FULL TIME ARTIST MAKING A LIVING - pricing, marketing and selling my art plus mental health Q&A

[Music] i've been feeling so small watch the clock ticking off the wall but [Music] i did say last week didn't i that i would have a look at some questions um and i've had a few questions on last week's video i'm not going back over other videos i'm just focusing on the questions from last week i'm just start at the top and have a little skim through cora has asked curious what you used to edit your videos or is it just youtube studio thanks um i use imovie and i also use final cut pro x so i use a combination of the two i haven't fully got my head around final cut pro yet and i quite like just using imovie as a pretty much a beginner and it's been a really useful free program to help me learn editing and things like that so i don't want to knock imovie at all but i was finding it a few months ago i was finding it a little bit limiting on some of the things you can do or not do with it so i got final cut pro x or 10 whatever it's called and i've been dabbling with that ever since um so i'm by no means an expert but that's that's what i've been using to edit my videos sharing asks how are you managing with traffic and large trucks driving by the windows it seems very noisy congratulations on the new space i've been journaling in earnest due to your light your process and your joy in creating thank you thank you sherilyn um yeah the traffic i don't know how i'm going to get on with the traffic it hasn't bothered me so far the windows are triple glazed so it cuts out a lot of the noise and in fact james's office is just that way next door but one and his office has more road noise than mine even though i'm more on the road than he is so i don't really know um i would say it's the one negative thing about the room um which i wouldn't ideally have chosen and rooms in this building they come up so infrequently that i couldn't turn it down just because of the road um and it really has got a charm this room it's a very very lovely room um i think it's the only room in the building with windows like this and as i said it just reminds me of a victorian school room it's just a lovely vibe in here um and you know with my plants and my greenery and my crystals i'm not hearing the road as much as perhaps you think i was um i noticed it most of all when i was editing last week's video because i'd sat myself right in front of the window and you can obviously see when the lorries are going past so yeah we'll wait and see on that but um you know like i always say there's always going to be positives and negatives in anything any situation whether it's where you live or where you work um so yeah we've just got to go with the flow ride the ups and downs and um and learn to improvise and compromise where we can and then where we can't and we have to make changes so yeah we'll see i don't see any youtube stories how do you view youtube stories i think you click on um so if you like someone's channel i think you click the circle where their avatar is the picture of them i think you just click on that and if they've done a story it'll come up on your home page i believe but again i'm no expert on on the old youtube stories as you know from last week i still haven't heard from them and uh yeah i've no idea i think it'll always remain a mystery by that time the picture was taken down so i don't know someone's left me a comment in spanish so i've translated it on google translate hello how beautiful is your channel thank you let's see so i hope i've pronounced that okay but that's the name of the person's um comment hello how beautiful is your channel the sad thing is i don't know english could you turn on the subtitles in spanish that would be possible i would be very grateful i have turned them on so i'm not sure why they're not working i've definitely turned subtitles on so again i'll have another look for this week's video and do my best but i'm pretty certain 99 certain i have actually turned those on so they should be working so that's a bit of a mystery if they're not sorry about that um dido says i'm a big believer in everything that happens for a reason and there is a reason for everything a very true and very wise detail your move may have been just what you need to move forward i can't wait to see your new space in the next video is it a short commute to and from home it's exactly the same basically it's between five and ten minutes in my car so really quick to get here but again far enough away for me not to feel that um i'm not sort of in the house too much it's ideal at the moment because of lockdown and the building's still being opened to the tenants here even though it's close to the public so it gets me out the house which is really important because um yeah obviously that helps you feel a little bit more out there a little bit more inspired a little bit more normal and so yeah that's been really good for my mental health so i'm happy that it's not too far as well because obviously i don't want to long commute i've been there done that one the t-shirt a few times and no don't love that um and also that would be a waste of fuel wouldn't it in the in the car so yeah it's really really quick to get here oh she then says sometimes it's just a small area in the dining room where she creates um and as long as we have a space of our own and we must remember that our creativity can be found anywhere at any time very true so when i lived in a van a tray became my best friend for all my art supplies and then i can tuck it away somewhere um without having to tidy everything up so yeah just ways to improvise and get around a small space um even if it's been while i've been house sitting i often used to just spread my yoga mat out and put all my things on there and that was my studio sherry's put will you still be on youtube because you mentioned in this vlog you referred to some kind of sanction i received yes i think i received a warning but i didn't get to strike against my channel so i think it's very unlikely that my channel is going to get taken down but bearing in mind the kind of content i do so hopefully fingers crossed you never know they have um new rules that come in i don't know but yeah i'm going to keep making videos christine says i'm curious if you don't mind sharing why are you pulling out of facebook i ask because i'm considering the same and just wondering your experience