🧳 3 art lessons I learned as a traveling artist
🧳 3 art lessons I learned as a traveling artist
#49 how to keep creating in any circumstance
Dear little demon,
Welcome to the edition #49 of The Art Missive! After the intense 1-week portrait training, many new demons have joined this newsletter: we are now 23,564 😈 (I can’t believe it!) and whether you've been here from the start or just arrived, thank you so much for reading ❤.
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In this Missive:
1/ Intro.
2/ Stay focused.
3/ Pamper your routine.
4/ Make room for fun!
5/ Conclusion: the perfect balance?
1/ Intro.
Last October, I left my home country, France, to embark on a year-long journey through Asia.
The first question I was asked was, "But Léa... how will you continue drawing while traveling?"
I admit it... the challenge wasn't an easy one to tackle. Creating in a stable environment is already difficult; imagine doing so when you're never at home. With a new way of life comes its own set of challenges.
Now that it's been 3 months since I set out, it feels like a good time to share the lessons I've learned so far.
Welcome to edition #49 of the Art Missive, where I'll show you how to keep creating under any circumstances.
2/ Stay focused.
Before even setting off, I faced the initial challenge of figuring out how to transport my art supplies while traveling.
Interestingly enough, I discovered that all my essential materials could fit neatly into a single suitcase, which wasn't entirely surprising:
Since 2022, I've been actively striving for minimalism in both my artistic practice and choice of tools.
When I first started drawing, I was all over the place: portraits, full-body sketches, pencils, watercolors, markers, iPad... In the end, I was doing a bit of everything and making no progress at all. Then I discovered artists like Eliza Ivanova, who could create an entire universe with just a 4B pencil and a paper stump.
So, I understood the importance of cutting down distractions and focusing on one thing at a time.
For me, it was graphite portraits.
That’s why for years now, my essentials have consisted of:
An easel
Graphite pencils
A sketchbook
Bristol paper for bigger projects
Erasers
As simple as it is, it allowed me to stop confusing myseld and focus on my essentials: drawing fundamentals, stylization and storytelling.
And it's all I needed to reach millions of people with my art, turn my passion into a career, and host drawing courses.
Soon, the time will come to evolve in my practice and diversify... But for now, it's all I need to pack for traveling and keep practicing in any circumstance.
3/ Pamper your routine.
As soon as I began my travels, reality hit me hard.
Initially, I naively believed that having my essential tools would be enough to maintain a consistent art practice, which clearly overlooks the psychological aspect of creating art. So, with a constantly changing environment and my busy schedule, it quickly became clear:
An unstable environment kills an artist's creative flow.
To maintain a consistent practice even when life gets chaotic, I've established a routine to create a sense of stability, even away from home.
The purpose of this routine is to eliminate distractions and make it easy to sit down at my desk and start drawing.
Step 1: Few days before the actual practice, I take time to prepare. I decide what I'm going to draw or study and set up my drawing area accordingly. Most of the time, for me, it means creating my characters and searching for references.
👉 Why? When it's time to practice, everything is ready, and there are no distractions to disrupt my flow.
Step 2: On the day of my practice, I kick off my session by sharpening my pencils while visualizing the drawing I'll be working on.
👉 Why? This ritual helps me disconnect from external stresses and focus on my artwork.
Step 3: I warm up with quick portrait studies.
👉 Why? This not only loosens up my hand, wrist and elbow. But starting with baby steps also warms up my mindset and eases any pressure to create a perfect piece from the start.
4/ Make room for fun!
Stick to my minimalist approach and my routine has definitely helped me stay on track while traveling. But in my enthusiasm, I fell into the opposite trap:
I became too rigid, and it started to get discouraging.
With our busy lives, social media frenzy, and limited time, following a plan is really important for improving drawing skills. But being too strict can also make it tough to stick to.
When I was exploring new places and having new experiences, I wanted to capture all of these so badly. So, sometimes I allowed myself to swap my usual practice for experimentation: I tried new things like different styles, subjects, or materials, and it was all about having fun without worrying too much about the end result.
Now, I understand how taking breaks from the routine and see your world with child’s eye is important to avoid getting tired of drawing
Honestly, you don't even need to travel for this! You can simply take out your sketchbook on the bus, try your little brother's crayons, go to a museum to sketch artworks, or draw your grand-ma!
5/ Conclusion: the perfect balance?
Traveling has really made me reflect on my artistic practice as it pushed me out of my comfort zone to find the perfect balance:
80% focused practice and routine.
20% experimentation and fun.
This is MY perfect balance.
Your balance might be the same or different. Maybe what you need right now is to be 100% focused on your routine because you lack discipline? Or perhaps you're experiencing an art block where sticking to a routine is stressful and all you need is to let go?
The only way to know is to listen to yourself without judgment, and that, my little demon, is probably the key to becoming a better artist.
That's all from me, see you next week! 😈
Léa
Wow, very interesting, I liked this one a lot. Not because I agree with Everything you said, but because your artistic style and your definition of being an artist is so much different than it is to me.. neither are wrong, and one of the reasons I'm following you is because of our artistic differences.. I love all of your emails and look forward to the next one!