"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live."


Well, easy to say from a ancient Ceasar, but in fact Marcus Aurelius is right.
I am still somewhere to find out what he means. In the end of 2013 I somehow did not feel good. A lot of work and I was running behind it without breath and proper break for the mind. Big goals for early 2014 made the moments I was living in even heavier on my shoulders. A break was needed. So I took it and I am just slowly finding back to normal. The change is: I stop feeling bad about it, like I did so much in the end of 2013.

Things are as they are and forcing yourself to pain is a bad choice.
Breathing and taking a deep break was the cure. And I found myself back in Ancient Rome with my full soul. I was reading all the books from Simon Scarrow about two Legionaries, Macro and Cato. I really enjoyed those. Watched the series "Spartacus" to finish. Read historical magazines about Rome and Celts, read some Asterix and Obelix comics and played Rome II. I got lost in Gaul and ... well, I hate Ancient Gaul. If you play with the Romans you have though and sturdy enemies, if you play with a celtic tribe it is even worse as they are so bad when it comes to ... well, they would rather fall in battle than call another tribe a true friend and that makes it pretty though when the roman legions march in. My fault was to play the game always on "very hard". That was my decision and yet I did not conquer Gaul but stopped playing it for the gods sake. Here follows a little story to summ up my experience in Gaul:

I marched my roman legions into dark Gaul without knowing what lies in front of me:




Beautiful, wild landscapes ...


Brave men marched under the eagle standard ...




And tired ones ... I knew they would not make it long ...

So we marched on ...

 And we found only abandoned places among the road ...
Bones and remains of civilisation ...
 The celtic tribes were always one or two steps ahead of us ...
 We have been able to find one of the enemies armies close to a bigger town ...
And well, those celts are a hard enemy. They all have mustaches and chest hair like bears.

So my army was preparing myself for battle ...

First we let the dogs loose ...
 ... but they came back with bloody noses ... so it was time to unleash the marching feet of my army...


 ... but none of them have been seen again. Dark Gaul swallowed them all. Brave and farting men, all gone ...

 Well, that sums up my experience with this game and my roman mania I had - or still have - since several weeks. So much inspiration that was thrown at me definatly also has to be put somewhere, so I worked further on a long time WIP ... just a little bit ... far from finished, but working on ... This guy is a Greek Celt from Pegaso in 90 mm.



Well, and a Young Miniature's bust found itself with colour too, a roman Legionary ... so you see, whereever my heart takes me, inspiration is not far. The green guy, well let's talk about him another time ...


Meanwhile, I made myself some rules for 2014.
I have to take it easy with my mind. Don't force myself to pain by running as fast as I can behind Emails, Fame others put on me, guilt I put on myself because being not able to do and manage it all. Concentrate on important things, taking time to breath. That is why the jungle is a bit slow at the moment. I hope our readers are not angry with that and all who know me should know that there is no offense behind this decision. So I am organising a lot of things behind the curtain but I take proper break ...

Early 2014 is pretty full with Painting Classes and I will focus on those. Travelling to Trier, Germany next weekend and really looking forward to it, but more about that soon in single blog post.


Well, so far from the table ...
Keep on happy painting!
Best Wishes
Roman