Artist in his Studio

I picked up a wonderful book yesterday. 'Inside the Painter's Studio'. It's a series of interviews of contemporary artists from Joe Fig. It's a wonderful read for any artist or designer.  It made me realise how little people discuss how they work. I think there is a fear that it will take some of the mystery out of what we do or even worse reveal ourselves as frauds! Not to worry though. As a result of transparency and questioning what I do I only find myself deeper in the mystery.

This book invites me to reflect on how I work and how ideally i'd like to work.  So below I've recorded my own current work routine as a concept artist for film.  This is the beginning of a wider discussion on how I work, why I work that way, how I want to work and what I'm working toward.

Melbourne - The work Routine

I wake around 6am. I do 20min meditation. Some mornings it’s breakfast at home. Others it’s straight out the door to the café downstairs for a fresh juice, poached eggs or a bagel.

I catch a tram to the studios. I like to settle down to my desk by 8am.  First up I check emails, facebook and the news, my diary, pay bills and basic house keeping until about 9am.  At which stage I start to scribble on the computer.  The morning consists of generating a bunch of ideas maybe 4 or 5 variations on ideas. While I work I listen to music.

I break for lunch at 1pm. I like to eat out, take a walk. I rarely sit at my desk to eat. If I do sit at my desk I’m usually watching a documentary on youtube or a movie. If it’s good it’ll keep playing in the background while I work through the afternoon.

From 2 – 5pm I focus in on one drawing. This is usually when I’m doing my best work. From 5 – 6pm I tend to experiment with major adjustments to the work looking to have it complete by 6pm. The last hour of my work is the least focused but more playful and often bares strong discoveries.

I clean my desk once I’ve completed a body of work, that is to say any series of drawings relating to each other. I keep all my reference around but as soon as I move into a new series I do a tidy.  This is at least weekly. So though I’m messy in the middle of my work I often am seen at a bare white desk and drawing board.

I keep a drawing board and sketch book at my desk. I use these periodically. They’re tools to loosen up, explore ideas that are, at least at the time of making them, outside the spectrum of the work I’m making for the film. I tend to give time to this in the mornings. Afternoons are always film focused and digital artwork.

I work a 10hour day which is standard for film pre production but I only ever draw or paint for 5 – 6 hours a day. I enjoy the intensity and focus of my work. If I work any longer than those hours the work becomes flat and lifeless. The rest of the time is reading, writing, housekeeping, making coffees and checking out how set construction and the other artists are going.

I do lots of research at the start of a job but after that rarely seek out inspiration. I believe that by ‘just starting’ the work will come.  So most days I sit to my desk with no idea of what I will create.  I sit to work at a computer but like to stand to draw.  I make a drawing or 2 a day but let the final touches happen over the next day or two. I return to drawings often throughout the process. Many of my early morning sketches get discarded though if I had the resource of time I’d love to see them all develop.

After 6pm it’s home to dinner with my family. If Finn is still wide a wake after dinner…which he usually is… we like to take a walk, play diggers or over summer we’ve gone for a swim sometimes too. If he goes down early I like to take a walk or swim for myself.

Somehow there’s time to fit everything in. I don’t work on weekends or evenings and I don’t work at home.