30-minute painting | Honeyberry Diary

Hi! Happy New Year!

Hope you had great holidays!

I had a very relaxing sabbatical week off the week before Christmas. I took it real easy, just hanging out, making art, and spent some time with friends and family.

In case you didn’t know, I take every 7th week off to recharge and rest.

I learned this concept of Small Scale Sabbaticals from Seanwes (A great place to get inspiration for your creative small business by the way!), and I’ve been taking my mini sabbatical week off since October of 2015.

It’s still one of the best business strategies I’ve ever implemented. When you’re growing your business, it’s easy to just keep working many hours because there is always something that needs to be done. Yes, I enjoy the hustle most of the time, but if I don’t intentionally take a time-off, I will eventually burn out. And if you’re burned out, you will no longer have the energy or passion to pursue what you love. That would be so sad!!

I ended up working through the last couple of sabbaticals, unfortunately, and I’d been feeling the effects for a while…

So for this sabbatical week, I was determined to not work!

I’d scheduled a few social events, but the rest of the week was wide open to do whatever I wanted!

One of the things I’d like to focus on when I’m on my sabbatical is making art for fun.

Which, I confess, is not easy nowadays.

Making art is my job now, and even if I’m just doodling, part of me is always thinking of ways to turn it into a product, like, hmmm, this floral design would make a good birthday card, or oh, I could turn this into a print for the holidays! and so on. It’s not a terrible thing since I’m still being creative and having fun, but just something to be aware of.

Anyway, here are some of the paintings I made for my 30-minute daily painting project during my sabbatical. (You can read this post to learn more about the project!)

Lots of oranges!

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A couple more food paintings related to the holidays.

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038_banana-pancakes_1000px — I made banana walnut pancakes on Christmas morning. So yummy!

On Friday, my friend and I went to Emerald City Fired Arts in south Seattle and painted this dinner plate ❤

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Here is the finished piece!

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I’ve also been getting into embroidery lately since I had so much fun with a cute embroidery kit by Beth Colletti Art & Design earlier in December. I practiced some stitches on the blockrprinting practice fabric while we watched all of the Lord of the Rings movies on Christmas day! It was THE. BEST. CHRISTMAS. EVERRRR!!

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Embroidery is quite fun and meditative! I’m not sure if I’d do anything with it, but I’d like to continue practicing this fun craft! I have hundreds of block prints to embellish, you know?

I realized since drawing or painting is always going to feel somewhat like work, I want to explore other types of arts and crafts to have fun with in the coming year.

Last but not least, I made this painting of me and Dave during my sabbatical. Through my daily painting practice, I’m painting more with gouache (an opaque watercolor) and LOVE it!

dave-yuko-christmas_1000px — I think this is going to be our Christmas card next year 🙂

Hope you got to spend some time relaxing and being creative during the holiday season!

Here is to another year filled with making, exploring, and learning ❤

xo Yuko

Yuko Miki Honeyberry Studios Headshot

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The other day I posted this drawing on Instagram, and the cation read:

“Ok truth time – I haven’t drawn anything for 2 weeks. It’s a shame, I know. // I’ve been spending most of my time putting together my winter collection and other tasks, and you know how it goes. There is a lot of photoshopping, uploading, writing, posting, promoting, emailing, scheduling, packaging etc. etc. // Last night I finally doodled this while watching Netflix and it felt so nice. // I feel like I need to be intentionally creating work now more than ever. For myself and others who can use beauty and light in their lives.”

It was difficult to admit I hadn’t made any art (including doodling!) for two weeks!!! I mean, how can I call myself an artist If I don’t have a consistent creative practice? Isn’t the whole reason why I quit my day job to pursue my passion (=make art) full-time?

Right.

I get being an entrepreneurial artist means you need to have a strong business practice, and you don’t get to just make art all the time.

I’ve been focusing a lot on the business side of things because that’s where I had the least experience in, and I also enjoy the hustle of working on my business. But that doesn’t mean the only time I create art is when I’m designing new products or when “I have time” (well, look what that got me! Two weeks of not making art!!).

I had a wake-up call to me – in order for my business to grow, I need to nurture my creative practice more intentionally and put more time and energy into it. And business aside, I want to be a person who truly values creativity, and I want my action to align with my words.

So, here is the deal. I decided to start a new 365 day painting challenge!

001_persimmons_111816_1000px — My first painting was of our beautiful persimmons.

You may remember between April 2014 and April 2015, I did a daily drawing project called 365 Day Happiness is, where I made a drawing about happiness every day for 365 days.

apple-cider_web — Happiness is Apple Cider. Isn’t that the truth?? Pen, watercolor, and colored pencil on paper, 2015.

That project helped me find and develop my own creative voice, and I became more confident as an artist. I also got many cool opportunities through the project, like being featured in one of Lisa Congdon‘s speeches and starting a partnership with Sakura of America.

This time around, I’m not gonna have a specific theme, but I’ll paint or draw something for 30 minutes every day (my big inspiration for this comes from August Wren, who is on her year 3 of daily painting!) and share it on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

I’m excited to practice painting with gouache (i.e. opaque watercolor) and other media, and limiting it to 30 minutes a day makes it less overwhelming. What scares me the most about putting a time limit is sharing work I don’t think are great 😀 You know, because when 30 minutes is over, it’s over. I’m not gonna try to make it “perfect” before sharing it with my audience. No matter how much I hate it, it’s going to be shared! And that makes me feel SO vulnerable!! EEEEEK!

But, my goal is about showing up every day and not about making a masterpiece every day.

Like Jennifer from August Wren says, I’m not gonna apologize or make an excuse for work I don’t think are great. I’ll just paint every day, share, and move on.

Doing a daily project like this is a really good practice in letting go. And the thing is, number 1, people probably don’t think it sucks as much as you do, and number 2, nobody’s gonna remember your post 5 minutes after they see it 😀 They’re just not as emotionally attached to your creations as you are! So it’s OK 🙂

I want to do this for at least one year but potentially longer. I know once it becomes a habit, it’s just gonna be something you do every day, and you’ll start to miss it if you don’t do it. Painting every day is an awesome thing to do anyway even if I decide to switch my career at some point in the future!

When I had the inspiration to start another 365 day project, I thought about starting it on January 1st. But there is no real reason to wait, is there? I was afraid I’d lose a momentum or come up with excuses not to start if I waited.

So I just started my daily painting challenge 2 weeks ago! And here is a couple more 🙂

This painting is about how I'm becoming appreciative of my body the way it is now <3 — This painting is about how I’m becoming more appreciative of my body the way it is now ❤

You can follow along on any social media I listed earlier although Instagram (@honeyberrystudios) is probably my favorite. Use the hashtag #yukosdailypainting to view my paintings so far!

Hope you enjoy! And feel free to join me in the daily painting challenge. I can use a company in this journey 🙂

xo Yuko

Yuko Miki Honeyberry Studios Headshot

Honeyberry Diary

Do what you love. Be happy.

Tag Archives: 30-minute painting

Holiday Sabbatical Art Projects!

30-minute daily painting challenge is ON!!