My burnout is LIFE, and lack of time to paint. Going through some big transitions, and not even living at home 5 days a week. Can't wait to paint for ME when things settle down in a couple of months. Thanks for the video, great pointers on recharging the energies. :)
Thank you for the awesome video, for me, it's been almost a year since I painted anything, maybe it has to do with moving to a new city, not having a designated place to paint, no support from friends and peers over here, zero time and illness. All I want for Christmas is to get back the drive to paint and kitbash.
Well, I know where you are at. I am a professional miniature painter and teacher since almost twenty years now. I have been through circles of hobby/passion burnout several times. They come in circles. Ups and downs. Which is normal. This is important to learn. It is unavoidable, in fact it is necessary as it communicates with us and tells you to slow down, relax, recharge. Nowadays everything is fast with RUclips, TikTok and so on, information overload leads to pressure and with it you get nowwhere. The only thing is to relax, step back and regain energy for creativity. I have been through many circles of that and always learned a great deal about my creative energies and myself. I wish you the same light that I found behind this dark looking curtain. It is part of happy painting! Believe me! Keep on happy painting! Best Wishes, Roman
I needed such video so much! I did not paint for over a month, despite I have model I was so excited to paint. Hope everyones burnout not be long and each of us find the joy again
The algorithm decided I needed to watch your stuff, and I'm super happy it did. The burnout in my dayjob is being offset by my offtime hobbies, but doing something for relaxation and cause you enjoy it is where it's at. The whole channel has been real good advice and good listening. When the cats come waltzing through I'm really glad they are left in when they're there.
When you spoke about not breaking the airbrush…it’s nice that your channel is approachable and caters to all skill types, but we also like to see you show off your skill and be a bad ass. Show off with what you like to do sometimes!
As someone without the option of a permanent, dedicated hobby space the set up is absolutely my biggest barrier. I very frequently think about painting in the evenings only to decide against it because of the setup time feeling so daunting.
I made a mini painting kit to do some light painting when I don't have the energy to set up and clean up a bigger project. It helps me feel better. I use a plastic container that I can paint in and close up when done. Best wishes.
I really missed you! Looking every day for new videos, I am glad you are ok, I totally understand you, you are not alone, thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I recently subscribed to your channel and must say great pointers for relieving stress or burn out. Painting and customizing are my passion. As well as the gym. Another antidote is window shopping. Whether for upcoming projects or replenish your paint. It is alleviating.
I just got over burn out, and the way I did it was just paint to my skill level, I was having a hard time with all of the other skills, so I just said do what makes you happy, so that’s what I did. Thanks Lyla. I keep plugging away at the other stuff to.
Taking care of yourself and having fun in your hobby is important! A really good video and strong of you to say: then just do not paint, it you do not enjoy it.
Amen to all of that re model making and painting. I have health related burn out, fatigue, Mitochondria damage etc. Model making, modelling, has been a constant in my life for 40-50 years. Health issues, life frustrations have gotten in the way of late (last 2.5 years) though, as has the world being the way that it is. I'm quite creative and for many months that was taken from me. But slowly I'm looking to the mindful aspects of modelling, including listening to music etc. Paints had dried up during illness, lockdown etc, frustrating, and all of that, along with fatigue and pain, when I tried to get back to it? Horrible. So baby steps, bite sized chunks, literally, a few wrong avenues whilst bouncing boundaries too. I adapted/modified a fairly crudely made 1/43 scale figure (but he had a great stance and posture) I had fun painting him recently (I do such in 10-20 minute stints), I experimented, tried new paints, revisited trusted standbys, used new techniques (for me) made more mistakes, corrected the mistakes. Changed mediums, revisited old mediums. I remembered what my art master taught me, "paint what you can see, not what you think you see". So I started to think about scale viewing distances, the environs, vehicles, scenery etc - what does a human look like at such and such a distance? I came up with a new way of painting my figures, more impressionistic, more fun, but when in their environs, from scaled viewing distances? They looked more realistic, more human - several happy accidents got me to that place. Okay it took awhile, and many mini sessions to work that out, but I'm happy with my work, the sense of joy, achievement, was immense. The activity was meditation in movement and took me out of myself. The figure looks like the craggy human he is, time served in his job and when posed next to a weathered vehicle and photographed, Eg in sepia or a 1970s colour type photo? He and the vehicle look real. Hooray! I think the K.I.S.S worked best for me and my sanity👍😊
I’ve been experiencing burnout over the last few weeks after I finished painting Zombicide and started painting Masters of the universe (all while looking at my Massive Darkness 2 pledge) I think it might be just being overwhelmed than burnt out but I find taking a step back, do some reading, spend some time with my kids, enjoy some fresh air all help me get back at that desk. #NotificationSquad
I have just started mini painting and am enjoying it. My expectations are crazy low. I basically just enjoy finishing a mini that doesn't look terrible.
Every time I watch your videos, I keep thinking, how is this possible for such beautiful, energetic and talented girl to burn out on her favorite hobby? Plus, don't forget 2 kittens messing around! But, at end of the day, I look at myself and realize that we all are just human beings, covered in scars and bruises of various types and not always keep us going to be active with our hobbies no matter how we wish to. Lately, I am just keep stuttering, keep pinpointing, surrendered to to the grey mass called depression, to life's burdens. And I know I'm not the only one. Thank you for your hard work. It really means a lot.
I went through a hiatus of painting because... well... I was painting for army games and unconsciously set myself a standard way too high. Instead of focusing on getting minis painted well and quickly, I wanted to make every single mini as good as I could make it. Which turned out to be more frustrating than anything else. The result was sometimes not even a mini a week. I have found joy in painting again when I started to experience with grisaille and translucent paint (some call it Slapchop) and playing around with my airbrush to try new speed-saving tricks to produce pleasing results more quickly and efficiently. My fun got even bigger, when I discovered how to make my own contrast paint with any paint I already have in my arsenal. All this has allowed my to paint faster to a very decent standard and I am having fun again. And IF I want a unit to be special, well, I can always go back to layering, glazing, blending etc. Because of all of this, mini-painting has become my anti-stress method. I am lucky enough to work from home. Whenever I get stressed with my normal work, I can take a 10-15 minute break and slap some paint on my minies and do somethin I love. Things are looking up. Still can't paint as much as my 3D printer churns out, but way more than before and field armies that are nicely painted and look great on the table. Over all, after 3 grim years, life feels finally good again! Thank you for this topic. Very much appreciated!
I had been painting for armies so much over the last 3 years(The Pandemic gave me more time than I expected), and I was starting to burn out from it. The last month, while it did involve a big project for one of my armies, I have taken time to put more emphasis on trying new things. Even the mud and vegetation covered Land Raider was experimental. I think when I go back to my normal hobby painting, I will br going back refreshed, but also with a bunch of new techniques.
Thank you. While I don't paint minis, I do enjoy watching you & others. I make 3D art & I didn't realize what's been going on with me. I never considered burnout & was thinking 100 different things were going on. I kept trying to force myself to continue. This is about the most timely video that I've ran across.
