Designing Your Artist's Life

Artist's Life 
Planning Guide

Crystallize your mission.  Formulate your plan.  Take action to execute your daily routine.  Track your progress like an accountant.  Make adjustments.  Stay with it until you reach your dreams!

How Did I Design My Artist’s Life?
How did I put together my studio business and artist’s life?  I published a small illustrated book (38 pages) called The Drawing Beneath My Kayak.  I made the book as a way to rediscover and reconnect with my folksy philosophical notions and dreamy idealism.  At least in my own mind, it was a bold statement of purpose and mission.  I have three copies that I keep in different rooms in my house and studio.  I refer to my book often and it helps me keep focused on my dreams, mission, and goals.  

Living The Dream
I am an artist/author and independent publisher.  Currently, I have more than ten books for sale on Amazon. My book, River Journal Workshop, is consistently among Amazon's top five ranked independent artist's books.  My wife and I travel the western USA and enjoy an active, creative outdoor lifestyle.

Artist's Kayak Blog 
Late in 2013, I began work on my Artist's Kayak blog.  Over the course of the next year, a couple of times a month, I'd put up some images and write a new post.  Some of these posts were the beginnings of articles which found their way into my book.  For example, I wrote Visual Learning With Chris in December of 2013 and much of this post carries over into the book.  So in a lot of ways, the blog was a springboard for the book.  

Full cover, front and back.

I worked on the book for about three months toward the end of 2014 and into January of 2015.  I used the project to sort out my philosophical quandaries and take inventory of my creative interests.  I self-published it as a paperback in late January 2015 and then published an ebook version about a year later.  Only later on, I discovered how useful the book project was as a guiding source, giving a sense of purpose and clear direction for a studio business and artist's life plan.

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​The Drawing Beneath My Kayak

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How About You?

1. Do you want to have less internal struggle and be more values/actions congruent?  
2. Do you want to make a better choice that honors who you really are? 
3. Do you want to have the clarity of a studio business plan and artist’s life plan?  

If you are looking to turn things around and make a new plan, I believe I can help you put a program in place that will work.  I believe I can help because I did it for myself.

Skeptical?
When it comes to scheming, I am the world’s biggest skeptic. So, be skeptical (I would be).  But I’m asking you to give me a fair chance to show you what I have.  It’s a little bit different.  

Where To Start?
Start by writing down your core values. Write down what matters to you and what you love to do.  How exactly?  I wrote 12 short essays that defined my ideas, values, and interests.  These essays became the main content for my book.  Below are some brief excerpts from the book - examples of the kind of things I wrote to define my core values and interests:

• It is so important to travel, to wander off the beaten path, and to have a moment or two of quiet contemplation. In our sketchbook, in our journal, in personal publishing, we sort out our questions of orientation - our beliefs and values; our character.
• I want to use sketchbooks, art tools, and materials, both traditional and digital, to see beyond the visible surface.  I want to get at that mystical feeling of the waterway landscape. 
• The kayak, the river, the view tube, the sketchbook... This is my world.  I love the sensation of being on the river. I love the gliding kayak. This activity stirs to life something within me.
• I want to teach The Spirit of Inquiry.  I want to help bring to the surface the inquisitive nature of the human being.  I want to encourage a way of being, a state of mind, an attitude toward learning.  I want to share the road less traveled, to wander, to wonder, to meander down the river.

So from these essays, I extracted my core values: Journaling and sketchbooks, kayaking and the river, seeing beyond the surface, curiosity.  Now that a couple years have gone by, I go back over these pages and words and find that the ideas still ring true. There is quite a bit here that gives me a solid groundwork for going forward into the future in a good direction.

Drawing Beneath thumbnails of page layouts that incorporate short essays.

Building Momentum
Momentum is the feeling that you’ve broken through, that your endeavor has emerged from a cocoon stage and has wings of its own.  It’s the feeling things are about to take off.  It's exciting.  So how do you build momentum?  You have to be willing to surrender to the plan.  You have to take action and commit to executing your schedule.  You have to make it become automatic ...an unquestionable habit.  Then dedicate yourself for the long haul. 

Good Habits Reflect Core Values
What are good habits?  What we are talking about is a repeatable lifestyle system that embraces your core values.   It's a system that you can break down and define as a clear, simple, daily routine or schedule.  
Here's mine:

AM Winter Studio Schedule

• 5-7 Pencil sketch journaling
• 7-9 Color conversions to digital
• 9-11 Post to blogs and social

After Dinner Homework

• Adobe Systems workflows

Train Your Family and Friends 
Once you’ve organized your plan as a daily routine, begin to train your family and friends into how daily life works from now on. You must be consistent.  Everyone in the family has to understand the new rituals.  Be prepared to demonstrate that the new way of life is a formula for success and not a recipe for disaster.  This is your routine that represents a powerful running engine ...the execution of your plan.  

List Of Things To Do
Once you have a plan and a primary schedule in place, you need to figure out the specifics of what you want to work on and finish.  But if you don't have a plan, a “list of things to do” can scatter, interrupt, and derail your studio work.  You always want to be connected to a sense of purpose.  In an approach where you are just trying to get things done as fast as possible it's easy to lose your way.  Your new artist's life plan works because you have the awareness of how your efforts are embodied in a meaningful direction, and set of core values that will make a positive difference.  In my experience as a publisher, entrepreneur, and artist trying to run a studio, a list approach (without a foundation book that guides you back to core values) leads to confusion, loss of focus, and loss of momentum.   

Execute With Discipline
Now comes the hard part.  Execute your plan with faith and a positive spirit.  Keep in mind that when you act with discipline and keep a good schedule, there is a positive feeling of certainty and security in knowing that you can execute well.  Bottom line results may be lacking at first and you may need to adjust your plan.  But in watching yourself execute well and meet the great challenge of self-discipline, you will feel more free, more happy, and less stressful.

Pay Attention, Get Feedback, Track Your Progress
Be sure to track all of your activities.  Hold yourself accountable.  Raise a red flag when necessary.  If the thing you are going to do next does not come from your core values - then stop.  Always be willing to double-check and make sure that your behavior is consistent and congruent with your statement of core values (your book).  It is a normal creative process to make corrections and steer yourself back on course.  This is the process.

Ask for Help When You Need It
This is part of the process.  Recognize when you hit a roadblock and need to reach out.   

Conclusion
Become the change you want to see in the world.   A better life results from continuous, everyday, sustained repetition of action that directly reinforces your values.  Good habits produce results both in terms of achievement and fulfillment.  You can turn things around and create a new artist’s life.  Don't hesitate to reach out. I can help as your coach or collaborator.  Let's develop a plan for you that works.

More Examples
To find more examples of my artist’s life planning process in terms of how I defined and expressed my core values, interests and ideas, please follow this link to The Drawing Beneath My Kayak available on amazon.com.

Free PDF Copy
If you prefer, I can email a link for a free PDF copy of the book.  In return, please leave a comment on the Artist’s Kayak blog.  Send your request for a free copy of my book to chris@artistskayak.com.
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