The Art of Procrastination or the Procrastination of Art - Part 1

colorfulcowartstudio
Sep 19, 2016
2 min read

Got back a few days ago from a trip back to my home country to visit family and friends. Good trip, but it didn't leave me much/any time to update this blog. Have somewhat adjusted to the time difference but still waking up at 3:30 a.m. That's okay. I get up early to do art :-)

On the trip, I was in touch with my sister, A.M., who is also an artist. She has been a role model for me. She works in oils and produces some of the most exquisite works I have seen done by an "amateur". Not an amateur by any stretch of the imagination, but I guess that's what we call a person who does it for the love of the art and not for an income (at this point).

Anyway, we got to talking about procrastination. Turns out we're a lot alike. We both tend to find that the laundry needs to be hung out, the dust bunnies are accumulating in the garage, the T-shirts have to be rearranged in the drawers, the magazines on the coffee table have to be straightened........ ANYTHING to avoid picking up a pencil or a brush.

And then, when we are sitting down facing that canvas or blank piece of paper, we fear that what we do in the next few minutes will determine the rest of our lives. Any mistake will be devastating. Therefore, we get up and go looking for more dust bunnies.

She gave me a lead on an artist who holds workshops. His name is Stefan Baumann. She suggested I watch one of his YouTube videos, "Doodle your Way to Being a Great Artist", so I did. What he says makes sense.

I had to chuckle because in the video he says the point is to keep producing, not buying more sketchbooks. The morning of the day I watched the video, I had just bought another sketchbook. He talks about the extreme value we place on paper and how we (probably) developed that attitude.

There are many other helpful insights such as thinking of your drawings or sketches as "doodles" in order to encourage your creativity and lower the stress of "performing at any advanced level."

Give it a watch here:

Doodle your Way to Being a Great Artist by Stefan Baumann - YouTube

Enjoy!

P.S. I've been using the sketchbook I bought that morning to doodle. Thanks, A.M.!