Learn To Become More Consistent With Your Art

1. Introduction: [MUSIC] What is the most weird thing of any artist? A blank page [LAUGHTER]. Not knowing the next step is really frustrating and can result in procrastination and a massive creative block. This affects beginners and otherwise artist as well, but there's a solution. Hi, my name is Alexandra, aka The Artmother. I'm an artist, illustrator and online educator. The most frequent question I get is, how do you manage to keep up an art business while being a mom of two kids? My answer is, I don't sleep. [LAUGHTER] I'm kidding. With my ADHD brain, it is extremely hard to be consistent. You're now keeping up with social media, manage the business, create art consistently, and don't burn out at the same time. The real answer lies in personal development, time management, and mindfulness, and not being obsessive or having an extreme talent. Becoming consistent is accessible to anyone. In this class, I'm going to teach you the exact strategy I keep myself going with while also taking care of myself and my mental health. I created a super-helpful worksheet that we are going to work through together during the class. We are going to define what we mean by consistency. It will set you specific, achievable, and measurable goals that can help you track your progress and make you stay motivated. I will show you the strategy of mindful skill-building and how to overcome creative blocks. We will talk about the role of practice and repetition, the importance of feedback, and most importantly, how to be persistent and resilient when you are facing setbacks. This class will be more about personal development rather than creating art itself. I will share with you extremely useful resources and practices that you can reach to any time. Mainly when you don't know what the next step is, or what to draw, which art to pick to dive deep into, or a blank page is threatening here with its presence. This class will be most valuable to beginners who don't know where to started. But I believe that there is always room to improve and become more consistent at any skill level. By the end of this class, you will have a clear direction to build your art, you will have resources to reach out to when needed, and you will have the skill to build a strategy for consistency tailored exactly for you and your life. If you are ready to become more consistent in your art, see you inside the class. [MUSIC] 2. The Class Project: [MUSIC] Welcome to the class. I'm super happy to have you here. In this video, I would love to talk to you about the class project that you will need to work on during the class and then upload to the project gallery at the end of it. As I already mentioned, I created a super helpful worksheet for you. You can find it in the resources as a PDF. Make sure to download it right now. You can print it out or you can open it in a program like GoodNotes and write into it digitally. Either way, the most important thing is going to be to always stop at the end of the lesson or anywhere you need. Don't rush through the videos, but take your time to really think about your answers. To the class project, you don't need to upload the worksheet itself. After we will have it filled out, we will create a visual excerpt of it all that you can hang on your wall or place it somewhere in your workspace to remind you of your goals. You can create it with any media. I love to use watercolors, markers to create them because I can really put my intention to it while creating. But feel free to use whatever media you are comfortable with. Take a photo of it, or if it is digital, upload it directly, and let's create a wonderful gallery of your consistency goals. If you haven't already, print out your worksheet, and let's get started. [MUSIC] 3. Defining Consistency: [MUSIC] Consistency is an important quality for artists to strive for in their work. But what does it mean to be consistent in art and why is it important? Let's differentiate at first between creating art consistently and creating art that is consistent. Both are very important and let's discuss them both in this lesson. Creating art consistently means that you have a regular routine of creating art. It is within a time frame, so every day, every week, every month, every 2, 3, 4 months, the point is to show up and do the work. Actually, I really struggled with this, even though I had incredible amount of ideas for paintings I just didn't do them. I considered myself to be an artist because of how I felt about the world and having this massive creative energy, and I didn't find the time regularly to do art. It was even before having kids. I think this is one of the biggest struggle of most beginner artists because when we find the time, we expect from ourselves to immediately create gallery worth artworks, then it doesn't happen, and we find ourselves demotivated. Here's the first pro tip. We need to change our minds about this. There is a pre-art creation phase that we need to create also time for and count as creating art. This is where it all starts. This is the time where we sketch, when we play around with compositions, color combinations, we