Daily Painting: Finding Your Personal Artistic Style
Daily painting helps you discover who you are as an artist. As an artist for many years, I always wanted to find my style. It seemed so elusive but also exciting and I had no idea how to find it. One thing I started to read in books and see other artists do was to create a daily artwork to help figure out your style. So I decided to give it a try.
Daily Paintings
I started painting daily on January 1, 2017. I bought a sketchbook and just started painting anything that came to my head. That is the beauty of working small. I was not overly anxious or focused on making it perfect because I knew if I messed up I could just start over on another piece of paper. I continued to paint each day for a month. Random subject matter was what I painted. I did not have a goal or focus except to paint every day whatever popped into my head.
What I noticed after 30 days of daily painting
At the end of the first month, I started to notice that the daily paintings I loved the most and enjoyed creating were the paintings of the lake and scenery taken from our family’s island cottage. I began to focus on painting more of those type of paintings.
Discovering clues about artistic style
I began to look at other artwork that I admired and I realized something important. I was using colors that did not bring me joy. They were colors that I thought I should be using because they gave the most realistic results. However, the realistic colors were making me feel uninspired. So I began to experiment with lighter colors that really made me feel more happy. Soon I completed an entire sketchbook. I had never done that before. The feeling of accomplishment was reward enough. I bought another sketchbook and continued painting every day. I started posting on social media (Instagram) and began connecting with other artists. Soon people were asking me if my paintings were for sale.
Creating An Artistic Practice
I never went into the daily painting habit with the intention to sell my art. In fact I didn’t want to do that at all. I simply wanted to start a practice where I was able to create art for myself and hopefully figure out my style and then improve.
From painting daily I have slowly figured out my style. It has been a long process (I am on my 4th year now!) and I have gone through periods of self-doubt, feeling my art is awful to feelings of love for my art. Any creative process whether it be painting, writing, singing, music, etc can wreck havoc on your emotional state. You have to develop a thick skin from yourself. I believe we are our worst critiques. Always comparing and always looking for where we should improve. It’s amazing what can snowball from small, daily rituals.
If you are looking for a way to figure out your style and experiment with different art techniques, I recommend getting a small sketchbook ( I love using a 5 x 7 or 7 x 10 inch mixed media sketchbook) and just relax, put on some music or a podcast and start painting whatever inspires you.
Make an artist date and keep it simple
Don’t think, just do, and see what happens! Try to make an artist date with yourself each day so that you can continue with your search into figuring out your own unique, personal art style. I personally do it every day during my lunch break at school. I’m a teacher and have 20 minute lunch break. I bring my paintings and sketchbook with me each day and while I quickly eat I paint and lose myself in my art for 20 blissful moments!
I hope you give this a go and I would love to hear from you if you try this!
All set up and ready to paint. I always have my supplies close by so I can paint!