Why Do You Get Discouraged?

Do you look at the pro-paint jobs on the manufacturer websites or the winning contest entries and get discouraged about your hobby? Atom give you a pep talk about becoming a better painter.

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[TheKommandanteur]

The head on your T-shirt is really creeping me out. :P

[samueldare]

My motto is a painted Army on a table is better than an unpainted Army.

[JohnWestIV]

Agreed. It's about improving yourself and being satisfied with your own work. We all continually learn and improve... and many basic skill painters, can make a good looking model once they learn a few of the techniques and how the materials work... or work together.

I can look at illustrations I did even a few years ago and be like... "What was I thinking?". I've even looked at models from just a year ago, and see all of the things I could do now to improve it that I've learned in just that amount of time.

Great video... it hit close to home as I try to encourage a friend to work up the courage to paint his Warhammer models... and giving him a book and links for various basic techniques to get him started. I think I'll share this with him as well!

[queencitycardboard]

“Fail faster. No idea is made fully formed, your ideas can’t be precious, your ego can’t need protecting. Every failure is a chance to get it right.” - Extra Credits

I bought a poster with the above quote on it a couple months after I was forced to work from home and had to learn to cope with my own insecurity. Another stress valve I developed was painting miniatures, and I spend the first several weeks failing faster, just trying things out (on dime-a-dozen minions) and figuring out what didn’t work. And it's a lesson that took a time to learn. Thank you for the reinforcement.

[lkvideos]

All I can say is - and I say that as an artist myself - if you really want to and put heart into your work, you'll get the job done just as good as you want. Take any good advise to heart like from this channel, practice, practice, practice and practice. Have patience and learn to have faith in yourself. Even with talent you are still not a great artist if you don't work on yourself and keep learning and improving. I started drawing and painting very early on as a little child and I was fairly decent already then but I became good by learning from other people, learning and improving techniques I hadn't used or even knew of. It is not any different with anyone else. Don't be discouraged !

[atomstrom]

Exactly. That's why picking up the hobby again after a few years motivated me more in learning everything than it actually dicouraged me. Before I picked up the brush again, I had a look at some tutorials that made me understand a lot of things much better than I did in the past when we had no youtube and the effect was, that my first painted miniature after the break looked a lot better than my pretty decent ones before it. What I took out of it is that most things in life aren't magic, it's all just about the knowledge. Now, the thing is, I can learn by watching pretty well and I have an abstract understanding that helps me developing without practice. That said, this "talent" helps me to find access to a lot of things as much as they can bore me. What I do need are people around me giving positive feedback and asking me to do more, so I start criticizing my work and grow an urge to do better instead of just putting it aside as a "have done it". Taking part in a hobby community is a good way these days, as the internet can provide interest in your specific talent, that doesn't necessarily impress your friends and family at home.
Now, the way I look at pro-painters these days is more like a ressource of ideas or knowledge. A lot of them are giving away tips and even if they don't, as you said, you can look at their work and try figuring out how they've done it. And even if you can't in the first place, you know it's been done before, so it can be an adventure, to find your own way getting there. Having no limitation as your only limitation. It is your art you're producing, you're free to take whatever works for you and anything you can add to your pool of techniques will improve what you create. There is no wrong in art. We all can do it.

[TheRunesmythe]

This goes right along with one of the best pieces of advice I ever heard and which I still offer to other people to this day: You are always your own worst critic. I don't know what it is about human nature (doubtless there's some psychological explanation) but for the most part we seem all too happy to praise the work or others while we reserve for ourselves mostly negativity. Its a hard habit to break, but you have to just work at it; little by little you have to just accept the praise and opinions of other people instead of focusing on all the things you feel you've done wrong or didn't turn out the way you wanted because in your eyes those things will always be there and they'll always be far less substantial than you think.

[chrislacomb]

I almost cried at how inspiring and relatable this is to me right now!! Thank you

[vanhovemare]

The Tao of Miniature Wargaming :-)

In Spanish they say 'se hace camino al andar': one makes the road by walking.

[joshuaclark]

Honestly amazing advice for pretty much anything in life. Was not expecting such salient words from a miniature painting tutorial (hope that doesn't sound obtuse, it's a very pleasant surprise) but this was spot on. Thanks a bunch for making these.

[ianmatthewkline]

I started my PhD in Immunology last year and I struggled hardcore (still kind of do...) with comparing myself to my cohort. I came from undergrad thinking I knew so much and always being right and feeling so smart to just feeling like I was nothing compared to my peers. After beating myself up over it for months I finally accepted that this is literally TRAINING and you can't possibly be the best at something you are learning how to do. It's no different with minis. Love the videos, thanks for all the content

[nickcastle]

I was just saying this very same thing to some of the guys just starting out at one of the shops near me. I even quoted "The price of perfection is too high." Being my own harshest critic, that one phrase really brought things into perspective for me. Thanks, Atom.

[IDICBeer]

Very well said, and we seem to have a new saying going around that fits in so well with this topic...Finished, not Perfect!

[atonuts]

Great video! Great message. Using painting as an example, these aren't people who you should be discouraged by, rather the opposite, these are people who can encourage you and give you advice on how you can push yourself in getting better results.

Keep up the great work!

[galactusmaximus]

I like the cut of your jib!
I'm just getting back into miniature painting after 20+ years and while I am not discouraged I am glad there is someone such as yourself articulating sage advice to others.

[profam]

One of the many erroneous ideas that I let take root in my brain when I first got into the hobby of painting miniatures was that i had to go out and spend tons of money on all of the paints, brushes, models etc..that I saw the professional miniature painters on YouTube using. Before I knew it I had spent hundreds of dollars and hadn't painted a single miniature. And to no ones surprise but my own, when I did finally paint one, despite all of the top shelf paints and brushes and figures I had purchased, it didn't look anything like the quality I was seeing on YouTube. I began to think of all the money I'd spent and how awful I was at this hobby and I became very discouraged. My advice to everyone out there is to not do what I did. If painting miniatures looks like something you might like to try. Go to your hobby store and invest in just ONE miniature to start with (not whole sets and boxes of them all at once like I did) that really interest you. Pick up just the basic colors of the color wheel with maybe a few metal colors and three really good brushes, fine, medium and large. And just take your time and enjoy the process of painting. When your done if you still enjoy it go out and repeat the process. Good luck and God bless.

[CrazyMikeCrazy]

Funny thing is, I've quit this hobby long time ago, but I still keep watching your videos just because how inspiring and motivational they are (which helps with any activity, not solely wargaming). Thanks! :D

[lardidar-lewismoorby]

You have no idea how much I needed that message today, not in hobby but in life...thank you.

[SmittyM]

Spot on and couldn't agree more. When I started in the hobby I was like that. I got discouraged to the point where I stepped away from the hobby for a few years. When I came back I decided it's a hobby for me to enjoy and not to impress the masses with. I enjoy it so much more now.

[emperorschampion]

Another thing I'd like to add to your advice is, once you accept that you need to just practice, the more you paint the more vivid your journey of learning to paint becomes.
Not just through skill but you can clearly see you've spawned your own style.