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Friday, October 21, 2011

Finding Painting time in your Life: The #brushtime Protocol



Recently there has appeared a new tend on the twitter feeds of gamers everywhere.  It’s called #brushtime.  The concept is amazingly simple – every week, participants attempt to reach the goal of at 10 hours worth of painting, making sure to track their progress on Twitter. 

This is a very innovative concept, as it encourages hobbyists everywhere to make time for their painting as opposed to wondering how all that spare time during the week disappeared.  For example – With the impending release of Skyrim November, I’ve begun playing Oblivion (again) in an attempt to finally complete entire storyline (and expansion) while achieving as many of the in-game goals as I possibly can. 

To that end, I’ve got an entire evening’s worth of free time in which I can dedicate getting another couple of quests completed and possibly levelling up my Norse Fighter once or twice.  The only problem is I’ve still got another 2 hours left to go before I have reached by 10 hour #brushtime goal this week and I know that I won’t get any time to do that during the weekend.  So I’m forced to make a choice – Do I play Oblivion and not paint? Or do I smash out a painting session to get those last couple of hours up and reach my goal?  Alternatively, I can make a compromise where I spend an hour (or two) painting before moving on to play Oblivion.

For those people who do have a more demanding lifestyle than I, the question arises, where can I find the time to paint / convert / play?  Dave Taylor's Article 'Finding Time' provides a great article regarding this topic and I encourage you all to follow the link I’ve provided above to his site and give his article a read.  While you’re there, make sure you bookmark the page so you can revisit and read the plethora of other articles that are present there complete with amazingly painted models and conversions.  But I digress. 

The important thing to take from all this is that there are countless opportunities available throughout everybody’s day to squeeze in a little brushtime.  A few minutes before work, while you’re waiting for the kettle to boil, while watching TV, even while you’re waiting for your Xbox to load Oblivion!  Every minute you spend putting paint on a model now, is a minute closer to getting those models finished and onto the table.  You don’t need massive great chunks of free time to quickly spray-undercoat a miniature (you need plenty of sun and ample breeze, but this is about time management not weather control.  More on that in a later article).  All you need is a little preparation and a willingness to lean how to work efficiently with the time you have available to you. 

Give the #brushtime Protocol a go and let me know how you do.  Also if you’re on Twitter, feel free to follow me @Risk_Dude and keep up with my painting progress or any other aspect of the hobby that hits my Twitter feed.

Catch you all later

Trev

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