Overhaul

In the post-before-last, I questioned whether House of Zoxe should continue on.  I wasn't really in a mindset to pack it in, but I was kind of questioning my motives and how to increase visibility.  Pevil jumped in and was a great sounding board, and the result of that conversation resulted in just a few minor tweaks that I could make to increase my own enjoyment with this project.

So here's the line in the sand, the milestone, the point where I overhaul.

FIRST - Repeat visitors will notice the new layout.  After using the a more graphical/modern layout for the first year or so, I'm taking a step back to something a little more basic. 

I'm curious if part of the problem with keeping all y'all's attention was the theme.  So it's gone.  (Two sub-notes:  a) Expect more tweaking as we go, and b) you might find some broken formatting in older posts. I'll fix it if I see it but I'm not auditing everything right now).

As a side benefit, I'm no longer forced to include an image in every post (it broke the old theme), which means I might be inclined to type stray thoughts without feeling like I need to stop and dumpster drive for an appropriate image.

SECOND - I'm going to delve into some additional personal writing.  This is my platform, my outlet, and there's more to Zoxe than just airbrushing little army men.  You've been warned.

I stayed away from this kind of non-gamer content intentionally because I felt like it diluted the blog a bit, and if I go through a period where I'm not gaming/painting, then it becomes post after post of randomness.  My EVE blog went through this in its death throes.  But I also think that it could spice things up and perhaps make this a page worth bookmarking.

THIRD - I have a few projects in the hopper, but I'm also shifting my methods a bit to focus on volume over perfection. 

This fall, I stepped back from the path I was on.  I'm an "okay" painter and I don't aspire to perfection.  The "expected" path is that as a mini painter, I should aspire to finer control, more difficult techniques, cleaner blends, better basing, and incrementally better and better results - inching and clawing and begging and pleading towards higher and higher levels of quality.

The mini-painting community is great - friendly, inclusive, and creative.  But for some of us the moving of the goal posts becomes unhealthy. 

I needed to remind myself that I started in the hobby NOT intending to paint but just to PLAY the damn games.  My very first figures were a 3 or 4 step process (Prime, basecoat, wash, dry brush).  There's a slippery slope of adding complexity to a painting process to add some detail, pull up a highlight, push a shadow, fix a line, add some freehand.  There's a peer pressure aspect to it, there's a self motivation aspect.  I'm not sure how else to describe it.

Anyway, I need to not obsess and just shut up and paint.  I'm okay with a "Tabletop plus" result.  I'm going to screw up some models, learn some things, and be okay with it.