Mr Lee's Painting Emporium is a year old!!!

My son's birthday cake baked by his Aunt Michelle

Wow.. this kind of came without even realizing.. was thinking the other day that I have been at this blogging for a bit, but not active until very recently.. and then I checked when I posted my first article and it was April 1st of last year! So a few days late, but was on holidays over the weekend so not much can be done about it!

So a full year.. well I can honestly say this is the longest I have been at this type of thine, and I have attempted it many times in the past. Sometimes for travel ( and have retried that here also ) and sometimes for painting ( until that site domain got taken over by Asian Escorts ).. but in reality this did take a massive set back almost immediately after starting due to a change in positions, and a lack of motivation. Until the beginning of December when apparently I began to kick it into high gear and get the painting and hobby activities into a more active role within my life.

So some stats of what has happened here..

• I did all of 11 posts in April and May.. and then nothing until November.. 
• mmm goal for this year is to keep the posts coming, and not miss any months!
• Somewhere in December I began to post the Dark Elf commission to multiple different forums, and this helped me draw in some new attention
• Will be a continuing trend of showing off my work to different forums to try to increase views
• Following other bloggers in January/February, and getting more involved with them as well
• Huge assistance was gained from this, and I will have to do up a post linking to the blogs that I read most frequently and for inspiration
• Since taking all of the above into consideration, my view counts have gone up.. not massively, but enough in a positive trend for me to care about..
• Need to try to continue this trend, and see what else I can do to increase it. 
• The more views I get, the more motivation I have to continue to paint and deliver for everyone to see!

Shows 2009, but started in April 1st, 2011. As you can see, it took off quite well in December, and is continually going upwards since. 

Popular posts of the year have been:

• Dark Elf Pegasus: This was the first of the Dark Elf posts that really took off, and gained a lot of hits. I think it was the freehand on the banner sections, but cannot be sure. 
• Battle Rep: Night Goblins vs Chaos Dwarfs: This was very popular thanks to a good friend of mine, BuRock, who was my opponent, and also linked to it from his blog. 
• Chaos Dwarf K'Daai Destroyer: The beginning of the destroyer itself.. lots of attention given to it since then, and am thankful to say that it was completed before the tournament last weekend. 
• Naked Elf Kneeling: I think this is popular only cause of the title.. aside from that, the skin paint job on it was a treat to do up, and I think it came out one of my best. 
• Arachnarok Spider: One of my latest projects and posts, and it became quite popular due to help from the Tale of Painters blog network that I joined this year. 

So what is to come then? Where is this thing going? And why should you read it? 

Well hopefully your reading cause you find what I am painting interesting, or in the case of some of the commissions it was cause they were yours and it showed where I was in so far as getting it completed. 

This year however I will be focusing more on personal projects, and looking to complete some of the back log of models that I have sitting around the house/attic/storage/cupboards etc.. and have more to play with in coming years as well. 

I will also be changing positions at work once more, and potentially location ( UK, do I hear you calling me?? ) and with that I am looking forward to what challenges and adventure I will get to partake in. 

Project plans though include:

• Night Goblins horde army: This has sat around for far too long, and as such needs to get completed. Though I suspect I will get most of it done before the end of the month, there will be some tiding up to be done ( bases, eyes etc ) that I will revisit over the year. 
• Austrian NAP 20mm Army: My last commission for a long time. This is also one that I have been sitting on for a long time, and as such have a real need to see it get finished. More so with the potential move looming in the distance. 
• Deamons of Chaos: My largest army I have for Fantasy as far as points are concerned, and my main project for this year. I hope to see them get fully completed and finished before the end of the calendar year. This is quite optimistic, however a lot of the work will be done with an Airbrush, so I hope it helps to make things go faster and smoother with it. 
• Chaos Dwarfs: A project that has stalled a few times, however with the new book I hope to dive back into it quite hard as well. I have picked up some more models recently ( thank you and I hate you eBay for being so easy to work with ) and so plan to get some of them done up in no time as well. 
• Misc projects: On top of mass production of painting models, I am hoping to do a few more in detail or higher quality jobs this year as well. I have started with the Dwarf Pilot Bust, however I will continue along this, and add many more over the year. I will also try to finish up my Infinity Nomad army, while also doing some Terrain.. 

So my plans are varied, and in more than one occasion ambitious to say the least, but this year I am going big or going home, so to speak. So will see how much of it all I can get completed. 

So with that, and a nice vacation over the weekend with my wife, I look forward to the new year, and to meeting new friends within the Blog-o-sphere, and to seeing which of my projects get completed and which have been shelved once more.. 

Wife and I in Izmir near the seaside.. I think I need a shave after that last painting marathon..