Being friends with painting "Failures" & getting inspiration

Well this blog is called Jacksarge's Wargames Ramblings , but I don't tend to do much "rambling", mostly I stick up pictures of completed work. Today, I thought I would have a brief ramble about painting related stuff - painting & aesthetics are two of the biggest interests I have in this hobby after all.

I recently read a cool forum post on the Reaper Forum that linked to this excellent illustrated rambling HERE.
This is really aimed at creative stuff but can easily be applied to all sorts of endeavours in life.
Basically it's encouraging people to "have a go", try something new, and don't beat yourself up because it doesn't look "right" first time - or maybe not for a long time :-)

I think it's great to develop your own techniques for painting miniatures, building models, stuff like that. Sometimes we can get hung up on being a painting clone of someone else like Kevin Dallimore, Steve Dean, James Wappell....insert name of painter whose work you admire. I have tried to learn new stuff from these guys, and have tried those things out with varying levels of "success". This sort of stuff has helped to morph my painting from where it was in the 70's when Military Modelling Magazine was my only source of inspiration, to where it is now as a codger in his late 40's.

I find that it's not only looking at the wonderful work of others on the internet, magazines & books which helps stoke the creative fires, but also the materials. I do get excited by materials, I have to curb my paint purchasing habit- I really like paint, all those little bottles and pots lined up in their colours groupings or perhaps triads.....Brushes are something that I like to have a lot of too, in a variety of shapes sizes & materials. I recently purchased a few filbert brushes after listening to & watching videos of James Wappell in action with them- a very handy tool to have in the arsenal.
The point is, that these new materials have made me want to try out new things, or re-visit old things that I may have bungled previously.

A Snapshot of my painting area

More Paint! These are my Reaper cases.

Brushes and stuff...

I find that inspiration for painting miniatures doesn't just have to come from Wargames Illustrated, WSS, or MW- I get it from all sorts of places. It pays to cast your net a bit wider than the usual historical miniature wargames forums & media. I've found lots of inspiration from the studio painters who paint insanely beautiful display pieces like seen in this type of magazine: http://www.figurepaintermagazine.co.uk/
The scale modelling community, the model railway community, fine art - all have given me ideas.
Friends also have given me nudges in certain directions- an old wargaming mate of mine, James, many years ago introduced me to the ideas behind glazing as used by the old masters in 2D art.
Having a little bit of fine art training in my background has also helped me to realise that I don't need to buy all my materials from The Army Painter etc., there's actually a lot of really cool & useful stuff at the art & craft shop.

I think that I have a lot more to say about this subject- and as my friends can attest, I can drift into lengthy monologues if I don't check myself :-)
So what do you folk think, has "failure been your friend" in this hobby? Where do you get your inspiration for painting & creating stuff? Does seeing the amazing work of others sometimes paralyse you like a rabbit caught in the headlights?
It would be great to hear what you have to say.

All the very best,
John.