or reasons um i'm not pulling out of facebook completely i just closed my facebook group and the reason i chose my facebook group was because i felt myself pulling away from facebook as i opened up the other platforms that i began using in lockdown and also it was a heck of a lot of work running a group and they are sides of running a group that perhaps as a member of the group you don't see that aren't very nice where you get you know people posting things they shouldn't incessantly um arguing with you yeah it's just not a very nice energy and i wasn't enjoying that and it was taking up a lot of my time when i wanted to be focusing on the youtube and the patreon stuff and so i decided to let the facebook group go um but i'm not letting facebook completely go um at the moment i'm gonna keep my page up um and yeah just play it by ear really go with the flow the no plan plan and um if i do feel like coming off i will so i feel better and lighter for letting it go that's for certain so yeah if you're feeling that too christine that's the way to go someone else asking about how close it is what's my coffee brand i've been using the local supermarket which for me in the uk is morrison's and i use their organic coffee that's what i use nothing fancy and i think it's it's on offer at the moment as well so it's half price it's one pound fifty a pack so yeah i've been stocking up on that while it's been on offer is your new space in the same building yes it is um so that's nelly yes nelly is in the same building so laurel asks about the youtube censoring my video story because of mermaid um without a top on i won't say the word because otherwise i don't know whether they'll take the video down but you know what i mean mermaids have don't wear tops so that painting was not in the story there was literally nothing in the room it's just me lying on the floor doing a starfish and the only thing i can think of about that was that you know they thought something had happened to me or something like that that would unsettle younger viewers um and it did ask me when i posted the story is this made for children or not and i did put it wasn't because it was i don't make content for children um and even though hopefully it's not offensive if you're watching it with your children i know i sometimes um swear a little bit but not too bad hopefully and then the other the last question that i can see here is from kaliop caliop111 have you considered creating your own online platform where you can post videos etc without relying on youtube or instagram um i will be getting my own website at some point but no not at this point i haven't i would like to come away from etsy and have my online shop via my own website so that's definitely on the cards but i'm really enjoying the platform of youtube at the moment i really enjoy my instagram as well and um yeah so at the moment i'm quite happy with those platforms um they're working for me i know they don't work for everybody and some people really don't like social media and are moving away from it for all sorts of reasons um but there are as i keep saying in this video positives and negatives to things and i am working with the positive aspects of those platforms so for me currently that's working and the facebook one for example wasn't working so that's why i closed the facebook group but um yeah for now i'm gonna keep the youtube the patreon and the instagram because they work really really well for me for what i'm doing so i had quite a few comments as well about people letting things go which obviously was the theme of last week's video and saying so for example shannon has put letting go of something you love because you know it's time to move on really spoke to me i plan on resigning from my job and and it's a big decision to make whether it's a job or a relationship or a moving of house or moving of um cities or countries moving from my house and into a van was a massive decision to make and i had to let go of a lot of stuff in order to do that um so yeah it's it's a really interesting processing letting go um and i always come back to journaling meditating pondering um heartfelt thinking if you like coming back to center yes i think i've had a reaction to all that for this week actually so thinking back to the beginning of the video when i was saying to you that it was wednesday afternoon and i'd only just managed to get in here um i'm thinking now as i'm talking to you that actually part of the reason i'm so tired is not just about the physical aspects of moving room and all the work that that takes and the energy that takes i think another aspect has been the emotional part of it as well and the letting go process taking up a lot of energy as well um so yeah i think i think that can be really exhausting and um yeah i just forgotten about that until now so thanks to everybody for commenting about that because that's been a really interesting thing for me to read about as well your own processes of letting go and what you're letting go of and how tricky you're finding it as well and i really like what jennifer taylor has put here i hope you don't mind me reading this little bit but she's basically put letting go 2020 it seems was a year that we all had to let go and i think that's really wise thanks for that because it's it's true it's very true there's a lot of things that we have to let go of in 2020 and i think for me anyway and maybe some of you i think it's going to take a little while for us to recalibrate and um get over what 2020 was and the changes that happened the restrictions that are on us and all sorts of other things that affected us in so many different ways and obviously it's still happening now so yeah we've done well we all deserve a pat on the back i think [Music] [Applause] so [Applause] so [Music] so [Music] so good morning it's now thursday and yeah i'm hoping to get this video up tomorrow so i thought i would add a little bit more to the q a um because i put a post up yesterday on the community tab so i don't know if you saw that but i've got quite a few questions on there um and also i'm looking at last week's video as well so i've put some q a in for the week before video so the moving out the studio video had quite a lot of questions and because i hadn't been that with it because i've been tired i invited you to ask some questions in case i hadn't explained things very well and also any other questions if you um