Over the last few days, I have been having discussions with some old friends about some of the projects I have been working on recently.  I want to talk a little bit about how I am approaching it and how it seems to be helping me to get these things done.

In the past I have approached painting a figure with the goal of getting it finished and getting super focused on that to the point where it becomes an all or nothing thing. I have been finding that that is not working very well for me.

So recently I have keyed in on a couple different philosophies that I use with work that I have been trying to incorporate into what I am doing with my painting.

First one is Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. The keys that I am taking out of this book is turning painting into a habit. With this sort of thing, it is not a matter of getting something finished or achieving to a great level and one fell swoop, but it has more to do with making what you are doing a habit. The biggest thing about this is making sure that you do it every day and turn it into a habit. If you skip a day just skip that one day and whatever you do, try not to go more than that. Establish your identity as a painter. There was a rather good video in regard to incorporating atomic habits into your painting:

https://youtu.be/48XGalhDh8Y

The other thing I want to talk about is the Pomodoro method. The Pomodoro Method is basically put as you do 25 minutes of focused intense work and then take a 5-minute break. During a normal workday for me it is not unusual for me to have a painting table with my paints already set up just a chair roll away from my workstation. so, when I am working, I have my timer going and I am working for 25 minutes solid on what I need to be working on and then when the 25 minutes is up, I roll over to my painting station and paint for about 5 minutes. during the day it helps me focus on what the next thing is I need to be working on and gives me an opportunity to look at something else beside the computer screen. Additionally, what it is good for is good for breaking down barriers to painting.

Let us talk about breaking down barriers to painting. Jumping back to atomic habits one of the things that they want to point out to you is that if you make it easy to do something you want to turn into a habit, you are more likely to turn it into a habit and more likely to do it on a regular basis. if you turn it into something that is a chore or takes a while to set up chances are, you are not going to get to it and you are just going to put it off. I can attest to this personally with some of the board games I play the ones that are easy to set up they have a low barrier to start playing for the ones that get played more often even though there are ones I would like to be playing more often but they require more setup time.

I took about 10 years off from painting and even though I touched it here and there I really did not do much of it until about two years ago one of the things that I need to remember is I am not going to be immediately painting at the same level I was painting in in 2006. For one I was much younger had better eyes and did not have carpal tunnel. But The thing is it is different now is all the painting I do I do for myself (or maybe my wife). So as opposed to painting being a business or something that I was using to pay bills now it is strictly for relaxation and for my own enjoyment.

So, regarding not burning yourself out on painting specially when you are doing an army some things that worked for me are:

1.       Do a little bit each day. With this you do not have to paint the entire army or get a figure done just show little progress make sure you record your progress too because I have found that recording my progress kind of focuses me and gets me ready for the next set of paint, I want to do on something.

2.       Keep track of what you are doing. Make a log what you are doing write down the paint you use keep track of the techniques that you are using too paint things. If something does not work well, make a note of it. You want to do this because sometimes you'll go and look at your army and you'll say to yourself that you're really not accomplishing anything but when you look back at your notes and you look back at your progress you can see where you're at now and where you started from and see how things have progressed and sure every day is not going to be a day of great leaps and bounds on your army but as long as you're making forward progress every day that's what counts.

3.      Do not be afraid to put your army away and work on something different. Sometimes you get to the point where you just cannot power through it anymore were there something else that is just caught your eye and you want to work on that. Have a place to put that project away so you can go to another one for a little bit. It makes for a nice palate cleanser, so you do not get stuck in a rut working on a larger army. Also, when you are planning out how you are going to do your army build yourself in some breakpoints. These are places where you know you are going to take a break and do something else for a bit it could either be for waiting for something to show up or because you are at a stopping point in the army and you are getting ready to go into another portion of it such as if you finish up with a platoon and the next thing to work on is some tanks.

4.       find an old TV show or music that you like that you are familiar with play in the background try to stay away from stuff that you have never seen before or the easily distracts you. For me I will usually use something like putting on Babylon 5 or Battlestar Galactica just because I have seen all those many times and I can put him on as background noise to whatever I am doing.  

In conclusion what really comes down to is make painting easy for you, let it become a habit, and do not be afraid to step away from a project and work on something else when it gets two points well you need a break from it. the key to becoming a better painter is practice. You can watch all sorts of videos read a bunch of books but in the end unless you are putting paint on a brush and putting that brush on a miniature it is all theory.