Are you an art hobbyist or perhaps an art enthusiast who wants to become an artist? In either case, finding time and motivation to make art can be a challenge. With work, school, friends, family, and household chores, it’s easy to neglect your recreational passion. Perhaps your last artworks were finger paintings for mom’s refrigerator, but you want to learn something new. Having an art habit makes you not just an artist, but a less stressed and more focused individual in general.
Where to start though? My Modern Met Academy is perfect for making art a habit. Across mediums, we have classes that are great for beginners or those who feel a little rusty. From Beyond Bouquets to Dappled Light, our courses will inspire you to expand your creative horizons.
Scroll down for some tips on how to build an art habit and never miss an opportunity to create (and have fun in the process).
Here are 6 tips to get your creative practice going and build good art habits.
1. Set small, consistent goals.
While you might want to eventually paint the next Guernica, start small. Even as few as five minutes a day will help build a lasting habit. With short sessions, you won’t worry about your to-do list, and you can slip art anywhere into your day.
Conveniently My Modern Met Academy classes are broken up into short lessons. They’re perfect to set the tone for the day and watch while you’re drinking your morning coffee.
2. Mise en place – have all your materials ready.
When you want to work in short bursts, it’s important to not spend too much time gathering your materials and finding a spot with good light. Mise en place is the culinary practice of having all of your ingredients and tools prepped before you start cooking. This is helpful to do with art as well.
Have your paints laid out, pencils sharpened, and cups of water filled and set where you want to make your art ahead of time so it’s easier to dive into the creative process when inspiration calls. This can be as simple as keeping your sketchbook and pens together in a bag next to your keys so you don’t forget to grab them for on-the-go sketching.
Artist Demi Lang includes a quick lesson on organizing your workspace in her course Architectural Illustration for Everyone and all of My Modern Met Academy’s classes start with an explanation of the materials you’ll need to complete projects.
3. Use the buddy system.
Art can be a solitary practice, but having an art buddy can enhance the experience. Meeting up for coffee dates to sketch can help time fly by and be a great way to build friendships as well.
Not sure who to ask? Look for meet-up groups, both in person and online to have a whole team of body-doubles. Even if you prefer making your art solo, it can be great to have someone to update on your progress to keep you accountable. They can even be a source of critiques when you’re ready.
On My Modern Met Academy, you can take a class for yourself and gift that same class to a friend. Then, you can make a pact to tackle lessons together. You don’t even have to be in the same location at the same time. Like a book club, you can set a goal to complete a lesson within a certain amount of time and reconvene at a later date, holding each other accountable.
4. Keep a “reference library” for inspiration.
Sometimes the creative muse is AWOL. That’s when it’s great to have your own compendium of art inspirations. Whether it’s jotting down ideas in the Notes app, or saving posts from your favorite artists and museums’ Instagrams, having somewhere you keep a pile of ideas is great for when you just don’t know what to make. It’s also a fantastic way to learn about your personal style and what artistic aspects you’d like to lean into as you grow in skill.
Artist Anna Sokolova loves to return to several well-loved books of scientific and nature illustrations when she is thinking about her next piece. You can learn about her process in Animal Portraits in Colored Inks.
5. Try something new.
If you feel yourself becoming bored with your art, that’s exactly when you should try something you haven’t before. This can be as simple as using a color you tend to ignore. Hate orange? Use only shades of orange in your next piece. Another option is trying a whole new medium that will not only reignite your interest but still help improve your artistic talent.
In Mixed Media Thread Painting, you’ll practice both painting and embroidery in a way that will add a fresh perspective to both mediums.
6. Take an art challenge.
Want to get better at drawing hands? Challenge yourself to draw 100 in different poses. Repetition is practice and practice makes perfect. There are also new art challenges on social media nearly every month. Famously, there’s Inktober where you get a new prompt each day in October for an ink drawing. Coming up in August, there’s Doggust when you can draw a different dog for each day. If you want to be ambitious, you could take a new class each month and master a new technique.
The key thing to remember is that art is about exploring and learning. Get your art habit started with one of My Modern Met Academy’s classes and then keep on creating. If you want to share your art after your class, be sure to tag @mymodernmetacademy.
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