had them and then also for last week's video so that's what i'm kind of trying to achieve with this week's video whether or not i'm a success with that will be um yeah we'll see but uh yeah this video is a little bit all over the place because yeah that's exactly how i'm feeling and yesterday i couldn't even get out of bed basically so i didn't i didn't even do my yoga and i always do my yoga in the morning it was just one of those days where my whole system just shut down um a little bit like a computer when it's doing its defrag thing i don't know if you ever used to do a defrag on your computer but yeah i just felt like everything in my brain was going a bit crazy i just decided to yeah do what i needed to do yesterday and even though it puts me a little bit behind with my schedule that's okay as well because i've tried to create a little bit of room in my schedule for if i feel like that and i truly advise you to do the same as well try and have little gaps in your schedule so that you can allow yourself to have little breaks and slow down when you need to and the funny thing is today i amazingly slept last night so that's a miracle for me and i managed to get into the studio before nine o'clock as well which is another miracle for me and i've done all my yoga i've prepared a nice lunch a nice salad um i've got my my green juice so i'm all set up so compared to how i normally feel which is completely exhausted and stressed and anxious i actually feel really great this morning and i've got some energy so i thought right i will get on with some filming and what's really funny trying to film in here is because i'm still really new in here i haven't been in very long it's trying to work out where where to film um so yeah i'm just gonna try a few different things over the next few weeks and see what works and hopefully there's not too much traffic noise as well coming from being on the road but we'll see about that um so yeah let's get to some questions then and the other thing as well is i'm going to try and answer as many questions as i can rather than give really long answers i'll try and keep it brief if possible is that possible i don't know i don't know if it's possible i'll try i'll do my best oh i know i've had a question about my green juice this is lazy man's green juice um or lazy woman's green juice as the case may be i basically i put in um about that much fresh orange juice and i get like a nice freshly squeezed orange juice um nothing fancy but just from the supermarket and then i've been putting in a teaspoonful of spirulina which makes it go green obviously and then i put it in here and shake it all up and then i top it up with um water from the spring so yeah we're lucky we have a a natural spring that we can collect water from and as long as it hasn't been raining too much we can gather water from there and if not i use um a mineral water which i buy from the supermarket and then just top that up so yeah that's all that's in there so it's watered down orange juice with spirulina that's basically what is in there um here's a question for you from bluebear arts shine bright i love your new space you look so happy in there already thank you i am very very lucky girl good work to you and james so here's a question when do you know you should listen to your inside and slow down and chill or when should you push through those difficult times and work hard to get past them to the other side wow that's a really appropriate question right now so thanks for that and also i've just said haven't i that yesterday i just it was a big no-no so i just decided to allow myself to just absolutely completely stay at home stay in bed um and i did nothing absolutely nothing yesterday apart from making myself a nice dinner and i did watch half a film last night with james as well when he came in so yeah that's all i did um so how do you make that decision then how do you distinguish when you really need to push through um i think i can only speak for me and i think we're all different um although obviously we have similarities as well um and i think for me it all depends on whether a person is a creature of routine or whether they like to do things more randomly in an organic kind of way being an artist i would probably presume that most artists like to sort of go with the flow and move organically and that kind of thing but i'm actually the opposite i'm a real creature of a routine and i feel really safe within that routine so i like a schedule and i like a routine but if you're not a creature of routine then it could be really different for you [Music] so basically if i have a day like i had yesterday at home where i'm out of routine that can sometimes upset my system more so what i might sometimes try and do on days like that is if i've got something on my schedule which is really high priority um so for example getting the patreon video up on time that that is a deadline i have every week and again we come back to that word deadline and i don't like that word so target or goal or something really important a priority should we say so that's my priority for the week every single week to get that video up on time um for those people who are paying to see certain content so i might on those days where i just feel really rubbish i might push through and just do a little bit towards that so that i don't feel like it's such a big mountain to climb so for example on monday i didn't want to get out of bed i didn't want to leave the house but i did come in for an hour and a half and then when i came in on tuesday i stayed for almost four hours that was the long answer the short answer is see how you feel at the time and i think if if you feel really really rubbish allow yourself that space to just you know have a duvet day as they call it i think the most important thing about having a day off a full day off is to allow it as well so don't judge yourself for it say right i'm allowing myself this time off this is to completely refill my cup recharge my batteries and i'm allowing myself that because otherwise you spend the whole day feeling guilty for having the time off and for procrastinating things that you should be doing so really give yourself permission to do that before you even think about doing it anyway those are my thoughts so um yeah let me know what you think about that so st la gray asks wendy what a lovely charming space i so loved the windows in your previous