🙈Embarrassed to share this! Also; how to create in a small art studio space, organise art supplies

So I've hit a bit of a wall already. So my studio is a mess and I've reached that point of not being able to work in here and so I really need to clean up. I did have an offer from somebody to come in and help me actually which was really nice so thank you very much. But I just need to get on with it today and yeah probably quicker and easier on my own. I'll get more done faster and then I can get back to making art and stuff. So if your studio or creative space is a mess as well you're definitely not alone. I'll show you the situation in a sec. You can probably see in the background quite a lot of it but I'll give you a proper look in a minute especially over here which I think is where I'm going to start. So I've been procrastinating this job for a few weeks now and yeah it's time. It's time. So thanks for being here because it helps give me an incentive to actually clean this mess up and yeah I hope you're okay out there having a good week. I'm not too bad today. I did sleep okay last night after quite a few nights of not sleeping so I feel a little bit more energy and a little bit more alive so that's really nice. So I've got to utilise that energy and yeah sort this stuff out. The only thing is really is where to start and I think I'm going to start behind you. So I'll give you a scan of the room to start with and show you what we're dealing with. Am I embarrassed to show you? Maybe. So let's just have a look what we're dealing with then on this workbench and it's not just the workbench that's bothering me. It's kind of everything under there as well and the floor. So over here I've got, yeah that's okay, a stack of canvases and paintings on the go so that's fine and then under there some sort of storage boxes and baskets so that's okay as well. It's more this area here, it's just been a dumping ground really as has, let's just go a bit closer shall we, as has this area here really. It's just become an absolute dumping ground. I've got jewellery on the go which has been going on since gosh December and then yeah more jewellery, anything that I'm not using art materials wise, plants that need to be in the shade and so this isn't really a workspace at the moment and it's my main wet area so it's where I can get messy and I've got you know paintings on the go that, yeah I just can't see the wood for the trees basically so I do need to I think start here, I think that's my plan. Let's just scan you around the room then shall we. So just going to the floor because yeah this is, basically we had a problem with some of our greetings cards, they reprinted a load for us. Yeah these ones I think, I don't know if these are the rejects, I'll have to ask James because he sorted through them, he kind of does all that stuff so I'll ask him. Coming up here, this cupboard is not utilised properly, it should really be a really useful storage area for my art materials and I'm just not using it properly, it's just a dumping ground again and then over here I did actually move my art trolley which normally lives where that box is and that's kind of where I need my art trolley but I've put it underneath the standing desk at the moment which obviously means I can't lower the desk to sit down and work which is you know not particularly ideal. I've been having a little planning meeting with myself this morning so looking at my sort of my schedule for February and just working out a few things and then planning my Patreon and stuff for next month and it's really nice to have a table that's you know away from all my creativity and water jars and art materials so that I know that my my tech stuff is kind of safe and then this this table sort of is kept clear really because that's where we pack orders for the shop as well as this table so these tables are kept pretty clear and then over here I've still got my sewing machine out from last week where we did our sewing paper video so if you've not seen that one yet to perhaps check that one out I really enjoyed doing that and I was planning to do some more work in my journal today but yeah I just can't it's just too much for me it's too much overwhelm too much stuff everywhere so this is not too bad on the shelving James the Cardboard King has built the storage for all the shop postcards and mini prints and things like that and these are two of my collage boxes down here as well as this basket and the tray there's also another collage box behind me in the area I've just shown you on the floor and then what have we got up there so the shelving is not too bad it's kind of boxed and semi-organized but I've kind of tried to create a space here because I've got a lot of new greetings cards in and James wants to build some new cardboard storage so return of the Cardboard King hopefully let's just see if I can show you hang on so yeah you can see all the greetings cards are currently under the table which isn't really ideal and then the two suitcases that were living on the shelf where I'm hoping to have more storage for the cards there they are now obviously down there so I need to deal with those as well and then just pan the sort of art table for you it's not too bad for me really but yeah it needs organizing a little bit before I can actually sit down and do some artwork I've been doing some fairies and some sketching for the Patreon video so we're doing like a drawing date this week and that'll go up on Saturday so that's going to be edited by James so I need to give him the footage but yeah I've just been drawing a few fairies and I really like where is she this one it's the way this one's coming along she's cute I like that anyway yeah suffice to say it's yeah it could be a little bit more organized without being super tidy because if you've been here before you know I'm pretty messy when I get creative and I don't particularly love working in a tidy space but um yeah that's too much over there now so it'll be really nice to use that area again so I've hit a bit of a wall already because I've got to that thing the hardest thing about tidying up and decluttering is the decisions isn't it and I found all these old paints and um they're not very good quality basically and so I don't use them so I'm thinking of just taking them to the charity shop and letting them go I can't see me needing them and I haven't used them for probably well over a year so because I invested in a load of nice quality emergency vehicle sorry yeah I've just taken a break if you like and realized that I'm not really getting much done so I need to make a decision on these and then probably let them go and then I think I'm going to concentrate on my art supplies and I don't want to put everything away over there on the table but I do want to just sort of make sure I've got a little bit of a tidier situation if you like and then the things that can