Admittedly, I was one of the art students that pursued the first idea they had brainstormed for course projects to the final piece. Some projects lasted 1 to 2 weeks and some lasted months…
I would also add ‘potential idea’ sketches to my coursework in the final days of the project before handover day. I’m still of the opinion that British arts courses are graded mostly by the tick-box method. I hit the criteria though, didn’t I?
Conducting projects now is amusing for me because I definitely see the value in making lots of sketched out ideas. The projects I’ve completed after finishing school have been way more successful because of this. Who would’ve thunk…
With self-led projects, every tiny aspect is determined by your actions alone.
You don’t have a solid deadline
A vague final outcome that doesn’t need to be graded at the end - It doesn’t even have to be seen by anyone.
The choice to abandon and start again is all yours. Yes, sunken cost fallacy will nibble at you but only as much as you let it. Everything is an opportunity to learn more about yourself and how you like to work.
Chances are, unless you’re a full-time artist, you’re going to be faced with choosing how much time you spend each day on the project. How much time out of your leisure time are you happy to put in?
No course leader/tutors to mark your work and provide feedback at different intervals
Your planning phase has no time limit - annnddd breathe
Phoebe's Prehistory Volume 2 - this video documents the packing and distributing of the book following my Kickstarter Campaign
All of the points I listed above are both blessings and curses with regard to how I’m conducting this current project
The roster of Celestial Creatures (Celestialsaurs) is steadily growing but it will be coming to an end in order for me to move onto the next phase of the project
I won’t be revealing what this body of work is going to culminate in just yet. You may be able to guess with various context clues I’ve been dropping here and there..
There are currently 10 finished illustrations, I’m aiming for 12 - 14 illustrations overall
Below are some pictures of what I’ve been making recently - taking on the challenge of Peachtober wasn’t the brightest idea for me time-wise but it really helps exercise my drawing muscles. Most Mondays I go to Life Drawing sessions and now I have Peachtober illustrations to add to my free-time art practice.
I brainstormed plenty of ideas for each prompt before October but honestly I didn’t know whether I would commit to taking part until a few days before! We’ll see how far I get - the only year I successfully completed Peachtober was 2020… I wasn’t busy that year.
Even in previous years I’m proud of the work I made despite not completing every prompt - part of the real challenge is balancing it between work and leisure time.
Putting together videos for Youtube has been tricky recently. I’ve really struggled with my biggest anxiety peak in years so sharing things via the blog/instagram is what’s manageable right now. Thank you to my 10 viewers for sticking by me ;P
- Phoebe
<3