving myself open to other ideas.   

Okay, it's not

 Automatic, that is. 

Not sure why I called it that. Felt right at the time. But I actually have to work at this.

Whelp...

Starting a blog. Why? I'm not sure. What will I talk about? I don't know. 

Probably miniatures, maybe Warframe, possibly even other things. We'll see where this takes us. I mean, I need more things to do in my day, right?