Have you found it difficult to pursue your art and craft journey? Do you wish you had more time saving tools to help you actually do your art and craft?
Let’s get to the crux of the problem
Do you value your art and craft time? No doubt, like me, you’ve said goodbye to the generation before you, and it’s our turn next.
So, no time to waste – right!
You’ve always wanted to do art and craft, but time is running out.
But, you’re not doing your art and craft. Or, you’re not doing enough. What’s blocking you from doing your art and craft?
You need to think about what might be stopping you. Be realistic.
Is it that other things are demanding your time? What are those things?
Let’s have a look at what could be causing the problem.
Is it your preparation?
Is it your preparation to get to do your art and craft?
Doing an art and craft project is just that. It’s a project. It needs to be broken down into little bite sized pieces that you can do in your allocated time.
Is your art and craft stash sitting in a big pile?
Is it finding the time and space? You need to have a close look at what time you have available. If need be, write yourself an appointment in your calendar. Keep this time for yourself for your art and craft. It’s your time.
Colour relationships
Do you have a box of something so colourful you’re scared of what you create? Are you scared you will create a big patch of mud?
You are not alone
We’ve all been there. You have a beautiful box of coloured mediums. Say, paint, or pencils, or pastels. You may even have a box of embroidery floss, or fabric. Whatever your medium, they are lovely. Yet, you don’t know which ones to use together. You try some, but they turn into mud as you mix them. Or, they look uninspiring when placed together. Darn!
You then are too frightened to progress. Your beautiful box of colour stays still – untouched – for a long time.
Fear
Are your frightened to start?
Here, we’re building on the point above. Are you frightened to start because you don’t want to spend time creating a pile of mud? Think about what’s frightening you. Is it because your colourful art and craft supplies were expensive, and you don’t know enough about mixing the colours to find harmonious colour relationships?
Or, are you frightened you will fail? Let’s be real. It’s only through our failing that we can learn. We learn from our mistakes and make better choices next time.
Yet, you need to do things to fail. So, don’t put your art and craft supplies away. Get them out and use them.
However, you want to know why something doesn’t work – right?
Let me help you identify time saving tools
I have also found those time sucky bottlenecks. I’ve also had to be in the mindset to prepare.
I’ve been ready to go and found the role of colour too much to bear. So much so that I’ve put my art and craft away for long periods of time.
It’s been frustrating. Yet, I’ve tried to find solutions to those problems.
Here I want to share with you the tools and posts I have created to help save valuable art and craft creation time. We also want you to see if there are other time saving tools available for you on your art and craft journey.
Specifically, let’s find solutions to the three items above.
Preparation solutions
We have written posts about to prepare for your art and craft. In these posts, you can find tips and information on how to do a process of elimination, and start your art and craft journey. Also, you can find how to get your art and craft supplies organised so you can get creating.
If you use drawing mediums, perhaps you feel you need to swatch out your mediums to get an understanding of their colours.
While our post about how to sort your coloured pencils is helpful. It’s time consuming to do this exercise. So, depending on your art and craft medium, you may not need to do it.
Let’s look if there are other time saving tools out there.
You see, someone else might have already done it. For example, if you use coloured pencils, Karen Hull has created a coloured pencil comparison book where she has done the work for you. You can save your time and use a tool that someone else has already created.
We have also swatched out a range of drawing mediums.
But, how you do you put the colours together?
Colour Relationship solutions
Now that these drawing mediums have been sorted by colour family, there are a few ways that you can find colour relationships.
You can read our post about how to create a colour wheel and find colour relationships. Yet, this method does take time.
Another way to find colour relationships is to use a colour wheel tool. Or, you can find other information on the internet, such as this colour page from Canva. It has handy colour tools and information about colour.
Yet, we have already broken down the colour relationships for you. Our post about colour harmonies you can use in your art and craft provides more information.
We have also created and analysed red yellow blue colour wheels. As well, we have created many printables and courses about colour harmony. We have this information available in a concise 96 page interactive pdf we created. You can find more information about this pdf, and how you can purchase it by clicking on the image below.
But, what if your medium is not included in the colour charts?
You can swatch out your own colours and use your eye to decide which colours belong to which colour family.
Or you can see if any of the products we have created about Colour Wheel Colour Harmony may help you organise our art and craft supplies colours.
It’s a relatively simple exercise. You can use the steps provided in Part 2 of our post about how to sort your pencils by type and lightfastness. You can do this for your art and craft medium.
For example, if fabric, you can cut pieces of fabric, paste them, and then sort them by colour. The same system applies if you use knit or embroider.
How to combat fear?
Fear is frightening when you don’t know what you are facing. So, you need to face it. In our art and craft journeys, this is doing it.
That’s not so easy if you’re fearful of starting.
You can also find out if your emotions are affecting your art and craft.
But, you need to start. Just do something art and craft related. It doesn’t matter how small. Just a small task. Complete it, so that you feel like you have accomplished something.
Other tools you can use
Don’t forget that you can also use other tools. An art class is a great place to meet others and learn how to draw. You can join an art and craft subscription service, such as Artists Network. You can network with others like you.
Don’t forget that you can learn what you need in your art and craft by reading books. For example, see how I learnt about coloured pencil drawing from a book in this post.
So, in conclusion, there are art and craft time saving tools out there. You can use them in your designated art and craft time, or you can use them in your downtime.
We are not new in these spaces. Others have been there before us. They have been creative, and shared their knowledge with others who face the same problems.
We hope this helps you get there.
This post was originally published on 5 May 2021. It was updated on 26 January 2022, and republished on 3 August 2022.