Did you make a New Year’s Resolution to make more art?
Again?
Did you make less work in 2022 than you thought you might? Do you have all these creative ideas, but you just can’t make them happen?
Today I’m sharing five actionable tips to help you make more art in 2023. This is a text version of a video I made over on youtube! If you’d prefer to watch and listen, you can find that here.
1: MAKE SPACE
Even if you’re a digital artist making work exclusively on an iPad or a tablet, you can’t make art without SPACE
Ideally you should designate a space in your home that is just for art making. Whether thats a corner of your bedroom, a desk in a hallway, or a full on art studio that you can close the door to and lock yourself inside (lucky!)
You need to have some space that you don’t have to clear off every time you have a creative idea. I recommend keeping your go-to art materials out and in eyesight.
Don’t hide away your sketchbook or paintbrushes in a drawer. Every time you walk past your desk, your colorful supplies will either inspire you to sit down and make art, or taunt you and make you feel guilty for not doing so.
This eliminates that extra step of having to get things out, especially if you have limited time and energy to make art (chronically ill artist gang).
Get creative with how you delineate your workspace, in order to send the signal to those that you live with, maybe you put in a special set of headphones or earplugs.
2: STEAL TIME
In addition to clearing out your physical space, you also need TIME SPACE.
If you’re the type of person who thrives on routines, this is relatively easy: just add art making into your existing routine. I recommend habit stacking, where you add a new habit on top of an existing one.
If you have a cup of coffee or tea every morning, why not bust out your sketchbook and do some drawing while you’re at it.
If you’re like me, however, and your schedule changes every single day, and you thrive off of chaos and novelty, you might have to find different ways to squeeze in that art making time.
It’s taken me a long time to realize this, and I’m not joking- I make my best work when I’m procrastinating. That’s right, I’m giving you permission to put things off in order to make more silly drawings.
If you wait until every last thing on your to-do list is checked off (dishes, laundry, schoolwork) you’ll probably run out of time and energy before you even get the chance to sit down at your desk.
I don’t recommend putting off tasks like taking care of your pets or children, or if a housemate or family member is counting on you to get something done.
But if you’re waiting to make art until the conditions are absolutely perfect and your house is perfectly clean and organized, you’re doing yourself a disservice.
3: CREATE A MENU
So now you a physical space, and you have time-space- NOW WHAT!
Sometimes you might find that you have so many ideas you can’t possibly make all of them happen, and other times you can’t even remember what you like to draw.
Personally I operate on a cycle of inspiration, sometimes I can’t stop thinking of ideas, and other times I’d rather have someone else tell me what to do.
So I’ve implemented a Menu. Unlike a to do list, a menu is not in order of importance, and it doesn’t really matter if you end up ticking every item off the list. Just like a menu in a restaurant, you can choose things more than once, and things can fall on or off the list (maybe even seasonally).
My menu is a combination of subject matter I know I like to draw, and specific ideas for projects I’d like to explore. Of course, you can do this however you want, whether it be a list in the front of your sketchbook or a note in an app on your phone. I keep my menus on sticky notes and put them up on the walls of my studio space. I recommend having a physical list, that way you don’t have to pick up the Distraction Rectangle.
Also remember that it’s okay to make the same thing over and over again. Many famous artists have explored a narrow range of subject matter, and each piece does not have to stand alone or be a unique masterpiece. No one is going to stop you from painting oranges or portraits every day. That’s art baby!
The reason why these things work is because they eliminate decision making from the process. Decision making takes energy, and one might argue that art making is just a series of decisions. You can also eliminate decisions by creating boundaries or limits for your work. You can create limits within a project for your medium, subject matter, canvas size, or the time period in which you make your work. For example, you could create the boundaries that you’ll create one 5×7” watercolor painting every day, or one large painting on canvas a month, which is my personal goal for 2023.
Creativity can thrive within boundaries, but be cautious and forgiving with yourself when holding yourself to limits. In the past I have completed the 100 day project, which is where you create a piece of work every day for 100 days. I have also “failed” and given up on that project because it wasn’t suiting my needs the next year.
4: GET INSPIRED.
As creative humans, we have input, and output. In order to increase our output, we need to have a balanced input.
If your issue is that you simply don’t know what to make, you might be uninspired or blocked.
In her book, The Artists Way, Julia Cameron suggests taking yourself out on a weekly artist date. An artist date is a weekly outing where your mission is to wine and dine your inner artist.
My favorite places to go for my artist dates are used bookstores, art supply stores, museums, parks, aviaries, anywhere I can experience new shapes, color, and textures.
Think about when you were last most inspired. Journaling and writing stream of consciousness helps me to catalogue and take note of what is inspiring me, and the more you do that process, the better you’ll get at noticing these things. Be careful though, that your’e not spending more time seeking inspiration than you are making art.
This ratio is obviously incredibly personal to every artist and every human. The internet is a great place to find inspiration, but it can also be a time suck, a distraction, and lead to destructively comparing yourself to others. Which leads me to my last tip:
5: EFF THE ALGORITHM:
The relationship that artists have with social media is probably it’s own separate post, but let me just say that tailoring your entire artistic practice to please the computer robots is a surefire recipe for burnout.
Not every sketchbook session needs to be a reel, and not every painting needs to see the light of day. Sometimes art is just for the human experience of making something with your hands.
In this day of ultra short video and punchy trending audio, it can be easy to forget that art making can often be really frustrating, messy, and time consuming.
Don’t get me wrong, sharing your work on social media can be really motivating, inspiring, and even lead to a sense of community and career success.
But its really easy to get hung up on numbers, and even let low engagement trick you into thinking your work isn’t worth making in the first place.
Let me know if you think I missed anything, or if you enjoyed this! Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!
Thanks, Kristen! This is really helpful.