Experimentation, Side Hustles, and Gouache Painting

Summary: In this Vlog Post we discuss the importance of side projects and staying fresh creatively. I create one in a series of six gouache paintings; “Gus.” Embracing creative curiosity, exploring new techniques, and allowing ourselves to fail and grow through iterations. BONUS: Music Video!

Transcript:

Hey there, welcome back to my channel! My name is Brian, and today I’d like to talk with you about side projects, experimentation, and gouache painting.

One of the things we can do as creative individuals is try new materials—experimenting can help us stay fresh creatively. This painting is part of a series of six images that I’m calling Gus—that’s just the character’s name. Frankly, I’m trying not to overthink things this time.

My goal for these illustrations is to create and show a short, wordless story. I wanted the story to have a little surprise, a sense of wonder, or even a touch of magic.

As creative individuals, we often thrive when we’re learning or challenging ourselves. And if you’re like me, you can get a little bored doing the same things over and over again.

Now, don’t get me wrong—there can be a real sense of delight in really honing in on a theme or a technique. I love that as well. But for me, I need to push out and try new things to keep myself interested. That’s where side projects really come in handy.

A good way to begin a side project is to become curious about something—anything—as long as it’s related to your creative efforts. I like to call these things creative curiosities.

Now, there are tons of ways to become curious and tons of things to be curious about. I’m sure you can think of plenty! Let me know in the comment section below—what are some of your creative curiosities?

One way to develop a creative curiosity is to look at your own work and target areas where you’d like to improve. In this case, I wanted to become better at painting with gouache and to grow as a visual storyteller.

Once you have your creative curiosity, the next step is to start small and make a lot of iterations. In my case, I had a small sketchbook where I created 20 or 30 short story ideas over the course of a few weeks. Since this is an experiment, there’s no real time limit—just being curious and staying curious is the goal.

Next, you’ll want to set up some basic, short-term steps to help you move forward. For this project, I went through a few rounds of very rough thumbnails—and I mean rough thumbnails—trying different points of view, different storytelling moments, and things like that.

Once things were moving in a good direction, I drew the story beats directly onto small illustration boards. I refined the drawings a little bit, but not too much. As I mentioned earlier, you want to start small with your creative curiosities. As tempting as it may be to jump into a big project or a large painting, it’s better to move through many small iterations first.

Now, this brings me to some scary words: judgment and failure.

While creating, it’s tempting to judge your work—wondering if it’s any good, or if it’s the best thing since the invention of the wheel. Speaking from my own experience, I find that when I get this way, I have to remind myself: while having a critical eye is important, there will be time at the end of the project to assess the work—not at the beginning. Early judgment and unrealistic expectations can tank any fledgling effort. So, my message to that inner judge? Yes—but not now.

That brings us to another big fear: failure.

Maybe you’ve heard the phrase fail faster—the idea that by moving through many iterations, we can develop a new skill or project more quickly. While there’s truth to that, it’s important to clarify that our goal is not to fail. Our goal is simply to try something new and make progress. But at the same time, failure might happen—and that’s okay.

The whole thing is rather childlike—you’re trying things, playing around, learning, adapting, and growing.

Finally, after you’ve created (or not created) a new piece of work, try your experiment again. And again. Maybe even again. Each time, modify areas that need improvement and build on what was successful.

Our creative curiosities, our experiments, and our side projects are all great ways to improve, stay creatively fresh, and—who knows?—we may discover something new about our work… or even about ourselves.

So, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section below—what are your questions? Do you have any side projects you’d like to share? I’d love to hear about them!

If you’ve enjoyed this video, please consider liking and subscribing to the channel. And better yet—share it with someone you know. Share it with a friend! Word of mouth is the best way for creative work to get noticed.

Thank you for your time and attention!