Thanks for sharing this! Been through that with photography. For mini painting, I exclusively focus on the joy of painting, not having an army or a backlog surely helps. But it's such a relaxing and sensorial experience, I honestly look forward to the whole process.
One tip that I took from Goobertown that helps me is to find some old minis or minis you don't really care about, and just use them for practice or experimentation. I've spent the last three days playing with mediums and color schemes, with no real goal. It's liberating, you know? Love your videos, as always! I hope you're well.
Recently I had another block with my hobby ( I have about 3 a year where nothing appeals) of building and painting WW2 & WW1 tanks etc. So, I broke open some Gloomspite Gitz Stabbas and just contrast painted them. It was something different and the contrast painting was something new. Then, I went on to paint 1000pts of Gloomspite only using contrast paint. Because it was different, because painting wargame figures has been a thing off and on since I was 16 (don't ask me how long that was!) it brought the joy of building and painting stuff back. Although, I had to try to let go of the fact that contrast painting can be frustrating. Nice video and yes, although my WW1 & 2 dios are not getting progressed, I am enjoying painting minis for fun.👍👍
i just cleaned up my paint table after not painting for about 4 months got a push to paint do to a new group i will be DMing this sat so i have a few mins to paint up for game day
*hugs* I'm sorry that you're having trouble with burnout. I don't know whether it helps but your work always seems amazing to me and I appreciate all the hard work that you put into it, as well as making these fun and engaging videos. Since I've started watching your channel, I've tried zenithal highlights, started thinning my paints (though haven't quite gotten the gumption to switch to a wet pallette), and just made significant headway into my sea of grey. You've been such a great inspiration to me as I add some pizzazz to the board games (I finished painted Nemesis and its expansions because of you, I plowed through Stars of Akarios because of you, and most of Trudvang Legends is painted). Not only quantity, but I feel like my quality is also getting better (one of these days, I need to set up some way of sharing my work). All that being said, if you need a break, please take one. You've more than earned it, and your hobby should bring you joy. Speaking for myself, I'm someone who often puts too much on their plate, so it tends to be a feeling of being easily overwhelmed that leads to burnout. Specifically, last week every day was about 12 hours of work, so I barely got to painting and didn't even get to play. I mentally beat myself up over these brain weasels because those minis that I haven't finished will be hitting the table this Friday. I try to accept that they might just be half painted, as the other players hadn't seen any of them painted the last time we played. Sometimes distraction works for me, focus on something hobby related that doesn't take too many spoons. So for me, I did some mindless loot generation for the new group of D&D players that I'm introducing to the game. Lastly, (and also firstly) the praise from others is sometimes quite helpful. My partner has been busy, but she takes the time to look at the minis I show her and compliments me on them. Personally, I'm hoping to bring her into the hobby to share that experience with her, but that may not be in the cards anytime soon. But back to you, please re-read that first paragraph, and know that regardless of how you need to process the burnout, you've been such a positive influence on someone (likely many someones) and we (or at least I) are happy to do what we can to reciprocate. Thank you for all that you do.
Great topic to go through Lyla. As painters most of us suffer from burn out at some point. I normally take a break from it for a couple of weeks. My problem is I get bored painting the same type of thing (Sister of Battle or Skaven), so I rotate between the gaming systems I have (AoS, 40k & Malifaux) & various models I’ve bought over the years & keep to around 1 to 10 models. Lol I don’t have sky high expectations that I know I won’t achieve, so I have a plan on what I want & be happy with. I also have a group of friends where I used to live & we set different challenges throughout the year. Normally a yearly one (a target number of minis to get painted), seasonal ones, monthly ones ( whether it’s themed or technique based). But it does help get the pile of shame down.
I find that if I don’t want to paint, I start organising my paints, organising the drawers, buy a new, clean cutting mat etc all helps to motivate you. Sometimes it’s not even about painting models it’s about giving your giving your brain a fresh start in a clean environment.
I have burnout but I found getting 3d printed statues to keep it away , but I still feel like I have it a bit , I was depressed for a very long time , but being happy with my wife and son . Working alot has left me not feeling like painting . But I plan to work on it soon .
Great video, thanks for the tips. I find that some of these things seem obvious but still need to be said as we forget them too easily. Now off to conquer my burnout by trying some new techniques!
Thank you for sharing, Lyla... This has helped me tremendously after I've gone for over a month without painting and I want to get back to it. I painted a HeroQuest mini the other day and I wasn't entirely pleased with the result and it honestly was discouraging after I'd worked on it for nearly a day
I feel personally attacked but in the best way. I've been healing a lot of stuff with therapy and just mentioned yesterday that I want to get back to my hobbies and she encouraged me to go slow but get back at it. I needed this.
I think this is a very good guide for stress burnout and overdoing things in general. In my work I had the same that I didn't enjoy it and doing some task just from the get go had my stress levels go through the roof. So I stopped all after hour things or any training. until I had the feeling of it being fun again. It worked took me 1,5 years to get back into the groove but I like doing things again.
Holy crap that was synchronized, I just uploaded a video on the exact same topic. I got burned out while painting some Warcry minis, and wanted to recover my motivation while not taking a full break from the hobby, so I set a couple quick challenges for myself (including painting with my left hand, because I love chaos). It really worked for me!
I'm in the same place at the moment. I have stress on work, stress at home cause we started a massive overhaul of several rooms and the corona smashed me down. When I try to paint now nothing goes as planed and I feel like I mess up everything. This goes for around three weeks now. I so badly want to go back to painting but I just can't at the moment. Maybe I should give it some more time and just try calm down a bit.
i have been experiencing a big burnout mostly due to work and that my daughter have been ill, it did affect my painting big time, i painted some chaos knight for std but my real excitment was a nurgle lord of plauge ive got the other who is primed just need to be aswmbeld so i can paint him up, i am on the right track back to life but it is slow.
I'm slowly finishing a large necromunda gang... I'm not burned out - yet. But I am slowing down. I know that to keep my motivation after finishing the current project, I'll have to go back to building terrain or kitbashing my next gang. In my experience the best way to fight burn out is to treat this as a hobby - that might not be so easy for you running a RUclips channel and all. But stick what feels fun and the motivation should come back.
I've been lurking for a couple of months since finding your channel. I've really enjoyed getting caught up watching both new and several older videos. I've learned a lot, gotten a lot of ideas as well. I've definitely gone through several levels of painting/hobby burnout over the years. I started painting about 12 or 13 years ago I think. Though I've had some extended break in that time as well. I think you hit on several things that help curb burnout for me and that is having others around me interested to talk to or do it with. But what's helped me the most over the last couple of years is variety. I've found if I keep painting the miniatures for a specific game or army I get burned out relatively quick. Luckily I have several different games and just general D&D models I can pick up to take a break. One of my favorite games to paint models for recently was Malifaux simply because there is such a variety of looks in that line in general. Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing with us all!
Long time Subscriber, first time commenting. Excellent Video, a topic that needs to be addressed. I'm kinda the opposite currently, overwhelmed with too much in front of me and can't fixate on a single project. As a side note I'll be very keen to see how your Mr Lees "The Bather" turns out, it's a stunning piece. I know you'll do it justice, I bought that one too on Shoshie's recommendation. Keep up the great work!🙂
I suffer from depression, so can only paint in bursts, I've bought quite a few sets of different miniatures and just bought an airbrush to move forward in the hobby .
