Stop Consuming, Start Producing
(Illustration by Gabe Lanza)
In today’s world, one of the biggest challenges professional artists face is balancing the amount of time and energy they devote to consuming information with the creation of their own art.
If you’re like most creative professionals, you probably spend a good portion of your day reading blog posts, visiting portfolio websites, listening to podcasts, and watching the latest video tutorials online. While these can all be great ways of learning new skills and finding inspiration, they can also cripple your production and make you more of a consumer than you’d like to be.
Most importantly, they can keep you from achieving the goals of your freelance Illustration business.
If this describes your typical work day, consider setting aside some time in your schedule to turn it all off and focus on creating your next masterpiece.
Remove yourself from Twitter, Facebook, and any other social networks you’re plugged into.
Stop looking at the work of other artists.
Stop checking your email.
Stop answering your phone.
And yes, stop reading this blog.
Consuming is great, and the internet gives us more ways to do that than ever before, but you can easily become lost in the sea of information that is endlessly being created online. If it’s been way too long since you drew something in your sketchbook or gave attention to the latest creative project that you’ve been putting off, show yourself the respect that you deserve by focusing only on producing, rather than consuming the work and ideas of others.
Take action!
Then, come back and read this blog some more.
How do you balance consumption with production? Please share your thoughts in the comments section of this post.
You can even customize your comment with a Gravatar.
About Gabe Lanza: Gabe has had experience in editorial illustration, graphic arts, and product design including: apparel, branding and advertising. His passion lies in a strong graphic quality involving an eye for texture, pattern, and design. When he’s not locked in his studio, Gabe enjoys sipping a Whiskey Old-Fashioned, riding his vintage motorcycle, and playing board games with his wife, newborn son, and 26 pound cat.
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Great Post. I’ve been struggling w/just that problem. Must make my own art making the focus of my day and not an afterthought that gets squeezed in between the social networking and researching. It’s hard. Will try to have a twitter/FB/etc. free time zone a day -see if it boosts my art productivity. New Rule can’t twitter/etc until I’ve done something art wise.
One thing that I’m trying to do is to be productive, rather than reactive, for the first part of my day. That means not even looking at email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. before I’ve produced. It really helps to work from your own vision first, rather than reacting to something outside of yourself. There’s plenty of time for that later.
I like that idea Thomas.
Great – Your vision first. Makes total sense.
One thing that I realised helps my productivity is not having internet access in my studio. Obviously keeps me from checking my mail etc. every few minutes & boosts productivity.
That’s a great way to force yourself to get work done. I don’t think I could do that, since so much of my work for EFII is internet-related, but it’s great for those who need some Illustration-only time. Nice avatar!
Thanks for the post. Guess I’m not the only one dealing with those problems. Especially looking at too much of other people’s work seems to really drag me away from creating stuff myself.
That doesn’t mean I am not visiting exhibitions anymore, but rather that I try to limit visual impressions. In the time of broadband internet connections new and interesting pictures are (obviously) just a mouseclick away.
Also I feel its very important for me to pull ideas from my personal surroundings more often. Avoiding sites like fffound, flickr, forum galleries really helped me with that.
It depends: When working I simply close down Internet and also read no mails, but every 2 hours I make a break with a little walk into the kitchen, a few minutes with the cats, making coffee and when back to the desk again I use the coffee -time to browse my watchlist on deviantart and read some mails before I get back to work, if time allows I update some portfolios and write some comments here and there.
Sounds like you’ve found a good balance. I’m working towards that myself.
It seems your advice is just going from one extreme to another. I’ve connected w/curators on Facebook and have some paintings in one of the top ten art hotels in the USA due to Facebook connections. Your advice does not consider the time saved making online connections -vs- the time required to travel and meet these people in person (which is not even possible in some instances). Think of all the time saved *not* having to go to the library or bookstore to read something. The famous artist Alex Katz said something like *Art making is an intellectual activity. You have to read. If you stop reading you will be out of step in three years* Not an exact quote.
We are all consumers, even to create. If we cut ourselves off, that is not good either.
Hi Marie.
I think you’ve misunderstood the point I’m making in the post. Believe me, I’m a huge believer in taking advantage of the internet for the sake of your business. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be so involved with EFII and it’s many social networking branches. All I’m saying is that it’s important to set time aside here and there where you step away from spending time consuming information, and devote that time to creating. You can always go back and forth, but some people can get caught up in only consuming and never getting around to doing anything.
Rather than going from one extreme to the next, I’m proposing trying to find a balance. I would never recommend we “cut ourselves off”. I think we both agree on the value of connecting and consuming online. There just seems to be a point where it does more harm than good.
