When I was fulltime freelance it varied, mostly because I had no idea what I was doing & my focus was all over the place. Sit down and draw time was anywhere from 8 hours to maybe only 1. Some days early on were spent in a panic/guilt spiral and fears about having left a stable career to do art.
When I’m locked in, I can do 8 hours at a time, usually with no breaks because I forget about everything else around me. But in general, it’s usually 5-6 hours every other day, often including weekends.
A long art day for me is four hours. My average per day actually physically creating artwork is about 2.5-3 hours, carefully spread to avoid wrist strain. I work five days a week. Other time is spent on the "business" side of things: researching sketches, subjects, getting inspired, or… [1/2]
[2/2] …interacting on social media! I consider this part of my "time" too. Not just posting artwork or sketches, either, but being deliberate in interacting with other artists and being genuine about it: leaving thoughtful comments (and critique where desired), the whole shebang. :]
Usually 1-2 hours on days I have work shifts (since I also work semi-full time at an entry level position) but on days where my schedule is clear (3 days a week), it’s usually between 3-7 hours.
It fluctuates a lot. Some days I don't do art, some days I'm doing it on and off for up to 8 hours, never a whole stretch. I try to do art tasks like surface prep, varnishing, hangar hardwares, etc. when I don't feel the art-making zest.
On a good day 4-5 hours, on a bad day 2 hours. Sometimes i have to bite the bullet on extra bad days that it's barely an hour.
But trying not to beat myself over it has been very important, as long as I can keep up with rent and whatnot, it seems to work!
I admire everyone keeping track of their time, since I don't, I hate numbers and statistics! Things are done when they are done. As long as there is money for the living expenses+ something to put aside and my commissioners are happy, I am working enough and quick enough :)
When I was younger I would do long marathons all week long, 10-12 hours a day. This led to a RSI and tendinitis. These days I can only work for 4-5 hours at a time. Its forced me to become much more efficient. Tho the mental health and burnout aspects make it a lot harder some days.
Used to be 6-10 hrs a day, but lately it’s been reduced to 2-4 if I’m lucky. Been making some serious steps to being more productive. These days it’s hard ;;
A solid day is 5-6 hours. A great day is 8. A bad day might be 2 or 3. A very bad day... I am mush. It's so heavily reliant on my mental health. A bad time can fully torch my career if I don't find the strength to power through.
Sometimes I hyperfixiate and 10 hours go by of doing art.
I'm trying to get an average of like 4-5 hours 5 days a week. I find I tend to do 2-3 "heavy" art days and then other days I only draw for like an hour. Sometimes there's a lot more management/bookkeeping/etc things to do though.
I treat my art like a normal 9-5 job.
I have holidays, weekends off, sick time, etc.
So each week I work 45 hour weeks.
I think more artist need to treat freelancing like a job and less like a hobby they do during spare time but expect people to pay them like it's a business.
Usually 12pm-5pm, but sometimes I start at 11am. Then other days it might be 1pm if i run behind on pre-work tasks. I usually take one 30 min break for lunch and some smaller stretch breaks or to fill my tumbler!
Currently, if I can do 5 or 6 hours a day, I am happy. I won't lie, some days I only get an hour or two because of IRL or depression. I am trying to slowly work past some anxieties and finding how to enjoy doing art for myself again, to get myself back to 8+ like I used to years ago.
This thread is very illuminating..! Mine is all over the place but when my shit is together I’d say 5-6 hours, although days where I do no art and have to do the ‘administrative’ stuff it takes a lot out of me, mentally, and usually wipes me out before I can get to any drawing
yup. This. Some days it's balls the wall im sat for 6 hours straight, some days I cannot even get the ball to stop glitching through the floor, nevermind get it MOVING.
Nearly every day after my fulltime job.
