I Tried Picasso's (incredible) Daily Routine: What I Learned – ep. 3

pablo picasso was one of the most influential artists in the world a true creative giant we all know that and yet the question remains how does somebody get to that level how does somebody get to the level of being so prolific that they create over 50 000 works over the course of their lifetime leaving behind a series of masterpieces that are coveted to this day what am i trying to do here exactly i have found it fascinating to put myself in the shoes of people that inspire me that have shaped history as a way to deep dive into their worlds and to see what i can learn more personally i actually have really mixed feelings about picasso and the person that he was and the impact that he had on humanity so to get to the bottom of this i'm going to spend some time in his world living the way that he did i want to better understand the man that was this complicated artist oh man i'm really excited to do this honestly but i first want to share what i've gathered on his schedule during his time in paris this process of creating a picture of how he lived was greatly helped by mason curry's book daily rituals how artists work basically picasso would start off his day at a time i think most of us would consider quite late 11am and for the next few hours he would have breakfast and then see friends up until about 2 or 3 p.m at the boulevard he would shut himself in the studio from 2pm and work there until at least dusk he'd have dinner from 10 to 11 p.m and then he'd go back to work for another four hours until three a.m and then he'd go to bed and the cycle would begin again i'm not gonna lie this routine this schedule is very exciting to me in how counter it is to every self-help self-improvement and productivity guru out there how many times have we all heard that we must have a morning routine and this approach essentially obliterates the potential of doing that considering i'm going to be starting at the end of the morning essentially in the afternoon this is more or less the opposite of what i did when i tried ben franklin's routine i don't know i guess i'm curious and i will admit i found it very difficult to maintain my own sleep schedule in terms of regular hours and waking up early i found that i naturally go to bed quite late and so i actually think this is going to be easier for me to stick with and follow through on i'm also really excited about this because i have found i am so much more creative at night in the evening and this seems like it's built around that interestingly it didn't seem like painting ever tired him out that's why painters live so long while i work i leave my body outside the door the way muslims take off their shoes before entering the mosque [Music] all right um [Music] day one good morning hello this is gonna take a little bit of time for me to get used to this is quite late it's already 11 30. honestly over the last few weeks i've been building up to this point where i wake up this late but even even then it's just late this is late i'm not used to this i'd like to paint a lot this week it's something that i don't make enough time for but it's also going to have to be balanced out with my other work making this video writing all the other projects that i have in the works i guess i'm going to have it's not really a breakfast he didn't really have breakfast at this point it's lunch i'm excited about this because i feel like picasso did such a good job of creating so much space for creative work he was singularly focused on this and i love that so let's see where this takes me there's one thing that i've learned in doing this it's that adapting to a new schedule can take time hello it is 12 23 a.m as in night time and i would ordinarily be probably heading to bed right around now but i will be painting for the next two and a half hours it's kind of fun to give myself permission to do this creative work at this sort of unorthodox time i don't need anybody's permission okay so i feel a need to give a little bit of context here picasso has played a significant role in my life as a large source of creative inspiration my mom is a painter among other things and so she really i found that she really inspired me to start painting on my own as a kid as a teenager i remember my first paintings being in the cubist style because i was just drawn to it and it's fair to say that he was one of my heroes growing up but as i got older and learned more about him my views on him definitely changed it became clear to me that he was not someone i would ever want to meet i've done a considerable amount of research and reading on the man and i think quite honestly i am afraid i'd be disappointed with what i would find on one hand he spearheaded entire art movements like cubism among other things and had this incredible ability to reinvent himself decade after decade but at the same time he was once described to me by the french as ambu undrinkable self-absorbed competitive showman from what i've gathered he was kind of an especially with the women that he was with which undeniably affects how i see him and there are no caveats to that and yet you will find him in all of the most prestigious museums around the world and this is in no way a justification for the human being that he was but so much of his work was brilliant and illustrated in empathy for people that had suffered at the hands of violence denouncing war it's hard for me to square these contradictions all in one person all right i wanted to give a little update here it is day three and i've struggled a little bit to get into the flow of this routine but i have an idea i think what's missing right now is a commitment a singular commitment to a task at a time i have noticed that in my life i'm i attempt to multitask or jump from one thing to another far too often and i'm doing this to myself so in the spirit of picasso's incredible focus on his work i've decided to split up my days a little bit differently it's still in the framework of picasso's schedule but what i'm going to do is commit four hour blocks of time to the three main things that i want to focus on right now video writing and painting i'm ready for this okay i'm ready for this even having said that i feel like i've gotten a lot of work done already and i've been enjoying painting quite a bit i'm taking this as an opportunity to be once again more mindful and more intentional about my work i think this is the secret sauce right here like we all talk about all the techniques and the packs and the productivity boosting whatever this is the secret sauce it is having control over the intentional flow of your attention and energy it is day four things are going great i honestly really enjoying this so much i thought i would share a progress update i don't really know where it's going but i'm having a lot of fun with it i might tweak the