At the beginning of this year, I set out to create and publish some sort of artwork online each week. It was not always easy or enjoyable, but somehow I persisted. In general, I don’t think very highly of social media, but it’s clear that sharing a goal online and having a desire to improve is good motivation for me.
I didn’t start the year with any real art goals but loved the fact that this process forced me to try new things. On a few occasions, I tried a process, found that I enjoyed it, and then embarked on a weeks-long journey of exploration.
This happened in a dramatic way twice, as you can see in the below breakdown: once with the Milling and Painting of little PCB pins (inspired by this Adafruit guide) and another with the discovery of Affinity Designer, a fantastic subscription-free graphic art program for iPad.
Lessons Learned
I didn’t have any strong intentions going into this regarding mediums to explore or time to dedicate to it each week. I learned a lot about myself, what I enjoy, and how to be more successful at this in the future. Two main lessons I learned:
Making Art I’m Proud of Takes Time
A lot of work that inspired me was done by real artists who have been doing this for years. I often felt like I was nearing the end of a work, but looking back at something that inspired me made me feel like I had a long way to go. I’d then spend hours refining the piece or working on details until it felt worthy of posting. I’ll be setting limits to prevent this in the future, as I’d like time to explore other things while still improving my art skills.
Graphic Art is Fun and Flexible
One of the challenges I faced with creating some sort of physical art was the time and parts required: I couldn’t really work on projects from anywhere other than home, and I often didn’t start making the physical piece until the weekend. It was also tough to motivate myself to work on something like a CNC milling project since I already felt fairly proficient at it and wasn’t learning as much.
Graphic art, on the other hand, was totally new to me and had a few noticeable advantages:
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I could work on it from anywhere, as long as I had my iPad with me.
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I follow (and continue to find) incredible artists on Twitter who provide a near-endless supply of work that inspires me.
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I was starting from zero skill, so it was easier for me to come to terms with posting something lackluster.
Some Favorites
Here’s an assortment of projects that I find notable from the year, either because they were especially fun to create or because I’m proud of the end result:
Week 15: Skull Trio
Week 19: Small Wire Sculptures
Week 27: Colorful Shapes
Week 34: Missing Blue Skies
Week 37: Bubbly Wood
Week 48: Orbits
What’s Next?
I’m excited to continue creating and sharing art every week in 2021, with some modifications. Rules I’ll be attempting to follow:
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Digital Art Only. I’m excited to continue improving my graphic art skills but hope to also share some digital sketches or paintings. I’ll continue taking advantage of the fact that I can do this work from anywhere.
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Limit of 2.5 hours per week. I often spent too long finessing and obsessing over details this year, and I’d like to have time for other projects! This is more of a wish than a true rule. I have no idea if I’ll follow this all the time.
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Share on Twitter every Sunday. Same as this year.
Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter to see what I post each week.