It's good to know own limits. If i don't feel like painting someday, then i just don't do it. I've pushed so many hobbies too long that i had to stop it for years. Worst example for me is playing piano. I played for 4-8 hours per day for first two weeks, then 2-4 hours per day for next few weeks and then i quit. There might be people who never burn out but there is high probability that it happens for you and for me. Also it is good to admit that honeymoon is going to be over someday and think how to go on with any hobby after that. I used to go little day (or two) trips to forest almost every week. Nowadays i only go for week or two hikes two to three times per year
Support system? I don't have friends, I have coworkers. And I don't spend time with them outside work. But that's OK, because painting is still my Zen time. The only thing that's been keeping me from painting more of late is that my schedule has been a bear for the last few weeks and I'm too weary to focus on painting when I get home at night. Days off see me painting more than ever, and thankfully I'm not feeling burned out--if anything, I'm looking at my backlog on my tabletop and saying "Hmm, what next? What do I feel like painting next?"
i started with a basic set for paints but when i went to expand and get more into the hobby for my d&d mini's i then saw the shocking price of paints now from 1 dollar a paint to 2 dollars a paint and since i wanted sets of paints i felt 85 dollars for paints was just to much , 40 dollars ya np what gets me the most about it, it is the same dam paints that were 40 bucks.
Ive had a lack of painting motivation for the past 9 months or so. As in ive half painted 4 minis since then. But I’ve built up a few. My main motivation to paint, is to use them as armys to play games but the system I play (middle earth) is near non existent were i live. Only the past few months I’ve had the occasional games. Hoping to get back to painting more now that a few players have surfaced locally. I tried the other night to paint but got stressed quickly as I kept slipping from lack of muscle memory.
I'm a bit discouraged by the pile of Habs, which tends to grow on me 😈 plus I'd rather make more models but they need mood for coloring, now I've finished a project for a friend and I'm very happy that he likes it liked 🥰
Thank you for the video and could you please share what Scale75 colour, purplish, was used by you in the shadows? Is it Black Leather or else? Thank you 😊
I bought the Heroquest mythic tier and got it last November. Fell down a rabbit hole of people making custom 3D boards and painting the figures. (Which brought me here) I’ve made progress on my own system, but have landed in burnout and “feature fatigue” with trying to make ‘everything.’ I know I just need to stop chasing fireflies, focus and push through. Aim for small victories and NOT the whole finish thing. Oh, and stop buying mini figs that are solely distractions.
3m mask filters look bit high they should be facing at more a 90* angle. Just noticed coz i wear one every day at work painting😋. U could buy the paper filters that go on top of ur filters get bit longer life out of them and will catch oaint particals better 😝
For me its basically the feeling that there is not enough hours in a day. I work a full time job, am a dedicated father of a 3 year old, need to work out atleast 3 to 4 times a week and as a means of socializing I like to play videogames with friends in the evening.
Can I ask what Magenta are you using at 4:19? Also thanks for the video, great topic & some nice methods to cope with burnout. I've only been painting over a year and already I've found that batch/army painting burns me out to the point I get jaded with big projects. I couldn't imagine painting to deadline (for content creation or commission) as something I could handle on an ongoing basis.
One way to defeat having too high of personal expectations is to try something different enough that it pushes you out of your comfort zones and requires that you approach it as a newbie. It could be as different as changing the subject being painted (e.g. a building, scale accessory), an adjacent hobby (e.g. scale model cars, gundam), or something entirely unrelated (e.g. leather working, game level design). Not only will you find that often times you'll learn skills that overlap with the hobby you're taking a break from, but the inertia created through the "beginner's mind" is often enough to propel you to re-visit prior hobbies with a new perspective and interest. This also works because the fundamentals of art, creativity, and story telling typically carry through to just about every medium a creative's hand might tough.
Thanks for the video. I haven't watched many of your other videos yet, so maybe you say it, but do you play miniature games with the models you paint? I have such a desire to play games with my miniatures, but every game I have found I dislike. I don't like playing games with others, so I mostly play solo games. I find it hard to get motivation to paint if I can't use the miniature in anything. I can rationalize that I could just paint for the sake of painting, but it makes me overwhelmingly anxious. Painting used to be my relaxing hobby, but now it's a really big source of stress.
This is an issue for me but I think that may also be due to a little bit of depression (not diagnosed) as it isn't just the painting I have no enthusiasm for. I have found that painting individual models (like a character models) rather than units of models helps though as it seems less like a job and getting to a "complete" state is much quicker rather than get less enthused midway through a unit; also one "well painted model" often feels more of an accomplishment than a mediocre unit of 5 models.
I've been trying to get myself to finish a couple commissions, but I'm much more interested on working on my 10 year old nephew's first Warhammer army.
Finding ways to take the pressure off helps. Sometimes we procrastinate because we get in the mode of "I HAVE TO". Unless it is an obligation like a commission you don't have to paint if you aren't feeling it. Reminding yourself that you don't have to, that you chose to do it because you want to keeps things in perspective. Heck you can catapult your minis into orbit if you want. The mini painting chupacabra isn't going to come suck your blood if you don't paint.
Sometimes it's not even related to the hobby specifically but from stress in other areas of your life making your hobby seem unapproachable for a while. Personally for me works been stressful nearing the end of the project including unwanted overtime. That's just lead to no energy to do things I normally enjoy so I've been relaxing reading in the free time I have vs any hobby related activity.
Just the time to actually sit down has been a premium and hasn't allowed a start lately. So I guess the silver lining is that I can't have burnout if I don't get started..
I have a slightly different situation. iam a novice painter (started a year ago with zero art background), and already beaten fear of painting (especially expensive models). But I notice that I begin every deed in my house, take a walk, fix that shelf door finally... Literally everything just not to start painting. But when I take a brush in my hands, I will sit and paint for 6-8 hours straight until my back starts to scream with pain and I physically cannot continue. Next day, repeat. I will improvise with any "tasks" until I finally have nothing to do and take a brush. But when I take it, teleporting in time...
@@LylaMev Weeeell, if this magic beyond your knowledge, I think I will just wash the dishes (besides the fact I have dishwasher), pet the cat, go out for grocery to the very end of my district (1 hour to get that milk) aaand finally take a brush in a hands 😀
I relate a ton to this! I was in a rut earlier this year, and felt burned out and uninterested in painting. I took a healthy break, until a couple of weeks ago I found a project that really excited me: painting a model I was really invested in (Vex Machinator), as a gift for my brother. I fell back in love with painting in a hurry. And now I'm choosing to be a little more selective about the stuff I invest my energy into until I'm more comfortable doing this regularly again. Thrilled to see you're back in the swing of things too!
