SKeLeCRon

This article has tourettes.  You have been warned.

One month since my post on having completed no models in a year and I have now "completed" two.  Completed gets little quotey marks because they're not based.   They also don't have photos other that the half-assed ones I took at my painting table which you can see to the side.  Actually half-assed is probably the moral of these two guys.  Though it was intentional.  Lemme esplain.

The last year or so pretty much made me lose the fun of the hobby.   I got locked in a cycle that I could do hobby work or hobby hobby.  If I was doing hobby hobby that meant I wasn't doing hobby work and thus guilt would ensue.  If I was doing hobby work then it had to be "World Class Excellent #1 Accept No Substitutes blah, blah, blah" which is stressful.



I've spent a lot of time staring at and working with world class painters and hobbyists and trying to hang with them. Even going so far as to attempt to emulate their painting styles and techniques.  It kind of broke me.   Which is bullshit.    There is a small percentage that actually transcend their technique and make the hobby art.   They are fucking brilliant.  The reason they transcend the technique is because, for the most part, it's their fucking style.  They're who set the standard.

The other ninety whatever percent of "serious" painters emulate their techniques.  You look at their models and they're technically beautiful, but they lack the soul.   I used to make fun of those guys because all their models looked the fucking same.   Now here I was trying to emulate that shit.   Trying to be the 95%.  Mock humility aside but I am at no loss for painting awards.  I have my own methods, tricks, and styles that have served me well for years.  What the fuck am I doing?

Lets analyze the problem.  Painting has felt like shit to me lately.  I hate my results.  I hate the time it takes me to achieve them.   I hate that I'm not painting my own style.   Fuuuuuuuuck'n hell.  Time to reclaim my hobby.

Step One:  Enter Adepticon Team Tournament.   This gives me a deadline.  Anyone who knows me knows I binge paint and I do it better under a deadline.   Also, this is pure hobby hobby and it's hobby with painting and theme awards.  That is my favorite hobby. No external pressure to not just do my thing.    Team Tourneys are ideal because I have people relying on me so I can't flake.   I'm rusty though and need to get back into the swing of things before I really tackle Adepticon in earnest.   On to Step Two.

Step Two: Skelecrons.  Forty hours for a display miniature.   I'll do it and I've done for center piece models.  Problem was that was becoming my default painting speed.   Forty hours to see results, especially when executing techniques that are not your own, is a special place in hell.  In short, fuck off.

Back to basics.

• I'm painting models that I have zero reason to be painting other than pure creative desire -- Senor Necron.  I love these weird little robots.   
• No model can take more than a short evening to finish.  I'm not looking for perfection here.  I'm looking for results and entertainment value.   Skills will return in time.  Skelecron on the left took me 1.5 hours.  Skelecron on the right took me three.  
• Paint 'em however the fuck I want.  You'll notice that one is dirty and the other is clean.  If my photography was better you'd prolly see the different color usages too.   

Step Three:  uh....  make a Skelecron shop?   Two out of three Skelecrons prefer shops.

There ya have it my overwrought rant of what as come before and my road to hobby wellness.  I think the next one will be red.   SkEleCrON.