Well, I made it to 200+ days before I had to reboot my practice, get some clarity, and set a new minimum.
To be honest — I’ve still CREATED every day, but not to what I want my “minimum” to be. I’ve been working on CreateQuest, drawing, writing, tattooing…doing SOMETHING every day, but it hasn’t been focused. It hasn’t been directed.
Here’s what happened – I slipped. I let other people start telling me what my priorities should be, and I let my practice slip. It’s one of my fundamental behaviors, and I couldn’t find the time for it between home improvements, business, grieving the loss of my grandfather, my family, my in-laws, and everything else that has been so distracting.
So I’m back to daily creations – and I’m sharing everything again.
Here are a few of the things I’ve been working on:
Collected Tattoos (What I could find)
I haven’t been tattooing as much as I’ve been overwhelmed with my home improvement projects, but here are a few of the pieces I did. As I learn more about composition I’m trying to “up my game.”
CreateQuest
CreateQuest has been a source of abundant joy for me lately. It’s something that I find easy to work on, so I spend a lot of time doing it.
Chris and I set a launch date, so we’ll be going live with invites early next month. I’m beyond excited to see what we can do with this platform.
Imperium
I rebooted Imperium today. It seems like a step backwards, but it isn’t. I realized that I didn’t start with a composition in mind, so I desaturated everything I’d done and started painting over it with just values. Once I get the values and composition tightened, I’ll go back into detail.
For the composition, I reminded myself of what I wanted to communicate with this one:
- Power
- Confidence
- Mystery
- Authority
Starting over is what I needed to do, so I’m glad I was working digitally to make the process easier.
Client Prep
This is an example of a tattoo that I started before I picked up new information. I just roughed in a very, very basic map of where I want to do some greywash and white to make this kraken appear like it’s underwater. I’m planning to leave the shading off of the front of his arm so I can build onto this design a bit more, the kraken needs tentacles added to make it more squid-like and I plan on using those to tie into a design going onto my client’s forearm.
What was awesome?
I have rededicated myself to daily creations. My new minimum is 30 minutes of creative time per day, with at least one sketch or warmup, no matter how simple it is. Art has to be part of my creative time.
What needs work?
As I’ve started studying composition, I realize how weak many of my compositions really are. I need to be more mindful of composition as I create. Some of my better compositions are only “better” by accident.
What did I learn?
A few really important lessons.
- If I don’t guard my priorities, other people will step on them and set their own priorities as my own.
- ART must be a part of my daily creative activities.
- Several interesting things about composition and working with a clear design principle. For Imperium, I’m going back to the basics using an S-curve composition and a light on dark value pattern.