what I learned from painting everyday for a month 🎨💡

Happy May, my friends!

This is the first installment of my free, bi-weekly newsletter, sharing whatever I'm pondering at the moment! (art mindsets/what I'm learning, sketchbook club check in's, book and media ramblings, life stuff and how it connects to my art etc.) After reading, let me know what you think and if you want to see more!

Yesterday marked my last day of participating in Plein Air April as part of our April Sketchbook Club Prompt (here is the entire collection of posts in case you missed them!). It was a whirlwind of learning to use traditional paint again, trying new supplies and setups, painting new places, and battling the challenge of finding time to just sit and paint.

I plan on making an entire video all about this experience, but to get my thoughts together, I'd like to share some of the key mindset shifts in this post that enabled me to commit to this month long challenge, how I developed skills that I could translate into my illustration work, and reduce an ever-present expectation of perfectionism that has haunted me for the past couple months.

1. Letting myself have an "easy-win" from time to time

Warping challenges to be more sustainable and useful to your art practice is the best way to actually complete them.

I knew the only way that I would be able to paint everyday and participate in Plein Air April was to include indoor still life painting and portrait painting as well. Due to work, life, weather, and energy levels, I knew getting outside to paint, and driving to new places would take a lot of time and energy that I wasn't always going to have. I wanted this to be fun, exciting new challenging hobby that I would really love to develop more, not a rigorous boot-camp on top of my already demanding creative projects.

Also, mixing those more uncomfortable outside plein air sessions with painting sessions that were closer to what I was used to gave me those "little wins" that kept me going throughout the challenge. Almost like a rest day after a tough workout, letting my mind noodle on a portrait of my partner or a simple still life that was easier to break down than the more complicated outdoor scenes. These little wins let my bigger painting muscles rest for the next session.

Letting myself rest with these easier paintings (although they were still slightly challenging since I am not used to traditional paint) made my mind sharper and better prepared for the tougher paintings in the future.

Applying this to my regular studio practice, maybe I could mix bigger painting or design projects with smaller spot illustrations or character sketches. Not everything has to be a challenging, preparation heavy, lore-laden piece that take my career and artistic voice further in leaps in bounds.

This varying levels of project complexity, skill demand, and "seriousness" will be a much better way to keep a consistent art practice rather than always pushing to do more, be better, and produce faster mindset that is so strong in online spaces right now.

2. Mindfulness and Creating in Silence

Do you ever draw in pure silence?

I realized the days where it was just me and Steven, outside with my paint and sketchbook, no headphones or additional stimulant, I felt the most connected to what I was doing. I could hear the gentle fluttering of wings of the ibises overhead, the creaking of branches, and the whistling gusts of wind. I was peaceful and calm (albeit, occasionally broken by the hum of a car or wail of a siren) and it made me rethink of how I change my studio habits back at home.

I tend to put on one of my favorite albums, a studio vlog, or try and soak up some auditory business/career advice while I create and while sometimes it's an aid in staying on task during less brain intensive chores like cleaning, organizing files, or even rendering more tedious parts of paintings, it also causes un-needed stress and frustration.

If I'm actually trying to draw and conceptualize ideas, this background noise really hinders my focus and attention to what I am doing, and overall leads to a less than fulfilling art experience. If I really need something to fill the radio silence, gentle instrumental music is my go to, but anything more complex than that is a hindrance to the initial stages of my creative process.

It's a hard habit to break, especially when listening to a fun video is easier than actually focusing on something, but getting past the initial couple minutes of discomfort with less stimulants and just being left with my pencil and page, that's when the process of creating truly feels fulfilling to me.

3. Consistency and Dedication for myself- not for external validation

Why do you want to paint everyday, start that new drawing challenge, or dedicate more time to your art?

As a full-time artist and content creator, I have to prioritize routinely creating so that I can make progress towards envisioning my stories, developing my ideas, feel fulfilled and .... make money (capitalism, boo boo tomato tomato).

My initial love of creating art comes from my love to share my stories, ideas, and feelings through visual means.

This can become murky waters. Sometimes I'm really excited about a new illustration like my most recent painting of my knight oc, or my very much in progress Y2K Witch story, and other times working on a new illustration is just a paycheck. And there are some really tough times when I can't de-tangle my creativity from the pressures of posting and monetizing, and it can become distressing and alienating. The un-romantic reality of turning art into a career.

But throughout this daily painting challenge, it was a continuous reminder that not everything I create has to be (or should be) monetized or for performance on social media. And I find myself most creatively happy and fulfilled when I carve out some time just to make random things for myself (that may or may not blossom into something publicly shared. there's no pressure). The dedication to show up everyday for myself, not for an algorithm, not for approval from others, that is what truly matters, what feels most authentic to me, and what builds confidence in myself as a creative to continue to produce and share my work consistently.

4. Purposefully exposing myself to Failure

Taking on this challenge of plein air painting everyday meant accepting an 80% failure rate for me. (maybe even more, plein air is hard!)

Why would you ever want to put yourself in this position? Wouldn't constantly failing at something be discouraging and demoralizing? Yes, and no.

I had only started to dabble into the hobby last fall during a painting mentorship where plein air painting was highly encouraged to develop color picking and decision making skills in painting. (you can check out this video for some of my really early plein air attempts!)

So as someone who is chronically indecisive and a lifelong perfectionist, this challenge was not only a way to stretch my painting skills, but also my mindset with creating. With being in a creative career, perfectionism is almost a guaranteed path to creative annihilation. Nothing will ever get done, or even started to that matter, if I let perfectionism control my entire process.

And one of the best ways to let go of perfectionism and the fear of failure is to expose yourself to failing, over and over again, until you realize it's not that big of a deal. Those failed attempts become fun experiments and make creating enjoyable and childlike again. These little losses remind me that it's okay that sometimes things don't work out, that there are always new things to learn about art and myself, and that I can always pick myself up and try again.

With my studio practice, I can translate this mentality into my illustration work for my own projects and do the same little practice of failing in my sketchbooks. This more relaxed, enjoyable mindset ultimately makes the final result of what I create more genuine, makes the process more fun (which is the entire point of making stuff!) and feel more connected to what I create.

However, there is Reality™, and we can't just do these fun failure experiments with things like job, school or client projects for risk of getting fire or flunking, so purposefully failing a client project might not be the best idea.

The main takeaway is realizing that failure isn't an always looming boogeyman that will destroy your whole life in one fell brushstroke, but a series of learning moments that aid you in where you want to go.

And that is my biggest takeaway from Plein Air April! Failure is my friend in the creative process. This will be a continuous battle for me in my artistic and personal life, but monthly challenges and habits of exposing myself to failure really do help to keep the destructive and self critical thoughts away.

Do you need accountability and encouragement with your art practice?

Staying consistent with an art challenge or new habit can be so much easier (and enjoyable) when you’re surrounded with other creatives. So if you’re looking for an art community of other passionate creatives sign up to the Cookie Jar Tier for $3 and receive access to my Art Discord Server, Monthly Sketchbook Club Livestreams, and early access to all of my art, videos and comic projects!

So if all of this sounds cool make sure to check out the current Patreon Tiers and join the server today!

Thank you all so much for reading my ramblings and supporting my work, I am looking forward to writing more this year and sharing all that I know with you <3

Feel free to comment down below any comments, questions, or any topic requests you want to hear from me!

love, shay <3