Been about 4 weeks since i last picked up my brush. I spent a month painting a mini to commemorate someone's D&D character as its special to them and now cant find the drive to slap paint on something else 😢
I feel like I've seen A LOT of hobby related videos where the creators treat airbrushing as some forbidden topic. Sure, not everyone has them, and a lot of the things you can do with rattle cans, but just because a tool is expensive (well in the short run, long run it's cheaper than cans, especially if you've been buying GW primer) doesn't mean it can't be informative. For myself, when I start to get burnt out, I try to switch to a different aspect of the hobby: Sculpting, kitbashing, painting different scale miniatures, and making terrain are all still "part of the hobby" but can be exciting and different enough to reinvigorate interest.
I understand its a special situation for a youtuber but is it a hobby when you get burnt out doing it? The thing with a hobby is that you are not forced to do it if you dont want to do it. A hobby in my opinion is something you do to not get burnt out.
I haven't painted since May of last year; I got sick and I just haven't felt like starting again; my gaming/hobby friends are still shutting themselves off in fear, and I'm just too damned depressed to do anything but stare at the TV
I experienced burnout a few months ago, while I was stressing myself out to paint a 3kish AdMech army for 40k, because my friends wanted me to train to maybe try competitive wargaming. And I'm not the kind of guy who likes to play with shades of grays. So I forced myself to paint even more 40k minis (and those who know AdMech faction know how tedious models they can be) but it eventually led me to feel disgust toward this hobby. I made a break for several weeks, stopped painting and took the time to think about what I like the most : painting with pleasure, or batch painting like a machine ? The later was a nightmare to me, and I came to conclude that what I like the most is painting what I like, no matter what is it. Gaming is secondary. So I decided to stop 40k overall as a game, sold my army, and began looking for another game with variety and few minis required to play (more like a skirmish game). Malifaux presented itself, and I sunk in. I found a new motivation, I painted a full crew within a month, and I bought several other boxes to assemble and paint 2 other crews :) I'm also preparing a RoSD campain to play with my wife, and I have plenty of cheap yet cute D&D and Pathfinder models to paint. But I'm ok with this, because I can go at my pace, I can try new things (like getting better at airbrushing) and I have a great diversity of minis to choose from :D What I mean with this is : whatever are your struggle with the hobby folks, don't forget that it is just that. A hobby. It must remain a passion, something that makes you happy and relaxed. Nothing else :) Cheers !
I'm not feeling burnout. I'm feeling scared. I have no problem with priming and building my models ( I have about 200 to paint) but I'm terrified about messing them up. Especially since some of them are really old.
I always click on videos like this to see if they have any tips on how to accumulate a pile of shame. I am yet to find an answer. Nice to know how to deal with hobby burnout though!
I have a different way of thinking about this topic. I think you need to identify why you ARE painting, instead of why not when you could be doing so many more 'productive' things. What is it that draws us to painting miniatures? Why do we do it? Why do we find satisfaction in finishing a project? When you answer questions like those and appreciate the activity, the challenge and the fun of it, then you're more motivated to do it. Dealing with a problem isn't just dealing with the symptoms or the "why not", it's about being aware of the sum of the parts that make up you and how a hobby fits into your life. Burnout is only fixed by one thing and that's walking away from it to do something else. For me that's building a gunpla kit, where the effort is minimal and the time spent doing assembly work creates a whole that rewards you in several ways. You've made something that looks nice and you can play with it, pose it, put it on a stand, swap out equipment and open or close any number of hatches and gimmicks, all the things that miniatures don't do. It's like eating sugar, not good for you in the long run but once in a while it's a great booster. When I don't want to paint it's because I'm bored with it and that's when I get it together and force myself to do it anyway, set small goals that I want to reach and then I either stop or continue depending on how things are going. You build up the habit and get good at producing miniature paint jobs and once you're in that groove you find less reasons to not do it. Now for youtubers it's different, it's doing work on top of running a channel and editing. For that I can only recommend to stick to the subject and reduce the amount of shots. Most of those ideas go over the head of the viewer anyway, because they're there for the subject, not your videography. This is something a ton of miniature painters have invested a lot of their time into and I've unsubbed from almost all of them, like goobertown, squidmar, miniac, lukes aps (whatever he's called now) and others. They're no longer doing the hobby as much as a meta commentary that is largely useless to those of us who are painting warhammer miniatures.
@@LylaMev no idea. but this video felt like filler, something pulled out of the bag of 'videos i can make when i need to put a video out for a sponsor deal that don't take much effort'
@@LylaMev for example, Tabletop Minions made a video recently addressing how having easier to pick up and work on pieces like terrain can help prevent burnout by giving you something that's less intense and less focused to work on during hours where you want to make progress but can't summon up the willpower to work on miniatures. that's a better example of a valuable video than the "burned out? do something else!" advice that's.... obvious, trite, and not really worth a video.
not good.... I have so so sooo much to paint. I dont play, but used to enjoy painting. Went and bought a shit load of stock. Mayhap around a grands worth all in so far. Only thing i wanted, was to finish a set, and sell... I litterally have such things as, eyes to finish.. and bases.. but can not do it. used to paint full size narrow boats. Houses. nurseing.. horiculture, painting.. music.. im a musician.. 13 guitars down to 6. not played for a yr. last break was 10 yrs break. feel like shite.
How are you feeling? Not just in miniature painting, but over all?
do you remember the tunnel scene in Willy Wonka? 🥴
OH NO
I just made a big pot of soup and now I'm kuddling in a blanket, watching somethin mini-related and eating 1/8 of that... pretty good actually.
My burnout is LIFE, and lack of time to paint. Going through some big transitions, and not even living at home 5 days a week. Can't wait to paint for ME when things settle down in a couple of months. Thanks for the video, great pointers on recharging the energies. :)
Thank you for the awesome video, for me, it's been almost a year since I painted anything, maybe it has to do with moving to a new city, not having a designated place to paint, no support from friends and peers over here, zero time and illness. All I want for Christmas is to get back the drive to paint and kitbash.
Well, I know where you are at. I am a professional miniature painter and teacher since almost twenty years now. I have been through circles of hobby/passion burnout several times. They come in circles. Ups and downs. Which is normal. This is important to learn. It is unavoidable, in fact it is necessary as it communicates with us and tells you to slow down, relax, recharge. Nowadays everything is fast with RUclips, TikTok and so on, information overload leads to pressure and with it you get nowwhere. The only thing is to relax, step back and regain energy for creativity. I have been through many circles of that and always learned a great deal about my creative energies and myself. I wish you the same light that I found behind this dark looking curtain. It is part of happy painting! Believe me! Keep on happy painting! Best Wishes, Roman
I needed such video so much! I did not paint for over a month, despite I have model I was so excited to paint. Hope everyones burnout not be long and each of us find the joy again
The algorithm decided I needed to watch your stuff, and I'm super happy it did. The burnout in my dayjob is being offset by my offtime hobbies, but doing something for relaxation and cause you enjoy it is where it's at. The whole channel has been real good advice and good listening. When the cats come waltzing through I'm really glad they are left in when they're there.
When you spoke about not breaking the airbrush…it’s nice that your channel is approachable and caters to all skill types, but we also like to see you show off your skill and be a bad ass. Show off with what you like to do sometimes!