studios but these have a special charm as well speaking of windows do you know the variety of the succulent plants sitting on the windowsill that looks somewhat like a little tree i've never seen that one before that i can remember thank you for all the effort you pour into your videos and so kindly share thank you so much so i guess it's this one this one is a money tree i believe um i don't know it's a proper name but but that's what i call it a money tree um yeah then it was a gift a birthday gift a few years ago and it's grown beautifully it was tiny when i got it so it's about quadrupled in size um yeah so yeah i love that one so adrian pratt says i love the new space and the new mug can i ask where you got it i'd love one myself the mug that is shine bright oh thank you um yeah i guess it's my new studio mug this one and i got it from my local supermarket and i'm in the uk and my local supermarket is morrison's so it was just from there just a little cheerful little gift for myself so if you're in the uk you might be able to get hold of one lillian peace says hello what a gorgeous space did you notice a change in your sound often time i was hearing like some wind was blowing in your mic when you speak like when you presented your standing desk it did not happen before i just wondered if you made a change in your equipment and filming as well as changing your space i did notice the sound yes and it was all to do with a um one of my leads which was damaged so i really apologize about that because it's horrible watching a video isn't it with them when the sound keeps doing weird things hopefully it'll be okay this week because i've changed the lead that i was using and i hope that that was the problem so sorry about that martina martin says shine bright i love your new space can i borrow james to do something to my creative space well he's really busy at the moment trying to set up my shop but i'll ask him later and see if he's got a little gap for you young cousins she says um shine bright new subscriber here welcome on board i love your energy you inspire me to create and accept myself for who i am oh good um have you ever considered creating oracle cards i see you have spirit animal cards your artwork is amazing thank you spirit animal cards i get asked this a lot um maybe one day but um right now no i don't think i want to sort of um get into a project of that size right now but um maybe i adapt some of my current um paintings that i've already created and make them into oracle cards one day i don't know ts says this is the last comment on here england is so pretty how do i meet an english man i guess come to england they're everywhere they're everywhere basically and i'm really lucky i found a good one jean fox asks an interesting question she says can you please share how you market and sell your work as an artist i find this area particularly challenging any advice on how to shift gears between left and right brain activities i.e being creative and producing work two putting your business hat on is this something that comes naturally to you or is it something that you have to work at sending love hope we all feel better soon and so do i as well gene i think a lot of the comments in the thread from yesterday are saying that yeah we're pretty much feeling the same um sammy the hamster says that she's going through a slump right now as well with a toddler that's always making noise um so yeah i hope i hope we all get our mojo back on and some energy and things like that and that we're feeling a bit better soon in a more consistent way as well instead of kind of being as it seems all over the place really up and down so hopefully that settles down for us as soon as possible really because i think we've all been in this kind of crazy up and down place um for too long uh anyway back to the question how do i market my art and shift from right brain to left frame so for example if i'm painting and i'm doing a right brain activity i tend not to want to do anything on my computer at that point and i like my schedule as i've said in a previous answer and so what i try and do is chunk my time into those kind of activities um and you know allow myself some time on my on my computer when up when i'm not really in the creative space which i tend to do the creative things more in the morning and then do my communications and my more businessy things in the afternoon now it doesn't always work out like that and sometimes i need to address something quite urgently say in the morning when it's my painting or creating time and i find that really difficult to then switch back into painting and have to really you know focus back in there yeah or just give up and go home sometimes as well if i'm really um depending what space i'm in so yeah it's not easy for me basically i'm i'm much more of a creative person um regarding the marketing marketing is really hard you know try and have a presence on social media if you can whichever platforms that you prefer whether it's a facebook page or an instagram or or a youtube um try and have a presence um on social media that's going to help a lot um and for some people starting a mailing list can be really good um i used to send out regular mailings um on on the mail chimp thing usually about once a month and that was more when i was running in-person art classes just to keep the students up to date with what was coming and what was happening next in the next projects and things like that um but i think the last mailchimp i sent out was november um and i literally have kind of let that go for a little while um so i'm not sure you know how i feel about that at the moment i might start doing a regular email again but for now i've let that go so yeah that's what i would recommend for marketing if you can there's not so much in the way of having an in-person exhibition at the moment and showing your work somewhere or having it in a cafe hanging up and that can be a good way to get your work out there as well um most of my paintings when i when i left my teaching um career and i started back into the art again um most of the things i sold i sold via facebook that's how i got the message out there so i know people don't like facebook and i'm not hugely a big fan myself um but it can be a really good space to um yeah to sell your work so yeah give everything a go basically and see if it works for you um i i've given things a go that really haven't