How to Deal with Burnout

 Meg Maples, of Arcane Paintworks (and formerly Privateer Press) fame just recently made an update to her blog that I think bears sharing: http://arcanepaintworks.blogspot.com/2013/11/burnout.html?m=1

 I've definitely gone through periods of burnout, for different reasons each time, but I keep getting back in the saddle and trying to keep at it. Recently I've been frustrated with work on Tsathogga, where I'm happy with how the underbelly is looking but not at all liking the rest of the skin color I've airbrushed. That, coupled with a lack of definite inspiration as to final color choice (I want it to look like a frog, after all, only more disgusting and supernatural), a lot of hours at work and stuff going on w/ family, and that I'm kind of stuck with doing more on the skin before I can work on anything else because I still have the figure masked off for airbrushing.

 As a result of all of this, I haven't done any miniature-related anything in about a month. I think I'm over that, though, having some commission pieces to work on and getting a more definite idea on how I want Tsathogga to look overall - coincidentally, both appearing around the same time - that I'm enjoying looking forward to painting these Call of Cthulhu figures I've been prepping (and believe me, prep work is my least satisfying part of the whole miniature painting hobby).

How does anyone else handle burnout from art - whether it be lack of motivation, or whatever?

Status Update

1.  I've been working a lot of hours on the job lately and unfortunately it has left not a lot of time to post updates and work-in-progress as I'd like to - I've also been going through a little bit of a creative drought, but I'm still intent on keeping up with the blog and with painting. That brings me to...
2.  I'm putting the painting of Tsathogga, the Frog God, on hold for a bit for several reasons: I masked off the figure and started working on the rest of the skin - I started with a dark green, thinking that I'd paint him a near-black green and apply bands and mottling of different colors and he'd look amazingly awesome and I'd be able to move on to other details of the figure... yeah, not so much; I don't think the dark green works at all, he looks way too reminiscent of "Gollum" from the old Rankin-Bass animated version of The Hobbit, and I've been racking my brain for a while now trying to think my way out of the corner I've painted myself into while suffering from a great lack of inspiration; The other day, I had inspiration and I think I know where to go from here with the colors to use and everything! But that brings me to...
3.  I have several new commisioned paint jobs to work on at the moment! My work schedule has slackened somewhat, I'm expecting some more free time, and just when I was wondering what to do with myself and chomping at the bit to get back to spraying Tsathogga new and better colors - all of a sudden I have other figures that I have to work on for a customer instead of painting a very large, gross frog for my own enjoyment. These new figures are all very cool - a variety of investigators from RAFM's Call of Cthulhu miniature line to be painted to a high standard but for gaming use. I'll be posting updates as I get 'em and I'm working in small batches to fit within my still-somewhat-limited schedule - Tsathogga seems like the kind that can patiently wait, and after him, I believe I will be working on several Malifaux gangs.