Artistic Resolutions

The How’s and Why’s

It’s time for artistic resolutions again. Have you already thought about yours or do you avoid making resolutions altogether?

I’ll be honest and admit that for the most part, I avoid them. Why? Because statistically 80% lose their resolve and give up by mid-February. Just ask your local gym. And who says January 1^st is the only time we can make goals for improvement anyway? For that matter, why do people always want to start a new diet on Monday? What’s wrong with any of the other days of the week? Mondays and January 1^st allow us to procrastinate with our self-improvement. To me, self-improvement should be an exciting time, not one where you feel like you just received a life sentence. My feeling on it has always been that people do the resolution thing because everyone else is doing it and they do it without putting much thought into it. Is it any wonder why the failure rate is so high?

In past years…

I’ve made resolutions to improve my finances (which is slowly but surely working…finally!), to start a freelance business (which keeps getting delayed…it’s hard!), to get fit (which worked out fabulously!), and to improve or learn art skills (which usually works out great).

Time’s a wastin’! If you get started now, you’ll reach your goal that much sooner. (Photo Credit: 123RF.com Copyright: Sergejs Rahunoks)

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Again, please don’t feel that you have to wait for January 1^st (or Mondays) to tackle new goals, but being that January 1^st is now just two weeks away, let’s just go with it. You already know that artistic resolutions are going to require a lot of work. It’s art. It ain’t gonna create itself!

So how do we get started?

A little introspection is key. Take a moment and seriously consider this past year. What went well? Was anything lacking? What do you wish you had accomplished? What could stand some improvement? The number one reason why most resolutions fail is that the goal isn’t clear. Taking the time for introspection shines a light on where your goal is coming from, why it’s important to you, and how achieving the goal would influence your life. Goals that are vague create a distance between you and your intention. You become more of an observer than a participant and in order to succeed, you absolutely must participate.

Why is your goal important to you? Or isn’t it? (Photo Credit: 123RF.com Copyright: Ion Chiosea)

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Next…

After you’ve become clear on your goal (what it is, why you want to reach it, and how it would affect your life), consider how you’re going to get there. You wouldn’t plan a road trip to somewhere you’ve never been without a map, would you? The same goes for any other goal, whether it be fitness, finances, or art. You know what the finish line looks like, what your ultimate goal is. And you know that it’s going to take a year to get there. For most people, looking at the end goal is completely overwhelming, which is the number two reason why people give up.

Trying to drive someplace you’ve never been before without a map or GPS can not just be insane, but also be a huge waste of time.

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It becomes much more manageable if you break the year down into quarterly mile markers. In other words, every three months you’ll hit a significant mark. In order to get to each of those quarterly marks, define what each month will consist of in order for you to reach your quarterly achievements. You can even break each month down into weekly markers.

For example, say you want to become better at figure drawing. You want to be able to draw dynamic poses like Burne Hogarth or Glenn Vilppu. Well, if you’re just starting off that goal might seem unreachable and you would understandably be overwhelmed. However, if you break the year down as follows, for example:

2020-2021

• March – Accurate human head proportions
• June – Entire anatomy proportions
• September – Able to do 30 second gesture drawing
• December – Able to complete fully rendered drawing

Of course, you would make your own break down in steps that are meaningful to you. But to continue to break it down further (and I’m still making this up as I go)…

• January – Draw daily head sketches with YouTube tutorials
• February – Draw daily head sketches from reference photos
• March – Accurate human head proportions from imagination

And so on for the rest of the breakdown. By the time you have the entire year worked out, you’ll have a totally workable map of your artistic resolutions. The shorter term milestones make the entire goal seem much more attainable and not so overwhelming. This in turn will help to prevent you from becoming discouraged, which is the number three reason why people quit.

Creating your art is only part of the equation. No matter what your goal is, breaking the ultimate goal down into smaller bite size mile marker goals prevents overwhelm. (Photo Credit: 123RF.com Copyright: Russell Ensley)

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If your goal is to start selling art, you should map out the process. Besides creating the work, there’s marketing (social or printed), researching printers and marketing tools, contacting and entering art shows, compiling an email list, etc. Considering the whole scope of that project makes me want to throw in the towel before I even start! But breaking it down into much smaller monthly goals makes my mind relax a little and not flip out quite as much.

Even if your goal is “just” to produce one 15-minute sketch a day (and trust me, that’s no small feat!), you probably should map it out. It might be in terms of themes or prompts for each month. Because let’s face it…365 sketches would overwhelm anyone!

So to recap…

• Take time for introspection
• Identify a clear goal
• Break the year down into quarterly milestones (monthly and weekly, if necessary)

This will help you to…

• Avoid vague goals
• Eliminate overwhelm
• Prevent getting discouraged and most importantly…
• REACH YOUR GOAL!!