The antidote to overwhelm is not giving yourself MORE to do

A visual journal page that reads 'The antidote to overwhelm is not giving yourself MORE to do.' The background is bright yellow splashes of paint, covering a clock face, and Blackadder 'cunning plan' quotes. In the corner is a photo of a journal with 'I have a plan' on the cover.

I came up with a cunning plan the other day. Upwards of put-a-tail-on-it-and-call-it-a-weasel and just shy of two pencils and a pair of underpants.*

* Erm, I may have been watching Blackadder lately.

You see, I work 4 days a week at my nerd job. I live on a lifestyle block so there’s always farm animals to help wrangle. My hobbies include dancing. And then there’s my artist to do list: painting, creating content for my blog, and participating in a new year of Creative Immersion with Lisa Sonora. Oh, there’s the 3 other creative projects waiting impatiently for me in the wings.

Yup, quite busy.

So I thought: why don’t I get a new, full-time job! And go to working FIVE days a week!

“The antidote to overwhelm is NOT giving yourself more to do.” Ironically, I wrote this word-for-word in my Creative Immersion journal last year. So no, it’s not the first time I’ve leapt to this genius conclusion.

This time, thanks to said Creative Immersion, I’m aware of what’s going on. Instead of my head exploding, I’m sitting here chuckling ruefully and thinking, “Oh, this again!”

Having awareness is the first step in finding our direction or making change of any kind.

— Lisa Sonora, Visual Journal Studio

In the meantime, oops, I did it again. What does this mean for my art?

It’s pretty simple really. My priority is my creative practice, which means painting and the Creative Immersion coursework.

There’ll be some changes for you too. I’m going to be sending out my email newsletter once, rather than twice, a month. And if you follow me on social media, you’re not going to see me there very much at all (yeah, what a shocker).

If you would like to see what I’m working on, you can join me and support my artist journey on Patreon. Right now, I’m sharing sneak peeks of my latest painting in progress.

And finally, because you should celebrate your wins: yay me! I have a new job!

A visual journal page that reads 'The antidote to overwhelm is not giving yourself MORE to do.' The background is bright yellow splashes of paint, covering a clock face, and Blackadder 'cunning plan' quotes. In the corner is a photo of a journal with 'I have a plan' on the cover.

About the image

I painted the background in my sketchbook using gouache paint that I spread around with a plastic card. I use these painted pages for writing and journaling on later. I liked how this one turned out, so I photographed the page and brought it onto my computer so I could play with a digital creative sketchbook of sorts.

The white writing is “I have a cunning plan” quotes from Blackadder. The images are sourced from a free stock photo site and I used the layer blend mode to merge them with the background – no masking required! Lastly, on top of it all is a texture layer. It’s a watercolour paper from an Affinity pack. I set it to a soft light blend mode so it sits quietly on top of everything, showing the texture on the lighter areas of the image.



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