do thumbnailing, etc. Nobody, even pro artists, make perfect artworks right away. In summary, creating art consistently means that we show up regularly and spend this time, not just being productive, but also playing. Now, I would love to ask you to open the worksheet. The first page is about describing what is the reality now. How consistently are you creating arts? How many artworks have you created last year? Do you have a sketchbook? Are you using it? Take your time now and answer the questions. No judgment here. Don't be hard on yourself, just be honest. Now, let's talk about creating art that is consistent. It refers to the ability to produce work that is consistent in quality, style, and technique. For example, if an artist is known for creating detailed, realistic drawings, they should aim for producing work that is consistently detailed and realistic, rather than switching between styles or producing work that is varying quality. This doesn't mean that we cannot be flexible and that there isn't room for experiments and discoveries. Producing work that is consistently the same quality, style, and technique helps us build reputation, attract customers and followers, and it also gives us room for improvement and getting skills within a boundary. If you just think about it as a fan of an artist, you expect them to produce work that he's known for. This is also a core struggle of beginners. Finding your own style can be hard, but you can think of it as a challenge. Creating boundaries for yourself can help you to get more skilled within that space you created. For example, you can choose a certain color palette, and try on different painting styles, but only within that color palette. Actually, this is what I'm doing, I'm mostly using vibrant and saturated colors, and I try out different techniques and media and experiment within those colors. This will keep your portfolio still cohesive, but you still experiment with different styles or choose a topic that you will create in, like flowers in watercolors. Then for a period of time, do only that, your skills will skyrocket in painting watercolor flowers. [LAUGHTER] Now let's take a look on that worksheets again. What are you doing consistently right now? What's your topic now? What are the most used colors in your artworks now? Just think it through. After you have your answers, let's dig deep into these topics even more. Now you know that there are two ways of thinking about consistency, consistently showing up in the creation process, and to basically put the same effort every time you show up. Now, let's move on to see how we can improve. See you in the next video where we're going to set our goals. [MUSIC] 4. Setting Goals: [MUSIC] Setting goals and establishing a regular routine are two important strategies for helping artists become more consistent in their art practice. First, let's talk about the importance of setting goals. Goals provide direction and motivation and help artists track their progress. Therefore, these goals have to be specific, achievable, and measurable. They have to be specific in a way that it doesn't contain any mishmash in it. Your goal cannot be to become an artist. It is too broad and it is a concept. How do you track that? You need to think about an action that will help you to become something. How do you become an artist? By painting for example, acrylic paintings. You need to also find the sweet spot between being too broad and too specific too because being too specific can put too much pressure on you, which can be de-motivating. For example, my goal is to create acrylic paintings with a limited color palette about dogs playing with a ball. Not really desirable. Only this is the exact R-type you're known for. So let's see something like this. My goal is to create acrylic paintings. Sounds good. But we need to make this goal also measurable. We can measure quantity within a timeframe. My goal is to create 122 acrylic paintings. On its own it's outright. How does this sound? My goal is to create four acrylic paintings by the end of the year. This is better. Also make sure that your goals are achievable. So I'll stay realistic, Know thyself. Can you create 24 paintings by the end of the year? That's two paintings a month. Do you have to time? Lastly, make sure that you can control the outcome of your goal. So your goal might be to grow on social media. You cannot control how many followers you get by the end of the year. You can control only how many times you show up and post. So again, free to pressure from yourself. Don't have the goal like, gain 20,000 followers by the end of the year, rather post three times per week on Instagram and you will see what happens. This is what you can control. This is the action you can do. In summary, setting goals gives you direction and motivation. Your goals have to be specific, measurable, achievable, and something you can control. Now let's take a look on the worksheet again and formulate a goal for yourself. So to the first line, write a subject. So the main focus of your goal, the action, for example create acrylic paintings or it can be post on social media or design stickers. See it has to