Behind the scenes: Improve your creative productivity // inspirational tips for artists and night owls

Nothing makes an artist more scared than routine. At least that is what I have in common with most of my creative friends and I guess for most artists, a nine to five structure does not improve any creativity and neither does any good for their productivity. My most productive hours are usually when I am just out of bed and make myself my morning coffee and late at night when everyone is sound asleep and my inbox and social media stream stays clear of comments and messages.

I have to say I am not an early bird at all. Does it have something to do with the choice of staying up all night or is it something that is a natural need? I don't know. I love working late at night. There are less interruptions and distractions compared to working during the day. It is easier to focus without the interference of new emails, social media comments and it is easier to complete a projects and work faster.

Intelligent people all have one thing in common: They stay up late.

Working from my own home, having an home office gives me the freedom to work whenever I want. But there is a downside too. I am not chained to my desk all day so when dishes are done, the living room is all cleaned and vacuumed, I go out to visit a museum or exhibit, walk through the dunes and make photo's, have a business lunch, or lunch with friends and have a drink out on a terrace when the sun is out. So during the day it is hard to focus and stay productive. Working independently as an artist it can be a struggle to juggle productivity and inspiration. Here are some tips for night owls like me:

Embrace your needs
If you feel working late hours work better for you why not go ahead and do that? Why force yourself to sit on your desk all day when it kills your creative flow?

Go out
There are very few days I stay in during the day. Museums are open, the streets are buzzing. Go visit a new city, go sketch in a coffee shop. If you need inspiration you need to change something. And changing your environment is an easy tool to get the creative juices to flow again.

Experience new things
You can go out, visit galleries and concerts, but you can also push yourself to add new skills, new styles or work around new themes during your day to day creative job. For me trying to keep up with new software and possibilities that come with that is a great way to broaden my horizon.



Get a hobby
I think this is my biggest challenge because I think about my job as my hobby. But doing something completely different means awaking different parts of your brain. It makes room for new connections and also gives you a great new other perspective on what you are doing. I tried a sewing course for instance. Creating things by hand in a completely differents way. And I am a volunteer working at my local theater where I work with kids. Something very different from my daily routine.

Don't push it
If you are completely stuck. Take a little break from it all. Having an home office is great but there is always something to do. If I have to work on a new illustration or pattern for fabric and I have no clue how to start I find myself cleaning the bathroom or rearranging my home. But taking a moment to sit back and relax is very important. While doing house chores is a great distraction, it is not distraction that will help you any further. Take a step back, dream, and refill.

What do you think?
I never get any feedback so this is also a great tip for myself. Have a little drink with other creative people and chat about things that are going on. I bet another perspective will also shine a different light on what you are doing.

Productivity is not about doing everything you need to do. It is about doing the right things and see no to distractions. I take my time during the day to fuel myself with inspiration, new experiences. These are put to good use when the day turns into night. There is a shift in energy. That is why my working hours are late at night.

A designing process // A brief step by step // From a cold crystal winter hike to a collection of woman's accessories

Since the cold weather is kicking in this week I thought it would be a good idea to talk a bit about my winter inspired collection, a series of designs I have worked on during the winter, and talk about the process of creation. From a walk through a cold winter forest to a collection of woman's accessories. From start to finish.

Last year I was asked to make another collection for Veritas Belgium. I just came back from my trip through the backwaters of India when I started the process of designing a new series of surface pattern designs during the freezing cold winter days of 2014.

With the raw images of India still in my head and after some winter hikes throughout the cold Dutch nature I started my research for this new series of prints. The first step is choosing a material. Usually I start drawing with a pen or pencil, but for this I felt like using a more raw material to make my drawings. Ink and dry brushes to represent the sharp edges of a winter day. The raw outline as an intense reflection of my present being.

White paper & black ink
I always start my drawing process on white paper with black ink. Color is something that will be added in a later stage. First I try to find a shape to represent what I want to create and what I feel. A combination of those two. The new collection should have a little look and feel of the collection I created a year before. This collection should be a logic follow up on what was already made. But a year later there is a different perspective to translate into the new design series. What I know already is that I want to use the raw intense emotion of the cold weather: create a translation of this raw winter woodland. The harsh shapes, clean crooked branches and cold winter weather vegetation.

100 pieces of paper
Finding the right shape for the foundations of the design takes up most time in the designing process. Searching for a base shape can take up to weeks. This collection was made with Indian Ink so that means I will have to be patient until the wet ink is dry too. This process of painting still is a pure translation of how I feel. Thoughts only get in the way of creating a pure output at this stage. How I look and feel can be brought back into simple shapes and if that shape is found I try to improve it and start repeating it until I feel it is just right. That means ending up with piles of paper with similar repetitive shapes. Painting is like a meditation. No thoughts only conversions of emotions translate to paper.



In search of composition
After finding the basic shapes the process begins of making the analog drawings into one colored vector shapes. My scanner is my best friend in the studio and is making a lot of working hours. Luckily for this process I have an assisted digitalizing the work. For this particular series of designs I have created almost a hundred pieces of paper filled with ink drawings. All these shaped will be imported into one vector document. From there the search to a strong basic repeat starts. Making combination of shapes, create layers add little textures and detailing. Another shape will evolve from here. The final prints should be related to one another but also need to have a design that is strong enough on itself. Should the shape be smaller of larger. Should a basic repeat be companied with a more tossed and contrasting composition?

Balancing colors & new compositions
Adding colors is the next step. Shapes can have a very different feel if you combine colors. Will the shape be strong enough? Will details fade or will they be too aggressive? Usually I start out with a few color schemes. Swatches I put together out of a pack of Pantone cards. For this series of designs I also had some color input from my client to work with and I will have to be looking for the right balance of working on a trend and creative a Little Smilemakers design without losing the authenticity. With a selected color scheme I will add the digital color.

When the colors are integrated into the repeat the files will be prepared for the sample printing process. That means the designs will be send to the client who will produce the final product with the print. At this stage the samples will result in small color tweaks. And then it can take up to a year to finally see the entire collection as a whole. But when it is finally there it is time to celebrate!