Uhh... very interesting question. For me, it's not just lubricate colour on a miniature, with every brushtroke, the world that I dreamed of day for day, become real. With this hobby I can bring my dreamworld, the world where I wish to be, on earth and in a special way, it give you hope and make you smile. I will make my world real.

I enjoy my painting time the most when I lose the track of time. I could easily paint 6 hours without brake if I get the inspiration.

Its not really the painting, its the brainstorming at the beginning. I had an idea, and then i get a picture in my head, that I try to build with the mini. I love to take parts and bring the Idea...the picture in my head....to life.

I enjoy my painting time the most when I sit down at the paint station after a hard day's work, with the sounds of your favorite music in the background, with my cat at his side and carry out projects, which I think in my spare time. Forget about everyday life by giving the joy of fun colors, new techniques and the creation, something that I hope will remain after me for years ... something which perhaps will give some fun and let the memories of my grandchildren ...

Thats quite simple :

I enjoy painting most when i am lost in time and everything is just happening without thinking over it - (i actually tried to explain that in another little place) this thing to me is called WU WEI. (In fact WU WEI got many ways of expression and means different things)

When you get into that "mode" its somehow meditative.

I know a person (no names here ;) ) who would say: "keep on happy painting" to this ;)

Regards

Steffen

I enjoy painting the most when a vision comes in my mind, and just realize that this is feasible !

i enjoy painting the most when i can listen in my head the story of the project im working on... when i can tell why the character is there and where will he going :)

I posted something which sums up my philosophy of "happy painting" recently on Hand Cannon Online, The Happy Painter's Manifesto.

Basically, there are six principles—no right and wrong, no mistakes, no fear, no deadlines, no critics, and no rules.

I enjoy my painting time the most when I and my friends are laughing, because I again cleaned my brush in a cup of tea instead of water standing next to it. It’s nice to be dedicated to project You’re working on, and still bringing joy to yourself and the others ;)

I enjoy painting, in fact I own painting a favor. I´ll start from the begining (sort of). I have painted miniatures on and of for many years, the last 2,5 years have been all about improvement, I suddenly "got it" at a lot of things regarding paintings. I´m no golden deamon painter, but I have confident in my painting and I´m often pleased with the result.
At the end of last summer, a big catastrophy happen to me, my family was going to split, mening not only a new place to live, beeing alone but also having to share the kids, not seeing them for a week, then have them and so on. I lost all my confidens in all areas and my spirit to paint, untill yesterday. I had paninted befor, but on a rutine. Yesterday I suddenly felt, wow this is painting! And for the first time in months I fellt really good!Today I could awake that feeling again, and my spirit raised again. For the first time in ages I feel alive, and I own painting for that. the colors, the brushes, I just had "flow". Of course visons, and doing that thing you never thought you could do, sure it´s enjoyable but that "flow", it´s once in a lifetime! So my conclusion is, I enjoys painting most when I need it most, when life suck´s and you sees no tomorrow, then I enjoys painting the most. It has given me my life back again.

Shaping scenery and it´s elements gives me the sensation of being able to change the world. You can change the world by changing the little things in your surrounding. It gives me the satisfaction of manifesting my fantasies.

Painting rushes my consciousness with the joy of pumping life into the stories I want to tell.

There's so many feelings! But today I would like to share this one: "When painging is healing" Did you ever had a horrible day but the willing to end it painting? When doing so I forgot about everything and end up calmed and fresh for the next one.

I enjoy my painting time most when I can share that joy with my friends and we paint together, drink beer, party on and be generally excellent to each other.

Once a long ago, and can be yesterday, in fact we out of time and out of space, those who we name the ancestors divided with each other appearances, but not words. Today most people lost this possibility. Each of us in the flow of life gets possibility to return the primordial memory. Creation of new appearances - it what we can be partaken with other, even not exposing a mouth.
When a child gives birth, he knows not a single word, in any language, but he perceives absolutely ALL appearances by the consciousness. A process of creation of new miniature is possibility for a time to become children and to perceive the surrounding world as children. And main, to pass without words the appearances to other people, divided the internal world with other, to participate in the process of creation something less, but no less meaningful. Not important, as we do it. Participation is important in the process of creation.
On the essence all of us are Creators...

