What does ‘The Block’ have to do with documenting in my art practice? Read on....A couple of weeks ago I spoke about the importance of documenting in my art practice. Another aspect of this is how we present and engage with social media. If I look back over my Instagram account for example, I see a very definitive view of who I am presenting as a creative. This is part of my artistic foot print in the world. Like wise, my website and Facebook pages, tell a story about who I am. It is therefore important that we make sure that our documentation across all platforms is as seamless as we can make it. If what I post differs radically from platform to platform, I will only confuse my collectors and followers.
Of course you can see where all this is leading up to you, can’t you? Yes the dreaded “P” word - PLANNING. And this is where The Block comes in. I was watching
it during the week when I was sick recently and it became painfully obvious that those contestants who really had their planning down, were the ones who had more clarity and ease in getting things done. Those who kept changing their minds every five seconds or half way through a room, very easily fell behind. Those who planned well, had some kind of documentation of that plan and referred to it as a guide to where they were at, at any given point in the process. I can’t tell you how many artists I have come across, that seem to have this in-built aversion to planning.
I have never really been able to understand why that is, because a lack of a documented plan for any endeavour, relies on memory - which we all know is notoriously fickle for most of us. So if I don’t have any kind of a plan for my Instagram, and post willy nilly I will end up with a messy feed that doesn’t present well. To get around this I use a program called Later, to schedule my Instagram feed. This program also allows me to take a look at what it will look like on my phone, as you can see in the shots above and opposite. I try to colour coordinate my posts in blocks that will fill the screen.
The other thing Later allows me to do is to also schedule posts for Facebook and Pinterest. This means I can cross reference all my posts and do them all at the same time, which saves me time and mental energy.
How well organized is the documenting process in your Art Practice, and how might you improve it, in order to become more streamlined and actually save yourself time in the long run?
NEXT WEEK: Visual elements - shadows