How to find time to paint?

How on earth can I find time to paint?

This is the question I ask myself a lot. Maybe you have a full-time job, and/or children or other family members who rely on your care, or you share a house with other people that you don’t have a space to calm down and paint……

This list can go on and on. But if drawing and painting really give you joy, why can’t you find time for it?

From my personal experience, there are a few things I’ve done to make it easier to find time for art. 

1. Have your supplies ready. 

Put all the basic stuff you need for art in a tote, which you can transport to anywhere in your house, to your car… and you should be able to set up your painting station in under 1 minute. Mine includes a 9×12 watercolor sketchbook; a watercolor palette with watercolor paint; a small brush holder with a few most used brushes, a mechanic pencil, and a black liner pen; a water container; a spray bottle; some paper towel and an apron. 

2. Have a collection of reference photos readily stored in your phone or tablet. 

Take pictures with your phone and store them in a special album named something like “Ref Photo to Paint”.

I also use frequently these two free images websites: Pixabay and Unsplash. Credit the image when you can. Link to the photographer’s website or social media when you can. 

You don’t need to copy the exact pictures, just use them as inspiration. It’s very useful to have a library of images that you can reference, label them if you can, like “flowers”, “trees”, “rocks”, “clouds”…

3. Warm-up and loosen up. 

Instead of staring at a blank page and waste 10 minutes, start moving your hands can get your creative juice flowing. Get some scrap paper, or on the unfavorite side of your sketchbook paper: draw circles, draw lines or maybe do a few wet washes with different colors to see how they blend. 

4. Find small pockets of time, and build from there. 

Swap the time you use for other things to do your painting.

For example, less screen time, more painting! No judgment here, I am as guilty as everyone. HAHA

Order take-out sometimes, save you at least 30 minutes from cooking. 

Teach your kids to fold their own cloth, another hour saved, minus spending at least 5 minutes x 6 times nudging them to do it. 

For myself, I discovered that I actually have one or two 45 minutes blocks on the days I have to drive kids to swimming practice. And I only have one kid in the car which is a godsend considering how much they fight nowadays. 

I also know a few moms who get up 1 hour before everyone else in the house to make art or self-care. Sleep 1 hour later than everyone will work too if you are a night owl. But do get enough sleep otherwise you end up losing time. I learned my lessons. 

At the end of the day, it’s you, only you who can decide and set aside a time to paint. If your family has a weekly movie night, you can set up a weekly painting night for yourself. Respect that time and get your painting practice down at least once a week. The other time slots you can find are just bonuses.

5. Pick smaller projects.

Make smaller paintings, draw a single subject, anything…

Link to the #4, if you have 15 minutes you can make art: draw a flower, draw a rock, draw a tree, paint a few clouds…(especially if you already have a photo reference library you can quickly refer to). Sometimes, just draw what’s in front of you: a coffee cup, a window, a pencil, or other art supplies of your own.

6. Avoid distractions. 

Silence your phone. Sometimes it’s necessary to put it away somewhere you can’t see.

Give your child a book, a snack, an iPad even, just so he/she can leave you alone for a while. Haha, guilty as charged. 

Just clear your head. Do your warm-up in #3. Start!

7. Lower expectations. 

Take the pressure off. Don’t worry about what the painting will turn out. We all understand that no one can create a masterpiece for each painting, but somehow just to expect something nice will block us ever past the blank page. 

Mountain is not built in one day, guys. Whatever you do today will help to build that mountain, even when it looks like sh*t to you right now on your sketchbook. 

8. Don’t beat yourself up.

Change your “all-or-nothing” mindset! 

Things happen. If you missed a few days. Just get back to it.

Even there are ups and downs if you aim to practice your art mostly on schedule, you will still progress. 

These are all the things I can think of. 

Do you have more to add to this list? Please share!

Happy painting!

Qi