be an action you are actually going to do when it comes out. I will write this icebreakers because that is a new artistical for me. Now, write down the quantity. How frequently are you going to perform that action? Will you create a sketch per day? Two paintings a week? It is good if it will be more, but it cannot be less. Then a timeframe. It is good to set a timeframe that you can track. Again another too short period of time, another too long period of time. One year would be optimal. But I'm actually tracking my year in quarters. I set myself the goal of creating free stickers per quarter. It is always good to do at least something than nothing. This is why I'm talking about the minimums here. Like free stickers in three months is a not a lot. But in a year I will have 12 sticker designs and that's something. In the next video, we are going to discuss this timeframe and how you can establish a routine to fulfill this goal. [MUSIC] 5. Establishing A Regular Routine: [MUSIC] A regular routine provides structure and discipline. This can be as simple as setting aside a specific time of the day for art or creating a more detail schedule that breaks down tasks and activities. We can also call it a habit. There is a book that I totally recommend. It is Atomic Habits by James Clear, that is a game changer and it's a great help in creating new habits. Let me just share with you my key takeaway from the book that I also have experienced with. Most importantly, in order to create a new habit, you need to make it easy to do it. If we think about art, it is important to have a space where you can do it and all the tools for the process. If you are doing watercolors, you might only need a table. If you are painting big canvasses, you might even need a room or if you are doing digital art, couch and an iPad is enough. The important thing is that you need the tools and the space to be ready for use and easily accessible. Now that you have all the tools and the dedicated art space, you need the time. Again, you need to be realistic and try to find the amount of time that is the minimum. It can be more, but it cannot be less. What I personally want to find time for is creating stickers. It is a personal project, so I'm not taking away time from my main artwork time. I have a family, a household but I have free Saturday afternoons, I have two hours there, so I have to set aside this time for this goal. Here is a sensitive pro tip. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Your me-time is important. Mainly if you are a mother, this might be really sensitive. We really struggle with putting ourselves first. But you've got this. Ask for help to make time for yourself. Now, I have the tools, the space, and the time, the question is, do I show up or just keep scrolling on my phone? [LAUGHTER] In my experience, what we need are rituals. Maybe if you don't feel creative or you have a creative block, always the first step is the hardest. It is good to connect this activity to another that is not related to it. For example, I light a candle, I make tea, I sit down to the space, I have all the tools there, have a painting soundtrack that I turn on. [NOISE] I cannot start by looking at my friends photos because I will get stuck into the rabbit hole of social media. The first thing is then to draw anything, even a scribble, and it just lets the creativity flow. Now, I would like to get back to the first pro tip I have told you. There is a pre-painting phase, or you might call it design phase of every artwork and it requires play. Even if you don't create a masterpiece by the end of this dedicated time, you need to keep in mind that showing up was already a win. Let's talk about breaking up big tasks to smaller ones. Large goals can be intimidating, so break them down to smaller ones. For example, when creating a new painting, you might need to look for inspiration, sketch compositions, do color thumbnailing, create a clean line art, then paint. You don't need to do all at once. Set aside time specifically for looking for inspiration and reference photos, then for sketching, then for painting. But don't get stuck on stage. At one set of dedicated time, you do one thing, but you need to progress and do the next thing on the next one if that makes sense. Now take a look on the worksheet. At first, you can see a checklist. Write down all the tools and the space that you need, and tick everything that is ready and make sure to tick them all when you start your routine. But also, see what you can work with and how you can make all these prepared and accessible. Because not having everything might be an excuse [LAUGHTER] but be sure that not having 300 watercolor papers, or D brush you ordered shouldn't stop you from spending the time at least on sketching. I'm guilty here [LAUGHTER] and I have an art supply addiction, but that's a different story. Then free time. Think about your weekly schedule and see where you have some free time. It can be as little as 30 minutes, but I think the best is two hours. Lastly, take a look on the task list and break down your goal to several steps that the process requires. For me, it will be researching