Lessons from Adventures in Arting Podcast 164: Drawing at the Danforth

This week's Adventures in Arting podcast, "Drawing at the Danforth," is packed with practical tips based on my experiences taking a drawing class at the Danforth Art Museum.

Listen to the podcast on your favorite podcast site or using the player below:

Here are the five big take aways for me -- all of them have to do with purposeful artistic practice:

Balancing Excitement and Challenge

Maintaining an artistic practice involves striking a balance between tasks that excite and those that challenge -- you can think of it as things that are fun (and easy) vs. things that are hard (but rewarding).

Fun projects fuel motivation and enthusiasm, driving creativity and engagement. They offer a sense of accomplishment and joy, which is crucial for sustaining long-term artistic practice. Hard tasks push boundaries and encourage growth. They may be uncomfortable or difficult, but they often lead to significant development and breakthroughs. By consciously integrating both exciting and challenging tasks into your practice, you can create a more dynamic and rewarding artistic journey.

Maintaining Interest: Look for Compelling Details

Keeping the creative process engaging over a span of many years isn't easy. When you're working with a familiar theme or with familiar techniques, identifying intriguing details can keep your creative spark sparking. This might involve focusing on a specific element, experimenting with different perspectives, or obsessing about some small part of your subject matter. 

Engaging in this way can transform routine projects into exciting explorations, maintaining a sense of novelty and relevance. This approach helps maintain the balance between continue to develop existing work and inviting new fresh ideas into the process.

Revisiting vs. New Challenges

Revisiting existing work allows you to build on previous experiences, correct mistakes, and deepen your understanding of your own style and techniques. However, it can also lead to doing the same thing over and over again. And that's where diving into new challenges comes in.  By exploring new techniques, themes, or mediums you are often pushed out of your comfort zone. That push can be exhilarating and ignite all kinds of new ideas and approaches. 

This is why I take so many classes. I want to be pushed to do uncomfortable things. At the same time, not everything can be new-new-new.  It's important to take the time to gain mastery.  In the end, I think a mixture of new and old is best. It's important to build on past experiences, but embracing new challenges is essential for continual evolution.  

Goal-Oriented Reflection = Informed Decision-Making

Regular reflection on your artistic goals is vital for making informed decisions about your creative direction -- even if you're a hobbyist.  Setting clear, actionable goals provides a roadmap for your art practice and helps you measure progress.

Reflecting on these goals allows you to assess whether you’re meeting your objectives and adjust your approach as needed.  This process ensures that your creative journey is purposeful and directed towards achieving your desired outcomes.

Embrace the Unexpected

From personal experience, I’ve found that unexpected challenges often lead to surprising creative breakthroughs. These moments of discomfort can push you to think differently, experiment with new techniques, and discover innovative solutions.

Embracing these challenges rather than avoiding them can lead to significant growth and new artistic directions.

Let me know if you agree with my take aways or if you have a different perspective.