2022 was the first full year I put more energy into creating, sketching, drawing and painting. It was the year I launched my website and started sharing not just my creations, but my thoughts as well in the form of blog posts. I was lucky enough to learn from some great artists and teachers who played a significant role in shaping my creation process, like Barbara Luel, Robert Joyner or Liz Steel. I learned a lot from them by exploring, playing, and sometimes failing (at least, this is how I felt at that moment). Furthermore, I discovered that creating regularly opens many doors and leads to ideas for future projects.
Last year, at the beginning of each month, I wrote a to-do list with projects and drawings I would like to do over the month. After two months, I realised this was going in the wrong direction. It started to frustrate me, because I focused on those tasks I needed to do, rather than creating spontaneously. Sometimes I missed a sketching opportunity because of some non-realistic goals set by me. After a while, I ditched the idea of a to-do list, and started to go more with the flow by creating more spontaneously and loosely. With these takeaways in my bag, I look forward to this new year. I don’t have a well-developed plan for 2023, for obvious reasons, but I want to outline some ideas that I would like to focus on. It will be nice to look back at the end of the year and see from where I started.
First, I need to remind myself daily that I’m creating for fun rather than for perfection. This is still my hobby, not my daily job, and I should enjoy every second of it.
This year I would love to learn about pattern design and create more of the themes I’m interested in the most: nature, plants, architecture and food. I plan to sketch more on location, be in nature or urban areas, and participate in local sketching events.
Observational drawing is one of my recent discoveries. Just taking the time to observe something and draw it not only slows down the time, but also improves drawing skills. I did this daily for a month, and the improvement in my drawing technique was very noticeable. I would like to practice this technique whenever I have a bit of spare time.
Learning about other artists’ work is another excellent way to improve my skills. I plan to deconstruct and analyse other artists’ work by observing and copying. This might also be a great opportunity to explore and grow as an artist.
I’m just about to start a new sketchbook, and I would like to do this with a different approach than last year. I want to really sketch in the sketchbook, not just draw and paint perfectly planned pieces. The sketchbook will be about documenting my everyday life and telling stories, as it should be.
Last but not least, I hope to use social media more wisely: less endless scrolling and more creating. Probably I will not share my work daily, but behind the scenes I will work hard to create meaningful content to inspire my followers. After all, I’m documenting my journey into art and my learning progress in order to encourage other self-taught artists to explore, experiment, and create.
