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How frequently should you make art ?
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Message
Posted
Just having a discussion with my brother (who's a painter) about human skill. Some.artists will make something once a week, some three times but one chap I saw on YouTube said he paints thirty water colours a week. Another forum member makes 200 pictures a year.
Some.golfer once told me that to improve one must play five times a week, four times a week to not get worse and any less will allow a decline in skill.
I often use Morse code and note that if i use it daily I just get better, use it weekly and my speed starts to drop off a tad. The skill never goes, but the polish fades.
So golf and Morse comply withbthe axiom more is better, practice makes perfect ...is it true of art do you think? Do you see a reduction in tour skills if you cease creating for a short while or if the frequency falls?
Just asking.
David
Posted
I tend to agree with the concept that the more you paint the better you get. I'm afraid I only paint (watercolours that is) about three times a week unless I've commissions to complete and for me to improve I really do need to paint more.
I do also do cartoons for local publication and dabble in abstracts and I also have other competing interests: I love gardening, have a modern home (love altering schemes colours décor furnishings etc) and do write poetry. I suppose the bottom line is I love being creative and I'm always looking for different ways to express this.
I know I'm probably a bit of a jack of all trades but I'm not obsessive about painting and providing I'm being creative I'm happy and for me as a hobby artist that as much as I want and hope for.
Posted
Sylvia, no not at all...genuinely nothing like that in between my lines. I was genuinely asking.
I guess there's a difference, as Michael points out, between the amateur and the professional (i.e. one who does Ars gratia artis and one who chooses to pay the bills through art. I'm a professional pilot and have to fly some days when I'd much rather not! Still have to get it right.
Thanks for the answers.
D
Posted
Let's add music to the Golf and Morse list - I try to practise my guitar for two hours each day; more if I have concerts coming up.
I try and draw something every day too. It gets the day off to a good creative start if I can make some marks with a pencil. Most days it happens, just not every day.
Posted
There's no "should" - "How frequently should you make art ?" needs to become "How frequently will you make art ?" -- the answer being: "As often as you want to and can do..".
Who decides who should ... how often and what and when and where - who is the "you should" decider!?
Some people do 5 a day, some do 50 a week... some do one a day or take three days to complete one then do nothing for a few days.
Each to his own - the "should" reads like compulsion - "you're not an artist unless you produce X a day/week"... "you should do this", "You should do that.." NOT for me... no form of compulsion will sit with me - except the chosen demons of life (own a car = compelled to have insurance and tax, etc)
Posted
Practice is always good, but not to the point at which you get sick of it.
Like a lot of us, I get a bit ill now and then (doesn't help that I seem to have walked into some horrible stomach virus this week) so I don't paint every day - sometimes I don't even paint every week. The thing to try to avoid is endlessly repeating the same mistakes because you're not giving yourself enough time to think. Stop and have a contemplate now and then: comparing painting with purely mechanical skills is misleading.
Posted
now that spring has... sprung.. we are starting to see more and more runny babbits when we go for our drives.
Funny bunnies and Pleasant Pheasants...
Our front garden gets a hedgyhog family everynight (they eat the cat food i leave out for the strays) - the bubby is about fist sized, the mum/dad about football szie-ish - well fed and healthy.
I know they're well fed, they get plenty of kitteh food (not fish, just the meaty ones and biccies)
I get woken up about 2-4 am with their steam-train "chuff chuff chuff" (these were taken about 2 am about a month ago).
