Let it linger
Using your process to its full advantage
Fresh Faces
There are many new people that have joined me here from a post that, to my surprise, gained a lot of traction.
So before I continue, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for reminding me to be me. To share my art authentically. To express my muddled musings. To keep following my instincts.
One concept, many outlets
I’ve said it before and i’ll say it again:
In front of the right eyes, scribbles are stardust.
I use to put so much pressure on myself to constantly be making new work. Whilst I encourage making new work I don’t endorse, what I use to do, making and only sharing finished work.
I really hindered my growth as an artist/illustrator by rarely giving myself time to play, explore or make mess. I never made use of my process or shared my development. My ugly little scribbles and messy musings were for me and me only. I was so set on my creative world appearing polished to appear more ‘professional’.
Recently, I get a kick out of sharing my process. Perhaps it’s because the world, to me, feels as if it’s spinning at a pace that leaves me dizzy and dazed. There’s something about slow burning projects, paintings and processes that centre me and bring me back to a state of equilibrium. Not only that, it’s helping me grow my platforms.
Propagating
When I relied on one final illustration being seen by the masses, the “masses” didn’t show up. I might as well have been throwing the piece into the abyss. So I decided to propagate. I could take a few cuttings, snippets of the work and the process, and pop one here (Substack), one there (Youtube), oh and maybe over there (Instagram), allowing them to flourish organically, leading people to the original plant which first grew here (Website).
Limiting myself to one post, one space, one ‘plant’ limited people finding my work and created performance pressure. Now, I don’t mind if my plant shrivels up in its corner because I have others that might flourish in theirs.
Let it linger
When my last post did well I felt this need to rush into sharing something similar to keep people ‘hooked’ or feed that itch for validation. My fingers typed eagerly but my mind wandered elsewhere. I noticed the two weren’t in sync, so I paused.
I know it feels like you have to constantly be churning out content or chasing one goal to the next - but you don’t. You’ve planted the seed. Let it flourish. Let it linger.
In the spirit of letting it linger and utilising the development stages, here’s a video on my paint process. From start to finish, materials and gathering inspiration for future pieces, this little video was a joy to create and I hope enjoy watching it ♡
Until next time,
