This is for me as much as for anyone else. We all have hobbies that we do. You see what I write about, I like to play board games, RPG’s, anything to do with Marvel, or anime and manga, I have a lot of hobbies. But when if I want to pick up a new hobby, and right now, I do. How do you go about picking up a new hobby? I think there are a few ways that people dive in. And how am I diving into painting minis?

Different Ways to Start a New Hobby

Skimming

The first way is what I would call skimming over hobbies. That is where a new hobby interests you so you give it a whirl. You grab the minimal amounts needed to start the hobby and you get going. You see if you like it without much investment.

This is how I started divining into painting during the pandemic. I bought the minimal amount that I needed. A couple of brushes and a few paints. But I never got that into it. Some of it is that I bought less than I needed. I didn’t have primer so was just a bit of a mess as I tried to start.

Deep Dive

Another way, and this way I kind of am splitting into hairs with, is the deep diver. The person who will spend and get everything for a hobby with it. Let’s take painting miniatures again as an example. What happens if you do a deep dive there?

There are a ton of things you can get for painting. You buy things to hold miniatures, you get a ton of paints. There are things you get for storing paintings, magnifying glasses stands so see finer detail, and really so much that you can decide to pick-up. All of that before you even start the hobby. And with something like mini painting, they go deep into watching videos and learning techniques before even picking up a brush.

Preparing

And I think that it is splitting hairs some with deep dive and preparing. When you do the deep dive you get everything. When you prepare you get most of the things. But it is focused on making sure you have enough to start started well and enough knowledge to make it work.

In the case of painting minis, that is buying a good variety of paint colors, some different brushes, primers, varnish and more so that you are set for painting. I think even watching a video or two about being new to painting is good for preparing. It lets you know what you might not know, for me for example it was about varnish. But it isn’t so far down the rabbit hole that I’m looking up advanced techniques.

How Do You Start a New Hobby?

So what is your preferred way? For me, I think I wanted to just go and get started, which, I found, didn’t work for me. I am too much of a planner, that is part of what I do. Now I don’t plan everything, but I want to know a bit more of what I’m starting to do. And I did watch some videos but things like varnish, totally missed that when I started. And knowing a bit of why things are done, such as thinning paints is useful as well.

So now, when I start painting again, plan to do it this Fall, I am more of a preparer. I don’t think that I went into the deep dive stage, but I do think that preparer and deep dive are close. I own now more paints, varnish, and more brushes. But there are other things, like holders for all my paints, lighting, or whatever else it might be that I haven’t gone into. I will like watch a video on starting painting again, but that’ll be about it.

What is a new hobby you are starting?

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