I love how REAL your videos are. I really appreciate them on a personal level. Thanks for making this. ❤
As someone without the option of a permanent, dedicated hobby space the set up is absolutely my biggest barrier. I very frequently think about painting in the evenings only to decide against it because of the setup time feeling so daunting.
And having to clean the brushes after!!
I made a mini painting kit to do some light painting when I don't have the energy to set up and clean up a bigger project. It helps me feel better. I use a plastic container that I can paint in and close up when done. Best wishes.
I really missed you! Looking every day for new videos, I am glad you are ok, I totally understand you, you are not alone, thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I recently subscribed to your channel and must say great pointers for relieving stress or burn out. Painting and customizing are my passion. As well as the gym. Another antidote is window shopping. Whether for upcoming projects or replenish your paint. It is alleviating.
I just got over burn out, and the way I did it was just paint to my skill level, I was having a hard time with all of the other skills, so I just said do what makes you happy, so that’s what I did. Thanks Lyla. I keep plugging away at the other stuff to.
Painting minis is one of the few things going right for me lately.
Taking care of yourself and having fun in your hobby is important! A really good video and strong of you to say: then just do not paint, it you do not enjoy it.
Very relatable and great Video Lyla. The part were you say how the problem can't be the solution hit hard.
Much Love from Misha and the Team!
Amen to all of that re model making and painting.
I have health related burn out, fatigue, Mitochondria damage etc.
Model making, modelling, has been a constant in my life for 40-50 years. Health issues, life frustrations have gotten in the way of late (last 2.5 years) though, as has the world being the way that it is. I'm quite creative and for many months that was taken from me.
But slowly I'm looking to the mindful aspects of modelling, including listening to music etc.
Paints had dried up during illness, lockdown etc, frustrating, and all of that, along with fatigue and pain, when I tried to get back to it? Horrible. So baby steps, bite sized chunks, literally, a few wrong avenues whilst bouncing boundaries too.
I adapted/modified a fairly crudely made 1/43 scale figure (but he had a great stance and posture) I had fun painting him recently (I do such in 10-20 minute stints), I experimented, tried new paints, revisited trusted standbys, used new techniques (for me) made more mistakes, corrected the mistakes. Changed mediums, revisited old mediums.
I remembered what my art master taught me, "paint what you can see, not what you think you see". So I started to think about scale viewing distances, the environs, vehicles, scenery etc - what does a human look like at such and such a distance? I came up with a new way of painting my figures, more impressionistic, more fun, but when in their environs, from scaled viewing distances? They looked more realistic, more human - several happy accidents got me to that place. Okay it took awhile, and many mini sessions to work that out, but I'm happy with my work, the sense of joy, achievement, was immense. The activity was meditation in movement and took me out of myself.
The figure looks like the craggy human he is, time served in his job and when posed next to a weathered vehicle and photographed, Eg in sepia or a 1970s colour type photo? He and the vehicle look real. Hooray!
I think the K.I.S.S worked best for me and my sanity👍😊
I really hope you're feeling better. Take care and keep rocking ☺️
Thank you for this! You've reaffirmed what I've been telling myself for the last week and I'm back to painting as of today!
I’ve been experiencing burnout over the last few weeks after I finished painting Zombicide and started painting Masters of the universe (all while looking at my Massive Darkness 2 pledge) I think it might be just being overwhelmed than burnt out but I find taking a step back, do some reading, spend some time with my kids, enjoy some fresh air all help me get back at that desk. #NotificationSquad
Taking a step back is 100% the right choice.
Wow, that sounds like a lot of work 😅
Thanks Lyla. This is where I am at right now, and I needed to hear your comments. I'll try what you suggested :)
I have just started mini painting and am enjoying it. My expectations are crazy low. I basically just enjoy finishing a mini that doesn't look terrible.
You’ll be amazed at how quickly you’ll see yourself improve.
"But this video is about me, not you" "So I'm using one" you rock on Lyla!
I'm glad you think it was funny. I was slightly worried people wouldn't take it that way!
It's a pretty important theme. Right now I keep fighting with my burnout and change a focus + low expectations are a useful advice.
Every time I watch your videos, I keep thinking, how is this possible for such beautiful, energetic and talented girl to burn out on her favorite hobby? Plus, don't forget 2 kittens messing around!
But, at end of the day, I look at myself and realize that we all are just human beings, covered in scars and bruises of various types and not always keep us going to be active with our hobbies no matter how we wish to. Lately, I am just keep stuttering, keep pinpointing, surrendered to to the grey mass called depression, to life's burdens. And I know I'm not the only one.
Thank you for your hard work. It really means a lot.
I went through a hiatus of painting because... well... I was painting for army games and unconsciously set myself a standard way too high. Instead of focusing on getting minis painted well and quickly, I wanted to make every single mini as good as I could make it. Which turned out to be more frustrating than anything else. The result was sometimes not even a mini a week.
I have found joy in painting again when I started to experience with grisaille and translucent paint (some call it Slapchop) and playing around with my airbrush to try new speed-saving tricks to produce pleasing results more quickly and efficiently.
My fun got even bigger, when I discovered how to make my own contrast paint with any paint I already have in my arsenal. All this has allowed my to paint faster to a very decent standard and I am having fun again. And IF I want a unit to be special, well, I can always go back to layering, glazing, blending etc.
Because of all of this, mini-painting has become my anti-stress method. I am lucky enough to work from home. Whenever I get stressed with my normal work, I can take a 10-15 minute break and slap some paint on my minies and do somethin I love. Things are looking up. Still can't paint as much as my 3D printer churns out, but way more than before and field armies that are nicely painted and look great on the table.
Over all, after 3 grim years, life feels finally good again!
Thank you for this topic. Very much appreciated!
I had been painting for armies so much over the last 3 years(The Pandemic gave me more time than I expected), and I was starting to burn out from it. The last month, while it did involve a big project for one of my armies, I have taken time to put more emphasis on trying new things. Even the mud and vegetation covered Land Raider was experimental. I think when I go back to my normal hobby painting, I will br going back refreshed, but also with a bunch of new techniques.
Thank you. While I don't paint minis, I do enjoy watching you & others. I make 3D art & I didn't realize what's been going on with me. I never considered burnout & was thinking 100 different things were going on. I kept trying to force myself to continue. This is about the most timely video that I've ran across.
Excellent video! It also helps to listen to podcasts of your hobby for inspiration.
Glad it was helpful!
what do you listen to?
Thanks for sharing this! Been through that with photography.
For mini painting, I exclusively focus on the joy of painting, not having an army or a backlog surely helps. But it's such a relaxing and sensorial experience, I honestly look forward to the whole process.
One tip that I took from Goobertown that helps me is to find some old minis or minis you don't really care about, and just use them for practice or experimentation. I've spent the last three days playing with mediums and color schemes, with no real goal. It's liberating, you know?
Love your videos, as always! I hope you're well.
Oh! Painting a model you don't care about would have been a good tip for this video!
