When you’re just getting started as a beginning artist you may find it difficult to stay focused and progress.
It is easy to get overwhelmed with all that you don’t know. It is also easy to get drawn into the art world and the many mediums we have to select from today. Then you become overwhelmed by all the amazing things you want to try at some point.
As I conduct my research for topics on this website I come across all kinds of distractions that divert my attention away from the task at hand.
So how to stay focused as an artist and a web creator is a challenge I face every single day.
If this is an issue for you as well I think the simplest solution to help you stay focused is to always have a direction or goal you are working towards!
Decide Where You Want to Go As An Artist
I think perhaps the first step to obtaining a clear focus is deciding where you want to go as an artist. What is your target? What is your goal?
Are you just doing art for fun? Are you looking to spruce up your living space with some of your own creations? Are you seeking to advance your artistic skills and get better? Are you looking to make money from your art? Are you looking for a specific career in the art industry?
For me, this is an evolving process. I started off with the simple desire of wanting to make something with my hands and hang it on my wall. So that is exactly what I took action to do.
Once I felt the reward of accomplishing that I started to direct my focus towards learning some new principles of art with each painting I did. Focusing first on the abstract allowed me to explore color harmonies, shapes, and forms.
Then as my collection of paintings began to grow I started thinking about how I might end up with so many paintings I would have no choice but to try and sell some. When I do think about selling my paintings I feel I have to push it out of my mind.
It is too early for me to think about stuff like that. I need to focus on pushing my skills up and growing my inventory of work first. So to prevent myself from even letting my mind wander to that subject I committed to not selling a single painting until I have at least 100 paintings in my personal collection.
Basically, as creative people, we tend to want to do it all. Wanting to do it all can cause one to feel so overwhelmed they are unable to do anything instead.
When you find a thought beginning to distract you from what you know is more important right now, create a goal for that attraction that will allow you to focus your attention on it when the time is right.
Knowing what direction you are headed in at all times will help you put on the blinders to the distractions that may pop up. I can give you a million more examples of things I have to push out of my mind to stay on the task at hand.
To stay on track you need to ask yourself what is the most valuable thing you can be doing right now to get to your desired destination? What is one goal I can complete today that will get me to my envisioned outcome?
When Life Gets In The Way
Once you have committed to a direction it will be easier to get back on course when life knocks you around a bit.
You never know when the perfect storm will descend upon you leaving you hanging on for dear life.
Whether it be financial troubles, health issues or any of the myriad of other things life tends to throw our way to knock us off course. I promise you, it will pay dividends to know where it was you wanted to go.
For me, I am committed to developing my skills as an artist as well as developing helpful and inspiring content to help you out as well. I’m committed to turning this website into a profitable business and using this site to learn everything I can about developing one’s self as an artist.
If you follow my postings at all you may have seen my previous post on my 2020 art goals and ambitions. If not, and you’re interested, you can click here to go check it out.
I bring this up because the very day that I wrote that post I got hit by a truck’s side mirror while riding my bike to work. I got thrown from my bike and ended up in the hospital for some time.
I’m still healing at the time of writing this now. I ended up with 10 broken ribs, 3 knee fractures, and a sprained shoulder.
Needless to say, this has hindered and slowed my progress on what I wanted to have done by this point in the month. That said because I know what my current commitments are I know exactly what I need to do to get back on track.
You need to set some clear goals to work towards and then actually take the actions necessary to get there. When the desire is strong enough, nothing can get in your way!
Especially now that I’m feeling well enough to start course correcting. The depth of my desire to not only become a great artist but an authority in the art world is helping me to summon the strength I need to push on.
I got hit on January 2nd, 2020 and it is now the 18th as I write this. One of my goals was to increase the pages I was creating per month. When I publish this page today that will only be the 2nd. I’m really going to have to push hard to hit my goal of 20 more pages in the next 13 days!
Point is, I have a direction to work in and the only way to achieve it at this point is to push away all activities and distractions that don’t move me in the direction I want.
So when it comes to staying focused as an artist it is a matter of deciding what you are committed to. It is a matter of constantly asking yourself questions and adjusting your course when necessary. It is a matter of harnessing your deepest desire to energize your actions.
