9 Steps to Shake Things Up In Your Art Practice
Think of yourself as an adrenaline junkie - have you felt the rush recently? If not, try following these steps to take your work to the next level.
As an artist, have you ever noticed that while you still find enjoyment in your work, sometimes you lose the excitement? Creative energies can come in waves, and you might find yourself in a lull. But occasionally, you might feel stuck, merely going through the motions, and need to shake things up with a new focus or direction. Think of yourself as an adrenaline junkie—have you felt the rush recently? If not, try following these steps to take your work to the next level.
Take a Hard Look
The first, and possibly most important, step is to take a hard look at your work over the previous months and truly analyse what you have produced. Make notes. I tend to ask myself questions like: What’s working here? What’s lacking? What do I feel like I’m missing? Where am I playing it safe? What skills need to be improved or explored?
2. Like & Save, Like & Save
Next look at other artists’ work that is resonating with you right now. This could mean going to Pinterest or, my personal choice, the save folders in Instagram. Review what you’ve been saving recently, pick out your favourite 6-8 paintings, view them together and determine what these artists have in their work that you would like to bring into yours.
3. Searching for Treasure
If you keep a sketchbook this is precisely where you may find all your answers. Sketchbooks are often full of little clues and hints if we can take the time to look for them. See what new things you’ve tried in the last few weeks and just take note.
4. What’s the Mood Now?
Gather all the images that you have reviewed from the first three steps, print them out and start pinning to a mood board. A3 is usually a good size for this. Be selective, only pin your favourite images. Which ones are most important? Seeing them together might make things clearer as to what’s really interesting you right now.
5. What’s Essential Here?
Define your essential intent. Sit down with pen and paper, give yourself time to think, and make notes from all of the above. You need to ask yourself what is the most essential thing to look at improving in your work. If you identify a number of things to work on or improve at once, it will all get too overwhelming, and you’ll find yourself making little to no progress. The key is to pick just one thing. Try to avoid rushing this decision. If you need to take time to sit with your thoughts, do so.
Finding it hard to commit? I use the handy phrase ‘right now’. What interests me right now? What am I drawn to right now? What would I like to explore right now? You can come back to other areas later, but determine your essential intent and stick to it.
6. Every Day’s A School Day
You might have guessed it; next, you need to do some new learning which focuses on your essential intent. This could come in the form of online courses, workshops, videos, or books. There are millions of resources available which will fill all your time, so it is best to go by recommendations and again just pick one. Be an active learner and make notes as to what can be applied to your work.
Again, you just want essential notes, not too many. If you find that you haven’t made any notes after a few hours, maybe this isn’t the resource for you.
7. A Kid in a Sweet Shop
This is the fun part. After looking at all the above, you may have realised that you need some new materials. Treat yourself and your work! New paint colours, substrates, or tools could be just what you need…but stay focused and make sure that what you select lines up with your essential intent; otherwise, you’re just creating more distractions.
8. Do Your Exercises
No I don’t mean star jumps….your new focus may require some excercises before you get stuck in. For example, if you’re looking to focus on colour you could make lots of swatches of new colours that fit in with the feeling you are looking for in your work.
9. Put It Into Practice
Finally start putting it all into practice. You can either use sketchbooks and loose paper so that you don’t feel precious about it all or you can just start trying to work it out on canvas or panel. Either way you should be feeling a nervous excitement right about now. Lean into it; your work will thank you for it.
