How to Be More Artistic
What no one tells you about becoming the kind of creative you admire
Hi everyone,
It’s been a while. I’m taking things slow, because I’m still in recovery of probably the worst pain I experienced in my life, a face and jaw infection. So it might be a little quieter on my Substack while I’m regaining my energy, and getting up to speed with everything I’m behind with.
This post is an introduction to my new, very straightforward series ‘how to’, because when I go through my DM’s. Almost every message is about how to do something, and I always want to give the most detailed answers but it’s quite an open ended question. As a creative there is never just one way, so I am sharing lists and different ways in for each.
This is what you can expect:
How to be more artistic
How to get started with art direction
How to understand images
How to build creative presence online
How to stay original
These are in the pipeline for now, but as always… Please do leave suggestions in the comments and I will definitely add it to my list! <3
How to be more artistic
When you work in a creative field, you need to make money. And most of the time, that means working on commercial projects, things that have clear goals, fast timelines, and very little room for real experimentation. If you're not a nepo baby or sitting on a trust fund, you don't have the luxury of making purely artistic work all day. You have to carve out the space for it. You have to build that muscle on your own.
It’s easy to think being artistic is something you’re either born with or not. That some people are just naturally “creative,” with wild ideas and weird instincts, and the rest of us are just meant to follow briefs. But the truth is, being artistic has nothing to do with talent. It’s about how you think. It’s about having a worldview. And it’s about making time to experiment even when no one’s watching.
Over the past year, I’ve been working on this behind the scenes. Tiny personal projects. Research that never leaves my hard drive. Images I’m not sharing, practicing and learning new skills like drawing, sewing, mixed media to sharpen my art direction skills. Because I know that the only way to make better work, work that actually feels like me, is to practise being more artistic, intentionally.
You don’t need to wait until someone gives you permission. You can start building that part of yourself right now. Here are six ways to do it.