Keeping Multiple Irons in the Fire

Does working on multiple projects help, or hurt creativity?

I admit it… I struggle to work on one project at a time. Some of this is a practical issue… I have quite a few efforts going at any given time (website maintenance, painting, writing, etc), plus I work out of two different locations (home office and art studio in town), so it makes sense that I could have more than one thing going at once.

What I realized last week is that I could get a creative boost by actively working on two project, paintings specifically, at the same time.

Painting to the left of me, painting to the right, and here I am, stuck in the middle with… another painting.

Initially, I blacked out three new canvases (I purchase pre-made canvases and paint them with black paint first). I thought they looked kind of cool, all drying on easels, side-by-side-by-side, so I left them up. The next time I came into the studio, the black had dried and I could start painting. I started with the blue background for the koi painting. While that dried I put down a gray base on the paint swatch painting.

Next time I came into the studio, I poured the paint that made up the koi on one canvas and swirled together the colors on the swatch painting. So far, this was kind of a thing of necessity, as paint has to dry between layers, but it was fun to have something to jump to while a painting dried.

It was not until I started adding outlines, that I really appreciated what I had set up! As I draw lines, I often end up with wet paint where I need to set my hand to draw the next line. If I refuse to learn from past mistakes (aka, “business as usual”) I drag my hand though the wet lines and smear them and end up with wet paint on my hand.

Full transparency, this image is a recreation of what has happened in the past… no actual paintings were ruined in the writing of this story.

This is where the amazing gift that was two paintings showed up in an awesome, inspiring way! Lines from acrylic paint markers dry WAY faster than poured acrylic paints, so I really only have to wait a few minutes before I can get in and add more lines… if I had a normal amount of patience, this would not be an issue… unfortunately, I am extremely impatient, especially while painting. With two paintings going at once, I could put down a set of lines, then turn to the other canvas and add lines there for a little while. That alone was cool, BUT it got better!

Because these two paintings were very different, each time I changed I felt a quick jolt of excitement! Switching between paintings gave me that excitement of working on something new each time I switched! It was like walking up to a new painting, every ten minutes!

I have talked in the past about forcing yourself into a place of inspiration or what to do when fighting creator’s block… but I never had this feeling before! I have been in a spot where it made sense to change context and work on something new, or try to look at things from a new angle, but actively switching between two pieces was new for me and it was awesome!

My plan for “Multi-Painting”

I want to run with this effort and see if it helps me be more productive and enjoy what I am doing (honestly, I have no issue with the rate that I produce paintings, but this feeling of inspiration is really the goal). For the next few paintings I will set up like this:

1. Two blank canvases at the same time.

2. The canvases will be different shape/size.

3. The matter being painted will be different (different colors/theme/idea).

4. No rules on how long I spend on a painting, but I will make SOME forward progress on BOTH paintings every session.

A few paintings from now I will come back and let you all know how it works and try to distill down into something I can do elsewhere in my life!

How about you? Do you have any “creativity hacks” that you have found? If so, let me know!