For a long time I bought into the lie that creatives were messy, cluttered, unorganized and that was where the art comes from. The beauty of the mess, but that isn’t my process at all. The chaos works for some but when I started feeling overwhelmed and breaking things down into distinct elements, that was when I started progressing.
I started to actually finish projects and put prints in my shop, etc. Not just in my art practice but in my life. I began to focus on our budget, how we were spending our time so I could spend more of it with my family, friends or making art and making goals so my years weren’t exactly the same with no real results.
The way I got my life more organized was by using a life binder; printable sheets that break down goal planning and task lists (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and quarterly), finances, time management, values, books I want to read, meal planning, grocery lists, etc.
In addition, the areas I wanted to focus on when it came to my art were storytelling and character design. So when I couldn’t keep up with all of the things, I started to use these sheets to help me focus on projects and break characters down into heads, bodies, hair, tops, bottoms so it was easier to put these elements together to create my illustrations. Before I would just be frozen because the blank page can be intimidating and thinking of a whole character from scratch is a lot. Taking those developmental steps one by one has been a better process that works for me over and over again with my mermaids, bears, fairies, etc.
Start planning your life better today with The Creative Illustrator Life Binder! The binder has 70+ pages in A4, A5, and US Letter.
Get yours in the shop and you will receive any new updates and free access to The Creative Illustrator Hub where there are additional resources to help you reach your goals.
xo,
Erika