With all the demands that life makes, the time available for painting can get less and less. All too easily it gets squeezed out altogether! These ideas should help you find a little time daily and keep you going until you get the luxury of a few hours in a row to paint.
Here’s How:
- If space allows, leave your art materials and the painting you’re working on out to avoid having to unpack before you can start working again.
- Clean up when you finish painting, so that your brushes waiting ready to be used when you’ve time again.
- Organize your art materials so you don’t waste time searching for something when you’re painting. If you need to pack things away, keep essentials in one crate and infrequently used item in another.
- Work on more than one painting at a time; this way if one is giving you trouble you can turn your attention to another until you’ve renewed enthusiasm or inspiration for the ‘problem painting’.
- Carry a small sketchbook and sketch or doodle in it when you’re stuck waiting somewhere. People will be curious about what you’re doing, but you’ll get used to it. And time will pass much faster!
- Grab a half hour each day for yourself, by getting up a bit earlier (hard in winter!) or staying up a bit later (this can be difficult to claim for yourself as family may still be awake).
- Be more choosy in the television you watch – would you be better off spending that half an hour painting? Or if you don’t want to abandon the family’s company, how about using a sketchbook to sketch some of the scenes or faces in the program?
- If you’re in a situation where you can’t use a sketchbook or doodle, daydream about painting. Think through process and visualize the results; think about what you’re going to do next in a painting.
- Plan ahead so you’ve ideas for several paintings you’d like to do. Keep them in an ideas file or make keep a separate sketchbook for working out ideas for paintings.
- Practice sketching the same object over and over, focusing on capturing the essence each time, but with the long-term aim of speeding up the pace as which you can observe and sketch.
- If you’ve got children, consider hiring a childminder so you can paint. Well, you do when you go out for the evening or to the cinema don’t you? So why not for painting? Particularly if it’s someone who can take them out for an outing.
Tips:
- Remember that not everything you do has to be a masterpiece. A sketch is just that, a quick interpretation or capturing of something.
- Don’t feel guilty if you don’t paint or sketch every day. There will be times when you simply don’t feel like it or really can’t make the time. But try to avoid it happening too many days in a row.
- Annotate your sketches with notes of colors, feelings, what inspired you to want to sketch it initially. These will help bring the scene to life later.
- As with exercise a little every day is better than a lot infrequently. And by making the most of a little bit of time you should work more productively when you’ve lots of time.
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