The Importance of Personal Projects
Are you working on any of your own personal art projects, or just giving all your energy away to your clients?
If you’re like many Illustrators, chances are you’re not making personal work a priority, and your creative self-expression and freedom is being sacrificed for the sake of running your business.
This is understandable, because the demands of a career in freelance Illustration or Design require a seemingly endless supply of time and effort, leaving you with little to keep for yourself. The thing is, neglecting to work on your own projects can have a negative impact on your creativity, your inspiration, and even the quality of your work.
The good news is that it’s never too late to start, or restart, your own personal projects and tap into the following benefits of creating art for art’s sake.
Freedom of Expression
Pursuit of Creative Vision
Personal and Artistic Growth
Inspired Work for Your Portfolio
Alternative Source of Income
Development of Skills and Techniques
Exploration of New Ideas
Remember the days before you were a “professional artist”?
You probably enjoyed all of the benefits listed above, and more. Isn’t that what made you want to create art for a living. The challenge now is to hold on to all of these rewards while working to please your clients and executing the daily tasks of running a freelance career. If you can manage to set aside the time to focus on your own personal Illustration projects, you will be a more inspired, productive, and satisfied artist.
Are you working on any personal projects? Please share your thoughts in the comments section of this post.
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I try to get in at least some sketching every day I set down at my table. Even if it’s only scribbling on a sketch card for 15-20 minutes. I’m also doing new promotional materials this month, which I’m using as an excuse to start on a series of images I’ve had in my head for months.
That’s great, Warren. Daily sketchung is a great way to sharpen your skills and stay fresh. I need to do more of that myself.
I did a “daily doodle” for a few months to recharge my artistic batteries, and it worked wonders. I came up with new ideas, got some drawing practice, and stretched my creativity.
I’m also making a conscious effort to work on more personal projects this year. So far, it has been the most fun I have ever had in my career, and I think I am producing my best work ever. I agree with every word of this article.
Thanks for joining in, Dani. I recently discovered that I had forgotten to have fun with my art, which led me to feeling a little lost. It’s so easy to forget this when you’re spending your days treating your art like a business. It’s crucial to try and make time for both sides: business and pleasure. Things like daily doodles and Illustration Friday are great ways to do this.
Spending time with your own creations also makes it easier to distance yourself emotionally from client work; if you never do anything just for fun, you will eventually start to project your own artistic needs and expectations on commercial projects. That can only lead to disappointment.
My resolution for 2010 is to do at least one refined illustration that’s not related to any project or work every month, and at least one fun doodle every week. I’m too scatterbrained to stick with daily doodles, but there’s always 2011 for that, right?
That’s another great point, Niko. It’s important to separate your needs from those of your clients, to a point. Hopefully, they hired you for your artistic vision, but there are always constraints to a commissioned piece and it’s great to have the outlet of personal work to nurture your creative spirit.
Good luck with your resolution. Sounds like a good one.
It takes a certain amount of dedication and passion to fit time in to your schedule for personal art projects. I do it and, because my work is digital, I spend way too much time in front of a computer screen. I have only the nighttime..mostly 7pm-1am. My blog keeps me motivated: http://kurillastration.blogspot.com
Personal work doesn’t even have to be “finished”…just sketch and keep your hand loose.
Use websites like Illustration Friday for ideas. My co-workers and I at FableVision pick a word from a random word generator to illustrate every 2 weeks. We post it on our blog “Creative Juices”: http://fablefolk.blogspot.com/
Mostly though…just make sure you’re having fun. You don’t need stress from both your day job and your night “job.”
Well put, Renee. Do you have a link to the random word generator you mentioned? Seems like a great idea.
I think we use a different one every time :)
…if you just google “random word generator” a whole bunch show up.
So you randomly generate your random word generator? :)
Hah! Exactly! :)
I had a lot of trouble last year – just out of art school – motivating myself to do anything. It was like… I had all these promo pieces and such that I should be working on, but I didn’t feel like it, so instead of doing something useful I just did nothing at all. Not so good.
Determined to get this year off to a better start, I began doing this:
http://kimsokol.com/daily
It’s a daily drawing on a monthly theme; right now I’m working my way through history; next month, I think I’m going to do zodiac signs (with the Chinese zodiac thrown in to fill out the month). It hasn’t always been easy to force myself to do it every single day – I’ve been sick a couple of times, and man, when you don’t want to get out of bed, doing a drawing and posting it on the internet seems like too much work – but I’m finally feeling like an artist again, getting my self-promotion together, getting some work… it’s nice.
The best part is also the hardest part – the chance to play with technique and media, outside of what my proper, portfolio style is. While it’s fun to do, it’s hard to bring myself to post it for the world to see when it doesn’t turn out quite how I’d like. =) But hey, that’s just part of the process.
Great idea, Kim. Nice astronaut on your blog. Can’t go wrong with an astronaut.
Hi Kim, I just wanted to say I really love your work! Your daily drawings are amazing!
Kim, these are great. I really like your approach to the British soldier and the Poodle skirt pieces. Fantastic project, I look forward to seeing this progress over the coming months.
Also on Thomas’ advice if I ever get stuck on a concept I’m using an astronaut!
Agreed, it is important to distance yourself from doing client work and do your own thing when possible.
