There's still a lot that I want to talk about when the time is right, but we're not quite there yet. I still need to confirm one large part of the project I'm working on before I can really start blabbing. Until then, let's try and talk about some practical painting experiences.
That's really a fancy way of saying that I haven't done a lot lately other than pain my little butt off. Whenever I have a lot of work in front of me and a deadline, I struggle to be productive as often as I would like. After all, there are many things that would be finished easily if I spent all of my work hours actually being productive.
Most of the time I'll tell myself that it's a creativity thing, and I think a lot of others would agree with me. There's a narrative in our heads (and in society), that creativity can never be forced and artists are at the whim of their intangible muse.
As much as I like to accept that I have no control over most things in life, I feel like I am able to decide what my hands work on. If I'm snoozing on the couch when I could be painting some pictures, then it's on me. I don't think that we're completely driven by the winds of creativity, but it certainly has a role to play.
I just got off a two day bender of painting pictures and watching movies. It's why this post is late, and why the 'doodles' in here are painted. I often feel bad about washing the dregs of paint on my palette down the drain, so I figured I'd make some marks with them instead. Anyway, the point is that I've been focusing a lot on quantity recently, which is a different beast than struggling with quality.
There are a number of paintings that I must paint, which all follow a theme. They each take me about four hours or so to complete, at least until the canvases get bigger and individual paintings will take much longer. Thus, I have a bit of a system going for working on these paintings and getting as many done as I can.
The thing is that I could have had a whole lot more finished by now, but I go through large periods of time where I don't work on any at all. Often there will be weeks between painting sessions, followed by binge-working for twelve hours a day to get a large amount done. If I actually worked productively every day, I could be close to finished with the entire project by now.
Besides, it's not like I'm using that time to do much else. Sure there's work to be done, but I rarely have a full day of work-related projects to complete. I tend to sleep in and stay up late, just because I prefer working in the evenings and I've never been an early riser anyway. Hence, I have a lot of time available that could be spent on more productive things.
Part of me feels like if I got into a regular routine, I'd avoid some of the issues I run into when binging. Every time I plough through ten or twelve paintings in a row, there's at least one that doesn't come out entirely how I'd like. There's always one that needs a lot of painting over and adjusting different elements, so by the time it's finished I'm just sick of looking at it and it will never be complete. I wonder if pursuing a more regular timetable would provide more focus on each painting, which would help avoid mistakes.
With that in mind, I propose that creativity isn't something you have to wait for and then chase desperately when it decides to come around. We all have strong moments of inspiration and motivation, but if we don't try and do anything between those times, we're probably missing out.
Again, this is kind of why I like doing these weekly posts, because they remind me to take time out of my day and create something. It's good to make something without any expectations, but I'm beginning to think that I could transfer that practice to something that actually matters. I'm hoping that before too long I'll be able to say that I've completed my project early, all thanks to a more productive schedule.