HOW TO

MAKE MORE
ART (FASTER)
BY: MAKE ART
or die
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INTRODUCTION
“Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.”
-John Cleese

One of the biggest misconceptions about creativity

is that it’s a talent. A God gifted ability that you’re
born with. You either have it or you don’t. But the
truth is creativity is a skill. Anyone can learn and
improve their creativity. But also, since it’s a skill and
not a talent, you can also lose your creativity when
you don’t use it. J. Cole explains this concept in “The
Off-Season Documentary.”

“When you don’t write for a while, you wait around for
inspiration. That’s the thing I had to cut out cause you
can wait forever and nothing will ever come. And when
you come back, one of the main things I noticed in the
process is like the trust you have in the things you say, or
the things that want to be said, like the ideas that come
in your mind and want to come out and want to be
written down, you second guess them because you
haven’t been in the momentum of trusting and seeing
results.
“I had to just start showing up.”
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Another misconception about creativity is that it’s

magical. Many people believe things like:” Ideas hit
you like a lightning bolt” or “Inspiration only strikes
once in a while.” But the reality is ideas and
inspiration come from working. As the legendary
artist, Pablo Picasso, said, “Inspiration exists, but it
has to find you working.” You need to show up every
single day. Practice is required to master a skill. Just
as an athlete needs to train to sharpen their skills, so
does an artist. However, many artists don’t know
where to begin. They are unorganized and lack
structure. Therefore, the goal of this book is to give
you the structure needed in order to become a
prolific artist.

QUANTITY
So why should an artist want to make more art?
Wouldn’t more art diminish the quality and value of
their current catalog? The answer is no. People will
never get tired of great art. Drake has been
consistently releasing quality music for a decade.
Pablo Picasso created over 50,000 works of art in
his lifetime. Mozart composed over 600 pieces of
music. Jean-Michel Basquiat created more than 600
paintings and 1,500 drawings. And in a 4 year span,
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2pac created over 700 songs. And they are all

considered some of the greatest artists of all time.
Quantity doesn’t affect the quality of your art. Your
creativity does. More art will not diminish your value
or your legacy. In fact, more art will give you a better
chance to join those names, as one of the greats.

SPEED
The next question is why should an artist create
faster? Today, everything is moving quicker than
ever before. In addition, there are more artists
creating and releasing their art. For instance, there
are 60,000 songs uploaded to Spotify every day.
Therefore if you want to be seen and heard, speed
should play an important role in your creative
process. But again, people might ask, “wouldn’t this
diminish the quality and value of my art?” And again,
the answer is no. You can spend months or even
years creating something but that wouldn’t make it
art. Time is not a deciding factor for what makes
something art. Intent is. Speed will help you finish
faster in order to put out more of your art into the
world. So let’s begin.
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Part I: YOUR FOUNDATION

“Everything I create is for the 17 year version of myself”
- Virgil Abloh

What do the best companies and best artists have in

common? They’re both built on strong foundations.
They fully understand their message. They know
WHY they do what they do. And they know WHO
they do it for. Once you understand your message, it
becomes easier to make art. If something doesn’t
resonate with your message then don’t do it. And if it
does, do more of it. You need to run all of your ideas
through this filter before you create anything. This
will keep your foundation intact and your message
consistent.

Part 2: YOUR PROCESS

“Artists lead unglamorous daily lives of discipline and routine,
but their work is full of passion”- Merrill Brockway.

Society has tricked the world into believing artists

need to be “all over the place” and this chaotic
lifestyle leads to inspiration. But that couldn't be
further from the truth, inspiration is not random. As
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As stated before, inspiration is created through

working. Therefore, understanding and improving
your creative process will lead to more inspiration
and ideas. Organization and routine is key to success
in almost every job. Art is no different. For that
reason, I will provide you with structure and tips to
improve or develop your own creative process.

Part 3: IMPROVE YOUR PROCESS

Discovery Mode
“Good artists copy, great artists steal” - Pablo Picasso

For most artists, developing new ideas is the most

difficult part of their process.
However, it can be the easiest part when you allow
yourself to be in discovery mode. Discovery mode is
making yourself available to inspiration 24/7. The
two most common reasons artists do not allow
themselves to be in discovery mode are: 1. They
want to believe their ideas are magical and came out
of thin air and 2. They want to believe their ideas are
original. This way of thinking puts too much pressure
on yourself to wait for inspiration and to create
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something original. When in reality, nothing in life is

original. Every idea is a mixture of ideas that came
before it. When you allow yourself to “steal”
inspiration from everything you will never run out of
ideas. Which leads us to the next step of your
process: organization.

Organization and Routine

“Out of routine comes inspiration” - Mark Kostabi

As mentioned before, organization leads to success.

An organized system will make it easier when it’s
time to create. Knowing how and where to store
your ideas and knowing what to do next in your
process will save you wasted time and energy for the
most important part: the creative part. But most
importantly, being organized will make you less
stressed when creating. And being stress free leads
to our best work. Therefore, a routine and organized
system is critical for repeated success in all areas of
your process. Additionally, a routine can help
eliminate the biggest enemy to your creative
process: distractions.
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Focus and Distractions

“Distraction is the enemy of vision” - Kanye West

An artist creates their best work when they are in

their flow state. “Flow” is a state of mind in which a
person becomes fully immersed in an activity. This is
where an artist invests their focus and heart into
their art. Therefore, if an artist is constantly getting
distracted, they will never achieve flow and will
never create their best work. Thus, enforcing the
idea of needing a routine. A routine plays an
important role in your creative process because it
lets you know what you need to focus on, which will
help eliminate distractions. Constantly, remind
yourself that your art needs 100 percent of your
focus to create genuine and meaningful art. Which
leads us to an uncommon distraction that most
artists don’t recognize: Perfectionism.

Good Enough Mindset

“Never let perfection get in the way of good enough”
- Casey Neistat
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Perfectionism is a hidden distraction to your

creative process. It takes your focus away and holds
you back from creating raw and genuine art that
connects with your fans. Art is about expression not
perfection. “The artist who aims at perfection in
everything achieves it in nothing,” Eugene Delacroix.
Perfectionism doesn’t just affect one piece art. It
affects your entire creative career because it slows
down your entire process. Plus, trying to be perfect
or make perfect art is exhausting because perfection
doesn’t exist. The best way to combat perfectionism
is by adopting the “good enough” mindset. Art is
subjective. Therefore, you should aim to make “good
enough” art. This keeps your process moving, which
will keep you learning and improving. Choose
progress over perfection.

Zero Mode
“Meditation - the art of doing nothing” - Naval Ravikant

The final step in your process is one that is often

overlooked by many artists: Zero mode. Zero mode
is the time dedicated to doing nothing. This is the
time where you allow your mind time to rest. Zero
mode doesn’t mean laying in bed watching Netflix or
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scrolling through social media. That is not rest

because your mind is still consuming. Zero mode
means taking naps and getting 7+hrs of sleep. It
means meditating for 30min-1hr a day. It means
going for a 15min-1hr walk. Just like an athlete, you
need to dedicate time to your rest and recovery in
order to perform at your highest level.

CONCLUSION
Remember, you are not trying to hit a “homerun”
with everything you create. Because not every
situation requires a “homerun.” Sometimes all you
need is a “bunt” to get on base in order to keep the
game going. Each “at bat” (releasing your art) gets
your name out there and people will begin to have
their eyes on you. So when you do hit a “homerun”
you can turn those eyes into fans. So keep swinging
(creating).