Seventh Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge - 2016

As you may well have seen from the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge blog of my good friend Curt Campbell, the Seventh Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has been recently announced. From December 20th, through to March 20th, bloggers and internet painters will be feverishly wielding their brushes in a collective bout of hobby madness.

I am sure that this year, like many previous years, will have many fantastic and magical moments from all the many friends participating, as well as some times of exhaustion, sore brush fingers, back-ache, frustration (through lack of time) and general chaos.

The Challenge is a slightly mad, though definitely most wonderful, time. It showcases the best of what the internet has to offer. In that regard, the painting and the (lustrous, lovely and spell-binding) miniatures of all participants are really just the backdrop to the real prize on offer – which is the deep and lasting friendships which the Challenge brings among those who take part, comment, observe, or just read about the Challenge-craziness.

I’m trying to be a little more organised in the Challenge this year, and have been thinking of some ideas for the Themed Rounds, as well as trying to get the figures I would like to paint prepared and ready. No doubt many of the other participants are doing the same. 

Mindful of saying too much and of achieving very little (or even less), I’m reluctant to say a great deal about what I’m hoping to do. I do, however, promise to try and blog a little more about the thought processes behind the entries and the painting and perhaps explain a little of the method behind the madness.

One of the things which was fun this Summer was using Google Hangouts to stage “paint and chat” sessions. Chatting to, and seeing people, around the world at their own painting tables was a great privilege. Hopefully, there’ll be many more of those Challenge “paint and chat” sessions before the end of March.

So whether you’re a grizzled veteran of previous Challenges or a newcomer, whether you’re hoping to paint 3,000 points or just 30, I wish you good luck and that I very much hope to see you in the Google Hangouts “paint and chat” very soon.