Allow Yourself to Take a Break

WELCOME! to 2018.

I thought I’d warm up into filming this year with a relaxed video expanding on what I want to focus my energy on in 2018 in regards to my art but also myself personally, and then talk about getting focused after taking a break over the holidays.

I’m always wanting to be conscious of where my personal faults lie, so that I can continuously work on bettering myself. I want to feel like I’ve made the most of my life because if you do then you’ll live a life with little regret.

In 2017 I transformed my future by learning techniques of how to overcome my anxiety when I feel like it’s taking ahold over my life.

Anxiety has always been something I’ve experienced. As a kid I was extremely shy, and growing up I always worried about a lot of things and actively tried to avoid stressful situations rather than deal with them. Then, as you grow up, you take on more responsibilities and learn that there are some situations you can’t just avoid or pass on to someone else, and because I hadn’t learnt how to deal with stress, I would overthink things and get overwhelmed easily. That’s my own theory of my brain, anyway.

I used to beat myself up over the times when I’d take a break from drawing for a while and I couldn’t just pick myself up right from where I left off. By doing this I caused myself more stress than I needed to, and in turn was afraid to take breaks, or would feel guilty if I did.

Something I want to continue to remind myself of this year, is that nothing is the be-all and end-all of life.

In this situation, try not to worry about taking a break and struggling to return to it. It happens to everyone, and you know what? It DOESN’T REALLY MATTER! All you need to do is focus on where you’re going, and work through the struggle, and after a week or two of working through it, you’ll feel back to normal! Nothing matters as much as you think it does. You can work through those kinds of problems, and it’s REALLY not that big of a deal, even though in your mind, right now, it might seem as such.

Recap of 2017!

2017 is coming to a close, so of course I thought it would be appropriate that my last video and blog post for the year should be a recap of what I accomplished this year! I've had an incredibly amazing year, and so many things happened that I would have never expected when the year began!

For the first half of 2017 I was still working at my full time job, which was as a Graduate Illustrator. I was incredibly lucky to score this job, as Graduate jobs related to art are pretty much unheard of in Australia - I was surprised this one even existed! The job was a great first proper job after studying (although it was over a year after I finished studying that I got this job!).

Throughout my time working there, I grew to realise it wasn’t what I wanted to do, and I didn’t want to live a life of regret from settling and being stuck in a "secure" job that made me unhappy, and never pursuing a career that would be fulfilling out of fear I’d never succeed at it.

Listening to Gary Vaynerchuk’s YouTube videos and talks had a great influence on me. He tries to impress on people the fact that they have the ability to achieve what they want - it’s just that most people are too lazy, make too many excuses, or are too afraid to take the risk; they think they won’t succeed or they’ll lose too much in the process. I realised that I was already in a great position to follow my dreams - I’m still young, so the earlier I made the leap, the less risk I was taking, really!

So I spent a lot of time and energy researching what I needed to do in life that WOULD make me happy, and how to go about reaching that. After much research into a viable plan, I quit my job to start pursuing my own art and content!

I enjoy video editing, and I found I enjoyed being in front of the camera, so I wanted to focus on YouTube, and I’ve made great progress in that over the past 6 months - making 37 videos, and gaining 15000 views, and over 250 subscribers!

I started getting back into the habit of drawing, after letting it fall to the wayside when working full time.

As soon as I took the leap to quit my job, my doubts about taking the leap faded away. Every day that passed I only felt more satisfied that I made the right decision, and more excited for what lay ahead.

I started finding out my true self, and what i enjoy most, and what makes me fulfilled. I became more confident in myself and my capabilities.

I’ve had some struggles so far, and I know I’ll have plenty more ahead of me, but they’re all totally worth it!

So, what am I wanting to focus on for 2018?

I want to continue to focus on my drawing a painting skills, which includes getting into the habit of doing loose sketches every day or so, and learning how to paint traditionally with various mediums.

I want to learn to put less pressure on myself, but to also challenge myself more! And I want to continue my weekly youtube videos, sharing fun stuff and positivity!

What did you achieve this year that you’re proud of? And what are your artistic or personal goals for 2018?

You should be proud of what you achieved this year, and if you didn’t achieve as much as you’d hoped for, then try not to focus on that, and instead get excited for 2018!

Watch the video recap below :) That's all for this year, see you in the New Year!!! ^_^

7 Tips for What To Do When You Have NO IDEAS or Motivation!

Everyone goes through periods where you have no idea of what to draw or create, which affects our motivation. The irony of this is that I came up with the idea for this video because I had no ideas! These times can be frustrating, and the easy response is to wait it out until you magically get your motivation back. But this doesn’t usually work - or by the time it does, you’ll be wasting precious time just waiting around when you could be making things!

