So… Very… Much! How do you handle it?
8mo
Art Stark
On the one hand, I'm certainly getting a lot of bang for my buck from the Drawing Basics course. On the other hand, I wish each section of Drawing Basics was its own course. It feels like this is going on forever. It's why I never finished the Anatomy course.
Ideally, I would like to draw and paint everyday, while keeping up my studies of fundamentals a few times a week, while keeping up on Master studies in my free time, while occasionally going outside to sketch, when I'm not doing laundry or chores or work or going to the gym. And that doesn't include the Loomis and Gurney books gathering dust on my shelf. Or allowing for free time to just be. Oh, and sleeping — sleeping is sort of necessary.
Admittedly, these are really great problems to have. So, while the above may seem like complaints, they are more a source of puzzlement. So, how do you handle it?
Being busy is unfortunately just a poor excuse.
There are no less or more busy people.
Everyone has 24 hours a day.
We all have to work, study, rest, sleep and do other things.
The common good we all have, before we die, is time and all what we can do is to manage it so that we are at least happy or satisfied.
I would not need an external or special alarm for such an activity. From what you have said it seems to me that this is far too much to take on at one time.
Reflect, prioritise what you are doing. But be also gentle with yourself and do not worry too much. The time will come and you will study this subject as you wish or imagine.
Personally I have found time at night, usually before going to sleep. Instead of mindlessly watching something on the media available today, I would just take a piece of paper, a pencil and a reference and start, going back to that idea from the past that I had also given up on for a long time. I was and am aware that this would not lead to anything recognisable and I did it to myself, occasionally posting my work here and there looking for some feedback and receiving very little or nothing. But that does not bother me and I just try to carry on.
An hour or half an hour or 15 minutes a day is really not too much for our "busy" lives. You just sacrifice less important things, and when it becomes a habit then you are on the right track and everything becomes easier.
No offence, but if you find what I have said offensive, I apologise. Keep studying and progressing. I wish you every success.
Wow! Thank You!
To begin with, I am not offended. I am very grateful that you took the time to answer my post.
What you have said rings true with me:
• I do, indeed, think I am taking on too much at one time. I have no idea why I am in such a hurry.
• I have not been very gentle with myself. In fact, the only one who has been offensive to me lately is myself!
• "Instead of mindlessly watching something on the media available today…" At night I have found myself going down the rabbit hole of news sites and YouTube, which always depresses me.
• "An hour or half an hour or 15 minutes a day…" The tyrant of self-doubt whispering in my mind demands hours a day of serious study before one is allowed to have some fun. I forgot I can just sit down with a pencil for 15 minutes to enjoy drawing. How did I forget this? I'm so silly sometimes.
Again, thank you so much. It's a pleasure to meet you.
— Art
I literally have 50 alarms for every day and each tells me what to do :DDD It sounds ridicules but it's great, but only if you're actually following them XD
I'm thinking a lot about this too! Because I have drafted a sort of progress plan for my art journey and I feel like in the pace I'm moving I will not be able to do what I actually want to do before three years down the line!
I do love the fact that the Drawing Basics is so huge though. I learn so much from it that I didn't even learn studying art and design in "real' schools before... It's crazy! It reminds me of this huge book that I'm reading and how intimidating the size can look. It is actually just three separate novels in one binding but I think just the size of it can be so overwhelming to some people :D I just focus on the fact that it's three separate novels and stop thinking about how much time it's going to take me. I actually also had almost a year long break from reading it.
I studied a bit about Agile methodology recently and I found a few things that can be helpful for various aspects of life and that is to plan your activities in projects (sprints). Say you feel it's important to study from Loomis now, then you can plan you 'sprint' to for example 3-4 weeks where you only do that and put the Drawing Basics course to the side. The sprint length should be as long as you feel you need to level up on Loomis.
I'm not being as strict about it as that, but I did actually just start a bit on the anatomy course just to get that ball rolling slowly, but my main focus is Drawing Basics. (In additions to everything else I have to do in life... :D) It's annoying that there's just too much to do and too little time...
“I literally have 50 alarms for every day…”
Allowing for 8 hours of sleep a night, that would be (50 alarms / 16 hours) = 3 or 4 alarms per hour — so, an alarm every 15 to 20 minutes of your waking life.
That’s impressive, and your daily productivity must be through the roof! While I don’t think I could muster that level of efficiency, I see how a few alarms a day might help to keep me on track more. Your idea is definitely worth considering.
Thank you so much for contributing to this little chat of mine. I appreciate it!
I suppose I should start my day now… maybe even set an alarm or two… or, at least check what time it is. :P
