Trying to pump out a daily blog post has me thinking about how to accomplish this more quickly and efficiently. While I have seen an uptick in traffic due to these posts they are not really designed to draw in traffic as well as the other pages.
This drives me to figure out how to keep this up and knock it out more quickly so that I can actually work on those pages and learning the art techniques necessary to make those pages.
This got me thinking about efficiency in our art practices and how to get the most out of each session we have. How can we ensure we are making art every day and that when we do it progresses us to higher skill levels? Whether we are a studying student or a working parent, we all have time constraints we need to manage. Perhaps some of these suggestions may help you!
One thing that can help is creating a list of projects to pursue. I believe I mentioned this before on the “How To Start Painting as a Hobby” page. If you want to develop your drawing skills, keep a list of ideas you want to draw or paint. Things that inspire you and will make you want to take action!
The next thing you can do, and this is the important part, is while you start pursuing those projects, be consciously aware of where you are having difficulties in trying to make that project come to life.
I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post how I noticed I was having difficulty with hands (which I subsequently found out yesterday evening they are still challenging for me) and then immediately decided to practice just hands. You can also add it to your project list instead of doing it right away.
I believe I saw a Jazza video where he referred to this as conscious practice or developmental practice. In fact, he discusses a number of different types of practices.
- Innate practice
- Inspired practice
- Developmental Practice
I’m not going to go into each of those right now but here is a link to Jazza’s video where he discusses them. He also throws in some very valuable exercises later in the video too. Perhaps I can do videos on those when I start my own YouTube channel…
What I am recommending here is really a way to combine all three while ensuring that you are utilizing your time productively. Continuing to produce artwork is essential to becoming an artist. Just as continuing to produce high-quality content every day is essential to me becoming a successful web developer.
It seems like a no brainer I’m sure but it is hard to make sure one practices every single day. Life gets in the way. We make up justifications and excuses. We get tired. We have this thing or that thing that we need to do instead. I literally just did that for the past 6 months with this website!
It is a matter of making time and making sure that when you have the time that you know exactly what you want to do with it. Knowing how to break the inertia that causes inaction and then tackling that list!
Start making your list today! Be open-minded. Listen to what your thoughts gravitate to naturally. Before you know it you will be looking back through the pages of your sketchbook and thinking “I can’t believe I created all of this!”