gamegrene.com

Last summer I had a revelation. I suffer from a sort of lazy perfectionism I think I often see in gamers. I had plenty of ideas but often wouldn't act on them. If they couldn't be done right, they wouldn't be done at all - which usually boiled down to just the latter.

This wasn't much of a revelation in itself except combined with a couple others: after a few years of grad school, I'd have to get a real job next year. No more of the fun-but-poverty-inducing run of teaching freshman comp and creative writing classes to pay the rent (if not food and beer in addition).

The Baltimore Games Day also shed a little light on what sorts of painting improvements and changes I'd have to make in order to pick up a Golden Demon next year. Seeing and holding the prizewinning figures was exceedingly helpful, as was talking with painters and sculptors at Origins.

With all of this in mind, I undertook the Mini-A-Week project at Minutiae. I'd make time to paint at least one miniature a week for a full year. That way I'd get in the practice I wanted as well as forcing myself to implement some of my ideas and paint up at least fifty-two of my enormous collection of unpainted miniatures. I announced this idea publicly on a couple forums I frequent (with the idea that the threat of public embarrassment would keep me going) and posted the first miniature.

A funny thing happened soon afterwards: people started to join in. A few other folks decided I'd had a good idea and began posting their own weekly miniatures, giving me both the support of their numbers and additional minis to ogle.

An even funnier thing happened next. I'd posted a couple of my own sculpts (which had been cast as part of the Visions in Putty show) and got complimented on them. Encouraged, I tacked on a rider to my original idea - I'd paint or sculpt one figure a week. A third of the figures so far have been original sculpts, and the practice I've gotten as a result has encouraged me even more.

In addition to the painting and sculpting, I'd been writing up details as to the modeling and painting process, which is sometimes interesting in conjunction with pictures, but still a bit dry. Inspired by Tom of Norway (a painter who seems to have disappeared off the face of the net), I began adding in short fiction vignettes to the beginning of each description. I've gotten positive feedback on these as well as reviews for the miniatures - adding a story to the miniature onscreen is fun and helps place the creatures in some sort of mythos.

One of the main advantages the project affords me is the chance to document and discuss progress. I get to practice techniques and (I hope) look back on the advances I've made and tricks I've learned. At the time of this writing, it's been nearly six months without any weeks missed, and I've learned quite a bit.

I have to admit I'm in a good position to take this sort of thing on. Even with the imminent thesis due date and the wallet-flattening pay, I've got some free time to spare and plenty of miniatures on hand. Even so, I've converted cartoon time over to cartoon/painting/sculpting time. Most people have some squeeze room somewhere in the day, though some do have to squeeze harder than others.

With this idea in mind, though, I'd like to see some more (something)-a-week sites out there. If you're an amateur game designer, you might try and come up with a new spell, module, or rule per week. If you're a fiction writer, maybe a chapter or story every week. The time line could certainly vary - some people work more slowly or more quickly, and the deadlines could change accordingly. Whatever the time period, deadlines have really helped my painting and sculpting. Drop me an email or a post below if you're taking on a similar project, and let me know how things go.

Links to other Mini-A-Week sites:
http://www.geocities.com/jonaskane/main.html
http://members.lycos.uk/adstar/
http://www.siegetower.com/minioftheweek.html
http://www.bandofeight.org/gallery/albums.php
http://users.pandora.be/axehammer/daminipage/
http://www.cc.jyu.fi/~marsiit/miniaweek.htm
http://www.sleepless.to/brad/miniatures/miniaweek.html
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/pjlehtim/dungeon2/weekamini/index.html