I used to mope a lot in these situations, but now I actively scope out possible inspiration for what to create. Motivation is something you need to be constantly working on to maintain, so I thought I’d share my tips for what I do to get my mojo back!

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

1. Create a Collection of Inspiration and Reference

Whenever you find something inspiring, add it to a collection of inspiration and reference. This could mean saving photos to organised folders on your computer, or music playlists on spotify. Then, when you’re in need of inspiration, you can just scroll through your collections and see what sticks out and makes you feel inspired. The amount of times I’ve depended on this for inspiration, I think I would feel lost without it!

Examples:

• Photo references of anatomy, perspective (including ones with very warped/intense perspective), lighting/mood/colour palettes, faces/facial features, fashion/outfits/material, expressions, landscapes, animals, whatever!
  Tip: Go through modelling agency websites for some unique-looking faces. Find movie stills for great lighting, mood, colour palette, or composition references.
• Other people’s art. You could like it for specific techniques or style, composition, colour, line, medium, whatever!
• Playlists of songs which set certain moods and influence you as such.
  Tip: Create music playlists for different moods or themes, so that when you want to paint an image with a certain mood portrayed, you can gain inspiration through music whilst working on it. Eg: Dark and moody playlists for dark paintings, upbeat or confident music for confident characters, etc.
• Make it easy to access.
  Tip: do it on dropbox or similar if you can, so that you can access it wherever you need to.

Using http://chadwickmodels.com to find inspiration for faces/facial features.

2. Think About Recent Experiences

Have you had any notable experiences or strong emotions you’ve felt recently? Try to channel that feeling into your art. For example, I got the idea of this video/blog because I myself was experiencing this exact thing! Use what could be a personal setback to your advantage, and use it as creative inspiration.

Tip: write or sketch down how you’re feeling at the time. It’s easier to remember or think back on those experiences for creating later on.

3. Trawl through certain websites which inspire you

Could be:

• themed tumblrs

• Instagram Influencers (a lot of people complain about the nihilistic millennials, but honestly there are so many unique people out there and I love when those kinds of people just upload a bunch of photos of themselves)

• Pinterest

• Blogs

• Youtube(rs)

• Fashion designer sites (oooooft alexander mcqueen)

It all depends on what inspires you or what kind of art you create.

Tip: Again, whenever you stumble upon inspiring websites, BOOKMARK THEM!

4. Listen to particular music that get’s you inspired or in certain moods. Eg: bright, smooth music for a calm drawing

As I said above, create playlists which set a certain mood or theme. Music has a surprising effect on your mood, and therefore inspiration. It’s especially good for times when you start a drawing in a certain mood, but can’t expect to feel that way for the entirety of the artwork (especially for works which take several days or weeks to complete) - listening to music can help bring you back to that mood and help you connect with your art.

5. Watch Certain Movies That Always Inspire You

Everyone has particular tastes in movies, and you can be inspired by movies for many different reasons - for the cinematography, the actors, characters, sets, costumes, soundtrack, or storyline.

Tip: I don’t work well if I’m trying to draw whilst also concentrating on a movie, so I find I work best when I watch a movie, and reference certain shots from within the movie, or a good one is to listen to the soundtrack whilst I’m working! Listening to the music from the movie will help take you make to the mood of watching it.

Utilising https://movie-screencaps.com to find great movie shots.

6. Have a Change of Scenery

• Go outside, go for a walk and listen to some music whilst you do, and just think. Note anything that you think about that gives you inspiration.

• Exercise - a way to give your brain a break and focus on something else, and also gives you mental energy - make you less lethargic and more motivated to be productive. After a good workout session you’ll feel motivated, and exercising with music can have the same thinking effect as going for a walk.

• Do mindless tasks and think throughout them. I can think of great ideas when cleaning, doing the dishes, showering.

• Avoid your phone for a while so that you don’t mindlessly scroll. This can kill many ideas - or, you can find something inspiring but then get lost in your scrolling and forget about it forever. If you find inspiring things on instagram, screenshot them and immediately upload the screenshot to the cloud - whether that be dropbox, icloud, or google drive.

7. Try to Avoid Distractions

• I find drawing whilst watching TV/movies to be distracting - everyone is different, of course, but I recommend listening to music over watching things, as it’s more motivating/inspiring than distracting.

• Same goes for social media or being online. Make sure you’re not getting too distracted by it and breaking your concentration or mood.