Priorities

previously published on my Halcja's Place blog

I never have to worry about writer's or artist's block because whenever I'm not writing I'm drawing and vice versa. I constantly switch between projects and always have something to do. Always being productive and next to no risk of burning out.

Occasionally I drop my writing and drawing projects altogether and dive into crafts and handmade for a week. You can probably tell from all the pics of my cross stitch or crochet projects that I post on Twitter.

What can I say? I have a lot of interests.

But sometimes I start thinking that this little system of "time management" I came up with keeps me from accomplishing my goals.

They say that in order to master your craft you have to practice it every single day. Little by little. Step by step. Is it really possible to get better at drawing or writing if that's the opposite of what I'm doing?

When it comes to my drawings I can say without a doubt that it's possible.

I've been actively drawing, editing and uploading illustrations to my Shutterstock portfolio for the last week. And I can see that my skills have improved. It takes me a lot less time to figure out what to draw, but most importantly how to draw it so that I spend the least amount of time on editing and preparing the drawings for upload. I feel that I've passed the learning curve and can finally relax and just work. And all that after a four months break! I don't know how my brain does it, but during these periods of not doing whatever I'm supposed to do, it sorts out and processes all of the information that I've acquired before going on break.

As for writing... It's more complicated. I've only been writing fiction in English for a year or so. I'm still at that stage when I'm accumulating the initial skills and amount of words written. I've reread bits and pieces of my writing but for now I can't tell how good or bad it is and what kind of edits does it require. But I'll get to that point eventually.

One more thing that I've been thinking about is that over the past few years I've been held back by my Ukrainian projects that were bringing me neither money nor recognition. It's not my vanity speaking up right now. I really wasn't expecting much of that projects. Even one single blogger friend who would mutually support me would have been enough. But as a Ukrainian blogger, I was only good for staring at from afar. All of my attempts to make friends with other bloggers failed miserably. It was a tightly woven clique and I didn't fit in.

So I'm finally ready to give up on my Ukrainian projects completely. I'm doing this with a light heart and lots of hope for the future. And yes, this means that I'll be updating this blog more frequently from now on. Not only to tell you about my projects but also to share some thoughts and observations, and updates on my life.

You can get prints with this illustration on RedBubble.
If you're a designer, check out my Shutterstock portfolio.