10 tips for daily painters, job seekers & career changers

7 Hippos Marching begin my 2012 Image-a-day Project

Whether you are a daily painter, a job seeker, career changer or someone trying to write a novel while managing job and career, these 10 tips will help keep you on track. Change "paint" to whatever your project might be and get started!

1. Paint every day if you can. Sometimes, you can't. Don't fret. If you miss a day or two, don’t abandon your project.
2. If you can't complete an entire painting in a day, don't fret. Leonardo didn't finish the chapel in one day, either.
3. If you can't paint every day, think about something that you would like to try. Write it down or you will forget it. Keep the list in a handy place or you will lose it, or, in a fit of super-cleaning, you will send it out with recycling.
4. When you get back to your studio or your desk, look at the list. Some of the ideas are genius. Some are not. Laugh if you must.
5. If you have lots of work in progress, hang the pieces up or you will forget them. I have too many mostly-done works on an easel. I need another easel.
6. If you can't paint every day, sketch something. Pick up your pencil. It is a magic tool, sometimes with a mind of its own. Let it lead you to a new place.
7. In creative brain-freeze land? Pick up an art book. Go to the library or to your favorite used bookstore, both of which have hundreds of art books waiting for you.  
8. Need to get out of the house or out of your comfort zone? Go and look at public sculpture. Like it? Don't like it? Either way, a response can get you out of your creativity brain-freeze. 
9. Go to a museum. Everyone there loves art, and these are your people.Talk to strangers in this safe place. If you don't live near a museum, hundreds have put substantial collections on line. Bert Christensen has posted a helpful list. 
10. Can't paint because you have no space? Clean a closet. Apply these tests: (a) Do I need to keep this? (b) Do I need to keep this here? (c) I can get rid of it if it was given to me by someone to whom I no longer speak or who will never, ever visit. (d) I can get rid of it if I don't remember how I acquired it and I have never used it.

When one of my colleagues at the LinkedIn Daily Painters and Collectors Network suggested that everyone encourage a Daily Painter, I cheered and made this list which is good for anyone with a project that is just out of reach.

Personal note: I am in my second year of posting an image-a-day to Facebook. A version of this blog post was cross-posted to the nanoscapes and small friends blogs.