ideas, sketching, painting, producing, and social media. You can write down anything that needs to be done. You can replicate this page and use it several times for different projects. Here's a pro tip again, be flexible. [LAUGHTER] Be ready to reschedule things and re-plan this all. You might find out after a few months that you are not into acrylics anymore or you have an important project, so you cannot work on this project anymore, or you will have some more free time, you get it. Our life can change even in a week. Try to stay resilient and adopt to the changes. See what is working for you now. Also, skipping a dedicated time is not a problem. But keep in mind that once you skip it, it is really easy to drop out from the routine. If it is not an emergency, force yourself. It is good to plan a review time also, after which you can see how things are going for you. I do this every quarter and evaluate my progress. Let's move now to the next video where we are going to talk about finding inspiration and some ways to stay motivated. [MUSIC] 6. Finding Inspiration And Staying Motivated: Finding inspiration, staying motivated are key factors in maintaining consistency in art. Without inspiration, it can be difficult to generate new ideas and stay engaged. Without motivation it can be hard to find the energy and discipline to work consistently. So, how can you find inspiration staying motivated? Here are some techniques you can try. Looking at other artists artwork. No, don't copy or steal, but looking at the work of other artists can expose you to new ideas, styles and even trends. The painters in your style challenge on Instagram is for example really good for this. Second, explore different media and techniques. I always find so much happiness in new art tools. My addiction. But still I mostly choose the same spectrum of coloring every media. So vibrant and saturated colors, so it doesn't make my work not consistent. It really helps me not to burn out. It can also unexpectedly help you grow and find your style. For example I love to combine traditional media with digital, and this is what I have found myself him, so go for it. Third, set personal challenges. Actually, this is already a personal challenge that we are talking about here. So I challenge myself to do free stickers in three months, but you can join other challenges as well online like in October. Fourth, set rewards and this is my favorite. When you reach a certain milestone or goal, reward yourself. This reward can be as simple as taking a week break even from doing art or treat yourself with something special. For me, it is always a new art supply or technical thing like a cricket cutting machine. That was the last time I reached a milestone. Find accountability partners, community is everything. If you don't have the possibility to join or create an art community in person, go online. There are amazing Facebook groups for this, but getting personal works best. You can find another student and agree on talking every week on zoom and share your experiences. It is a game changer. Lastly, get used to your sketchbook. Record your ideas, add notes, track your progress. You can even do it digitally and create mood boards. I sometimes just set up a canvas in procreate and just write down the list of my ideas and get back to it when I don't know what to draw. So in summary, finding inspiration, staying motivated are essential for maintaining consistency in art. Now take a look at the worksheet and just think about a milestone and then report you will give yourself after you reach it in this personal challenge. In the next video, I'm going to share with you my personal favorite, the mindful skill-building that will have you to really progress in your art skills. So, see you there. 7. Mindful Skill-Building: [MUSIC] One question I always get from beginners is where to start. I totally hated that in art school, the where to start was drawing a still life without any explanation. But figuring out things on your own can be really exciting. I think that the proper guidance can help us save time and energy that we lack a lot in this world. Now I will share with you the basic methodology of learning art, and this is what I mean by mindful skill-building. Know what you need to learn and what areas may even be perfected. Again, you don't need to do everything at once. What I like to do is to choose a topic from the methodology like shading and the subject for an art work like a coffee mug, and just create a coffee mug while focusing on the light and shadows only. You don't need to have perspective or an environment or a story to it, a single topic like a coffee mug, can already be an artwork or full value. Progressing in baby steps is what will get you forward. Here are the seven elements of art. Line, shape, form, space, color, texture, value. With lines, we create shapes, by adding shadow, we create form. We place these forms into the illusion of space on our canvas, we add color and then texture adds interest, and lastly, value, that is the intensity of colors, of our artwork that affects it's readability. Now, take a look on the worksheet. There are three topics for each element