It’s important that you follow up all this learning with action! These projects will help you on your way to becoming a better artist, faster, and developing those good habits.

I have 4 class projects here for you. I go over each one within the videos, so if you’re a little unsure of how to start, make sure you go back to the sections related to each project.

Project #1 - Building an inspiration Catalogue

I cover this in the section: Finding your inspiration and originality.

Go to wherever you may browse art, be it Pinterest, Instagram, Artstation or other, and start making a catalogue of the art that you really like. Each website will usually have a way of compiling together the images, through boards (Pinterest), saved posts (Instagram), or collections (Artstation), but if you’d prefer, feel free to save those images into a folder on your PC, or perhaps even a document that will allow you to look at all your inspiration at once. The most important thing to do after you’ve compiled your images is to analyse them and try to understand why you like them. Grab a piece of paper and open up your inspiration catalogue. Make a loose series of notes for each image, identifying what you like and don't like about each one. After that, analyse your notes and try to identify common elements between each of the pieces. I regularly update my board with new inspiration I find, so make sure you do too!

Project #2 - Breaking Down who your Ideal Artist is

I cover this in the section: Breaking down your ‘Ideal Artist’.

Grab a piece of paper and at the top I want you to list across the page, all the things your ‘ideal’ successful artist would be. Try and be optimistic! If your aspiration is to be the richest artist who ever lived, write that down. If it’s to build a catalogue of artwork that will inspire people for generations, then write that down. The first step is knowing what you want. Now we need to break those ideas down. Think logically. How would that future you have gotten to where they are? Draw an arrow down from the idea at the top, and write out what it would require. If you need to break down that step, then do it. Keep going until you have a web of completable goals on the page. And that’s it! Now you’ve stopped and thought about the steps you need to take in order to get to your ideal, and you have no excuse not to start on it. I try to do this every year or so, so you can restructure yourself and redirect yourself to new wants and goals.

Project #3 - Working for your Creativity

I cover this in the section: Working for Creativity.

If you’ve just finished a series and you’re feeling uninspired, this project will help you kickstart your ideas. Pick a topic you like or look at some inspiration for 10 minutes. Sketch out or write down as many random, new or silly ideas for work that you can for another 10 minutes. Don’t get too stuck on specific ideas, just keep writing them down and moving on. Afterwards, review and if any seem interesting, spend another 5 minutes developing each one into something more. Make sure you’re selective! This may go badly the first time you try it, but that’s ok! After doing this a few times you will be surprised with the variety of creative ideas you can create and you’ll get quicker and quicker at it as well. Have confidence in your brain! You could do it as a child. That brain still knows how.

When you complete a project, make sure you click ‘Create Project’ and upload it! You’ll be helping yourself and everyone else by sharing what inspires you, what type of artist you are and your creative process. I can't wait to see them myself.

Pedro Lorca Larson

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