Consistency

A word that haunts my every waking moment. Okay, that's a touch dramatic, but if I can be perfectly honest here, I am the least consistent person that I know. I own almost (almost) every appliance known to man that can help me in organizing my life, but to this day it is a battle that I cannot win. I do not know if the same is true for other artists or college students, or simply people who wear so many different hats on a daily basis, but being consistent with the content that I put out is almost a no go for me. Did I think that expanding my name to different social media platforms would help empower me towards that direction? Maybe? Did it? Nah. 

Having said, that despite my talent of avoiding organization in every way possible, I strongly believe that everyone can find their own personal method of "consistency". Being someone who sometimes does not have enough hours in the day to dedicate to art, it has become almost a natural process for me to seclude anything from an hour to the second half of my day to painting, drawing, sketching, and planning. Even if it's just a handful of minutes to figure out where to go with a project, I make sure that I dedicate a portion of my day to art, large or small. 

It is important to remember that 'consistency' can be taken in many ways. If you're consistent in your efforts to dedicate time to your craft daily, then that is consistency. If you're consistent in your organization and ensuring that you've developed a proper system that will allow you to maximize your productivity, then that is consistency. The point is that if you want to make something of your hobby, you have to find a semblance of consistency that not only allows you to improve your craft but also allows to increase the amount of content you have available to sell or advertise. 

Different people function at different levels of productivity, that's something I learned in my undergraduate years. That doesn't that just because you find yourself struggling to find that time to dedicate to your craft that you love it any less than someone who is able to work on their craft for a significant amount of the day. I mean, don't we all wish we could do that? If art was my money maker, I would probably strongly consider sparing myself the added on loans and drop out of graduate school tomorrow. Hopefully my parents aren't reading this blog post. 

Another thing to remember is this: just because you aren't physically working on your craft does not mean that you are not being productive. If you use the allotted time in your day to plan something, sketch something out, organize your social medias, work on your blogs or your advertisements, whatever it is... You are being productive and you are being consistent.

There is also nothing wrong with days that you can't do anything at all because real life won't leave you along. I remember many finals weeks when I couldn't even touch my paint palette or sketchbook. If you work full time, if you have a family, or if you're a student, or if you're all three or two out of three, or anything else, you are going to have other priorities to take care of. But remember that you should find time, even it is not every day, to unwind and focus on your craft that soothes your mind. And as I said, I am the last person to advocate an organized, structural consistency, but consistency is relative and individual, and that is an important thing to remember. 

I am almost done with the product review blog post, I just hit a rut trying to figure out which acrylics to talk about, and then I decided that I would discuss all the ones that I used, forgetting that that just makes the process go longer... It's fine. This is fine. It will be posted soon! 

Thank you for stopping by, and I hope you all have a very happy Friday!

xo - MP