worked for me um and then some things that have worked for me so um try try the things that you're drawn to and give it a go definitely put yourself out there definitely put your art out there so vicky cook's left me a lovely message thank you vicky oh i hope you feel better soon as well uh p.s i love your glasses and wondered about the purple lenses um i got these glasses um from amazon in the you know lock down situation so just to get a pair of glasses i ordered them on amazon just for ease and um the reason they've got purple lenses is because they are screen blue light blocking i think and i think these ones are 25 you can actually get a stronger one than that and it sends my screen warm rather than the blue light i was getting some really sore eyes because i was spending so much time in front of the computer editing so yeah that's what those are and they weren't expensive either i think they were less than 20 pounds and i do need to go to the opticians and get my eyes tested quite soon but for now they do the job so i've got a question here a long comment lovely comment thank you gwen the raw vegan i'm not going to read the whole comment because it's really long um but um yeah basically saying that she knows how i feel with regarding energy levels and anxiety and depression and things like that and then the mood being so up and down with regards to the pandemic i like what the way you've put this i think we're all suffering from the pandemic fatigue of feeling nothingness and sometimes that sucks the energy out yes i completely agree that's really a really good point i've only been following you about six months and love your little paintings thank you i would love to see your process would you consider giving classes online tutorials i would be interested in that i have similar things in my studio like fairy lights tarot cards crystals angels all kinds of things i'd love to know where your inspiration comes from and what is your ultimate goal if you have one for next year so all my art videos process videos are on patreon um and in the i think it's the pockets the five pounds tier you get two videos a month one's a kind of vloggy vlog um and one's uh more of an art tutorial and then if you want to see a more detailed painting process that's in the backstage past here so you can check those out i always leave links down below for that and see if any of that looks interesting i do do a little bit of painting on the youtube but most of the painting process um in detail i keep for the patreon um so that that's exclusive content if you like so yeah that's where that is and i took my class online at the beginning of lockdown but it's evolved into much more informal behind the scenes look at my process you know you can ask questions um so it's not so much like a formal class i do run little projects in there so that for example there's my heart journals series which is all about art journaling and so just let me um yeah so for example this was what we did in the last episode of that for last week's video um and that and that's where you'll find that um the other questions are quite big weren't they i love where your inspiration my inspiration comes from all over the place um that would probably be a whole other video but i gather inspiration constantly whether it's something i'm flicking through on instagram or something that i dream about or an artist that i love so for example at the moment i'm doing an art nouveau project just for myself and the patrons because i love art nouveau artwork my ultimate goal for next year i don't have one i'm on the no plan plan so even though i like my weekly schedule and i'd like to know what i'm doing each day in a broad sense sort of in chunks of categories if you like i don't have a long term plan um so i don't have a five year plan or a one year plan or anything like that i am just flying by the seat of my pants right now yeah my business head is not perhaps a classical standard business head i don't have a business model i don't do things like follow youtube algorithms and things like that i just literally do what i do and you know if there's a response from that so for example comments on the youtube video then that pulls me to doing and encourages me to do more videos because that's very much an encouragement of where we are enjoying your content please make more um now if i'm enjoying making it and you're enjoying watching it um and we're talking about things that resonate within that then yeah that's going to encourage me to do more so that's kind of how i make my decisions um but it's a tricky one because i don't have a long-term plan at all so so another question about my dungarees i've had my dungarees a lot of years and they were originally from h m uh and i wear the same pair i know i've got i think i've got three or four t-shirts like this and one pair of dungarees and i do wash them so yeah you can ask me that i will definitely tell you i do wash them um and yeah occasionally i will wear something else in the studio but yeah normally i just feel really comfy in here in my dungarees i can make a mess i don't care if i splatter myself with something and things like that so yes she says it's yd and she says i need good donkeys in my life [Music] marcella has asked creative motivation and how that evolved from my beginnings that would be a whole other video but um and how was how was that inner growth what things change sorry what things challenge you today in your creative processes um i think the main challenge for me in my creative process is energy levels right now so everything that we've been talking about with what's going on with the up and down roller coaster emotions kind of stuff um i struggle with my energy levels and that sometimes prevents me from being creative because i'm i'm just simply too tired um to even pick up a paintbrush and my motivation just drops off a lot when i'm when i'm feeling like that so yeah that's probably my biggest challenge um i can give you a really brief uh if i can a really brief outline of my creative evolution if you like when i was a little girl i used to draw a lot of holly hobby type pictures from my picture books and then that evolved into drawing from life so for example i'd sit in the garden and draw plants and a little bird table and things like that um and then at school i would just draw anything um i loved art um i always had artwork on show in the school because it