Building a runway for my goals

Hey friends and happy Friday!

You might be wondering why you’re hearing from me on a Friday. Usually I write these newsletters on Friday and schedule them to land in your inbox Sunday morning, but I kind of like the idea of just writing a super casual Friday send off.

When I schedule the newsletter for two days in the future, my tendency is to overthink and over-edit it. To get myself out of that perfectionist loop, I want to just write and send. I’m going to experiment with it for a couple of months and see how it goes!

Open Goals Update

I updated my progress towards my goals this morning. Here’s a peek at where I stand:

This week was one of those weeks where it looks like I didn’t make any progress, but I actually spent a lot of time creating a runway so that I can accomplish my goals in a more efficient way.

I’ve been struggling to make time for drawing, so I did some reflection to uncover why that is. I determined it was because I was constantly context switching between several different un-related tasks that I need to do for my business. Remember when I talked about how it takes me a while to get back into drawing whenever I return from vacation? Well I experience the same effect when I’m constantly switching between different tasks.

It takes a lot of energy to get into the creative zone, especially after working on a bunch of mechanical tasks. If I’m constantly switching between these things, I’m wasting a lot of time getting back into the zone.

After realizing this, I decided to spend this entire week batch creating a bunch of stuff for the next month. This took a month’s work of very mechanical tasks off my plate and now I can spend the next few weeks doing nothing but making art.

I wasn’t sure if I would like this. It felt a bit overwhelming to spend an entire week doing super technical stuff, but now it feels amazing it have it behind me and feel that sense of accomplishment. When I was doing these little tasks every week, it felt like I was in a constant scramble. I was running on this hamster wheel and couldn’t get off.

Is there some mundane task that you’re constantly doing week after week? Is there a way you can batch a bunch of them for the next several weeks or automate the process altogether? It’s worth investing time into making our processes more efficient so we can clear up time and space for the other more important things!

Art

Given I was in “mechanical” mode this week, I have no new art to share. However, I spent time pulling together some of my older pieces and creating asset packages for them. They will be released every Tuesday and Thursday over the coming weeks!

These packages will include my PSD files and full resolution images of my artwork which you can use however you’d like. Some will also include videos of my process. Feel free to use them for education, decorating your space, or for reference in your own creative projects!

Being A Student Again

I love learning. A lot. I genuinely miss being in college and going to class, but I always disliked the pressure that came along with school. The grades and the implication they had on your future sucked the joy out of learning for me.

I miss learning from others a lot, and this week I signed up for a course on Surface Pattern Design that I’ve had my eye on for a while.

I’ve been interested in learning about new ways to apply my art to various industries, and this course teaches you all about creating art for surfaces. Think fabric, wallpaper, stationary. Literally anything with a surface.

Design is really special to me. It’s actually the reason I started learning how to draw years ago, and then I slipped into more general illustration. Adobe Illustrator was actually my first “digital art” program I learned to use! So I’m excited to jump back into that design side and see how I can give my illustrations some new life.

The course starts on March 6th, and I’ll definitely be sharing updates on my progress as I work through it!

Last week I said I would keep this short, but apparently I just don’t have it in me to be brief 😄 The week was too eventful and I expect the upcoming ones to be similar, so no more promises on brevity! Though, most of you seem to enjoy my rambling, so thank you for being here ❤️

I’ll talk to you all next week!

Rachel