that I think is worth to dive deep into on your journey. Obviously, there are more sides to them all, but let's just take a look on what I consider to be an essential topic that you just need to go through or just experiment with or will just give you an idea on how to experiment in your dedicated time. Line. Yes, catching, observation, drawing, and outlines. Let me just tell a few words to each of them so that you understand what I mean by that. By sketching I mean putting your ideas onto paper. With observational drawing I mean that you observe an object and learn its qualities. By outlines, I mean, how are you using lines in your illustrations or painting or arts in general. Because if you take a look around, nothing has outlines. You have color and light and shadow. You can use outlines in your artworks as a style, each element for example, or to increase readability or decorative purposes. Then shape. Drawing basic geometric shapes, basic geometric shapes in complex forms, and shape language. Everything can be broken down into basic geometric shapes. This is why it is worth to learn how to draw them and to find them in complex forms and that shape language refers rather to character design because every shape has or adds different emotion or mood into an artwork. For example, curvy lines or curvy shapes makes things cute and edges. I have a total different emotion. Form. Shading round objects, shading objects with edges and drop shadows. With form, we're actually talking about shading light and shadows. You have to learn how to shade objects and basic geometric shapes. With shading round objects, you need to learn to create gradation. With objects, with edges, you need to learn wide value scales. Then drop shadows is the first introduction to adding space to your art, because when you add a dark shadow below an object, it is immediately creating an illusion that it is on something, so in the space. Then we arrived to space. There's linear perspective, one-point perspective, and two-point perspective. Now, you might find different definition for this, mainly for linear perspective. I named it because it is like linear and there are no vanishing points. Linear perspective is basically how you place objects lower or higher on the canvas and it creates, again, an illusion of something being in front or behind things. One and two-point perspective is really obvious. Color. We have color harmonies, limited color palette, and choosing colors for shading. Color harmonies, we have a color wheel, it is an opportunity to dive deeper into color theory on complimentary colors, analogous colors, etc., creating color palettes. It is such a big and important topic to dive deep into. A limited color palette can again be a really nice experiment. Choosing colors for shading is a very good topic. It can be as simple as choosing a darker version of a color or a totally different color on the color wheel that is next to it. That's a great topic. Texture. Creating textures with lines. You can use lines for decorative purposes to create textures, painting different materials. It is so good to learn to paint different materials like wood or glass. Creating your own textures, you can create them digitally or even with real paint. That is so much fun. Value. Greyscale painting, monochrome painting, painting with more or less contrast. With greyscale painting, you can really learn how to just use one color and the intensity to learn a way how to create a readable image, for example, with that single tone. Then with monochrome painting to do same with a color and playing with more or less contrast because you don't necessarily have to even add contrast to your artwork, but increase the readability in lines, or to create a very contrasted image. This is what I love to do. These are topics that you can dive into. I think they are so interesting and I hope they provide you a base to think about these elements and to be more mindful on what area you need to further discover. Now go to the worksheet, you will see a list where I want you to write 10 topics you like. Like coffee, plants, starry sky, etc., and then see the curricular topics I've listed and choose one topic and one subject, and let it be your next artwork. Focus only on the subject you have chosen. Maybe the shading round objects and a coffee mug. When painting, focus only on doing the shading properly. Maybe even do a research on how to do it properly or do a class on it. This will give you so much power, because you will guide your own learning and you will become more mindful of what you need to get better at, it might also help you to find things to define your style, etc. Now that you know what a mindful of skill-building is, you might also have the idea for your next artwork. Now let's take a look on what creating art that is consistent means. [MUSIC] 8. Creating Art That Is Consistent: We already talked about creating art that is consistent. It refers to the ability to produce work that is consistent in quality, style, and technique. You already evaluated what is the reality now, how you're doing it, but let's just take a closer look on how you can improve. In order to have that