@@LylaMev Sorry! ♥️
Recently I had another block with my hobby ( I have about 3 a year where nothing appeals) of building and painting WW2 & WW1 tanks etc. So, I broke open some Gloomspite Gitz Stabbas and just contrast painted them. It was something different and the contrast painting was something new. Then, I went on to paint 1000pts of Gloomspite only using contrast paint. Because it was different, because painting wargame figures has been a thing off and on since I was 16 (don't ask me how long that was!) it brought the joy of building and painting stuff back. Although, I had to try to let go of the fact that contrast painting can be frustrating. Nice video and yes, although my WW1 & 2 dios are not getting progressed, I am enjoying painting minis for fun.👍👍
i just cleaned up my paint table after not painting for about 4 months got a push to paint do to a new group i will be DMing this sat so i have a few mins to paint up for game day
*hugs* I'm sorry that you're having trouble with burnout. I don't know whether it helps but your work always seems amazing to me and I appreciate all the hard work that you put into it, as well as making these fun and engaging videos. Since I've started watching your channel, I've tried zenithal highlights, started thinning my paints (though haven't quite gotten the gumption to switch to a wet pallette), and just made significant headway into my sea of grey. You've been such a great inspiration to me as I add some pizzazz to the board games (I finished painted Nemesis and its expansions because of you, I plowed through Stars of Akarios because of you, and most of Trudvang Legends is painted). Not only quantity, but I feel like my quality is also getting better (one of these days, I need to set up some way of sharing my work).
All that being said, if you need a break, please take one. You've more than earned it, and your hobby should bring you joy. Speaking for myself, I'm someone who often puts too much on their plate, so it tends to be a feeling of being easily overwhelmed that leads to burnout. Specifically, last week every day was about 12 hours of work, so I barely got to painting and didn't even get to play. I mentally beat myself up over these brain weasels because those minis that I haven't finished will be hitting the table this Friday. I try to accept that they might just be half painted, as the other players hadn't seen any of them painted the last time we played. Sometimes distraction works for me, focus on something hobby related that doesn't take too many spoons. So for me, I did some mindless loot generation for the new group of D&D players that I'm introducing to the game. Lastly, (and also firstly) the praise from others is sometimes quite helpful. My partner has been busy, but she takes the time to look at the minis I show her and compliments me on them. Personally, I'm hoping to bring her into the hobby to share that experience with her, but that may not be in the cards anytime soon. But back to you, please re-read that first paragraph, and know that regardless of how you need to process the burnout, you've been such a positive influence on someone (likely many someones) and we (or at least I) are happy to do what we can to reciprocate. Thank you for all that you do.
Great topic to go through Lyla. As painters most of us suffer from burn out at some point. I normally take a break from it for a couple of weeks. My problem is I get bored painting the same type of thing (Sister of Battle or Skaven), so I rotate between the gaming systems I have (AoS, 40k & Malifaux) & various models I’ve bought over the years & keep to around 1 to 10 models. Lol I don’t have sky high expectations that I know I won’t achieve, so I have a plan on what I want & be happy with.
I also have a group of friends where I used to live & we set different challenges throughout the year. Normally a yearly one (a target number of minis to get painted), seasonal ones, monthly ones ( whether it’s themed or technique based). But it does help get the pile of shame down.
I find that if I don’t want to paint, I start organising my paints, organising the drawers, buy a new, clean cutting mat etc all helps to motivate you. Sometimes it’s not even about painting models it’s about giving your giving your brain a fresh start in a clean environment.
I like that approach. I tried it and felt better working in a clean space. Appreciate it.
I have burnout but I found getting 3d printed statues to keep it away , but I still feel like I have it a bit , I was depressed for a very long time , but being happy with my wife and son . Working alot has left me not feeling like painting . But I plan to work on it soon .
Great video, thanks for the tips. I find that some of these things seem obvious but still need to be said as we forget them too easily. Now off to conquer my burnout by trying some new techniques!
Thank you for sharing, Lyla... This has helped me tremendously after I've gone for over a month without painting and I want to get back to it. I painted a HeroQuest mini the other day and I wasn't entirely pleased with the result and it honestly was discouraging after I'd worked on it for nearly a day
I feel personally attacked but in the best way. I've been healing a lot of stuff with therapy and just mentioned yesterday that I want to get back to my hobbies and she encouraged me to go slow but get back at it. I needed this.
I’m glad!!
Thanks! Just went back to painting our DnD party characters and, letting myself "go easy" really helps. Even if it's only 10-15 minutes a day. :)
I think this is a very good guide for stress burnout and overdoing things in general. In my work I had the same that I didn't enjoy it and doing some task just from the get go had my stress levels go through the roof.
So I stopped all after hour things or any training. until I had the feeling of it being fun again. It worked took me 1,5 years to get back into the groove but I like doing things again.
Holy crap that was synchronized, I just uploaded a video on the exact same topic. I got burned out while painting some Warcry minis, and wanted to recover my motivation while not taking a full break from the hobby, so I set a couple quick challenges for myself (including painting with my left hand, because I love chaos). It really worked for me!
I'm in the same place at the moment. I have stress on work, stress at home cause we started a massive overhaul of several rooms and the corona smashed me down. When I try to paint now nothing goes as planed and I feel like I mess up everything. This goes for around three weeks now. I so badly want to go back to painting but I just can't at the moment. Maybe I should give it some more time and just try calm down a bit.
i have been experiencing a big burnout mostly due to work and that my daughter have been ill, it did affect my painting big time, i painted some chaos knight for std but my real excitment was a nurgle lord of plauge ive got the other who is primed just need to be aswmbeld so i can paint him up, i am on the right track back to life but it is slow.
I'm slowly finishing a large necromunda gang... I'm not burned out - yet. But I am slowing down. I know that to keep my motivation after finishing the current project, I'll have to go back to building terrain or kitbashing my next gang. In my experience the best way to fight burn out is to treat this as a hobby - that might not be so easy for you running a RUclips channel and all. But stick what feels fun and the motivation should come back.
BurnMeoth sounds adorable😍
What is that goop you use to protect part of the model when airbrushing?
silly putty!
I've been lurking for a couple of months since finding your channel. I've really enjoyed getting caught up watching both new and several older videos. I've learned a lot, gotten a lot of ideas as well. I've definitely gone through several levels of painting/hobby burnout over the years. I started painting about 12 or 13 years ago I think. Though I've had some extended break in that time as well. I think you hit on several things that help curb burnout for me and that is having others around me interested to talk to or do it with. But what's helped me the most over the last couple of years is variety. I've found if I keep painting the miniatures for a specific game or army I get burned out relatively quick. Luckily I have several different games and just general D&D models I can pick up to take a break. One of my favorite games to paint models for recently was Malifaux simply because there is such a variety of looks in that line in general. Keep up the great work and thanks for sharing with us all!
3:30 if you blend in some dioxazine violet oil paint you can get really beautiful silky/magical looking red
thank you!
Long time Subscriber, first time commenting. Excellent Video, a topic that needs to be addressed. I'm kinda the opposite currently, overwhelmed with too much in front of me and can't fixate on a single project.
As a side note I'll be very keen to see how your Mr Lees "The Bather" turns out, it's a stunning piece. I know you'll do it justice, I bought that one too on Shoshie's recommendation.
