How do you guys find motivation to paint?

[Deleted]

Ok, so as a person that suffers from a rather bad case of depression, I often lack the drive to do much of anything. I've found that promising myself to not use any Ironjawz unless they are painted to help, but not enough, as I sometimes still go long periods of time without painting. 

Now, I know since I have depression and all that whatever methods you guys have might not work for me, but hey, no harm in trying, right? I want to get them painted, I really do. I just can't muster up the energy to do so these days. 

[Khalai]

For me, I've found 100% that the most motivating item, is playing games against people who have fully painted armies. Especially really nicely done ones like Morton or Lukas. At the end of a tournament where I've seen a bunch of nice armies and played against (or with), I'm more charged up to go home and paint some really fucking nice models.

I really believe that in this community we have such good painters that I would not be near as good of a painter, not would I have painted near as many models as I have without the others to look up to. They will give you tips, explain how they do things, offer advice, constructively critique, and most of all, they are positive people to be around when talking about the game.

That said, for me, I've always had the issue of maintaining that drive, so I'm also very interested to see what others have to say.

Also, I'd have to say the 40k Club Championships are a pretty good motivator for me to paint, as I'll definitely submit a list that isn't fully painted, and force my self to cram the painting in at the last second.

[Deleted]

Hmmm... If playing would be a good motivator, maybe I'll have to rethink my stance of not playing with unpainted Ironjawz. To be fair, I already have a nice amount painted (1 megaboss on maw-krusha, 1 megaboss, 2 units of 5 brutes), but I'm still not yet at 2000 points for amount painted. Or assembled for that matter, hahaha.

[Jack Shrapnel]

you can always try the escalation method - have a list, and commit to painting one unit per week towards completion - so that each week you bring the list it gets more and more fully painted, giving you the motivation to keep going.

I personally find I have to be rigid about setting up a regular schedule of at least a 1/2 hour a day to paint. (normally this is what I do in the morning, which gives me about 30-45 minutes). You'd be shocked as to how much you actually can get done with even this little bit of time set aside.

Plus then you get progress on something and get motivated to finish.

A couple years ago when I was writing articles for the Creative Twilight gaming website, I wrote an article all about painting motivation, feel free to check it out:

creativetwilight.com/tips-painting-interest/