Stick To The Plan

How I use Project Plans to grow as a creative

It’s 2022 and the name of the game is content. Content is King. In an era where no one can pay attention to a video for longer than 15 seconds, creatives need to have 3x the content they initially planned to have. To be honest, I don’t even know why I’m writing this blog. Most people won’t even make it past the first paragraph. This might work better as an audio journal or audio blog. That may be my next piece of content, but I digress. 

I could never understand how to make artwork, take quality photos and videos of it and post it to multiple social media platforms. I knew that I could do it but the thought of it was exhausting. That’s where the plan comes into place. Creating a project plan from beginning to end (including all of the social media stuff) can help alleviate stress, help you to create with a clear head, keep you consistent and on schedule. There are probably infinite ways to do this but I will tell you how I do it. I am a 1 man show. I create all of my artwork, take my own photos and shoot my own videos. I create all of my own graphic content and anything else that you see with The Flower Boy Branding coming from my social media pages or website. I create everything. In a perfect world I would have a full agency of people helping me to make the biggest, fastest and strongest art company there is. Since I don’t have that, I have these simple plans that help me to execute all of the tasks that help me to produce content on a daily basis. 

Making the painting  

I’m compelled to paint and I’m a compulsive painter. I get new ideas for paintings almost constantly. So in order to keep this from getting out of control, I pick the ideas that I think will make the most impact and make a plan for them. We all know that artist that gets 1 million and 1 ideas a day and never executes 1 of them. You don’t want to be that person. 

SO… First I choose my idea. I’ll let you in a little bit about what I’m actually doing. My newest project or idea is to target the real estate market. Not only do new homeowners need beautiful artwork to decorate and commemorate their new homes with, but real estate agents need a unique and special closing gift. My approach to this is simple. Make as many paintings as possible to create a large enough inventory to supply X amount of real estate agents and homeowners. It’s great because you can make that number whatever you want depending on your ambition and ability. My number is 100. Now 100 paintings is a lot, but when put into a solid plan I can conquer small portions until I have created all 100. 

Since all 100 paintings won’t be the same I’ve chosen categories that make sense for general decorative art.

Creating 100 Paintings

1. 25 Flowers
2. 25 Portraits
1. 13 Athletes
2. 12 Celebrities
3. 25 Beach / California
1. 5 Palm Trees
2. 5 Ocean
1. 2 Beach Day Ocean
2. 1 Night Ocean
3. 2 Morning Ocean
3. 5 Boats
1. Sailboat
2. Fishing Boat
3. Speed Boat
4. Racing Boat
5. Yacht
4. 5 Sports
1. 1 Beach Volleyball
2. 2 Surfing
3. 1 Hot Air Balloon
4. Swimming
4. 25 Abstracts
1. 5 Shapes
2. 5 Graffiti
3. 5 Splatter
4. 5 People
5. Lines

As you can see, I’ve divied up the amount of work into 4 sections with subsections. Overall 100 paintings is a lot of artwork. I make these plans because it helps me to stay on track, makes an enormous goal seem obtainable and it also serves as a reminder that in order to obtain the level of success that you desire you have to do all of the work. 

Document your work

Now that I know what paintings I want to make, I can start to document the process. In this phase I’ve already set up my art, I have my materials and my painting planned out. For content creation purposes all of this stuff should be documented. That’s just my personal opinion. Not only does this help to engage those who are watching you via social media, but it can help you to develop a skill for: 

1. Taking photos and Video  
2. Understanding what you want to communicate through this work in progress type of documentation. 

So document everything. I have done it all from screen recording my works in photoshop, filming myself on the computer, filming my journey to purchase supplies, photographing work that i made mistakes on and of course photographing and filming the actual building or creation of the work. The goal is to tell the story of how you created every work or project through imagery. While you work on telling this story you also build the skill of content creation. At first it can be a daunting task. It can even slow you down when it comes to producing the actual artwork. As you continue forward you will become more efficient in your content creation process while developing an eye for your style of content creation. 

Now Share

Again all of these things require planning. So now that I know what content I want to share and how I want to share it, I then create a plan for that as well. The posting of the content comes after you’ve executed both your painting and content creation plans. It’s kind of a stock piling method. You may have to go silent for a while or find something to fill up the space while you create and stockpile your work.

Content creation is a snowball effect in theory. I’ve learned that creating content leads to more content. If I create 10 paintings over the course of 20 days it usually means I would have documented or recorded the progress and completion of the art. Those videos or photographs would have then been posted and now I have a ton of images and photos compiled to make even more content. I repeat the goal is to tell my story using a visual language. If I have the opportunity to tell my story everyday then that’s what I’ll do. The more content I create daily allows me to create for at least another day. I use the two for one method. For every 2 days you create content you get one free. Those two days are now compiled to create another day of new content. Keep in mind all of this stuff can be spread out across multiple social media platforms. I create a schedule for editing content and posting content and boom, I’m off and running.

What’s The Point?

I asked myself this a million times before I ripped off the band-aid and jumped into it. I was so hesitant because it increased my workload 10 fold. You have to understand

I’ve always wanted to create hundreds of paintings. I’m obsessed with the act of painting and I just want to create painting after painting til’ infinity. I also wanted everyone to pay attention to what I was creating. I quickly figured out that the artwork that I was sharing quickly loses it’s luster when it has no context to it. I learned that creating multiple posts and sharing my work multiple times a day In different ways gives context to the artwork and my journey. Now that was the key that unlocked it all for me. I wanted to have my work seen more and purchased more frequently. Posting the same image five times a day will definitely get my work seen more, but it would not give context to my journey or my artwork. I noticed that I needed to show my work and process in a different light, from different angles and in a raw but still professional way. This alone helped me to get to my goal of increasing sales and getting eyes on my artwork. 

I’m not really a writer. I mean I do enjoy it. There is something therapeutic about it, but I am a painter. As a painter I have the responsibility of creating the art and making sure that the art that I am making does what it’s supposed to do. The only way I can make sure that happens is by getting eyes on the work. Content creation does just that along with sharpening new skills, killing inhibitions, and watering new ideas. This blog that you’re reading is a direct consequence of my content creation journey and you better believe I’ll be dipping back into this blog to create more content down the line.  

-Von