was usually outside the head's office or something so it was really celebrated i remember i did a snowman when i was probably about five or six and he was a really good snowman and um you know compared to what the other children were doing it was much more sort of advanced kind of um drawing skills if you like so they they really celebrated me so uh that's where i was when i was at school and then i moved into doing my o level and i was interested in fantasy and old castles and hauntings and things like that and then i moved into my a level and i started looking at artists so i started looking at artists like toulouse-lautrec mark chagall a lot of the old classics and the pre-raphaelites things like that clint and i also fell in love with um bessie mcnichol um this was a painting that was hanging in my local art gallery i used to go and see it regularly and and then for my foundation course i did all sorts as an art foundation course does um and i continued with my process of looking at artists and um i looked at people like bonnard and riyard and picasso i really got into picasso at that point and matisse nice bold colours and things like that and then on my degree i got into architecture i think i started to get into architecture at the end of my foundation and then on my degree because we went to paris for my foundation and also for the first year of my degree we went to paris and i've been to paris quite a number of times before that and i absolutely feel at home in paris and i love it there i love the architecture and i love the feel of the place um and i got really fascinated by the sacra cur and so when i got back from paris i started doing um some very large abstract oil paintings that were based on architecture that i'd seen on my on my trips so that's what happened then and then that stayed with me throughout my three-year degree um and then i had a gap um where i was a teacher and i was a teacher for about 13 years and i didn't have time to create really i was really creative within my job and you know did some really great creative projects in the classroom but my personal creativity stopped and i didn't pick up a pencil to draw anything for about 13 years and then i started drawing again i think we were doing a christmas card design for the classroom and the children were able to do a design and i did a design as well and yeah it started from there i started drawing fairies so not sure where the fairies came from but i started drawing from my imagination and these mermaids and fairies and and female creatures started appearing on my canvases and on my pages so i went along with it and i've been doing that ever since really and then i discovered art journaling um so people like let me sing so the brave girls club um suzy blue um lovely lovely artists that did some really fantastic work and at that point i got into an artist called wyan and she introduced me to the big eye movement so i started doing like really big eye girls and they were really fun and yeah i really enjoyed doing that and incorporated those into my journal as well and yeah i learned most of my journaling things from the brave girls club from melody ross and i actually won a competition to be one of 10 to win a place on her life restoration course and that was just as i was selling my house and getting ready to go on my travels um in our van so it was perfectly timed and yeah that that changed my world really doing that course and there was a lot of writing a lot of creativity a lot of thinking a lot of processing sticking things down and then realizing the process of sticking things down was life-changing for me because yeah i found out that it was really healing and surprised me just by pasting words down and things like that so yeah that kind of blew me away really the healing part of that and how that helped me process and let go of this beautiful house and this settled life that i had before we ran away in a van so yeah um i think that kind of sums it up i hope i haven't waffled too much about that so sorry if i have so here's a good question from butterscotch grove what a great name butterscotch grove oh butter butterscotch says i'm in a funk today too oh dear not depressed been there done that know what that feels like for me yeah i'm the same i've been had really bad depressions and it's not like a depression for me either but just numb yeah totally so a couple of questions ever feel that way yes too blah numb to have any motivation for anything at all well i've just answered that so yes definitely and two if so what helps you push through to take the first step out of it well what helps push through i think for me having a routine a morning routine so the first thing that has to happen for me to feel okay is a good night's sleep and that's something i have been struggling with the whole of lockdown so yeah i've been much more anxious waking up at 3 a.m not being able to get back to sleep till about six having a really big chunk of time where i'm wide awake maybe i'm trying to read maybe i'm trying to write um maybe i'm just trying to meditate but yeah that chunk of time so if i get a good night's sleep which i did last night life changer um if i don't get a good night's sleep and i feel in a funk when i wake up i usually just jump into my morning routine so i get up i make my bed i wash my face cold water on my face in the morning brilliant and some coconut oil i feel a little bit more alive um yoga mat straight away on the yoga mat and i do my yoga routine every single morning pretty much grabbing a hot drink you know like a large lemon water or something like that or a large fruity tea so i'm rehydrating doing my yoga um yes and once i've got to that point i usually usually not every time but i usually feel okay to face some of the things i need to face in that day and the other thing i've started doing is thinking about my screen time so i do not put my phone or anything on in the morning i do my morning routine that i've just described before putting any of my devices on i don't check my phone apart from the time and that's really helped me so i keep my wi-fi off and i keep all that loudness off from the notifications of this that and the other um yeah and that really helps me get in and then i usually can sit down with my pen and paper and i know some people get on with apps and i do sometimes use apps on my phone but i i love i love the pen and paper thing so yeah that