Finding Confidence

There are many things that can keep me from painting. One of the ugliest factors however is a lack of confidence. In my last post I shared a couple of pictures from an ongoing project. Physical disabilities played a part in my not painting. The real hobby killer for me lately however has been a lack of faith in myself which kept me from even trying. I might talk like a cocky know-it-all, but that is me trying to convince myself I have a clue and should not give up. There are many, many tricks, and I try every one I can find. I thought I would share what worked for me this time as it might be helpful to others.

I attempted to change up the way I paint by setting up a permanent work station. My current work surface is roughly the size of a spiral bound notebook where I keep current bills and other important paperwork I do not want to file away yet when I am not painting. My light is a combination of overhead and an LED automotive light made to stick to the hood of a car which I removed the magnet from and balance it on a stack of cards on top of my computer tower so it points in the general direction I need as it does not swivel to point down on its own.

Someday it will happen.

I had a TV stand in my closet I was using to sort out games with big box games on top and various smaller components on its shelves. I pulled that out to set at the foot of my bed under a window that faces the South and gets good bounce light from the building across the way and reorganized my games in the process. I put my terrain supplies and some other hobby stuff on the shelves. I had some models I was cleaning and assembling I placed on top along with a desk lamp I used to keep on a nightstand but never use and a couple of trays with tools neatly laid out.

The cats decided my new workstation was their favourite spot in the entirety of the apartment. If they are not on it or in it, then they are in the window above it. One has a bad habit of falling out of the window every time she wakes up. Thankfully I had not moved any models I was in the middle of painting, but I need to set the ribs on a zombie dragon that tried to fly across the room. I have plans to fix the situation to where we can more easily coexist in the space, but this did not have the intended effect of encouraging me to paint.

Finishedish?

After a bit of moping - okay, a lot of moping, I went through my collection of partially painted models. I found one that was nearly ready for table top. After giving her a good dusting, I did a bit of lining and shading in spots before painting the rim. All of the work aside from the rim was done with the same mix of blue/brown, almost black and was so little I never needed to mix more paint. I shared the model back in January of 2014. I did some work on her shortly after that post, but never finished her. Abuela won't be winning any painting competitions, but I can put her on the table without feeling too embarrassed.

Monkey Head

Doing no real work to get a finished result really kicked me into paint mode again. It's not done, but here is the new take on the monkey head from the last post. I am much happier with the direction it is going now. There is still more to do, but I am feeling better about it now.