When is good enough good enough?

Back in February, the Kings of War US Masters Championship was held down in San Antonio, Texas (actually it is going on as the time I started writing this, though it is taking me a LOT longer to get back to finishing it than I ever anticipated).  64 players, the best of the best.  Eight from each of the eight regions, competing to see who is the top for this year.

Two years ago, at what is in my opinion the FIRST Masters (the tournament had been held for a few years, however it was for Warhammer Fantasy Battles then, and this was the first time it was for Kings of War) championship, I played as a mercenary, filling in the numbers because at the time some regions didn't have eight people that could make the tournament.  I was so far out of my league. I came in 50th out of 64 - which is actually better than I expected (I even won one game).  Last year it was in the midwest so I helped run it, and this year I didn't even manage to qualify (let alone make the team).  I can remember years ago when the Kings of War community was so small I was in the top 10 players in the country - now I'm not even sure I would be one of the top ten players at our local store (maybe, but only because I'm not sure if we actually have 10 players who call our store home).

Adepticon used to have the Crystal Brush painting awards, and GW had the Golden Daemon.  Many conventions have highly competitive painting competitions.

One of the issues in our modern society is that we are obsessed with being the best, being the top.  But by definition, the vast majority CAN NOT be the best - we can't all win.  (And when everyone gets an award for just showing up - well that completely devalues it.)

By definition, most of us are average.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.  And there is nothing wrong with striving to improve, and trying to get better.

The problem is when this gets in the way of actually doing anything.  I have seen people say that they don't want to go to tournaments if they can't win.  Or that don't want to paint because they can't match the paint jobs they see at competitions, or published to promote new releases.

There is nothing wrong itself with the pursuit of excellence.  However what our society seems to miss any more is the value of the pursuit, not the goal.  It shouldn't be about being the BEST, it should be about IMPROVING and getting constantly better.

One of the most intimidating things is a blank canvas, both literally and figuratively.  Be it a miniature or an empty computer screen.  Sometimes it is difficult to get started (I even find this professionally as a computer programmer - nearly anytime I start a new class I copy and paste in a base template - to both save time typing in the same stuff (especially the standard comments needed by the company) and so I have something, anything, to start with.

Even this blog - when I start a new post I enter several blank lines and type in the closing tag - because I KNOW what that is, and then I have something to start with.  I almost always then add a picture (because plain walls of text are boring), and then stuff starts to flow.

Even worse is when you don't start because you don't believe the end result will be good enough.  When being creative, the only result that is NEVER good enough is the one that is never started.  You may not get what you want, but then you hopefully learned how NOT to do something, so the next time it can be just a little bit better.

Even if you have never painted a miniature before, don't be afraid.  It may not be the best, but that is ok.  If it turns out truly horrible - you can always paint over it, or strip it completely and start again.  Or even better, move on to the next one and get better.

One other bit more specifically about miniature painting for game play (yes, there are some people who paint miniatures just to paint them (I've done that something like 3 times in my life :-) ).  When starting out, there are a lot of easy shortcuts to help you get started.  One of the most basic is what is often referred to as the "Army Painter Method", because Army Painter promotes it.  For this, you simply do the base coat colors and then follow it up with a wash (or dip).  This shades the model, and even after all the models I've painted, it still amazes me how much of a difference it makes.  Or you can try out the new citadel contrast paints ( and I'm very much expecting other manufacturers to soon have their own line of these (please Valejo)!  These do some of the highlighting and shading for you, and are an excellent way to get started.  These methods by themselves aren't going to win any awards, but the goal here is to get the models on the table!

A good example of this is Jesse at Mastercrafted (no the cute one, not Pizza Jesus) because Kyle was teaching her to paint (and Kyle is a great painter - his Nature army was amazing (too bad it didn't work on the tabletop for him, so we never see it!), and was teaching her layering and blending.  These are great and valuable techniques, but not for getting your first model on the table.  I teased her a bit about putting 57 layers on a paladin's ass cloth.  It may not have been quite that many (and the number seems to increase every time I think about it) but the sheer fact was she could have finished that model and done at least another on in the time she took painting one part of it.  All while putting off filming a battle report because the minis weren't finished.  Her stuff looks great in the video that they finally did, but no one is looking at the back of the paladin and thinking "Wow, that layering makes his butt look fantastic".  You can check out the video here.

So just because you can't be the best doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.  Even the very best started out somewhere, and you will quickly find that good enough is plenty good enough.

I would be lax if I didn't reference this excellent article I found on this topic - check it out on BBC

Because it is all fun and games . . .