style you are consistent in, you need to experiment, work on your skills, discover new things. I would love to break down an artistic style into three main topics; color palette, subject, and the media. It is good to stick to one of these and play in the other. For example, choose a color palette that you stick to, this is what I'm doing, but play with the topics and media, like digital watercolor. Or choose a subject to stick to, for example, plants, then paint plants in whatever media and whatever colors, you will be the plant painter. Or stick to the media like watercolors and paint only in watercolors, but exchange colors and topics. This is I think the best way to find your style and still experiment. By time with practice, you will know what works for you, it might not be what you think about now. Again, here's a pro tip, you need to let go of your beliefs. You might think you would love to become a landscape painter because you like beautiful watercolor landscapes, but maybe painting people digitally is what fits you. Do not limit yourself with beliefs. Check the worksheet again, now you have a goal and the time frame. I want you to choose at least one thing that you will stick to during this period of time. Let it be a color palette, or a topic, or a media, you can choose even two or all of them. Now I think you are almost ready, I have some final thoughts for you that can help you to become more confident. See you in the next video where we are going to talk about the role of practice and repetition. [MUSIC] 9. The Role Of Practice And Repetition: [MUSIC] Practice or repetition are key elements of becoming more consistent in art. By practicing regularly you can improve your skills, build muscle memory, and most importantly, increase your confidence. Again, with repetition or sticking to a way of doing things, you can improve and decrease the pressure from yourself and allow more play into the process. Confidence is really important, mainly when you get feedback on your work. Here's a pro tip again. It is so important to be open. It is natural to feel defensive or sensitive when receiving feedback, but it is important to see it as a learning opportunity. Eventually you would love to show your art to the world, at a point you might also want to sell your art and you really need confidence to do that. I would love to give you now free reassurances that might help you to keep going. For the first one is that there isn't a perfect way to do things. How you like to do things, your way of doing things is good enough. Not every artwork has to be rendered fully shaded, has to follow anatomical rules, etc. It is good to learn the rules and practice traditional ways of doing things. But rules are there to break them, just think of Picasa. The second is that there is room for you. I know there are so many artists out there selling, licensing their artworks but the world is big. You can find your tribe and you have the right to be here. The last one is that art is not something only certain people can do, you don't need to train for the marathon to enjoy the benefits of running. Doing art is a journey, it is something you do. It is a wonderful opportunity to grow as a person. Art has a therapeutic effect, you can connect with your subconscious mind, you can overcome fears and inner boundaries. You can get the feeling of success with it. There are so many benefits, so you don't necessarily have to make art for the outcome. You can just enjoy it. After these wonderful thoughts, I hope you feel unstoppable. Let's move to the final part of wrapping it all up and creating our regional excerpts of this class. [MUSIC] 10. Wrapping It Up: [MUSIC] Congratulations, you have finished the class. You'll have your worksheet filled out, and I hope that you have a bigger picture about what consistency means. Now, this is the time that we are going to create a class project. Here's what I want from you. Take any media and a sheet of paper or a digital canvas and draw a circle to the middle. This will represent your year. Split it into as many pieces you will track your time in. Also add the circle to the middle and write your main goal into it. This is as if we were creating our mandala or something. [LAUGHTER] The quantities as shapes that you can color when you're finished with them. You can decorate it all. You can write or draw things that you find important from the worksheet, like affirmations, the reward you will get after the milestone, draw your schedule or calendar, then place it somewhere where you can see it. Take a photo of it or just upload it digitally right into the project gallery. If you take a look on the worksheet again, you can find a full sheet of a weekly planner and the monthly planner so feel free to use them and I hope they will be a great help for you. It was such a pleasure to have you here. I hope you enjoy the process and that you are heading to a clear direction. Make sure to leave a review to the class. It is really important to me to hear from you. Also follow me on social media and here on Skillshare to stay up-to-date. I hope to see you in my other classes as well. I wish you all the best and happy creating.