Keep up the great work!🙂
I suffer from depression, so can only paint in bursts, I've bought quite a few sets of different miniatures and just bought an airbrush to move forward in the hobby .
It's good to know own limits. If i don't feel like painting someday, then i just don't do it. I've pushed so many hobbies too long that i had to stop it for years. Worst example for me is playing piano. I played for 4-8 hours per day for first two weeks, then 2-4 hours per day for next few weeks and then i quit. There might be people who never burn out but there is high probability that it happens for you and for me. Also it is good to admit that honeymoon is going to be over someday and think how to go on with any hobby after that. I used to go little day (or two) trips to forest almost every week. Nowadays i only go for week or two hikes two to three times per year
Support system? I don't have friends, I have coworkers. And I don't spend time with them outside work. But that's OK, because painting is still my Zen time. The only thing that's been keeping me from painting more of late is that my schedule has been a bear for the last few weeks and I'm too weary to focus on painting when I get home at night. Days off see me painting more than ever, and thankfully I'm not feeling burned out--if anything, I'm looking at my backlog on my tabletop and saying "Hmm, what next? What do I feel like painting next?"
i started with a basic set for paints but when i went to expand and get more into the hobby for my d&d mini's i then saw the shocking price of paints now from 1 dollar a paint to 2 dollars a paint and since i wanted sets of paints i felt 85 dollars for paints was just to much , 40 dollars ya np what gets me the most about it, it is the same dam paints that were 40 bucks.
Great stuff friend 👏 👍
Ive had a lack of painting motivation for the past 9 months or so. As in ive half painted 4 minis since then. But I’ve built up a few.
My main motivation to paint, is to use them as armys to play games but the system I play (middle earth) is near non existent were i live. Only the past few months I’ve had the occasional games.
Hoping to get back to painting more now that a few players have surfaced locally. I tried the other night to paint but got stressed quickly as I kept slipping from lack of muscle memory.
100% thank you for this video! You get thr challenges for real.
I'm a bit discouraged by the pile of Habs, which tends to grow on me 😈 plus I'd rather make more models but they need mood for coloring, now I've finished a project for a friend and I'm very happy that he likes it liked 🥰
Thank you for the video and could you please share what Scale75 colour, purplish, was used by you in the shadows? Is it Black Leather or else? Thank you 😊
Thank you for this. Sometimes you need a reminder to check on yourself.
I'm glad it hel[ped!
I bought the Heroquest mythic tier and got it last November. Fell down a rabbit hole of people making custom 3D boards and painting the figures. (Which brought me here) I’ve made progress on my own system, but have landed in burnout and “feature fatigue” with trying to make ‘everything.’ I know I just need to stop chasing fireflies, focus and push through. Aim for small victories and NOT the whole finish thing.
Oh, and stop buying mini figs that are solely distractions.
Hey, can you share where you picked up that paint rack? I really like how the bottles are displayed. Seen around 4 seconds into the video.
amazon!
3m mask filters look bit high they should be facing at more a 90* angle. Just noticed coz i wear one every day at work painting😋. U could buy the paper filters that go on top of ur filters get bit longer life out of them and will catch oaint particals better 😝
I just have them at the angle they stay at? Otherwise they fall out!
For me its basically the feeling that there is not enough hours in a day. I work a full time job, am a dedicated father of a 3 year old, need to work out atleast 3 to 4 times a week and as a means of socializing I like to play videogames with friends in the evening.
Can I ask what Magenta are you using at 4:19?
Also thanks for the video, great topic & some nice methods to cope with burnout. I've only been painting over a year and already I've found that batch/army painting burns me out to the point I get jaded with big projects. I couldn't imagine painting to deadline (for content creation or commission) as something I could handle on an ongoing basis.
What was the inspiration-causing mail order mini that showed up at the end of the vid? Looked cool I've seen it before somewhere!
One way to defeat having too high of personal expectations is to try something different enough that it pushes you out of your comfort zones and requires that you approach it as a newbie. It could be as different as changing the subject being painted (e.g. a building, scale accessory), an adjacent hobby (e.g. scale model cars, gundam), or something entirely unrelated (e.g. leather working, game level design). Not only will you find that often times you'll learn skills that overlap with the hobby you're taking a break from, but the inertia created through the "beginner's mind" is often enough to propel you to re-visit prior hobbies with a new perspective and interest. This also works because the fundamentals of art, creativity, and story telling typically carry through to just about every medium a creative's hand might tough.
Thanks
Am I supposed to be wearing a respirator when airbrushing with acrylic?
Thanks for the video. I haven't watched many of your other videos yet, so maybe you say it, but do you play miniature games with the models you paint? I have such a desire to play games with my miniatures, but every game I have found I dislike. I don't like playing games with others, so I mostly play solo games. I find it hard to get motivation to paint if I can't use the miniature in anything. I can rationalize that I could just paint for the sake of painting, but it makes me overwhelmingly anxious. Painting used to be my relaxing hobby, but now it's a really big source of stress.
Bunch of our local group are having issues lately, so this was timely. Hope it helps some of them.
What audiobook series are you listening to... I've recently started RPG lit. Loved Carl the Dungeon Crawler and Princess Donut his cat.
This is an issue for me but I think that may also be due to a little bit of depression (not diagnosed) as it isn't just the painting I have no enthusiasm for.
I have found that painting individual models (like a character models) rather than units of models helps though as it seems less like a job and getting to a "complete" state is much quicker rather than get less enthused midway through a unit; also one "well painted model" often feels more of an accomplishment than a mediocre unit of 5 models.
And sometimes it's just not fun anymore, and that's okay. You can always come back to it if you want to in the future! :)
I've been trying to get myself to finish a couple commissions, but I'm much more interested on working on my 10 year old nephew's first Warhammer army.
That definitely sounds like more fun!
Finding ways to take the pressure off helps. Sometimes we procrastinate because we get in the mode of "I HAVE TO". Unless it is an obligation like a commission you don't have to paint if you aren't feeling it. Reminding yourself that you don't have to, that you chose to do it because you want to keeps things in perspective.
Heck you can catapult your minis into orbit if you want. The mini painting chupacabra isn't going to come suck your blood if you don't paint.
Sometimes it's not even related to the hobby specifically but from stress in other areas of your life making your hobby seem unapproachable for a while. Personally for me works been stressful nearing the end of the project including unwanted overtime. That's just lead to no energy to do things I normally enjoy so I've been relaxing reading in the free time I have vs any hobby related activity.
More cats.. I'll sit down and look through some Spectrum fantasy art books for ideas. I usually end getting a cat in the lap to help.
Just the time to actually sit down has been a premium and hasn't allowed a start lately. So I guess the silver lining is that I can't have burnout if I don't get started..
Ah, it sucks that you were burnt out: especially on your hobby. But that was damned good advice for getting past it. Thank you.
I have a slightly different situation. iam a novice painter (started a year ago with zero art background), and already beaten fear of painting (especially expensive models). But I notice that I begin every deed in my house, take a walk, fix that shelf door finally... Literally everything just not to start painting. But when I take a brush in my hands, I will sit and paint for 6-8 hours straight until my back starts to scream with pain and I physically cannot continue. Next day, repeat. I will improvise with any "tasks" until I finally have nothing to do and take a brush. But when I take it, teleporting in time...