go away that save easy access on on the art trolley that might help me out a lot as well and I don't think I'm utilizing the bottom shelf properly because I've only got like things that big and I've got that much space so maybe I have a box or something under there that holds a bit more and then I can use it like a drawer don't know anyway that's kind of where I'm at so let's keep going it's feeling better already it always does doesn't it you shift a few things around and shift the energy so I'm getting on okay I wouldn't say I'm doing you know a 10 out of 10 job here but I'm really kind of attacking the first layers if you like and I'm thinking I am going for ease so I haven't set up the area over there yet I've just put my painting sketchbooks if you like so I'm trying to sort out all my notebooks, journals, sketchbooks and that kind of thing so the ones I'm painting and I kind of thought right just put those over the over there where the wet area is and then here I've realized I've got this basket here that's really good for storing journals yeah so it's amazingly good at sort of storing the journals that I'm using but I've realized I'm not really using many of those journals I'm kind of more using these oh and as well as my my handmade one over there why am I storing prime location area on my desk those when those ones really should be living over on the shelf so I'm going to have a little rejig I think with my journals just so that I've got everything that I actually need and use and I'm using in this current time with you know easy access rather than having a pile of stuff there and then those ones that I'm not really using so let's just have a look shall we let's spring into action I'm not using those two anymore so they can go my altered book I might still use that maybe that one I'm not using that one that's kind of an empty one and that's my freedom journal so not really using that either so yeah all of those do not need to be on my table so yeah let's get rid of those right so let's see shall we kind of wanting to do things with this this is kind of what I'm looking at with my fairies at the minute so I'll leave her out and then I've got my handmade journal that's ephemera so that shouldn't be in there notepads are quite good I suppose what else have we got so I've got kind of like a sketchbook where the pages just come out so that's nice paper the Moleskine sketchbook and I have a sea whites of Brighton kind of sketchbook as well I've been doing a little bit of journaling in and then I've got a new composition notebook for writing and then this one which is my main writing journal so really those and that one those three are the ones I've been using most and then I can pop little mini journals just sort of down the side those can go down there much better okay so now I feel like I'm getting somewhere so I don't want to do that thing where I start twiddling and moving things around and that kind of thing so I've kind of left things as I was using them because I think it's always easier to organise your stuff once you've actually had a play and you know kind of where you want things and things like that so for example I'm left-handed so I always like to have my palette left of me you see what I mean and my jars of water if that makes sense so the ergonomics of the space if you like yeah because I don't want to be reaching across my body to mix paint I need to do it here and then put it on the paint so it's much more economical with time and movement yes that's what I mean so I didn't want to put everything away because I could have put all the paints in the wooden box that I've just emptied with the paints that weren't very good quality I could have put everything away but I don't want to do that because I'm in the middle of painting and now I've tidied up the wet area I'm thinking probably most of that's going to sort of transition over there naturally as I take my wet work over there rather than over here yeah so we'll see how that evolves in space and I think that's the useful thing I always remember years ago setting up when I was pregnant my daughter's room and I remember sort of unpacking all the clothes and little bits and bobs I had and the creams and nappies and that kind of thing and I organized it really nicely so that it looked really aesthetic and then when my daughter was born I realized everything was in the wrong place for it to be quick and easy access and so I kind of learned then that it's much easier to organize your space when you're actually playing in it and using it for what it's for and so yes I like to have my paints out and then I can come in and paint I've got my palette ready which again all that wet stuff might transition over there and then this could be the art journaling table which was the original idea so we'll see but I'm not going to set that up now I'm going to see how I feel next week when I come in as well so there's a couple of things that I want to address that are annoying me and I'm just going to sort of stack and put away and things like that and then I shall do a quick scan and see if there's any other bits and bobs that are really looking a mess that I could neaten up and then I think I'm gonna leave it there water the plant babies and yeah leave it there for today so maybe I've inspired you a bit to tidy up your own space and I know some of you say to me that you're also very messy and that you don't have a designated area and it's really difficult because then you've got to get everything out at the beginning of your creative session and then put it away at the end and oftentimes and I remember this from living in the van for many years I couldn't be bothered and so it ended up that I didn't create at all and so I say to you if that's you make sure you have a really easy small simple kit which might some days be a sketchbook and a pencil or a sketchbook and a pastel or something like that and that might be it or you might have now I've shown all this in my mini art kit when I went on little trips this summer and I put together a little travel art kit and so I've got things like these water brushes in here so it's a really tiny tiny kit and I don't even need a jar of water for those and then you know you take your watercolors with you and your sketchbook and you set up so you can have a really teeny tiny kit for those days that you want to create and you want to get into a regular practice but you can't bother to get everything out and then that way you don't have these massive breaks where you're not creating because you can't be bothered to get your stuff out you've at least done a little something a little doodle or a little sketch in the corner of your sketchbook if that makes sense and then you know when you do feel like getting all your stuff out one of the things I think is really useful is to have trays and so that's where I utilize packaging, boxes I reuse things that can