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.

Tsathogga, Part 2

 I've been painting away in fits and starts on Tsathogga, The Frog God - today was the first weekend day I've not had to work at all in roughly a month-and-a-half and moreso, I actually had an opportunity to get some decent work in on this guy's underbelly. (Not complaining about working per se, more about the lack of free time...) There's been a few other pics I've taken of various color stages on his underbelly and neck, but when it came right down to editing pics tonight to post something, I don't really think they showed anything worthwhile compared to this last one - essentially I went through a number of color changes, from greyish-green to pale grey to fleshy and finally, to this point which ends up being a combination of all of them!

 While I think I probably should go back and add another layer of highlighting, between how this looks photographed and the feedback I received at this season's first meeting of the Michigan Historical Miniatures Club earlier this week, I really think I ought to just push on and start adding coloration to the rest of the figure. In case my as-yet-untried airbrush masking skills crash and burn I won't have so much to redo, or more optimistically, when I get the rest of his skin tone and blotches and stripes and things blocked out I can decide how exactly to lighten up the underside a bit more - cool colors, warmer colors, more grey, and so forth.

 Feedback, as usual, is always appreciated - especially any suggestions on how to approach realistic contrast of a figure at this size (again, he's almost a good foot long from tip of his front hand to back of his hindmost foot). I'm guessing the easy answer would be to "exaggerate the highlighting and shading even moreso," but that's something I consistently struggle with, even on much smaller figures.

Tsathogga, Part 1

 Since shortly after GenCon, I've been working on a limited release casting of Tsathogga, the Frog God, from Center Stage Miniatures. This has got be one of the largest figures I've had the pleasure of painting, and definitely the largest resin casting I've ever worked on. Roughly a foot in length and molded from light grey resin, the detail on this figure is amazing - assembled from multiple parts, it surprisingly has minimal mold line issues and no bubbles in the copy I received. In all honestly, the trickiest part about assembly was pinning the arm and resculpting the gap where it meets flush with the body - other issues with the casting were fairly minor; I had to fill a few small cracks in the base near the body where the resin seems to have separated as it set, similar rough cracks in some of the deeper folds in his skin, and I had to dig out what I assume was solidified mold release agent in some of the deeper crevices on the body.

 I've made some progress in painting since this initial pre-primer pic and hope to post that shortly, but essentially I'm currently working on the figure in sections and trying to take as much advantage of the fine details already sculpted onto it as possible. I'm envisioning the underbelly as pale and sickly-looking, with blackened extremities on the upper body, pale, dead eyes, and a bright colored tongue to offset the rest of the more muted palette.

 If anyone has suggestions or tips on working with larger size figures versus the usual 1" tall scale that I'm mostly used to, by all means comment or post links. I'm trying to do this big guy as much justice as I can, since it is truly an awesome figure.