guy a little bit still this one i feel a little bit more mixed about honestly i like the feeling painting for me has always just been a therapeutic hobby really more than anything else i don't think i want to necessarily make money from it i don't think i could in the first place much like winston churchill who found that painting helped him deal with depressive episodes in his life i just find that this helps me deal with the stresses in my life and i'll be honest i'm finding the permission to do this at this hour incredibly liberating it's become my favorite part of the day obviously it would be a massive luxury to be able to paint all day and i am working throughout the day but these hours at night where i'm alone painting have been just glorious i get to be in my own little universe there's nothing better there's nothing better i have more canvases here so we're going to keep going one thing that really sticks out to me is how much he despised distractions without great solitude no serious work is possible he's a famous quote of his today is day eight i decided to continue doing this for a second week to really give this a fair run i'm starting to really miss having mornings i'm not gonna lie i do feel sluggish well into the beginning of the afternoon when picasso really began working so i'm feeling like over the long term this would be kind of an unhealthy rhythm to maintain i'm trying to squeeze in working out and errands and everything else that needs to happen outside of work in those first two three hours that i have in the day he worked up until the day he died at age 91 literally painting till 3 a.m on sunday april 8th which was just hours before his death that's insane that is dedication right there that's one of the things that i like so much about picasso or or rather what he represents for me he was unapologetic about what he did think about the time and place too think about the world that he came from what he was doing was so different from what existed at the time what was acceptable all right we're coming to the end of week two and i think this is where this experiment is going to come to an end if anything this has made me intensely aware of how much multitasking i do and how detrimental that can be there is no replacement for singular focus on something i really enjoyed large portions of these last couple of weeks but this does not feel like a fully sustainable rhythm for me at least and increasingly i've just felt like i've been out of sync it's really hard to feel motivated and to like get going when you wake up so late for me this schedule really illustrates that there is no correct way to go about living your life and finding a rhythm that fits you is the most important thing he did all this without any visible knowledge interest or application of anything pertaining to productivity if anything this reinforces my feelings that productivity and so many things that are attached to this word is so overhyped so unnecessary i think all anyone really needs to live by are a few core principles a mission an outlet an energy and i try to paint a little bit more of a nuanced picture of his life and his work it is clear that he was dedicated to what he did but i wonder to what cost you cannot have the level of genius and output of somebody like picasso without a darker tortured side there's a quote from the book life with picasso that was written by francoise gilo which was one of his lovers also an accomplished painter that really illustrates this point everybody has the same energy potential the average person wastes his in a dozen little ways i bring mind to bear on only one thing my paintings and everything is sacrificed to it you and everyone else myself included he strikes me as a creative genius with a certain degree of emotional poverty in terms of intelligence uh or support this made him destructive in many ways which makes me sad honestly this is a reminder that even my heroes are human and that human beings can be petty they can be lost they can be that being said i cannot deny despite all of my critiques on his character i truly respect his work and his devotion to what he did picasso had a fundamental belief that in his words art is a form of magic and i think that's a pillar of the legacy that he left behind he really did things his own way little did he know he would be inspiring artists a century later or maybe he did and we'll never know every child is an artist the problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up this video is sponsored by audible which is probably my favorite app on my phone if you haven't tried audible i highly recommend it yeah i don't know i feel like i've learned so much thanks to the fact that i could listen to audiobooks audible is the leading provider of spoken word entertainment all in one place they have a humongous library of audiobooks and podcasts i'm a big fan of listening to audiobooks when i paint before i go to bed when i go on walks there's a lot of opportunities one audiobook that absolutely blew my mind was the botany of desire by michael pollan i felt like it opened my eyes and the writing was sublime if you have any interest in nature or human psychology i highly recommend it i remember listening to it while driving to different shoots a few years ago while i was still freelancing as a filmmaker he also wrote and narrated how to change your mind which was about his exploration in the world of psychedelics which was also just fantastic i highly recommend it you can start listening now with a 30-day audible trial choose one audio book and get full access to the plus catalog absolutely free just visit audible.com nathaniel drew or text nathaniel drew to 500-500 the link as always is in the description also by the way the price for a membership is lower than usual for a limited time thank you to audible for sponsoring this video and thank you to all of you guys for watching this video i hope you enjoyed it i really enjoyed making it and i'd love to know whose daily routine would you like to see next let me know and i'll see you soon you

Channel: Nathaniel Drew

Views: 1,603,835

Keywords: picasso, art, artist, daily, daily routine, daily schedule, schedule, daily schedules, highly, highly successful, successful, success, how to, how to be, how to be more successful, habits, habit, habits of highly successful people, people, successful people, most famous artists, famous artist, famous artists, picasso's life, what was picasso like, picasso routine, picasso schedule, living like picasso, life as picasso, I lived like picasso, nathaniel picasso, picasso nathaniel drew

Id: gJ7CyM1Zrqc

Length: 13min 27sec (807 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 11 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

I really enjoyed the video, especially the conclusion he drew from this experiment are really interesting. Thank you for sharing!