Unless you’re an art student, finding time to pursue your art is fraught with potholes and detours.
Your job or business demands way too much time, your family and children need you, and you need them.
Social obligations and activities take up precious free time, so you seem to be left with no ‘me time’ to devote to your art.
Make Art A Priority
Maybe you can’t even devote a whole evening to painting, let alone an entire Saturday, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be creative. First, you need to commit to the idea of making time to follow your heart. Then you need to find ways to make it happen.
Dream Big, But Plan Realistically
If your free time is limited, (and whose isn’t) don’t plan big projects. Sure, you can dream all you like about epic canvases or ambitious and challenging compositions, but you need to focus on projects that are more suited to your time constraints.
If your eyes are bigger than your belly and plan an extensive project, you’re bound to become discouraged by how long it’s taking to make progress on your piece. Of course, discouragement leads to procrastination, and once again, you’re setting aside your art in favor of something else.
Small projects that are quickly completed give you a sense of accomplishment and success. You’ll be more eager to spend time researching, composing and painting. These small pieces may be references for future large projects. Save them all, just in case. You never know what might be lurking in that brain of yours! That’s the beauty of journaling. All your ideas and trial runs are right there in the pages of your personal book of designs and plans.
Motivation And Inspiration For Making Art Every Day
Many of us arty types become frustrated trying to maintain a regular schedule for painting. Part of that may be a lack of incentive and inspiration. If you have a tough time coming up with interesting and fun art projects, you need someone to help stimulate your creative juices.
That’s why art classes are so important. We need the motivation and direction a structured class provides. However, there are lots of reasons people aren’t taking art classes; The cost may be prohibitive, the weekly time commitment may be too dear or there isn’t a conveniently located class in your area.
If you need motivation and direction, but taking a class is out of the question, here’s a book full of fun and inexpensive ideas for making art a part of your daily life.
Art At The Speed Of Life
Art At The Speed Of Life By Pam Carriker ISBN-10: 1596682612
This book can be used as a guide for accessing your creativity. Each chapter contains an Artist Spotlight project contributed by different artists. These provide loads of new techniques and materials for you to explore with one of the author’s Speed Of Life projects geared for completing a piece quickly. Essays and tips from the contributing artists focus on leading a creative life and helping you on your journey.
The chapters include lots of photos and illustrations, along with lists of needed tools and materials for each project. The projects are small enough to fit on the pages of a journal and Ms. Carriker also gives instructions on how to make your own, hand-crafted books.
A Good Blend Of Instruction And Inspiration
This book doesn’t focus on any one medium. It’s a compendium of multi-media projects and materials. You may not fall in love with every one of the author’s ideas, but it’s a great way to try out a wide variety of techniques and tools.
Another aspect of Art At The Speed Of Life is the general tips for living an artistic life. Sure, we can’t all be full-time artists, but the author talks about real-life solutions for keeping art affordable, on-line possibilities, overcoming artistic block and making money with your art.
Pam breaks the projects down into small bites. Lots of photos and illustrations, along with clearly written instructions are interspersed with tips for fitting creativity into your daily routine. Even though the projects are easy enough for a beginner, there is enough diversity that a more advanced artist will still find new ideas and concepts.
Overall, this is a great book for any artist or artist-wanna-be with a desire to try some new art techniques. You’ll find the projects diverse and suitable for any skill level. The various artists’ essays are filled with interesting stories and suggestions of how to apply creativity to your everyday routine and how to overcome creative struggles. Art At The Speed Of Life is sure to keep you thinking like an artist, and perhaps help you to lead the life you love.