I beg pardon for my English. Fell all guilt on Google translator :)

Best wishes,
Eugeny aka sabresword

i enjoy my painting the most when i have a troubled mind (thinking an worrying about whatever), then i sit down, start painting and shortly after all the worries ebb away.

I enjoy painting the most when everything just kind of comes together and sometimes become more than the sum of its parts. That's when the mini really comes to life and the little hero's or monster's story becomes real, then the "real" world sort of fades away. At that moment I become like dr. Frankenstein and think "It's alive..."

-Kristian

I enjoy taking on the challenge of looking at a raw unpainted sculpt, then thinking what I would like for it to appear like. I see the miniature come to life as I develop the work color by color shadow and highlight, some weathering and even small detail work such as text and designs. miniature painting is "BRING LIFE TO THE LIFELESS THROUGH COLOR." and most often the manipulation of light.

It's always hard to motivate myself, but when I start painting, I usually paint for hours and lose track of time.

I enjoy my painting time the most when I have gone through the trouble of prepping, assembling, and priming well beforehand. I will sometimes take a week and prepare 25-30 models and then put them away for the future. There's nothing that makes me smile at the table more than "discovering" a well-prepped model that I had forgotten about.

What I enjoy most about painting is seeing the progress I've made. I think all the time about how my models don't look as good as I'd like and then some kid will tell me how awesome they are. I remember being that kid, and when I look back at how far I've come, that is satisfaction. I love knowing I am growing as a painter and a person.

I have not many time to paint, but when i have my time, its like a maschine who is running, i cant stop with painting, and after some hours i look on my work, and smile because i see that is somethink what I only have make with my two hands.

It's a work of love!

Our hobby is meticulous. It takes planning and precision, patience and love. But my real joy is when something happens by chance, a color, a shade, an accident, AND IT WORKS!!!! Better than you planned all along! Through planning comes chaos!
Grifter from SA

Ps: your site is my church!

..only painting...no thinking..my place to chill ;-)

cu..the silverback

I enjoy my painting time the most when it rains or the snow is falling. When it rains I don`t need music, the rain is enough for me then. But when it snows, it is ... I don`t really know how to say ... very quiet, you hear only the snow ... it`s a bit magic .

Greets, Steffen

All my friends make fun of me because I'm always really slow painting a miniature, but I love to spend all the time it takes making every little step the best I can. Also, putting all this efforts and time in each piece you start “fealing something” for the piece, it makes a connection and I love the feeling of looking a miniature and smiling without a reason, because each colour, each brush stroke, it's just you, you are putting yourself in the piece. You look at it and you see yourself :)
That is all true, but probably I enjoy my painting time most....well...when I don't paint :D Have you ever tried that hunger, that love, when you can't wait to finish the work day, all that you are doing, just to run to your workbanch and hold the brush? I love just the second before starting, when you grab the miniature and you feel relieved. Maybe it's like an addiction, I don't know, but when you sit down and you open the first colour pot you feel better. I really love that moments :)

I enjoy painting the most if there is the rare chance to paint together with other's. Chatting, painting, exchanging, looking around in concentrated but happy faces...and than open a bottle with paint and start myself painting....

I paint for the goosebums! When you get that sensation running through your body when you overachieve yourself. It's like a rush you can get addicted to.

Why is painting time AWESOME time for me ...

Because IT IS PURE CREATIVITY FOR ME!

So many ideas and dreams crying to be expressed .. painting of sculptures and scenes .. a passion .. a way to share feelings, impressions, experiences, values and beliefes in life .. and every project is a new wonderful journey ..

as manyfold as life - BEAUTIFUL!

With best wishes
Oliver
aka Ocean/Sky

Painting for me is freedom, to sit and imagine to wonder the possibilities. to escape the world and be free.

I enjoy my painting time the most when I forgot to change the music when the playlist is over.

I enjoy my painting time the most when I look up from my desk and the it's dark outside.

I enjoy my painting time the most when my wife and son are sleeping safe and sound and the house (and the world) is quiet. Then I can be certain I don't miss anything important :)

I paint because i'm in mission in the name of God

....I'm in the zone.

Christopher

I enjoy my painting time the most when... I paint and everything else in the world that is troubling me at the moment melts away. My whole mind is consumed with little details and colours.

