Rest, Relaxation, & Reconnection
Rest, Relaxation, & Reconnection
Hey friends
Hope all is well with you. I finally wrapped on this client project that has been kicking my ass for the past few weeks. So the second half of this week has been reserved for your boy to catch up on artwork/recharge & refresh.
REAL breaks
I also have been trying to actively give myself “real breaks” after big projects or in between heavy workloads. When I say “real breaks” I mean genuine times to recharge.
I think creatives fall into this bad habit of taking “break days” but instead of genuinely giving themselves time to reflect and rest we do this half-work/procrastination type thing.
Lots of my “break days” are filled me doing shallow work like
emails
Writing
Inspiration/Research
Etc
Ya know things that don’t require a lot of effort or concentrated energy but it still drains you and deprives you of that needed rest.
I posted this older design from the archive on Friday to remind others of the importance of rest, as well as hold myself accountable a bit.
Rest and relaxation are harder and harder to come by in a digital age with so much stimulation happening at once.
I believe it’s important to take back some of that time for yourself and genuinely recharge so that once you come back to work you are energized, excited, and inspired to create how you do best.
GATHERING_001
Recently my friend and fellow designer Harry Vincent went online to chat about the lack of community freelancers and independent artists can sometimes have.
I resonated a lot with this and actually spoke about some of those isolating feelings in my recent YouTube video.
Harry mentioned starting up some kinda meet-up or video call thing for creatives to share ideas, vent, inspire, etc.
Well, Friday we did the first call and it went well. There was a mix of some designers/artists that I knew well and some I met for the first time.
A nice touch too was almost everyone was at a different point in their career financially, stylistically, and geographically so it helped us find diverse topics to connect on.
A couple of the findings I took from this week’s call were these
Working after work:
lots of designers who aren’t fulfilled by their “creative” day jobs or just normal employment have the drive to create after the 9-5.
The draining nature of a 9-5 can be a blessing and a curse. If you choose to use it to your advantage that resentment of not being fulfilled at work can drive you to create some of your best work deep into the night.
The downside is sometimes it can have the opposite effect and prevent you from wanting to experiment or work more at all because you are so creatively drained
In my past experiences working a day job, I flipped-flopped between those 2 modes of thinking but for the most part, I was GRINDING. Whether that was good or bad for my mental health in the long run at least it helped me get some momentum going in both my freelance practice and content creation.
One way to sum it up too is that I believe it’s important to work jobs “you don’t like”.
Even though during the day-to-day it can suck, at the very least it teaches you all the jobs/things you don’t want to do in the future. Once you know what you like/don’t like within a creative niche it helps focus your attention on where you want to be in the future.
Different mediums
The different mediums in art/design continue to get their lines blurred due to the change in how creatives in our society these days operate as well as the technological advancements.
In the past sculpting was mostly reserved for people who create physical ceramics and pottery. Nowadays most “sculptors” you know probably work in a digital workshop like blender or Cinema 4d
The end result is obviously different, something like a physical vase versus a digital object.
However, the tools used in the creation process are very similar. Taking the “clay” and sculpting it into a finished creation.
One of the group members in the call talked about how she created “digital fashion pieces”
Basically garments, clothing, etc that are created in the 3D digital realm rather than physical fabrics and garments.
This sounds a little weird at first but I’m sure that’s what digital 3rd art or animation sounded like to people who only worked with clay or stop motion.
I think it’s important to keep our roots in the physical space, but also embrace/experiment with new technology.
Stuff to Check Out!
Rick Rubins's New Book (again lol)
Tweet of the week below
Closing Thoughts
“If you commit to working for half an hour a day, something good can happen that generates momentum. You may then look at the clock and realize you’ve been working for two hours. This option is always open to extend your creative hours once the habit is formed”
except from: The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
Much Love, Glue.
Weekly Wrap Up
My Experience as a Freelance Designer after 2 Years
QandA Video on the Patreon!
Been getting questions about the sticky note designs so here is the video
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Question-on those rest days, do you find yourself getting restless/anxious?