Hi everyone :)
Over the last 98 days I’ve painted a miniature every day. For some people that may not be a particularly impressive feat, but for me that’s represented a big increase in my painting productivity. I’m proud of the painting I’ve done during that period of just over three months. With that said, I’m going to be stopping my Mini A Day project this week. I've learned a lot, and have gained a lot, during the project, but I've decided to focus in other areas. In this post I'm going to look at my reasons for stopping and what I'm taking away from this. Why am I stopping? Why Now?
I've decided to stop with Mini A Day because I wanted to do so on positive terms. I'm going to reach 100, which is a big milestone, and a good time to move on to other things. This way I'm stopping on my own terms and not 'failing' in the future.
I've recently decided to be creating some new types of content. First and foremost, I'm going to be making 'Goblin Squire Investigates' videos. These are going to be an opportunity for people to ask questions and for me to go away and find out the answers. I think that these videos are going to involve quite a bit of work and I don't want to have to rush them. I also made the decision early on that I wasn't going to paint any commission miniatures as a Mini A Day. In order to give the best possible results to customers I wasn't willing to put an artificial time limit on those paints. The amount of painting I'm doing alongside the Mini A Day has increased, and so the need for Mini A Day to keep me on track has diminished. All of this, along with my other creative projects (primarily writing and editing), has meant that the painting of my daily minis has often been rushed and hasn't left me much space or time to try new things or learn new techniques. This decision is going to allow me to grow and learn in different ways, and I'm really looking forward to that. What have I learned?
Well, first and foremost, that I can do it! Even with a number of other demands on my time I can complete a miniature every day for over three months. My speed painting has improved greatly during that time and that's a useful skill to have.
I'm quite often guilty of looking and looking at my unpainted miniatures and waiting for the perfect inspiration to strike, rather than picking something up and painting it. That wasn't really an option while doing this, as I had to make decisions quickly in order to achieve what I wanted to. That's a double-edged sword, of course, because painting mechanically and without inspiration can be frustrating and challenging. I think that this is something I will continue to work on - not being intimidated at starting a miniature because I haven't been struck by a bolt of inspiration, while now not having to force myself to paint anyway. I've learned something too about posting miniatures you're not very happy with. In the past I have shied away from posting public pictures of minis I've not been happy with, but that hasn't been an option while doing Mini A Day. There's something simultaneously therapeutic and terrifying about posting pictures you hate, but some of the minis I haven't liked have actually received good feedback. It's definitely true that we can be our own harshest critics, and that we shouldn't always listen to the naysaying voice in our heads. Finally, I learned that if you massively increase your output of miniatures your storage/display spaces fill up very quickly! What's next?
Well, in the short term I still have a couple of days more of Mini A Day to paint. That will take me through to Tuesday, and I'm considering not doing any painting at all on Wednesday! I'll be back painting on Thursday though :)
I'm going to be putting together a video of all the miniatures I've painted over the 100 days, which I'll upload to my YouTube channel. I'm going to be working on some more videos in the coming weeks, so if you're interested in that head over to my channel and subscribe. I still have regular polls on my patreon so that my patrons can decide what I paint and write painting guides for. I'll also be sharing all my paints and planned paints over on my patreon. If you've enjoyed my Mini A Day content and would like to see more, perhaps you would consider joining my patreon (tiers start at $2 a month). Goblin Squire
1 Comment
Inixia
17/8/2020 05:32:30
It's been amazing to see how many minis you've been able to paint! I'm excited to see what you decide to do next. :D
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