Doing More Better: Which of These Things is the Most Me?

A few months back, I posted about how I have major commitment issues when it comes to settling on one particular style. It's why my craft box is always overflowing, I'm constantly taking new classes, and none of my patterns and designs look like they came from the same person.

But this is a pretty big issue if you are ever trying to sell or market products, or if you're just trying to DO MORE BETTER. It's great to be an experimenter, creator, dabbler and learner... but how do I find the happy medium between creating stuff I love (and enjoying the process) and creating a recognizable "identity" that people want to invest in?

So today I'm taking a first step and identifying the list of all the styles and techniques I've been dabbling in and assessing each based on how uniquely "me" it is, how comfortable I am with the technique and how sell-able/marketable it is.

Ready??? Let's GO!

Abstract Doodles/Shapes/Patterns

Me-ness: 10
Comfort Level: 10
Sell-able?: 2

Pros: As I mentioned last time, this is the most "me" style. It's something I developed over many years and seems to just magically come from my hands without a lot of effort. It's what initially got me inspired to learn how to make digital, repeat patterns (so that I wasn't spending HOURS filling an entire page, though sometimes that is therapeutic).

Cons: I've had a lot of trouble translating these doodles into digital form or marketable products. They just lose something and feel too simple.

Abstract Q-Tip/Bubble Wrap Acrylic Painting 

Me-ness: 10
Comfort Level: 10
Sell-able?: 3

Pros: I started making these funny abstract paintings with Q-Tips a few years ago. I love the colors and the process.

Cons: Again, not 100% sure how to translate these into digital form or products. I'm just not sure what exactly what marketable kind of things they would look good on.

Cartoon Animals and Anthropomorphic Ice Cream Cone Drawings

Me-ness: 6
Comfort Level: 5
Sell-able?: 8

Pros: After trying for a while to make my abstract drawings work, I gave up and started practicing drawing things that look like things. These drawings are super easy to translate into digital patterns and projects.

Cons: While I definitely think these reflect a part of my personality, I tend to feel like I'm faking it and trying too hard to emulate what I see out in the marketplace. I love these patterns, but they come from a very different place than my abstract stuff.

Block printing and screen printing

Me-ness: 4
Comfort Level: 3
Sell-able?: 6

Pros: Printmaking is one area where I can let some of my abstract-self loose and it can be somewhat easily translated into other things.

Cons: I need a lot more practice, refining and again, the translation isn't always perfect. One exception is this veggie print, but I can't really count that because my brilliant, creative husband did the carving and printing.

Hand Lettering

Me-ness: 6
Comfort Level: 5
Sell-able?: 8

Pros: I've been obsessed with handwriting for a long time and have definitely gotten caught up in the hand lettering trend. I've made several gifts and commissions for friends.

Cons: There's a whole 'nother conversation to be had (don't worry, not today) about a specific style of hand lettering that I'm good at. Similar to this list, I could/should be narrowing down what style of lettering is the most "me." Also, I could do with a lot more practice and training to be better at this. Good grief.

Watercolor/Gouache Painting 

Me-ness: 3
Comfort Level: 2
Sell-able?: Who knows???

Pro/Cons: I debated even adding this to the list because this is something I basically just stuck my toe in the water with lately. I really enjoy painting, but it is by far the technique I would need to work on a lot. I haven't even really attempted "productizing" this stuff.

What Did We Learn?

Ok! That is a super long list. And as I was writing this, I think I definitely had a few insights:

1) The styles/techniques I feel are the most "me" (and least influenced by outside forces) are sometimes the hardest to translate into something sell-able (because they came from my weird brain, not from something I saw on Pinterest).

And vice versa, the things that I consider sell-able, are things heavily influenced by what I see in the marketplace and are things I feel less comfortable with when it comes to the technique.

2) I think there could be a lot of options to combine styles between what I consider "me" and what I consider sell-able/marketable. Though, it's hard to find the exact right balance...

So I guess that should be my next step: more experimentation! I read this great blog post by a professor at RISD about discovering your style. The bottom line? Trying a million different things and not narrowing yourself down before you're ready. So maybe I'm not as far off the path as I sometimes feel like.

I'll just wrap up by saying as always, I'm sharing all this info because I most certainly am not the only part-time dabbler out there going through this. I hope other people find my process interesting and helpful and stick with me as I take it (slowly) step-by-step.

A Declaration On Doing More Better

Several years ago I decided to take a class called The Declaration of You with artist Jessica Swift and career coach Michelle Ward to help me figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. Sadly, and to absolutely no fault of theirs (because they are amazing), I really didn't get anything out of it. Here's why... for a really long time I haven't really understood what or whom I wanted to be (or as a microcosm of this issue... what this blog is about).

On the one hand, I'm incredibly lucky/blessed to have a relatively stable 8+ year career in corporate public relations which has moved me around the country and afforded me a comfortable lifestyle for a practical chick.

On the other hand, I've always dabbled in the creative arts, and I absolutely love having many creative outlets. I started this blog during my first year in the corporate world when I really just wanted to share the doodles I was creating during long teleconferences with my family and friends.

My struggle has always been that these two things have often felt at odds. I have "work me" and "artsy/doodling/sewing/whatever me." I don't really aspire to quit my day job, but I also always feel like I should be doing MORE with my so-called hobbies. And my definition of "more" is very murky...

"Work me" = Peggy Olson... at least in my head

This has been causing me particular stress lately because, for probably the first time, I feel like I've actually been getting a tiny tiny bit of traction in various forums as a result of some of the classes I've taken  (1 contest win, 1 Spoonflower sale and 130 new Instagram followers to be exact). Suddenly, I feel this urgent and possibly ridiculous need to capitalize on this tiny tiny bit of momentum or god forbid I miss my chance to do "more."

However, because of my real-life job, I've always had a somewhat time-constrained approach to my creative output. I try things, some turn out ok, some are weird hot messes, some could be better if I actually practiced... and I've always posted all of it, you know, just because. If you look back through this blog you can see what I mean. It's a bit all over the place. And all of this new overthinking has made me feel like none of it is good enough.

I honestly don't know where I'm going with all of this except to say that after some long, hard thinking I've realized: 1. that I really want to do better. I want to practice and take more classes, I want to take less crappy photos, and I want to make things that people really like, and 2. I also want to embrace (and hope others are interested in following) this process I've been going through.

I think there are a lot of people out there like me, trying to do "more" with their hobbies while balancing a full time career (or family, or whatever). I just want to be open and honest about how that's going for me (even when I don't have the time/energy to take perfectly styled photos).

"Doing more better" could be making money, attracting more followers/readers, or just feeling fulfilled.... I haven't figured it out what the actual goal is yet, and it honestly doesn't matter, but I just hope some people will find this mishmash inspiring and join me in my sometimes sloppy/misdirected/messy efforts to doing more... better.

Reduce, Re-use, Recycle

One of my to-do items is to take some of my old designs and turn them into digital patterns. We'll call this "creativity recycling." But, easier said than done.

Let's just say most of my black and white originals took hours or days or weeks to finish, while most of the patterns I've done recently have taken about an hour.

This is probably because most of the originals were drawn pre-grad school when I actually had hours/days/weeks just to draw (while watching chick flicks of course). I chose this design to try out first because it was easiest to replicate on a tablet.

Here's the result. I need to work on the seams (the lines between the repeatable tiles) to make them less visible. I took the colors from this photo of a succulent at the U.S. Botanic Garden. Aren't the colors so nice and cool? Definitely more Spring than Autumn... but whatever :oP