What’s Your Routine?

When I began learning to draw ten years ago, my husband was still working. I quickly fell into a routine — saying good-bye as he went off to work, tidying up the kitchen after our breakfast, and then reaching for my sketchbook and drawing pencils. I would spend an hour or two at the kitchen table, following along with drawing exercises from my “beginner’s” art book.

Later, I moved from graphite to charcoal and on to colored pencils and to both oil and soft pastels. My media changed, but my routine remained very much the same. As the years went on and I tried painting — with watercolors and with oils — again, while my art changed in many ways, I was still a creature of habit when it came to drawing and painting. The morning hours were mine.

I would typically work for a couple hours and then, as lunchtime approached, I would clean up my art area — at this time, in our previous home, I was still doing my artwork in the kitchen — and I could then straighten up the house, run errands, and get started on our afternoon meal. It worked.

When we moved to our new house and I became accustomed to having a studio, I naturally fell into a very similar routine. After bidding my husband farewell at the door each morning, I hurried downstairs, gathered up the supplies for whatever I was working on, and spent the next several hours puttering around — drawing, painting, making bookmarks, learning to bind books, trying mixed media and collage. It was my time, my space. And, it worked.

Then things changed. My husband retired! I’ve written about this before, and I hate to complain, because goodness knows I love having him safely at home. I love not worrying about him driving to work in rain or ice or snow. I’m glad he’s retired. But having him home has thrown my art schedule for quite a loop. For a while, it was all but impossible for me to focus on anything when I came to the studio. This is, in fact, a contributing reason for my extended absence.

I’ve always enjoyed art as a solitary practice. Just me, my paintbrushes, my paints, my canvas. Maybe a little quiet, classical music, but usually the blissful sound of silence. Art is a quiet, thoughtful activity for me, a time for peace, a time for reflection, a time to simply relax and enjoy being who I am.

My husband’s presence disrupted that serenity, especially as he began spending more time downstairs where my studio is. Our “entertainment area” and our “spa area” are both here, so most mornings my husband settles in, turns on the news — or worse, yet, some action film with tires screeching and bullets flying!

It’s taken a while for me to re-adjust and to re-acclimate myself to being in the studio. I come downstairs a bit earlier than my husband. This gives me time to check my blog posts — I proofread them several times, yet still find errors after they publish — to plan future posts, and time, as well, to do my daily drawing exercise. Later, when my husband comes downstairs, it’s become part of the routine for me to take my sketchbook to him and say “Here’s what I drew today.”

Over time, I’ve gotten used to having him nearby. If I’m doing an online class, I’ll shout out to him, “I’m putting headphones on for an art video,” and that alerts him that I’ll be “temporarily unavailable” for conversations.

The things I’m doing now in the studio are primarily “little things”. I’m still easing my way back into the routine, or maybe it would be more apropos to say that I’m establishing new routines. My morning drawing practice is still how I get the art day started, but beyond that… well, I don’t yet have any really solid routines. I’m working a lot on cleaning the studio and re-organizing my art supplies. For once, I feel like I’m truly making progress there!

I do have other projects “in the works” — studying graphite landscape drawings, an oil painting I started earlier this year but haven’t finished, an online course on color management — but I haven’t worked them into a consistent, day-to-day schedule.

The studio cleaning project has been top priority, and I’m pleased that I am getting more organized. My drawing supplies are close at hand. My oil pastels have a home of their own. Supplies I don’t use often have been relegated to a large supply closet. My art books have shelves where they belong. I’ve still got a ways to go, but I can see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Soon I will have an efficient art studio.

Which means that soon I’ll need to deal with the realities — having my husband home, having a bit of noise and distraction around me, having my old routine turned upside down and sideways! But, no, wait! That “old routine” is long gone. I can create new routines, new habits, new ways of using my time.

I think I will always be an “early morning art” person, but I think I’ll also settle into being a bit of an “after lunch” artist, too. For the most part, I have adapted to the changes, as well I should! It’s been several years now since my husband retired. So, as long as he stays on his side of the room and I stay on mine… he can enjoy his movies and maybe I can fully enjoy my art time again.

What’s your “art routine”?

Do you follow a consistent routine each day?

Or do you draw and paint at odd times?

NOTE: Today’s “Featured Image” is courtesy of Word Press AI.