Hello!

It’s been a while so I thought I’d update a little bit as well as continue with this little challenge that has taken TWO years to complete… I figured that I can’t stop now, I only have 3— now 2 of these things left. I will say, the way I’ve approached this has changed significantly since I first started it but guess what, so has my art style! As well as the improvement I’m seeing since I’ve first started. If you so happen to have been following me on this journey, I’m sure you’ve noticed too. Anyways, to get on with it…

24. You spread yourself too thinly

The best art springs out of a determination to remain focused on making more with less. Taking on too much will inevitably result in less concerted effort placed on more stuff, and your work will suffer as a result.

Get really good at one thing. Excel at one thing, before moving on to the next if you must. All else is distraction.

This right here has definitely been a struggle… At the start of becoming serious, I wanted to not only draw but I wanted to paint, illustrate, make clothing, make perler beads, make anything and everything to create products to sell. WELL, that’s tough because not only did I not have the womanpower to do all those things, I didn’t have the time… I work full-time so I’m very limited in what I can spend my time on. IF I were full-time freelancing it, that’s a different story but this is not the case.

It’s funny this comes up because the last Creative Pep Talk episode also talked about this, the struggle of wanting to do everything. Though there isn’t anything wrong with wanting to venture out and do many things, it is important to focus and be good/great/awesome at one thing before moving on to something else. Andy also mentions that sometimes being good/great/awesome at that one thing may not even take a year, it may take several years! Sheesh, so when do you do the other things you want to do?!

Honestly, I don’t know but I do know that sometimes I can’t just stick with illustrating in one way, sometimes I want to explore or learn and do something completely out of my comfort zone or something that peaks my curiosity. Again, nothing wrong with this but how does one manage the time to do this?

WELL… I think the best way to tackle this is either by doing challenges or creating personal projects as well as getting creative with time management.

I would say I’m pretty organized but when it comes to time management, I feel like I have no time to do anything or need to do everything NOW and FAST. If I wanted to crash and burn at an accelerated rate, then I should’ve kept going at the pace I was at. Thanks to Instagram Ads, an ad for Lisa Congdon’s time management class for creatives came up and I had been skipping the ad incessantly. My thinking was this was useless but as it kept coming up, my wants continued to overwhelm me, and finally, there was a sale for the class so I said fuck it.

What Lisa shares is that projects need to be done in small chunks at a time, especially if you’re juggling multiple things. The way she broke it down of where and how to keep track of current running projects is so simple and easy, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it. In a world filled with apps and systems and all that shit, all you really need is an excel spreadsheet (or the free version, google sheets), a notebook or weekly planner, and your consistent persistence. Giving yourself deadlines for each small part of the project is also important and keeps you accountable.

Maybe at some point, there won’t be a lot of commissions going on, I think this would be the best time to start a challenge if you’re looking to learn something new. Maybe at some point, you’re over freelance work and want to work on something for yourself, this would probably be the best time to work on a personal project. Maybe a commissioned work requires you to do 10 illustrations and you’re like, when the fuck will all this be done?

At first, I wasn’t sure if this would work. I was so used to just coming home, sketch, then ink, then color for hours cuz I was determined to get a doodle done. It took a toll on my health, my work, and relationships. I tried this out and I am so amazed at how great it felt to break things into small pieces, work on them (by time blocking), cross things off a list, and feel confident that I would get something done either on time or sooner than expected. Not only that, it helped me regain confidence in my skills. I constantly felt as if my ability to draw (despite always having the ability to do so for 80% of my life) was a fluke and that I would not be able to pick up the drawing the next day. Guess what, it’s not a fluke, my skills didn’t go anywhere, and if anything, that break gives me time to walk away, think about my next steps, and come back refreshed and ready to rock.

If you’re interested in regaining control of your life with all those projects you’ve got lined up, I encourage you to 1. listen to creative pep talk and 2. take Lisa’s time management class. I spent an afternoon watching the whole thing and by the last few episodes, I was already setting up my spreadsheet and getting down to business.

My doodles for todays posts were something I completed way before I took the class but even then, I was trying to stay focused and complete some sort of a series. These are on sale as prints and when I released them last week, they were up for a donation sale that had 100% of the proceeds go directly to the Camp Fire Relief Fund to help those affected by the fires in Butte County. Because of this want to help people, it forced me to create a facebook business page, a stripe account for quick and easy payments, and to share my work without fear or judgement from others. All in all, I raised $235 from the prints and threw in $45 for a donation of $280. THIS. WAS. AWESOME. Honestly, the greatest feeling ever despite not making any return LOL. The prints are still for sale but only 5% of the proceeds from these prints will be donated to the Northern California Fire Relief Fund in case there are any more fires in the future (this has been an exceedingly new norm for us here).

One of my goals is to set up each print I have for sale to have some percentage be donated to local organizations, research funds, and charities. Not only do I want to be able to share my gifts with others, make a decent living off of art, but I want to be able to help others too. It’s also REALLY EASY to donate so why not?

These were super fun to make and I’m glad I had so many people supported my mission. I can’t wait to make new things to share with you all and hopefully you’re excited tooooo

❤ ClarizeYale

PS. I hope you had a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Burn baby, burn!

24. You spread yourself too thinly