It’s necessary as it’s the time when you can explore and find new ways of doing things. It’s only through exploration and experimentation that you can grow as an artist.
At the moment, even though we all have different projects going on, collectively we (satellitesoda members) are working on producing an artbook based on expanding our artistic horizons.
I wholeheartedly agree. Working on personal projects and ministry projects (crafts and sketching for Children’s ministry at a church) led to my PT internet business, then FT business. When you think about what is your passion, and how your work can reflect that, it can lead you into the right area. Your passion and mission is your motivation as well.
I’ve been trying to push my style in new directions and so have been doing exercises about 5 days a week over the past year or so. Have stumbled on some different looks that I like. Now the problem ( opportunity? ) is a varied style range. Somewhere in my childhood I developed a very limiting belief that my ability to draw was a finite resource and/or could disappear at any moment, so I was reluctant to do much practice. Thankfully I eventually replaced that belief.
I have a number of personal projects sitting in the to-do pile and sadly I don’t have much time to work on them. But I always make sure I do some creative drawing or exercise every day for myself.
It can be especially tough when you do a lot of your work digitally and some of your other favourite pasttimes are on the computer as well… you just end up spending way too much time sitting there infront of a screen and your eyes won’t thank you for that.
I think I posted this in the blog sharing article as well, but anyway, I too am doing the whole daily drawing thing which is recorded on this blog: http://365cartoons.blogspot.com and the majority of them are ink drawings on paper. It’s a nice change from the computer and an opportunity to draw whatever I want. There are days where I don’t feel very creative though, resulting in pretty boring drawings.
It’s worked wonders for my productivity and inking skills though :)
This year I’d like to make more time for personal projects and also look into alternative creative pursuits, such as graphic and web design. I also want to learn more about web coding and programming. I think it’s good to have other interests where you can be creative; some days you don’t really feel like drawing anything but you still want to be making something.
I just end up feeling really guilty if a day goes by where I haven’t made or worked on anything of my own.
Wow, that ended up being really long. Sorry for the rambling!
Thanks for sharing, Melanie. I’ve recently decided to create more art off of the computer (analog) because I spent enough time on the computer as it is. I can definitely relate to your situation, as well as your desire to diversify your talents.
Thank you for this topic, I was so glad to read this ! (not alone !)
In fact I figured the same thing some days ago: I’ve been trying to work in a way that potentially could seduce clients during these nine last years compromising my own style by the same way. I’ve done a break with drawing for a while. Then, last week, I took my pencils back in hand. I was amazed to find back the pleasure I used to feel when I was studying art at school. Furthermore, my sketches look quite different from the drawings displayed on my business website.
Like Niko Geyer in message, I think that 2010 will be a new start to work a different way leaving a wide part of time to personnal projects and new ideas. Thank you for the benefits list… I am going to print this in a huge format and put it right above my desk.
Best wishes for 2010 !
Glad to hear about your rejuvenation, Sam. Best of luck with your art in the future. Thanks for participating.
I liked this article also; I think it applies to other arts as well as illustration. It applies to writing too…I find that I am so busy writing my blog and writing to make money I neglect my poetry and journals, which is writing for me.
Check out Julie Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way” for a program (if you can stick to it) of making sure you fit in work for yourself.
Kim, I checked out your web site and loved your drawings as well.
I can relate to this article 100%!
I am a freelance illustrator and most of my work was/is done on a computer. I enjoy the efficiency, but I prefer sitting down with watercolors and brushes :) I’m trying to shift into the book illustration market, and that’s where I’m focusing most of my efforts at the moment.
I think the trouble with being freelance is the uncertainty…one can never be sure how much work is coming in the future. In my case that was the reason I took on most of the work that was offered to me, event though some of it reflected badly on my creativity. I couldn’t break that pattern for years! My (paid) work was my priority for the longest time, but often there wasn’t too much of “me” in it ;)
Recently I’ve tried a different approach- the first thing I do when I get down to work is my personal stuff…while my mind is alert, I sketch up things for my projects (2 illustrated books at the moment…no publishers or agents yet, just my good will). Later on when I feel like I’ve accomplished something for myself that day I go back to the “daily grind”;) Since I started doing things that way I feel much better, and I noticed that this new approach is helping with the quality of my paid work!
Great topic, thanks for giving us a chance to share:)
This is probably a new one! I don’t want to do anything BUT my own personal projects! I don’t make my living from illustration, but would like to transition into the field. The problem is I like letting my ideas unfold in a bizarre, subconscious, non-linear approach that that leads to the goofiest, freshest drawings. When I work for others I FREEZE UP. Poof! Freshness gone! I will probably end up illustrating my own books (already been written), that’s the only solution I can come up with. I would love feedback/comments/support…am I the only one who feels this way? Check out my work at http://www.franmason.com for a reference point.
By Fran Mason at franmason.com
I’ve had the same issue Fran – tightening up when it comes to client work. Two thoughts that have helped me ( both from musicians I believe ) are “do what you have to do, so you can do what you want to do” and “change your focus from ‘proving’ your talent to ’sharing’ your talent. Those two thoughts and experience have helped me out.
Another resource that might be useful is a book called Fearless Creating by Eric Maisel.
Enjoyed your website. Nice little animation touches.
cheers.