Do you agree?
Definitely good advice, Thomas. At times it can be hard to turn the computer off and focus on tasks at hand. I have internet access in my studio but not on the Mac I work on. That’s what helps me because I used to get sucked into the web as soon as I got on my Mac to work on an illustration or design. Having internet access on another computer seems to have resolved that issue for me. Once I’m involved in sketching I usually get sucked into what I’m doing and don’t really think about much else.
My wife jokes with me that I have an addiction to computers and such – when I’m not on a computer I’m sometimes messing around with my iPod touch. Why do we love all things Mac?!
I hear some of the same jokes from my wife. :)
Its a tough balance. For me it is just as important to be creating as it is to be in contact with clients, potential clients as well as colleagues. Also checking out what’s going on around me helps me keep up with upcoming trends and styles. I divide my day: client communications first, creating second, research and networking tied for third. After all that is done, I check on personal email/phone calls then social networking… usually during a break or later in the day/evening.
When I really want to disconnect, I just leave the office :)
Hi Diana. Thanks for your comment. It sounds like you’ve created a good strategy. Have you always worked that way, or did you have to change your ways?
I know in school I definitely had a problem with this. I would lurk on forums and sites and also compare myself with other artists and their sites. I wouldn’t attempt the techniques I’d read about or produce the various things I took in. It lead to a type of sulking and forming the thoughts in my mind of not being good enough.
I think right now i’m in a mode of consumption but hope to balance that out in the next few weeks. Right now just mainly been doing a lot of doodling on meeting notes and such.
Nowadays, I have a folder full of bookmarks with sites such as deviantART and Facebook.
I think I should go delete that folder.
Hi Catherine. Actually, those sites can be very valuable, but moderation is key. What’s really important is striking a healthy balance. Be careful not to go to the other extreme, which might just burn you out. Thanks for your comment!
This really is the clincher, trying to strike the right balance of creating with absorbing the internet.
I’ve seriously thought about making myself a timetable, or some form of allowance.
I think that’s a great idea, Dylan. It seems like that approach works very well for a lot of artists. I’m working towards that myself. There’s a lot of work that we can do offline, in most cases.
Definitely, its all about discipline and balance hey, and knowing our patterns and habits.
I find I’m much more productive with drawing and idea generation etc in the mornings, but often I’ll waste this golden period with web / mail / news / blog overload.
Funnily enough I stumbled upon this again on twitter today.
Some great points from Alex Mathers about this very problem…
http://bit.ly/aO1OTJ
While reading this I thought “I am soooo guilty of this.” Then I tweeted the link. XD
I am not an illustrator, but I still have the same problem. Too busy reading and emailing to get much writing done.
There are a lot of good ideas here.
This is exactly what I need to be reading right now. It’s hard, especially when you have a limited time to work on “your” art to begin with, but it is absolutely a discipline thing. Thanks.
You definitely make an important point about creating vs consuming as an artist. Something I find to be helpful in breaking out of the consumer mindset is to turn to the natural world (as some people have already mentioned) for inspiration – that way I’m not ‘consuming’ someone else’s vision of the world, but seeing it firsthand and interpreting it.
Taking walks away from the dorm room/campus/house/studio into mostly unfamiliar places is a great way to switch into creation mode. Apparently there is a scientific basis for how a change in surroundings can greatly impact one’s creativity, and common sense would dictate that one would be less likely to be tumblrsurfing when away from a computer.
I’m so glad to hear I’m not the only one spending way too much time on the computer. Part of it is laziness, (I think I’m addicted) and part is just wanting to consume all the information out there, and have fun emailing friends.
I guess I will have to start disciplining myself more. I too, spend my most productive time sitting at the computer instead of producing. As I sit here right now I have a project waiting that should have been done by now!
I can so relate to this. I also have been known to use the computer as a distraction from more important matters that need addressing…like work. :-)
It’s like comfort eating for your eyes!
I agree with this %100. There were a few times when my internet connection would go crazy and I couldn’t get online unless I was in classes. During those times, I probably sketched more than I had in months.
For me, I have now realized that moderation is definately the key. Some days I really do have ‘information binges’ where I spend almost an entire day just looking and reading and comparing. By the end of the day I feel almost sick from the amount of ‘stuff’ I have just crammed into my head. It’s like how you feel after you’ve eaten a whole bag of candy…queezy and guilty. The guilt hits when I realize that an entire went by and I didn’t do any of my own work.
The next day I start fresh but I still remember the stuff from the day before.
Information Hangover.
Fortunately I am not dependent on the computer all day for work…so I find if I save all my internet stuff until after I get home from the studio and after dinner…it keeps me from spending too much time looking.