There are a ton of articles out there on how to paint using different medians, or techniques of deluding paint, allow me to talk about a different kind of how to paint. How to paint when you have ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). For those not familiar with the disorder it's best described as wanting to do something but not having the ability to stop your mind from wondering away from it. Imagine if you will your sitting in front of a TV which has a show you want to watch, but someone else has the remote and keeps changing the channel every few minutes before going back to the show you wanted to watch. Only to start the cycle of channel flipping all over again. As you can imagine it would be hard to full grasp and enjoy your show cause your not able to give it your full attention. Probably a poor imagery but it's hard to explain. Now mind you there are many variants of ADD and ADHD out there. I will address the one I am familiar with, which is bare bones ADD (no hyperactive), and steps I take to curb my symptoms and allow focus to some good painting time.
1. One project to rule them all.
What I mean by this is at your painting station/desk/kitchen table/where ever you paint at, keep the clutter out and other possible painting distraction away from you. I tend to have 3-5 armies I want to play at any given time (another blessing of ADD). That being said if I have models from these armies on my painting table I will easily be distracted from painting the one I want, and start painting various things of the other armies. Don't do this to yourself. Make sure your painting station has only the model/unit you wish to work on. This even goes for models/units from the same army as the one your painting (ie. If I am painting a Blood Angels Librarian he should be the only model on my table. Not even the RAS squad he travels with as they will be a distraction as well. Libby and just the Libby)
2. Hunger Pains
You know how they tell you not to go grocery shopping hungry. I would recommend not painting hungry either. Eat a snack (or a meal should the time be appropriate) before you go to the table. Hunger plays a huge part in internal distractions and we don't need that. We need focus.
3. Stretch and Exercise
Say what!?!? Yeap. While you are painting take breaks every once and a while (get an egg timer if you need) and get up and stretch your body and do some sort of physical exertion. Sound odd, well it may be but when your sitting still and not doing much moving your brain is not receiving it's full stimulation. Lengths of physical stimulation black outs will result in further attention issues. Feel your leg starting to bounce or notice your body is starting to twitch or shift alot, these are all signs that your body is trying to tell you it's time to move about. Do some sit ups, push ups, wall push ups, whatever you can that gives you a short bust of physical stimulation to curb your bodies needs.
4. Not a Marathon, take your time.
I know there are plenty of Golden Demon level painters out there who tell us to "take your time" "some models may take hours to paint". And I couldn't agree more. So of my worst work was because I wanted to sit down and get some painting in, and I figured if I skipped steps and did it quick I could get a model or squad done before my attention disappeared again. Take your time. If you don't finish a model in one session so be it, it's ok. Do what you can and if you feel your attention completely slipping away then try again another time.
Look you can't will ADD away, it just doesn't work that way no matter how much you believe in mind over body, but you can accept it and acknowledge it and help yourself to remain focused. It's all about how we do things that will allow us the control we need. Clear your area, come prepared, take breaks and take your time and even someone with ADD can pull out stellar models from their painting tables.
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