Whether you have a little or a lot, it starts with acceptance, and then a plan. You’ll be amazed at what you can fit in to even a 5 minute window, as you get more Art Fit.
Transcript
This is episode 7 of the Art Fit Podcast. Hello, I’m Anna Battle, Shiny Happy Artist and your host of the Art Fit Podcast. Now, just as physical fitness is good for your body, Art Fitness is good for your mind. And you don’t need to be an Olympics level professional artist to benefit from Art Fitness. But what is the point? How do you actually do it? How do you fit it all in? Well, I’m on a mission to help you get Art Fit.
This podcast is brought to you by my Shiny Happy Art Club. I send you a brand new high quality guided Paint Along each month, in acrylic and watercolour, as part of a lovely group of art friends from around the world. So, you can become a Shiny Happy Artist and get Art Fit.
Now, we’re seven episodes in and we haven’t perhaps addressed the elephant in the room, when it comes to making art; and that is, how do you find the time to fit it in? And everybody of course, has a different life. And so many of us are super busy with all the other things that take us away from us, or perhaps even away from ourselves. So, I just wanted to give you a couple of ideas to have a go at, when you are pressed for time.
Now, of course, if you have heaps of time, enjoy it. Please, please enjoy it. I have quite a few people who paint with me, who are retired, and they are able to fit in heaps of art making. Even people who, kids have left home and they really enjoy painting after dinner, and they fit it into their week so beautifully. If you have heaps of time, by all means, make heaps about how wonderful is that. But if you are pressed for time and you have different people needing things from you or jobs or other things that you need to fit into your day, how do you fit in your Art Fitness? And this is exactly the way you need to look at physical fitness too, I suppose. So, how do you fit it in? And there’s a few ways of doing that.
The first thing I’d like to suggest is to set a timer. It is incredible what you can fit into 5 minutes, and a way to get your head around that. And if you think straight away, “5 minutes, that’s not very long.” Just, I don’t know, back in May of 2020, I did a challenge that was 31-days, because we’re in lockdown and couldn’t go anywhere anyway, but it was 5-minute May #5minutemay. You can still look that up on Instagram. And I did a 5 minute watercolour drawing, in one particular sketchbook. I wanted to fill the whole spread in that 5 minutes. So, I realised that was sort of my plan. And I wanted to get better at 5 minute drawing. So, I would set a timer. Admittedly, I did talk a bit at the beginning and the end, so it went a bit longer for me, but it doesn’t need to, for you. But set that timer for 5 minutes and see what you can do. See what you can do the first time you do that 5 minute painting, and then compare it, or sketch, compare it to what you are able to do 10 sketches in. okay? So, you will improve. As you learn more about your lines and your mark-making, you will improve. But you need to actually do the exercise, like do those 5 minute sketches and see the improvement. So, I highly recommend that.
The other thing is to try with just 1 minute sketch. Pick something small; it might just be a flower, it might be something out of your purse, might be a lipstick or something like that, and just draw that; but only give yourself one minute. Because then, you can give yourself 2 minutes. Mind you, look, we’ve got 3 minutes. We’ve already done two sketches. And then 5 minutes will seem like luxury. It really, really does. and it’s lovely going both ways; starting with a shorter amount of time and sort of not finishing, and realising you have to go a bit faster for the next time. But then when you get to 5 minutes, and you… You could even go to 10 minutes, if you have that luxury of time, sort of, using that longer amount of time. And can you believe now, I’m talking about a 5 minute sketches, a longer amount of time? But I am, because it will feel like that. Then, when you go back to sort of a shorter amount of time, like 1 minute, you are so familiar with those lines, you know, where to put them. So, the confidence really does grow. So, if you’re pressed for time, set a timer. Start with maybe 1 minute, then 2 minutes, then 5 minutes, okay? And you’ve spent a total of 10 minutes doing all of that. And you just might impress yourself, but do it again and do it again; it’s all exercise, all right?
The other thing too, if you don’t have much time, draw or paint smaller. You don’t need to fill a huge page in a sketchbook, every single time. If you only have a small amount of time, either use a smaller sketchbook or do smaller pictures on the page. And by that I mean, actually, it’s lovely to mark off a section. So, to do a border or sort of divide your page of into 4 different sections, so that you can do just a quarter of the page each time you sit down with your 5 minute sketch, or even your 15 minute sketch. But you don’t have to paint or draw really large. If you have heaps of time, by all means, go large. If you only have a little bit of time, go small.
And the next thing is to be regular. And it is important. Just like physical fitness, you will get better at it and you’ll fit more into your time, if you are actually doing these warm-up exercises beforehand. You are making the time because you’re getting better at it. It’s just, well, here I can use the analogy of maybe weight-lifting; and you can only lift a small amount of weight, the first time that you’re trying it out. but as you build those muscles, and without you building that creativity muscle with a bit of work and a bit of practice behind you, and with that it’s fun work and no sweat of course, you will find yourself lifting heavier weights, once you’ve got the practice under your belt. And you’ll find yourself painting and drawing faster and more successfully, once you’ve had the practice behind you, of doing these 2 and 5 and 10 minute sketches, okay?
So, keep them in your exercise book, as your exercises, on your way to getting Art Fit. And don’t think that you can’t fit it in. Just find that little pocket of 5 minutes, you’ve set yourself up, and you’re comfortable in that space wherever you’re doing it, and just do it. we’re starting to overlap all of these little instructions on top of each other because they all do play-off each other, and that’s why I’m doing these little bite-size podcasts to share them with you. So, hopefully, you can take that one on board today, and realise when you press for time, 5 minutes is enough. How can you fit in that 5 minutes? I believe, you can do it. Okay? So, figure it out and we’ll talk again, soon.
So, you want to get Art Fit? We’ll find out when the doors to the Shiny Happy Art Club open next. There are 24 online Paint Alongs to choose from when you join, so you’ll definitely find something you love. And now, there are also $15 and $25 subscription options. So, go to www.shinyhappyart.com to pop your name on the waiting list. I look forward to painting with you in the Shiny Happy Art Club. And until then, I’ll be back in your ears with the next episode of the Art Fit Podcast.