I enjoy my painting time the most when I'm painting a piece for a close friend or relative as a gift. For me this is a way of showing my appreciation of having them in my life...because lets face it we don't know if the last time we see them will be our last. It's always a great feeling painting something and the anticipation I have for when you get to see their face in awe as you give them something painted just for them. Recently this past Sept I lost my mom to cancer...it was a year of struggle and we knew it was a matter of time before she was gone. Mom always loved Angels and I had planned on painting one for her Birthday in Oct but I knew deep down she wouldn't be around for her birthday. So, I got to working on the angel and managed to complete it in a short period of time at my best quality of paint job. Went to visit her at my parents house and told her I had a suprise for her. Carefully I brought the mini in and held it in my hands in front of her and told her to open her eyes. The look on my moms face made my heart melt as she was so excited and amazed at what I had done for her. I can't count the number of times she said she loves her angel so much and she couldn't quit looking at it throughout the week. She was only able to enjoy it for a short time..but I like to think it helped lift her spirits and showed her how much I loved her. This is why I enjoy my painting time...
Cheers everyone!

I enjoy my painting time the most when sharing this time with my three sons (14,10&8) we all laugh together and get a real family trip. Painting with them isn't very efficient but it's a real pleasure after some dificults moments (leukaemia for the little one - well cured, don't be afraid). So, sharing some fantasy with them, learn about there visions so different from one to another and guide them to be perfectionists, that's the goal and that's my joy.
But...
I hate my painting time the most when i realize i'm 44 and, damn shit, i need some glasses !!!

Cheerio!
Bereny

I have known "miniatures and painting miniatures" in year 1986. I imagined to fight versus great powerfull chaos knights and to ride on a faithful dragon, I saw all of this fantasy world when I painted with a plucked brush and six basic colors mixed together. Now when I see a mininiature behind the brush behind my right hand I remember 1986 and the knights fight for me against tax and work problems.

Do you know that moment, just before you fall asleep, when the world around you suddenly comes to life? When shadows start to take form and you see things moving that shouldn't move, but you feel it is good and you are in peace with the world around you?
Painting for me is at it's best when I reach that point. Not from exhaustion but from the meditational state of mind painting puts you in. When you see not just the colors you are going to use but the way the little person would move and behave. When the painting is not mere painting but creation and you feel calm and in harmony with yourself and your surroundings.

I enjoy my painting time the most when ...
I recognise that my paintingskill is continuously inceasing and I compare my newest and oldest "masterpieces" :P

Do you know that feeling when you have an awesome idea in your head, THAT ULTIMATE idea? And you start painting with all the passion you have, but the result is more than a total disappointment?

I enjoy my painting time the most when ...
the idea comes to reality!

For me what I enjoy most out of painting is the creative aspect and that I am making something physical. I spend so much time in the virtual world on computers (for work and off) that working with a physical object is really important. Plus I get a lasting keep sake for my time invested.

Painting a model lets me zone out and focus on working on something simply because I enjoy what I am doing right then, It lets all other concerns and worries slip away and lets me just be myself

I enjoy my painting time the most when I'm loosing connection to reality until I come back to it realizing that what seems to be few seconds was in reality a long time.

I now the competition is over but I wanted to share:

I enjoy my painting, and the hobby it is part of, when every new project, nay every single idea, sparks off and proves time and again that I (none of us for that matter) am not simply copying: I can create something unique in every possible aspect - be they good or bad - every single time. I find that thought awe inspiring...

just a thought... but that's where it all starts


- Thomas P. -

When I catch my daughter watching me with her big smile.

Each one of us has a specific influential historic timeline in creating our masterpieces.Whatever our choices or preferences may be, there is no right or wrong time for creating an art.Our works paintings reveal something about ourselves. The colors that we choose, the shades that we select,and every stroke, is an imprint of our personality, an expression of our true self.

I started painting (again) 25 years ago to stop myself getting bored and ending up in a depressive 'funk'. Since then it's evolved (or devolved) into a meditation and addiction. But I wouldn't trade it as I've found that I really enjoy the painting the most when I end up painting something special as a gift or competition piece and have to challenge myself.
People like the Massive Voodoo, and Coolminiornot crowds are what keep and drive the 'Aiming' point of painting standards higher and higher.
"Tutti Amore"