Today, I’d like to talk about finding ways to combine artistic goals to improve learning and productivity.
Why is this important?
We all know that goal-setting is important, but what happens when you have two goals that seem contradictory?
Do you have to focus on one goal and set the other(s) aside?
Or is there some way to work on two or more at the same time?
That’s the topic for today. Let’s get started.
Finding Ways to Combine Artistic Goals
The short answer is “no, you don’t have to focus on just one goal.” There are times when that is the best thing to do.
But you need to be aware of how you learn. If working on more than one thing at a time is distracting, then you are probably better off to focus on just one thing at a time.
However, if you learn well by pursuing more than one thing at a time, there’s nothing wrong with working on two goals at a time.
And it doesn’t have to be difficult. Following are a couple of ideas that have worked for me.
Scheduling Time
One way to work on multiple goals is by scheduling time each day or week to work on each project.
It’s not uncommon for me to have more than one drawing in progress at the same time, for example. In fact, I like doing that because when I hit a brick wall with one, I can work on the other.
Maybe you could work on one project in the morning and the other in the evening. Or maybe you could work on the more important of the two projects three days a week, and work on the other two days a week.
It doesn’t really matter what your schedule looks like. What’s really important is that you know when you want to work on each thing and you stick to that schedule as much as is possible.
Combining Goals
Another way to work on more than one goal at a time is to look for ways to combine some of those goals.
Let’s say you want to learn to draw more realistic rocks, but you also want to improve your ability to draw life-like still lifes. Consider this. A rock on a beach is a still life. So you can practice both by working on a series of rock drawings. The things you learn while drawing more realistic rocks also apply to drawing other still life subjects.
You could even add wild flowers or other objects to your rock drawings to practice composing still life subjects.
If you want to learn a new medium, you could work at learning that medium by itself. Watercolor painting, for example. There’s nothing wrong with temporarily switching mediums to learn to paint with watercolors. There’s also a lot to learn.
But you can also learn basic watercolor techniques by using watercolor to paint base layers for colored pencil work.
You can do the same by trying different combinations of paper and medium. Just make sure the paper you choose will handle the medium you choose. Bristol is great for dry media, but doesn’t handle moisture very well!
The Bottom Line
These are only a couple of suggestions, but I hope you get the idea.
There’s no reason why you can’t work through all the things you want to learn by either working on more than one project at a time, or by combing some of your goals.
The important thing is that you’re moving forward.
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