If you want to grow your creative skills, you need to practice regularly. Regularly means weekly at the very least, and daily at best. And…. it’s hard! Intentionally practicing your craft every day can seem impossible with our busy lives, but I promise you that you DO have the time, you just need to:
a) prioritize it above something else that may be eating up your schedule (looking at you, Netflix!)
b) find a buddy to help you stay accountable and give you feedback
If you’re like me, doing ANYTHING every day can be hard by yourself. I’m always better at working out when I have a gym buddy, I can hike longer if I’m with a friend, and I read my book faster if I’m discussing it at a book club. If you want to grow in your creative practice, you need a creative buddy! Even if it’s just a weekly check-in to see how things are going, it can be so helpful to find someone to encourage you on your journey, and that you can encourage, too!
If you want to find creative accountability, you can find it in several ways:
1. Social Media
Find someone posting work on social media that you like and you think is about the same skill level. Slide into their DM’s and see if they’d be interested in being art accountability buddies. You never know what could happen!
I reach out to people all the time via DM. Sometimes I get ignored and it stings a little, but sometimes I meet really wonderful people and we become friends. Give it a try!
2. Sketch Academy
If you haven’t joined the free Sketch Academy Community yet, do it! You can create a post asking for a creative accountability partner, you can look through past posts and reach out to people, or you can join a cohort program (like Build A Daily Sketch Habit) and meet others that way.
3. Local Community
Many towns and cities offer Meetup.com groups, artist collaboratives, local galleries and studios, classes, societies, and clubs to join where you can find community with other artists. If your town doesn’t have one, maybe this is your sign to start one yourself!
An easy way to start is to do a free meet-up at a local coffee shop. As it grows, you can find larger spaces or even charge a small fee so you can create and maintain a website or subscription for a group software plan like Meetup.com.
It’s important to find your creative community so you can grow and improve your creative skills, find inspiration and new ideas, and connect with other people. (We artists can be shut-ins sometimes!)
