Painting Anxiety & How to Overcome Losing Your Hobby Mojo
Every few months, or at the least, once a project, I'll stall while painting a miniature. It'll usually be in the day, as I go to varnish it, or when daylight hits it through the window, and I'll look down at a highlight, blend or a bit of weathering and recoil from psychic damage upon finding, shock horror, it isn't perfect! This will usually be followed by putting the model down and browsing Instagram to envy Richard Gray or Lil Legend Studio. Then, I'll probably end up photographing my model and playing with the edit function to at least salvage it in pixel form. Often, this can just leave me feeling more frustrated, the bad photo becoming a reminder of my dissatisfaction.
A recent model I had to struggle through
Going on to finish the model can sometimes help, but with some miniatures, I've still got a memory intrinsically tied to thinking "This isn't good enough". Some sit unfinished, in cabinets or boxes, until the wave of anxiety surrounding them fades with time. If you're primarily a modeller/ converter/ painter like I am, you can end up putting so much time, energy and soul into a project only for the sun to hit it at a bad angle, knocking your confidence. Sometimes, it haunts me for days, and I find myself returning to the project in my free time, at least emotionally, obsessively researching how I can go about fixing it.
This anxiety is something I've spoken about here before and it's also something I've discussed with other mini painters, as well as more traditional artists, and though a few haven't, many have shared this feeling from time to time. Perhaps this idea of artist's block, losing your muse, or self-loathing is more commonly talked about in traditional art communities, but it certainly applies to our miniatures too. Doubly so when we've spent lots of money on materials, and have a hundred more waiting for us in a pile of shame (potential?) that we're dreading to paint because the first of the thirty Necron warriors has gone awry.
This is a difficult problem to snap your fingers and solve, and I don't think there's an easy fix for it. But here are some tips I've learnt that might help you bounce back from this hobby anxiety and get out of that slump:
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| It can be hard to push on past this stage |
2.Varnish the model with matt varnish spray. This can dull down the overt highlights and give it a nice, uniform look. In a way, it can become a bit of a fresh canvas to make tweaks to.
3. Put the miniature away. If you really can't bring yourself to finish it, or looking at your painting is getting you down, put the model safely into a drawer or box or somewhere out of sight and so something to unwind, like another more passive hobby.
4. Go back to your comfort zone. Really. This isn't always bad advice, and I think doing so can get you more into a routine again. Paint a model or texture that you know how to paint well, or add a model or unit to an existing force. All you need is to make ONE model you're satisfied with to get your head back in the game.All these edge highlights...
5. Get help on social media. Reach out in Warhammer group chats or other (supportive, preferably) online spaces for advice. Getting a second opinion, advice on how to fix your mistakes, or even just an echo chamber of positive feedback, can be invaluable for making you feel less uncertain about your miniature.
6. Start afresh. If there's no persuading you to finish the model or army, cut your losses and leave them for a rainy day when you can strip them, use the bits elsewhere or touch up those mistakes. Leave it a good few days at the very least, or until inspiration finds you again, and start afresh with new eyes on the project or a new project altogether. You can't get the time back, so there's no point in wasting more of it.
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Thanks for reading! I hope this has been some help to those of you struggling with getting on with that army of yours. You can find my own miniatures on Instagram @theempyrean_ or Twitter @theempyrean__ .
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