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3 Effective Ways to Simplify Your Art Process
165 Plays4 months ago
In this episode of 'Shaping Your Pottery with Nic Torres,' Nic shares three practical methods to simplify your art-making process. He emphasizes the importance of breaking down complex projects into smaller, manageable steps, limiting the materials and tools used to foster creativity, and the value of questioning whether you're genuinely passionate about the art you're making. Through these approaches, artists can enjoy a more fulfilling creative journey.
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Transcript
The Joys and Challenges of Complex Art Projects
00:00:00
Speaker
Here are three ways you can simplify your own art. So you see, sometimes making complicated things, it's fun. it It's great, right? But a lot of times having that big, complicated project, maybe you're doing something very, very big, it can be very draining. It can be very hard to gi complete that project because it's so big.
Simplifying Large Art Projects
00:00:25
Speaker
But what do you do? Simply, all you have to do is simplify the work that you're trying to do. But how exactly do you do that? So here are three ways that have helped me and I've learned as well from interviewing other potters for over over 100 different potters.
Streamlining Your Art Process
00:00:40
Speaker
So the first way is to simply take out some steps. Take out some steps, right? So if you are making, let's say you are making a big sculpture with lots of different details and there's a bunch of different abstract things into it. Before you even start sculpture, try writing out the steps that you should take to making this sculpture come to life. And whatever those steps are, there's probably going to be a buttload of steps. And then once you write down those steps, look at the steps and see which ones can you take out. What are the steps that you could take out that you don't need to do, you don't need to include into the sculpting process to be able to make your vision come to life. And then once you find those steps, cross them out, take out, and you're not going to do those steps, right? And limit the steps that you have to take to maybe about four.
00:01:33
Speaker
And the less steps you have, ah simple the more simple it becomes. Because now you can work on one thing. So let's say you're making a sculpture. OK, great. Now I got to do step one, I got to get the form right. Step two, I got to get the detail. Step three, I got to add the color. And step four, I got a glaze. Keep the steps simple. The more simple the steps, the easier it is to simplify the whole pottery process. Even if the whole process is complicated, if you break it down into steps, it becomes that much more simple and much more easier to complete the project.
Fostering Creativity Through Limitation
00:02:08
Speaker
numero dos. So number two to simplifying your your your pottery or your art is to simply limit yourself into a box, limit yourself on what materials you can use. So let's say maybe you're someone that likes to enjoy a lot of colors, like really bright colors into your pottery or into your art. Instead of using, you know, the all different colors that you have, like 6 or 10 different colors that you have, limit the colors to just 3. 3. That's it. Or even 2. 2 works very well, right? I have a friend, Sarah Connoshy, every single year she does moons and suns, every single January she does moons and suns for her pottery. And you can see the evolution she has gone through with those moons and suns.
00:02:56
Speaker
But sometimes it can be very complicated with how much of a color she uses. So this year what she did was that instead of using a bunch of different colors that she normally does, she limited it to two black and white. And with those black and white colors, And everything actually popped more because of just black and white. And so she was able to get things done much faster. She was able to do have more creative ideas simply by limiting herself in what she's doing and limiting amount of resources that she's trying to do. So try that. sort the Here are two so far. So number one is.
00:03:31
Speaker
breaking down into steps or taking out steps from do your art process or your sculpture process or body process, taking out steps. That's number one. Number two is to limit yourself in the resources that you're trying to use to start thinking more creatively. The third way to simplify your art.
Evaluating the Necessity and Joy of Art Making
00:03:54
Speaker
is to not make the art, right? You maybe think you want to make something sometimes, but sometimes you have to take a step back and you have to ask yourself the question, do I really want to make this or not? Right. You're not an artist if you are making for somebody else. You're an artist when you're making for yourself and you're doing things that you want to enjoy. As you set up that question, something like that is literally the simplest thing you can do. If you simplify your art, it's just simply not make the art.
00:04:23
Speaker
whatever Whatever it is you're trying to do, ask yourself that question. Do I really want to make this thing that I'm trying to make? Is it going to bring me joy? Is it going to fill my soul with the pottery or the art that I want to make? And if you ask that question, answer it, right? answer if it's a yes, yes, I want to make this this sounds so exciting. And I could definitely make this, then go ahead and do it. Go do that thing that you want to try out and break your intercepts and limit yourself as well. But if you don't do it, then go back to the drawing board, go back to the drawing board and see what else you want to do to bring you joy.
00:05:03
Speaker
because that's how you simplify your work. That's how you start enjoying pottery. That's how you start enjoying the art you want to make, not by making for somebody else, but making for yourself. So here are the three. Again, so number one is... So number one is taking out steps or breaking it or limiting the steps to take to make the idea come to life. Right. let Try to limit it to just four steps. Four steps is all you need. Number two is limit the amount of resources you use for whatever you try to make. Maybe it's limiting the amount of colors, the amount of tools, limiting the amount of detail you put into each each piece.
00:05:40
Speaker
Number three is to not make whatever you're making. After you have the question, do I really want to make this or what will it soothe my soul if I make this art? And if the answer is yes, then go make it. If the answer is no, then don't make it. Go back to drawing board. So those are three ways to simplify your art. Hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys in the next
Discovering Your Unique Pottery Voice
00:06:01
Speaker
one. Hey, thanks for listening to this episode of Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. If you want to discover how close you are to actually discovering your own unique voice with your pottery, I put together a free four question quiz. It's very short. It takes 30 seconds for you to take. If you will want to know how close you are to finding your own unique voice, go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash quiz, or you could simply go to shapingyourpottery.com and it'll be right there at the top. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys next time.