Whether you’re a parent, full-time student or work at a demanding job, finding time to be creative and make art seems like trying to climb a mountain.
When my now 7 year old kids were infants and toddlers, nap time was sacred.
Now that they are older and don’t nap, finding quiet time to paint has been much trickier. Sure, they are more independent now, but uninterrupted painting time while they are awake is rarely in the cards.
Also, I work Monday-Thursdays 8am-5pm, in addition to some weekends. Fridays have become my art days (so long as I’m not distracted by never ending chores and appointments.) I do on occasion paint at night, but creating while tired is not ideal or enjoyable.
So how do I maximize my time for my art practice when I finally have a chance to sit down and paint?
Here are 5 tips that have worked for me over the last few years, that I hope can help you too.
1.) Keep your supplies handy and ready to use.
When my kids were little, keeping my art supplies within reach was not a good idea (toddlers are experts of destruction).
But now that they are older, I find that keeping my palettes, paints and brushes ready to use on my desk makes getting down to painting much easier.
There’s no better creative motivation killer than having to rummage around the house or apartment for lost art supplies.
Out of sight = out of mind
Whether it’s keeping your pencils and sketchbook on the kitchen table, or keeping your oil pastels in a basket next to the couch in your living room, having your things within reach – and sight – will make starting the creative process much easier.
2.) Designate small chunks of time throughout the week to create rather than using large blocks of time in one sitting.
As a full-time working mom, I don’t always have hours of time to make something. I’ve learned that it’s much easier – and effective – to designate 20-30 minutes a day (rather than hours on one day) for my art practice.
Don’t get me wrong – I love having my Fridays to make art for hours at a time. But I realize this is not always an option for most people.
And if we’re being honest, I find that my art comes out much better in shorter spurts. Creativity takes focus and energy, and painting for hours can be just as tiring as it is fun.
If you have kids, you could wait until they fall asleep to get to painting or maybe put on a tv show to keep them occupied and out of your hair for a bit while you do some sketching (my kids are huge “Bluey” fans).
3.) Keep some supplies in your car or purse.
Have a long wait at the doctor’s office? Or maybe you need to kill sometime in the break room before the weekly meeting?
Then why not keep a small sketch book and some pencils with you to carve in some art time.
I’ve even doodled on some scratch paper at my desk while being put on hold for a work call. Don’t rule out the power using tiny chunks of time to do something quick.
Even if you’re just doing squiggles and mark-making, your still using your hands and brain to make something that wasn’t there before.
4.) Keep a list handy of “prompts” or techniques that interest you.
Picture this scenario: you finally have time to create, you browse Pinterest and social media for 10 minutes, and still don’t know what to make. Before you know it, you’ve spent most of your precious time just browsing the internet for inspiration and not creating.
One of the biggest issues that I hear many artists say is that when they sit down, ready to create, they have no idea what to make. I too have had this issue many times. What I like to do is make a list of subjects that I’m interested in and refer back to that list whenever I feel stuck and don’t know what to do.
It’s also helpful to make a prompt list for the week and designate a subject for each day. When you have a roadmap laid out, it takes the guess work out of figuring things out. So when you get a spark of inspiration during the day while you’re at your job or in the grocery line and think “Oh, I should draw this!”, jot down that idea and you can refer to it later.
5.) Don’t wait for inspiration or motivation to create.
At the end of a long day or week, it can be hard finding the energy or motivation to make art. If I waited for inspiration or motivation to make art every time, I would be creating very little. Most days I am too tired and say to myself, “I’ll just paint tomorrow.” So I’ve learned to ignore that voice and just sit down and make something.
According to American writer Mark Manson, action inspires motivation, not the other way around. When we choose to do something – even when we don’t feel like it – inspiration can be the product of our actions, propelling us further into creativity.
Have you ever had drag yourself to the gym and force yourself to work out? And then been glad that you made that choice after going? This principle applies to creating and making art too. So next time you tell yourself that you don’t feel like creating today, just sit down and do it. You will be pleasantly surprised and have no regrets to have made that choice.
I hope that you found these tips helpful. And if you have some tips of your own, I’d love to hear them! Feel free to leave a comment below and I will respond as soon as possible.
Happy Art Making,
Emily