Daniel keys, a young (age 23) dedicated artist shares his daily routine with subscribers to the 20 Hour Challenge. What follows is a description of how he manages his time.
Daniel's Painting graces the current cover (July/August 09) of American Artist Magazine.
Pre-Painting: The evening before
Daniel's Time Management Routine
Cleaning
First, I make sure that my palette and brushes are clean [and if they’re not, I correct the problem], and I prepare my un-stretched canvas by taping it to a board and setting it aside.
Painting the image in my mind
I generally try to have a clear sense of the direction that I’d like for my new painting to take, so I begin thinking of the layout and what objects I’ll need to get started. For a still life, I’ll set out the objects that I intend to use in the painting (ex. tea cups, fabric, fruit, etc.) so that they’re waiting for me in the morning. If I'm preparing to paint a landscape, I scout out the spot the day before and take note of the time and lighting, so that there aren’t any surprises for me when I return the following day.
Completing all of this preliminary work before I even begin a painting may seem tedious, but it’s well worth the effort for me, as it frees up my time the next day to get right to the good stuff: The painting process!
Pre-Painting: The Morning of beginning a new work
First things first
Being a Christian, I’ve learned to always put my time with God first, so the first hour of my morning is spent in prayer. By giving the first part of my day to Him, I find that I accomplish more than I could otherwise, because I have His help and divine guidance.
Dirty work: Marketing
The second hour of my morning is spent on my computer. Living in today’s world – what with technology and all – I’ve found the Internet to be an invaluable tool for marketing, as well as an excellent resource for learning.
This hour is spent replying to my many emails from clients, students, and artist friends – and posting to my website, blogs, and other art related forums. Doing this kind of work may seem unproductive to others around you and in your household (I’m often poked fun at because of the amount of time I spend on the World Wide Web), but taking the time to network and promote my work [by posting it on blogs and artist’s forums] is an effective way for me to expand my viewing audience, as well as build relationships with collectors, galleries, magazines, and fellow artists.
The set up
Once I’ve completed my two hour routine, and I’ve had a good breakfast (always important; I get very cranky without it), I get right to setting up my still life in the studio - using the objects that I set out the night before. The key to setting up a good still life is to take the time to get it correct. There’s nothing worse than finding yourself half way through a painting, and realizing that the composition would’ve been much stronger had that teapot been three inches to the left! I don’t stop moving things around until I’m totally happy with the overall layout.
Starting the Painting
What more can be said; there’s nothing as exhilarating than beginning what you hope will be your next masterpiece! It’s finishing the painting with the same amount of gusto that becomes the problem.
Solution
I treat completing a painting like taking a road trip: If it’s a short trip where it only requires a day to arrive at my destination, no problem – I take my time; but if it’s a multi day trip, I drive for as long as I can that first day. The reason for this is that your freshest at this point of the trip, and your enthusiasm is as high as it’ll get - because you’re really excited about it.
It’s the same with a muti-day painting. With each passing day [after beginning a new work], I find it tiring to come back to the same piece - and I tend to lose the enthusiasm that I had in its beginning stages. This is normal, and doesn’t keep me from finishing the work, but finding ways to get around this problem is always a good thing; and I find that the more I can accomplish on that first day the better (and easier ) it is for me to stay excited about it.
That’s not to say that I rush through the first day of painting however: getting as much done as possible but forgetting to make sure that the quality I want is there. Rather, I remain focused and don’t stop just because I like what I see; I never take on a “there’s always tomorrow” attitude. If there’s still daylight, and I don’t have to be anywhere in the next five minutes, I keep painting: Usually about six - eight hours the first day, and no less than three – four with each succeeding day until the painting is complete. I prefer to paint five - six days a week.
Eliminating the distractions
Send the kids to the movies; tell your nosy neighbor over the fence that you’ll catch up on the latest neighborhood gossip later that evening; put the Blackberry away; turn the phone off
These are all things that can be easily done to eliminate the distractions that keep us not only from accomplishing our goal for that particular day, but also from producing our very best work. One thing I don’t tolerate is too many phone calls while painting; after one or two unimportant calls I just turn the phone off, or put it wherever I can’t hear it. If the person on the other end has something important to tell me, they can leave a message, and I’ll check the machine in a couple of hours. It’s necessary to do this in order to stay focused and reach my ultimate potential while painting.
When you just don’t feel like it
Everyone has those days (and I’m certainly no exception) when even though you know that you should be in the studio, you just don’t feel like being creative. It’s those days that we usually wish that we had a normal job - like everyone else – where all you have to do is fill an order, answer a phone, or take notes in a meeting. We’re often times under appreciated for the fact that what we do comes directly from within ourselves; we don’t have prefab things to sell, assembly-line parts to put together, or someone else’s numbers to crunch; we have to create AND sell our products, without any pattern or formula to follow. Sometimes when I feel this way, I give myself the day off from painting because I don’t want to waste my time putting something on my canvas that I know I’ll end up wiping off the next day. However, I know that I still need to be productive, so I spend extra time doing other things that are important to my business, such as networking, making phone calls to galleries, writing and sending out newsletters, etc.
Even if it’s just writing downs ideas for future paintings, I’m doing something productive. Never allow yourself to become slack. Do what it takes to become motivated to accomplish your goals, and make an effort to spend more time in the studio everyday!
The original version of this article appeared on the FineArtViews Blog at Artist Daniel J. Keys Shares His Studio Routine.
View of Cadillac and Dorr Mtns from Otter Creek. Frederick Edwin Church painted this scene in the 19th century.
Study from Duck Pond Acadia National Park.