Monday, January 17, 2022

NaMoPaiMo is Coming

     NaMoPaiMo was started in 2017 by Jennifer Buxton. She wanted to challenge herself to paint a model in the month of February and her hope was to paint with a "few" friends. NaMoPaiMo took on a life of its own and I believe that year Jennifer painted with a couple hundred friends. I meant to be one of them, but I did not start out with a prepped model and I never even got started on painting. I was bummed but NaMoPaiMo is fun even just to watch. 
     In 2018 I made sure to have my model (from 2017) prepped before February. Let me stop here and say that if any of you are planning on joining in for NaMoPaiMo this year PREP YOUR MODEL NOW! OK, I got that out of the way. So anyway, I started with a prepped model and an insanely complex pattern, but I think Monet actually came out pretty well. And I was incredibly pleased to be able to post "I did it!" when I got her finished.
     In 2019 I went smaller, and with a color I had never painted before. Not hard to do really, since I have painted so few things ever. Hugh Can Do It was my first ever palomino, my first micro, and the first horse that I was actually really impressed with my paint work. Not with this photo, this photo sucks, but the paint work was the best I had ever done. I was definitely a winner. 
    2020 was the year we try not to speak of, but I had a lot of really cool stuff happen in 2020. Including painting Beauty Queen, who was my first traditional scale model that I didn't want to chuck right in the trash. She was my second palomino, and while she is not LSQ, she makes a fine performance model, and went on to do some fun things in photo shows. I have dreams of redoing some shading with pastels. Maybe I would like her even more if I did. 
     Last year I painted Partly Sunny into my first ever dappled gray. I have never worked so hard on a model. Ever. Dapples take a really long time. Shading and fixing things takes a really long time. The little lightning marks on the legs take a long time. Whites take a long time. This horses is also unlikely to actually be LSQ, but I am so happy with the effort I put in, and how he came out. He was named for the best of the weather we had for February 2021. We had a lot of rain and gloom with occasional days that were partly sunny. The other 2 horses were from minis painting minis. I'm also pretty pleased with them, but not like I am with Partly Sunny. 
     So what about this year? What will I be attempting to paint for 2022? I have no idea. I had this grand idea to finish my custom Winx and paint her during NaMoPaiMo. But that was way back in the Fall. Now I am teaching, tired, busy, tired, overwhelmed, tired. I don't have time to finish the customizing, let alone get to prepping. So likely I will have to paint something that is already prepped. Which basically leaves me with one option. I might just have to go that route. 




 

4 comments:

Adah R. (Spotted Dreams Studio) said...

Life happens. :) I'm doing a SM. Blah! I wanted to do at LEAST a classic leopard Appy, but this little Arab has told me that he just MUST be a chestnut. More Blah.

Adah R. (Spotted Dreams Studio) said...

Oh, and your models you painted are lovely! I especially like Partly Sunny. I agree that the T scale Palomino will look better with more shading. :)

Braymere said...

This year is going to be a challenge for me, too. I am doing a small-for-me leopard Appaloosa. It's a hard color, but it's mostly fast drying acrylics. I hope it works out.

timaru star ii said...

I like how you're not even considering not entering.

I haven't prepped my pony yet. My excuse is all 4 of my past NMPM ponies were prepped in Feb. But yeah.