really helps me organize and prioritize what i need to do and then like i said earlier on in this conversation if i feel really in a funk i allow myself to be in a funk and i give myself permission to stay at home stay in bed all day and i do things like make sure i have a shower or a bath when i feel like that because that can be life changing spooky rooster asks another good name i love these names hi if you if you were offered more time in thailand china or japan to make or teach art would you go back on another spiritual journey or are you in your happy place where you are now gosh i don't think i'd want to travel again without a base um now hmm but i would like to go somewhere and settle somewhere again whether we stay here or not i really don't know i'm just looking up there because this amazing um skylight and it's just blue it hasn't had blue sky i don't think since the first time i've moved into this room so i'm just enjoying the blue sky wow that's uplifting and my little bird is probably out there having a nice bit of sun as well so yeah so the answer to that question is i don't know sorry i don't i don't have an answer for that one and i think in the current situation of the world right now i haven't really got travel or moving on my radar so yeah and we do really love where we are uh we love the area um we're quite near the coast and we've got some lovely hills near us a really nice nature it's very beautiful so perhaps it will be more of a case of finding a house because currently we live in a flat and we don't have a garden and we both miss a garden and i think james would really like to have a man shed or a garage to tinker in and you know a place for all his tools and do all his buildings and things like that that he really enjoyed he doesn't have that sort of man space um at the moment so i think that would probably be next on our agenda now eliza bassett hasn't got a question but she makes a really really good point about she's saying i'm on a cleaning jag over here she's in hawaii aloha and she's saying that she's moving items about dusting vacuuming washing and yeah that really does help shift energy doesn't it so one of the things is moving your body and the other thing is clearing your space cleaning your space decluttering a draw that could be life changing as well i think um yeah probably really important things when you're in a funk are to let's see drink lots of water keep hydrated definitely shower or bathe and put comfy clean clothes on um and if you're staying in bed all day maybe change your sheets as well because you've got that lovely clean sheets feeling that can be really really comforting um tidy your space even if it's just a little tiny like a work top or your bedside table or a drawer or clean your sink do something like that because that can really help as well and eat healthy all day healthy um and stretch your body out so even if you're just lying on your bed doing a stretch that can really really help in christian northrop's book she always says stretch like a cat and i think the correct term for that is a pandiculation and it's really magical and really healing for your body to have a big stretch and i always have a big stretch in the morning lay on the floor on my yoga mat and have a really big stretch and yeah it all these life-changing little things um and obviously the more of these little things you do the better you're going to feel and then if you've given yourself permission to have a day off or a day in bed you then like write well i've changed my bed i've washed up i've tidied up my bedside table i've showered um i've brushed my hair things like that it's the little things isn't it so emma asks how do i get started with art i love being creative but i'm not very good at painting and drawing and i feel discouraged when i whenever i pick up a paintbrush or pencil um try collage um try tracing tracing is underestimated you can learn a lot about drawing by tracing and then when you move away from the tracing you'll find that you've made improvements and you're not quite sure how you've made them because your hand and brain connection will just go into you know drawing a figure or a face or something like that so try try those two things and practice that good old fashioned one practice practice does make things improve i'm not going to say practice makes perfect because i don't go for perfect but i think practice does help you improve without a shadow of a doubt kimberly asks how do you cope if you are depressed and you feel self-conscious about it if you do i end up with guilty feelings if i can't work due to depression and i wish i would lay off myself well lay off yourself then talk to yourself like you're your best friend and lay off because there's nothing to be ashamed or guilty about when you're depressed especially in these times so let's all do that let's all lay off ourselves you know just like i did yesterday i felt dreadful yesterday i couldn't even do my yoga like i said i did feel awful i wouldn't have wanted to film a video yesterday because i wouldn't want to put that energy out out here um so i wasn't sure i was going to be putting out a video this week because if i felt like i did yesterday i wouldn't be recording um this right now so yeah i would have been easy on myself and i'd have just put a message up saying you know having a week off and i know people would have understood that so yeah go easy on yourself so i've just moved the camera because um i felt that the light was getting so bright behind me so hopefully that's a bit better and less distracting um i don't know i'm not used to filming in here so please just bear with me while i get used to the room and the light and things like that um a vance has got a question i would like to know what your creative routines were like when your daughter was young it feels like all i do is clean and take care of the children and my art always takes the hit it's hard and i know there's quite a few people who've got children at home and the schools are closed and it's really difficult to get on with what they want to get on with it was a bit different for me in the sense that i was a single parent but it wasn't locked down so um i had um somebody take care of my daughter when i was doing my a level art and i didn't really create at home um and then when i did my foundation course there was um where at the college where the foundation course was there was a