Monday, August 26, 2013

This is a Hobby, not a Job

Now, I'm the first person who will admit that a firm deadline is a wonderful motivator. In fact, I've used many deadlines in the past to get projects not only off the ground, but finished on time and ready for a tournament. I'm happy with what I've turned out because of said deadlines, and will continue to set deadlines for myself in the future.

Unfortunately, many times in the past I've come to dread those deadlines. Seeing my hobby as more of a harsh commitment than something that I'm supposed to enjoy. Is there a line we can draw? How do we know where to draw that line?

How do we keep our hobby from turning into a second job?

I know this seems like an oddly-timed article considering my relative silence for the past two weeks. I've had some long hours at work, my boy starting school for the first time, and an illustration opportunity come my way at the end of July that have all been taking up much of my time. Coincidentally, that actually leads into my first point on how to keep the hobby from turning into us punching a clock for toy soldiers...

Realize What's Important

Family, friends, and actual commitments that you make to people are all more important than slapping paint of plastic figures. I know this one should go without saying, but I feel it's worth mentioning. I'm not saying that in order to meet a deadline you placed on yourself, you shouldn't give up a night out with the guys or girls, that can happen, I know. What I mean by this is don't closet yourself away and ignore family and friends to paint your toys. Heck, sleep is more important than your hobby even, trust me. There have been too many times in the past where I've forced sleep deprivation to be able to finish an army for tournaments, and your health is just not worth that. If you're on more of a first name basis with the commander of your army rather than your boy or girlfriend, you need to take a step back and read this section again.

Don't Procrastinate

To those of you who know me personally...no, I'm not being hypocritical here. I have an issue with this and my hobby at times, I realize this. If many of you would be honest with yourselves, you would admit this too. I know when Adepticon is every year, and typically I know exactly what I want to do and what it will take to do it 9-ish months ahead of time. So why have I pushed it to the wire for so many times?! I made a promise to my wife that this last year was the last time, as it just takes too much time away from everything to try and cram it all in at the end. Te better you plan and manage your time, the more enjoyable said time will be.

Variety is the Spice of Life

When you've got ten million Skaven to paint, you begin to hate the color brown. Yes Kevin, I'm using your insane, horde-loving self as the basis for this point. This is when it is very possible, and probable, that your labor of love will just turn into a straight labor. You'll begin to slow down and dread opening that fifth bottle of the same color paint for the tenth week in a row. Instead, plan your time accordingly and intersperse some other small projects inside your large one, paint or convert something completely different, and those rats may not seem so bad once you get back to them. Painting the Inquisitor Warband actually showed me this on a small scale, even. With there being barely no repetition in the models except for the Storm Troopers, I was able to keep a fresh outlook and truly enjoy each figure because there was so much different in each one.

Folks, if you leave work for the day with the mindset of having to go home and work, and all you are doing is painting models, there's the indicator that you need to back off form your paints and figures and take a breather. If you aren't enjoying this hobby, then it's not worth doing.

- Tim

 

10 comments:

  1. To be fair, I only dreaded painting the slaves adn clanrats. Everything else was actually enjoyable.

    Just wait until 40k Orks are released next year :-)

    That being said, you are dead on when it comes to variety making the hobby easier and enjoyable. I have more fun painting miniatures when I just pick something off my shelf that I *want* to paint as opposed to painting actual armies. The problem? I have so much on my shelf that it would take me 20 years to paint everything and catch up.

    I sense a donation to the Fantasy Shop Auction at some point in the near future.

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    1. Then donate!!! your point above, I should have listed in my article. Good lord, that's just nuts. Go cull the heard, as it be, and gain a little sanity, will you? :)

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  2. Great post. This is very true. I find it hard to stay focussed on a single project and think I am actually more productive if I mix it up a bit. Sometimes this leads to lots of almost finished models. I should really sit down for a few months and just finish all of my almost finished models and ready for painting conversions...

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    1. Ahhh... see, that's a trap we all tend to fall into. even if you're hopping back and forth between models, always finish them, or you might never, and then they become their own chore.

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  3. Preach it!
    There was a time that I could feel my muscle tightening when thinking about all the models i had to paint (and I probably have more to paint now than I did then!). Now I have so much other stuff in my life that getting back to warhammer and models once in a while is pure relaxing pleasure. But it's rare that i do and I still get stressed sometimes thinking about it.
    You are right, Tim. When, as you say, your labor of love gets to be just labor, it's time to step away and get perspective.

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    1. Never let what gives you pleasure, and an escape from the rigors of life turn into just one more job.

      If that means you don't get to do it as often as before, that's fine too, but don't let it disappear either! :)

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  4. I can relate to this. I have used tournaments countless times as deadlines to get stuff painted, and to be honest a huge percentage of my painted models owe their completion to this approach.

    I know I am guilty of making painting a real chore during some of my more ambitious drives, but then I've never really found it a great source of enjoyment - my pleasure has always been derived from having the stuff painted. This means I'm not really suffering much more than normal when I really knuckle down and work to a deadline - it just means that it's taking more of my time (although generally only for the last week or two leading up to the event).

    In general I agree that variety can make things less painful, but it's counter-productive when I really need to grow a particular army. At those times I am far better off sucking it up and getting it all done.

    Oh, and don't knock procrastination. It's great! I've been avoiding making any real progress on my models for months... OK, so maybe this is not the best approach to making actual progress, but taking a break can be very helpful. Just taking a breather before I really have to focus on something again. This is not really your point in this case, however.

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    1. HAH! taking a break is all well and good, but it is definitely not the same as procrastination :) Otherwise you'll actually regret your 'break' and dread painting the models that you took a break from in the first place, now with even less time to finish them.

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  5. I can relate, and my blog silence reflects this. When I start thinking about the hobby as work, I loathe to sit and work on anything. Instead I'll burn countless hours on Steam.

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    1. I'll point to our friend Hoodling up above. While Procrastination may not be the best vehicle for this, taking a break is a great way to recharge your batteries. I've had friends take a week, a month and even one took darn near a year from working on anything. He still played games, but with models he didn't have to constantly work on. Take a break, a breath and enjoy the hobby when you come back to it :)

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