In this episode, I talk about why you should consider building a daily art practice. I share some of my previous failures with creating a daily art practice, and how those failures helped me find what works for me. I also share some tips on how you can create a daily art practice that is fun – and inspiring – for you!
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The importance of creating a daily art practice
But why is it important to build a daily art practice?
The answer to that one is simple: because practice makes perfect – or rather helps you to become a better artist.
Having a daily art practice is one of the best ways to get better at your art – be that sketching, mixed media, illustration, or any other artistic or creative pursuit. It can help you build your artistic skills, and grow your work in new and exciting directions.
Not to mention that having a regular creative practice is one of the best and most effective stress busters that I know of!
Some ideas for creating a daily art practice
There are many different ways in which you can build a daily art practice. These are my top 4 tips to help you to build up a daily art – or creative – practice:
52 weeks of art challenge: Try making a piece of art every week. If you begin this art challenge at the start of the year, you will end the year with 52 finished pieces of art.
Participate in monthly art challenges: There are a number of monthly art challenges that you can take part in. Perhaps two of the most popular ones are Inkoctober and Index Card A Day (ICAD). Inkoctober, particularly, is an excellent challenge if you’re looking to improve your drawing or sketching skills. There are many other monthly themed challenges that come up regularly, which can help you to create a momentum that you can then carry forward into a regular practice.
Spend a month exploring a particular medium or technique: Another idea is to spend a month exploring a certain art medium every day, or trying a particular painting technique – or maybe even drawing or sketching something like a face or flowers, or anything else that interests you. This will help you to understand that medium in-depth, improve your drawing skills, and may well give your art practice a much needed boost.
Also read: What I learnt by spending a month exploring watercolors.
Commit to creating on a small scale: A lot of artists commit to creating a small painting or drawing every day. These are typically mini-Moleskin journal-sized paintings or sketches. Some artists use this as a warm-up practice before moving onto a bigger piece of art. Others use a mini painting a day as their main creative practice.
Strategies to create a daily art practice
So here are some strategies on how you can create a daily art – or creative – practice. All of these are based on my personal experiences, and I’ve explained them more fully in the podcast, so make sure to tune in!
- Reframe what a daily art practice should look like
- Have the outlines of an idea or a technique that you want to explore
- The role of time in creating a daily art practice
- Allow yourself to fail
- Do it for the process
- Make it easy
Also read: What I learnt about establishing an art practice – the challenges, how I dealt with them, and what I did differently.
I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Art with Soul podcast! If you have any more questions on this subject, please leave a comment below. And if you have any suggestions for future topics, do drop those into the comment box below as well, and I may just pick them up on a future podcast episode!
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Bookmarking this post for life 😀
I’ve said it many times before, I love your art! The patterns, the colors, the soul everything! It has been a while since I painted anything. Need to go pick up some sheets soon.
Thank you so much, Soumya! And yes, pick up those brushes and paint soonest!
Making any creative pursuit a daily habit helps in the long run. But making it a daily practice is difficult. Thanks for your useful tips!
You’re welcome – hope they help you! 🙂
ahhhhh the 100 day project.
we did it together 2 years in a row.it was so fun to see the alchemy of the intuitive painting process in your create space.I admired the grace you gave yourself to allow as many days as possible.I think 2020 I gave myself the grace to have break days in the span of 100 days.
I never tried the 52 week challenge.
This is a great episode.I hope to re-listen to this.
I find creating once a week even is good if creating daily is not possible.
Ah yes – learning how to give myself grace was one of the big things that helped me establish an art practice! And yes, even setting aside time once a week is excellent!
both 100 day projects I was creating too.i love the grace you gave yourself while doing the intuitive paintings..and did you know how magical it was to witness your expression while creating my watercolor,crayon,neocolor2prinktscripts that time.It was an adventure.Yes I must agree 100day project is an experience of practicing a daily creative practice…not only that..it is also a community builder.we learn so much about ourselves and with each other.
I am not an artist but I can apply strategies over here for my other hobbies. I like to sketch though. Its been long since I have sketched anything. I remember now, the feeling it gives me. This post rejuvenated those.
Then why not pick up a sketchbook and start sketching again? It doesn’t require a lot of space or too much time!