nursery um and my daughter was two and a half going on three and a half that year and so that was perfectly timed for her um so she would get her social and and play and fun and things like that and i'd go into the um college next door and then if i was needed i was literally on site so it was five minutes for me to get to her so it was really really good for me um and then when i did my degree she was starting nursery school so the following year um she was starting school and i got that time i didn't really do a lot of work at home um i think the challenge for me was trying to get all my degree work done and fitting that around the school hours so i did have child care a couple of nights a week where a lady who took a few of the local children she um picked up my daughter from school so that i didn't have to break off at three o'clock and then i could stay at university a little bit later but i do appreciate it's really really difficult to juggle um so yeah and then just know as well that as they grow up you get your time back um yeah it does come back there are little things you could perhaps do to improvise around that like have a sketchbook and a pencil handy all the time so that when you're sat having a cup of tea and a little break you can do a little doodle or a little sketch um yeah just to keep creating if you can a little bit every day but but yeah it is a challenge so ashley's asking about pricing my work being realistic about being an artist making enough money to cover costs time etc and being able to live and pay her bills if you're not comfortable discussing your personal experience with all this i do understand i don't mind sharing at all at first when i priced my work i heavily underpriced it and i remember getting to the studio here and a few of the people said to me you need to put your prices up for your paintings your originals and i think a big part of it is how long does the work take you so for me my original paintings um even though they're probably about a4 size usually um they take me months months and months and months and it's usually about nine or ten months they take and i'm not working on them flat out um all that time it's it's more about the percolation time between layers and making decisions of what i want to do next and letting them evolve so yeah but consider how long you're spending on each piece um if you are um quite a fast worker and you do like three or four original little watercolors in a day um yeah they're going to be a lot cheaper than something like a sustained layered oil painting that's you know you're painting over a period of time i watched a youtube video a few years ago which talked about and i don't know who it was so i can't link it but perhaps you can find something similar but it talked about charging per square inch as well so thinking about how long you spend on the work and how big it is can also come into play here as well the other thing i do when i'm pricing a work is i name a price privately to myself i might say it to james and then i sit with it for a few weeks and i see if i'm comfortable and if it feels too much or too little i've then got that thinking time to adjust the price if that makes sense but it is a challenge very much a challenge but you should definitely value your time um and expertise um picasso quite famously said didn't he that when he used to do his fast work say in 10 minutes where he'd pick up a brush and just create a portrait picasso style in 10 minutes and then i don't know how much he charged but say it was 10 000 pounds and then someone said to him yeah but it only took you 10 minutes but he then said yes but it took me a lifetime to learn how to do it in 10 minutes that's gold that's golden that is so lots of things to take into consideration um yeah perhaps have a look on youtube because there's probably some videos on pricing your work and a little bit more comprehensive than my answer but that's what i do i kind of have a feel of what feels right and then let that percolate for a week or two until i feel comfortable um with the price and i always know if i'm undercharged for something as well and then i use that information instead of beating myself up and going oh you silly silly girl you've really undercharged i say right for next time i learn from that and i'm going to charge this and yeah that feels more comfortable so yeah i hope that helps so i think i'm gonna leave the q a right there so i'm not sure what was going on with the light then um but yeah hopefully it's not too bad so thanks for all the questions and comments i really appreciate them as always i send you all soft big hugs because i think we're all feeling really really up and down and we have really strange energy levels and yeah we're all feeling very discombobulated so it is really really lovely and comforting to know that we're not alone in that and we're just doing our best to get through so yeah i send lots and lots of big soft hugs and lots of love to everybody so anything else to say before i go let's see um i don't think so and this video is probably way too long already so i'm going to edit this video now and also i'm going to do some painting and try and do some more on this one that i've been working on and yeah and then i'm going to go home and call it a day i think but yeah i'm really uplifted today because i've got such beautiful weather so i'm really inspired to maybe go out for a little walk as well so i might check in on james and see if he wants to go for a little wander so as always thanks so much for watching and i'll see you really soon in the next one bye for now when we wake up hear the birds and see the sun side-by-side our faces are done all the good times [Music] found what we're looking for in life call us crazy but things

Channel: The Unexpected Gypsy

Views: 44,763

Rating: 4.9690371 out of 5

Keywords: art for mental health, art for self care, art journaling, mixed media art journaling, art journal ideas, art rituals, patreon, artist studio, self care, artist vlogs, journaling, grey hair, grey hair transition, selling art online, art marketing strategies, pricing my artwork, how to price my artwork, how to get out of a funk depression, how to get motivated, art for depression, how do I get started as an artist, how to be a full time artist, sketchbook journals, drawing

Id: sXGzdJtQaZk

Length: 57min 56sec (3476 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 19 2021