be trays and then I've immediately got a group of stuff that could be everywhere in a much more controlled organized situation and I've still got easy access for everything as well because I haven't put it all away you know on the art trolley and things like that so I think trays can be really useful and when I lived in the van I used to have a really big tray and I'd put all my pens and pencils and paints and stuff on there and I could work at the dining table in the van but then when it was time to eat there wasn't another table and there wasn't anywhere to put my stuff so I just take the tray and I could take it all together and just slide it under the bed and then when we were in travel mode I used to put things away in a better way so it wasn't just going to rattle and wobble and fall about everywhere as the van was moving if you know what I mean everything got everywhere in the van and it's really hard to keep a small space tidy and so I know I'm really really lucky to have this room and have all this space but I think sometimes the more room you have the more stuff you collect and then the more mess you create and yeah you really need to keep on top of it well I do anyway I mean if I if I want to take something home I will grab say my sketchbook and then this little pencil case and this has got all my drawing things in it and then sometimes I don't even take that I take my sketchbook and I have my mechanical pencil with me anyway so and that's my kit I don't take all this home because that would just be really annoying anyway I'm procrastinating again so get back to it so I've had this folder for years and years and years probably yeah since I was a teenager and it's really useful for storing all my postcard collection that I've collated over the years I love that so yeah it's a bit fat now but at least the postcards are away and they're not getting all dusty and then they can live on the shelf all organized so that's really useful I could do with a giant one of these actually to store my all my ephemera and things like that because you can really sort of root through quite quickly but anyway I'm winning I'm getting there so I'm just going to let's see I've got to deal with this table because James is going to want to pack orders tomorrow and he's going to tell me off yeah he's not going to be able to pack orders unless I clear that and then he'll get grumpy and I can't do a lot with the stuff on the floor over there because I'm not sure whether it's the good stock or the bad stock and there's a load of packaging and I don't know whether he wants that either so yeah I think that is probably my last job so I thought I'd show you my art trolley quickly as well just to show you how I've organized it in case you were wondering and yeah I've basically got the same things I had on the top as I had before and I've just put a lot of my inks away because they're really handy to just grab anyway from the top of the trolley and then I've got my kind of mini art kit here my gold stuff my matte mediums and varnishes and all sorts of stuff don't know if you can see on top here and then the next shelf down I've got all my papers and here I've got kind of like source material so I've got you know things like that that I'm drawing as you know source material basically and then I've got palettes as well so I've got some glass palettes and some paper palettes there but I'm currently really enjoying the grey paper palette that I bought and then on the bottom I've got the trays that I talked about so I've got a couple of trays on here that are things I'm actually using right now I haven't put them away and then I've got other little trays here I've got my caran d'ache crayons here luminance pencils really lovely and then pretty much my little trays I go on top and then here I've got all my graphite again utilising little trays to make it really easy to use and then underneath there I've got my curiarte watercolours which I don't use very often anymore but I'm going to keep hold of and also some gouache little tubes of kind of the pretty budget range and I sometimes use them in my art journal so that's a little trolley tour if you like and this trolley is amazing and then any rags that I've got that are wet I can just hang on the end James put some hooks on for me yeah I might get another one one day if I ever get a bigger room and then I'll have room for it I'll straighten you up a little bit this is what my table's looking like so I've got my current fairy project going on and I've put my paint sort of in colour combinations and then I've got everything sort of neat and tidy but not put away so I've got the brushes I've been using still out and the colours I've been using still out and the inks I've been using still out so I haven't got to get everything out which is such a luxury I know and then I've tidied up all my jewellery for now I've utilised one of those little trays at the bottom and put everything together so that it's not actually over there and I can actually use my wet area when I need to next on this end of the table I've got my paints so I've got kind of a box that organises some of the colours and then obviously the ones I'm using are out because that's really handy and then I can move these really easily if I want to do some wet works I've got like a grey palette pad there and then if I'm not doing wet work I can use that little space for pencils and then just at the end here I've got kind of my watercolours that I've been using there's a few journaling bits and there's sort of a tray and a bag with all my ephemera that I've been using in my art journals which are now safely stashed over there so it's so much easier to actually come in and do some work so I'm really looking forward to coming in tomorrow now and getting on with something so I wasn't actually expecting to get as much done as I've actually got done today so I'm quite pleased and you know it's always going to be a work in progress there's never going to be everything put away and things like that but it just means that I can actually come in and use that area which I haven't used since before Christmas so that's going to be a real treat blue some purple tea reach out for me take my hand and lead even when I disagree and it's okay to slow the ride discover books I forget about and who cared for the world so I better go because I've got a few bits and bobs to get from the supermarket and also I've got some things to do tonight a little bit of work and thanks for helping me tidy up and keeping me company because it doesn't happen quite as fast as it looks like on the video does it? I wish so try to keep your lights shining bright and I will see you in the next one bye for now maybe a sweet blue close to curtain purple tea reach out for me and take my hand and lead even when I disagree a sweet blue some purple tea reach out for me and take my hand and lead even when I disagree