I have no words for this witch craft 😂
@@LylaMev Weeeell, if this magic beyond your knowledge, I think I will just wash the dishes (besides the fact I have dishwasher), pet the cat, go out for grocery to the very end of my district (1 hour to get that milk) aaand finally take a brush in a hands 😀
I relate a ton to this!
I was in a rut earlier this year, and felt burned out and uninterested in painting.
I took a healthy break, until a couple of weeks ago I found a project that really excited me: painting a model I was really invested in (Vex Machinator), as a gift for my brother.
I fell back in love with painting in a hurry. And now I'm choosing to be a little more selective about the stuff I invest my energy into until I'm more comfortable doing this regularly again.
Thrilled to see you're back in the swing of things too!
Been about 4 weeks since i last picked up my brush. I spent a month painting a mini to commemorate someone's D&D character as its special to them and now cant find the drive to slap paint on something else 😢
I can relate!
I feel like I've seen A LOT of hobby related videos where the creators treat airbrushing as some forbidden topic. Sure, not everyone has them, and a lot of the things you can do with rattle cans, but just because a tool is expensive (well in the short run, long run it's cheaper than cans, especially if you've been buying GW primer) doesn't mean it can't be informative.
For myself, when I start to get burnt out, I try to switch to a different aspect of the hobby: Sculpting, kitbashing, painting different scale miniatures, and making terrain are all still "part of the hobby" but can be exciting and different enough to reinvigorate interest.
I understand its a special situation for a youtuber but is it a hobby when you get burnt out doing it? The thing with a hobby is that you are not forced to do it if you dont want to do it.
A hobby in my opinion is something you do to not get burnt out.
I haven't painted since May of last year; I got sick and I just haven't felt like starting again; my gaming/hobby friends are still shutting themselves off in fear, and I'm just too damned depressed to do anything but stare at the TV
Burnout sucks, but everytime is see my therapist they ask how often I haven't enjoyed things. It's a sign of depression. So its worth looking into.
I experienced burnout a few months ago, while I was stressing myself out to paint a 3kish AdMech army for 40k, because my friends wanted me to train to maybe try competitive wargaming. And I'm not the kind of guy who likes to play with shades of grays. So I forced myself to paint even more 40k minis (and those who know AdMech faction know how tedious models they can be) but it eventually led me to feel disgust toward this hobby.
I made a break for several weeks, stopped painting and took the time to think about what I like the most : painting with pleasure, or batch painting like a machine ?
The later was a nightmare to me, and I came to conclude that what I like the most is painting what I like, no matter what is it. Gaming is secondary.
So I decided to stop 40k overall as a game, sold my army, and began looking for another game with variety and few minis required to play (more like a skirmish game).
Malifaux presented itself, and I sunk in. I found a new motivation, I painted a full crew within a month, and I bought several other boxes to assemble and paint 2 other crews :)
I'm also preparing a RoSD campain to play with my wife, and I have plenty of cheap yet cute D&D and Pathfinder models to paint. But I'm ok with this, because I can go at my pace, I can try new things (like getting better at airbrushing) and I have a great diversity of minis to choose from :D
What I mean with this is : whatever are your struggle with the hobby folks, don't forget that it is just that. A hobby. It must remain a passion, something that makes you happy and relaxed. Nothing else :)
Cheers !
I'm not feeling burnout. I'm feeling scared. I have no problem with priming and building my models ( I have about 200 to paint) but I'm terrified about messing them up. Especially since some of them are really old.
I always click on videos like this to see if they have any tips on how to accumulate a pile of shame. I am yet to find an answer. Nice to know how to deal with hobby burnout though!
How to accumulate one? Just but miniatures!
Thank you. Really.
I think everybody at some point suffers a bit of burnout, well maybe not Vince Venturella the man is a machine.
#notifidation squad
Zowie Claws are fun
Too many projects going on to have a burnout and IfI feel like not doing .. I don't do, when I want to do I make all at once
I have a different way of thinking about this topic.
I think you need to identify why you ARE painting, instead of why not when you could be doing so many more 'productive' things.
What is it that draws us to painting miniatures? Why do we do it? Why do we find satisfaction in finishing a project?
When you answer questions like those and appreciate the activity, the challenge and the fun of it, then you're more motivated to do it.
Dealing with a problem isn't just dealing with the symptoms or the "why not", it's about being aware of the sum of the parts that make up you and how a hobby fits into your life.
Burnout is only fixed by one thing and that's walking away from it to do something else. For me that's building a gunpla kit, where the effort is minimal and the time spent doing assembly work creates a whole that rewards you in several ways.
You've made something that looks nice and you can play with it, pose it, put it on a stand, swap out equipment and open or close any number of hatches and gimmicks, all the things that miniatures don't do. It's like eating sugar, not good for you in the long run but once in a while it's a great booster.
When I don't want to paint it's because I'm bored with it and that's when I get it together and force myself to do it anyway, set small goals that I want to reach and then I either stop or continue depending on how things are going. You build up the habit and get good at producing miniature paint jobs and once you're in that groove you find less reasons to not do it.
Now for youtubers it's different, it's doing work on top of running a channel and editing. For that I can only recommend to stick to the subject and reduce the amount of shots. Most of those ideas go over the head of the viewer anyway, because they're there for the subject, not your videography. This is something a ton of miniature painters have invested a lot of their time into and I've unsubbed from almost all of them, like goobertown, squidmar, miniac, lukes aps (whatever he's called now) and others. They're no longer doing the hobby as much as a meta commentary that is largely useless to those of us who are painting warhammer miniatures.
Please take care of yourself ^^
My endless pile of shame makes it seem like I can never paint everything I want to paint
which cat cried?
That was Mochi!
a 7 minute video that says 'do something else' while also containing over a minute of advertising... not great.
What would you recommend?
@@LylaMev no idea. but this video felt like filler, something pulled out of the bag of 'videos i can make when i need to put a video out for a sponsor deal that don't take much effort'
@@Mekhami ....it's a video about burn out. I think thats basically the point?
@@LylaMev for example, Tabletop Minions made a video recently addressing how having easier to pick up and work on pieces like terrain can help prevent burnout by giving you something that's less intense and less focused to work on during hours where you want to make progress but can't summon up the willpower to work on miniatures.
that's a better example of a valuable video than the "burned out? do something else!" advice that's.... obvious, trite, and not really worth a video.
@@Mekhami I disagree. Talking about such things to the world on any level takes considerable effort.
Love your videos and my god you are just the cutest thing on the planet. Keep up the great work.
not good.... I have so so sooo much to paint. I dont play, but used to enjoy painting. Went and bought a shit load of stock. Mayhap around a grands worth all in so far.
Only thing i wanted, was to finish a set, and sell...
I litterally have such things as, eyes to finish.. and bases.. but can not do it.
used to paint full size narrow boats. Houses.
nurseing.. horiculture, painting.. music.. im a musician.. 13 guitars down to 6. not played for a yr. last break was 10 yrs break.
feel like shite.