Thursday, March 9, 2017

Painting Challenge and Us ---You Too Gridley!



Want to have a friendly Painting Challenge? 

So said  I in an email to Chuck and John this week. Both signed onto "The Painting Challenge" as did a few friends in a chat group.

Why? --- What's the incentive, Bill?
  • Personal satisfaction.
  • Finish lingering stuff. (Even partially completed items.)
  • End painting funks, if  any.
  • Get new stuff ready for a games.

Since the first of this year, I've painted very little. Was it a painting funk - the lack of motivation to paint? Probably not. I've had good reasons - prodigious ones really. We all do. Anyway, I am putting a stop to this stoppage declaring my plans to the world; you fellows anyway. I'll tell you a secret. This declaration in itself is an incentive. 

I asked, "How about painting 35 things for our personal collections by 11:59pm Saturday April 15th?

What?
Anything - even stuff that is started but unfinished. In my case:

I primer painted 30x WWII Japanese infantry. 

Moved 3x nearly completed Stuart tanks closer to my brushes for accents and decals.

Moved 2x Japanese light tanks which need everything forward in my consciousness.

Here are my 35 things to finish in just about as many days.

A Few Tips:

1. Use no wiggle words such as, Should, I hope to, Maybe, I can't, We'll see, I dunno',  Pressure - um no way!, A competition - how plebeian!, etc. 

2. Get off your electronic devices. I mean it! Off! These are "time vampires."

3. Use a timer. It's amazing how as time crunches down, one stays on task.

4. No television. No movies. Listen to uplifting or upbeat music instead. No Brahms please!

5. Writers demand solitude when they wright. Family and friends know this. Well! You are a painter. You can demand solitude to paint. It's okay to stop if someones hair is really on fire or a nuclear war starts. Otherwise let nothing get in your way.

6) I'll compose an excuse for you if you are invited to a game though! Go play.

7) Plan a game needing this stuff. This really helps! April and May 2017 will see us go to the Philippines in 1942. Hence all the germane WWII items for me.

8) Do this with friends and have fun with it.

9) I need to brush on a protective coating of Blick Matte Acrylic/Varnish on my Stuarts right after posting this. However, before I sign off, what are your plans and tips? May we please see them below in Comments?
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