So I work normally from 8am to 5or 6 pm and draw from 8pm to 10 or 11pm
Often I have the weekends off cause I'm in a long distance relationship and visit my GF^^
I only ever get to do it in bursts every couple weeks, but whenever I do I am locked in anywhere from 6 to 16 hours. Usually the shorter counts are when I know I can do it 2 or 3 days in a row. The planets of time, spoons, and low pain have to align, but as soon as they do I grind myself in to dust
As a full time artist that works as a Marketing artist for a company and keeps working on personal projects after work... I would say I spend 6-9 hours every day on drawing/painting. ^^
I didn't say without breaks. I break every 45 minutes to stretch, walk around, get away from my computer, etc. However, I average five hours of actually drawing daily.
Everyone is different and I believe in not pushing myself. Some days it's only 3 hours, some days it's 7. All depends on how I'm feeling that day. Hell, some days it's 0 because I'm just not feeling it at all. And that's ok. Just means I move on to something else for the day.😊
between 8 and 12 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week. i usually draw until im too tired to keep competently drawing, then spend a couple hours playing a game or smth and then sleep
Actual research/pencil/brush to paper: many days I don't do any art at all but other business things instead. When I'm actively working on art, depending on deadlines, 2-3 hours at a time. 2 hours daily on low end, 6 on high end. I try not to push it to prevent wrist strain.
I probably go up to 4 hours a day but it's so random on how I feel or how into the painting I am lol. I used to feel like I didn't paint enough and maybe I can paint more, but it fluctuates so much lol
Thank you for sharing! I've been down on myself because on the days I can do art, that's about the same range I can do. Now that I have a part time job, I feel like I need to squeeze a full 8 hours into the limited art time I have, but my body/brain is just running into a wall (haven't been able). 😰
It's much better to work less with high productivity than to work longer hours and suffer the whole time. A non-art job also can mess with our rhythm and mental fitness, it's hard to switch on a dime. Don't be too hard on yourself. Even one solid hour of focused art with no distraction is worthy! 💚
Very back and forth for me right now. Sometimes I can burst out 10-12 hours without breaking a sweat, something I can barely manage 4. Burnout, adhd and mental health has really taken its toll on me. 10 hours a day would be doable all the time without it
It varies wildly. I used to work almost all day most every day (oops, but genuinely working on getting a better work-life balance), but large chunks of that are of course the admin/business side. Anywhere from 2-8 hours on the art itself, but usually much closer to the 2.
Anywhere from 2-8 hours a day when working on comms, BUT I can't put more than 2 hours in at a time without having to take a break/do something else. I don't have the long term concentration
I usually have work hours on weekdays roughly between 11-5. Between breaks, other stuff like posting to social media, waiting on client responses etc, my actual drawing time would probably range from 3-5 hours on average.
For me, it varies a lot. On a good day, i can easily pull 5 hours. On a *really* good day, i can hyperfocus on art the entire day, so 12 hrs or something.
But most of the time, it's more of an average of 2 hours, due to a whole plethora of reasons.
I try to get a few days in… 3-4 ideally for a few hours and 1-2 full time. I’m also a part time grad student and have a kiddo so it can be hard. Just starting up my business is also 😭😭😭 and takes work like photography and writing… The struggle is real.
before back pain + eye strain really took hold of me I could work for 5-8 hours straight, but now I have to take breaks and can work for about 3-4 hours at a time, with some rest days between when it gets real bad, trying not to make things worse
I spend about 5 days out of each week working on art. A minimum of 4 hours each day with a max of 8 if it's raining outside and I have to get a LOT done.
it's hard to keep track, but usually around 3-6 hours maybe? 5-6 days a week. but sometimes i do like 10hrs or so. i stream all of it, keeps on me on-task so i don't just end up scrolling online
Impossible one to answer for me because it varies a lot throughout the year. I tend to do a lot of actual design with a rough date in mind for release of an update - mostly cuz it's cheaper to order multiple designs together. Then I can go weeks or even months doing little to nothing.
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But trying not to beat myself over it has been very important, as long as I can keep up with rent and whatnot, it seems to work!
You've got this!
I'm trying to get an average of like 4-5 hours 5 days a week. I find I tend to do 2-3 "heavy" art days and then other days I only draw for like an hour. Sometimes there's a lot more management/bookkeeping/etc things to do though.
if im doing more heavy stuff like carving a new shirt design 4-8
If im really locking in and getting a ton of different stuff done easily 6-12
+with breaks
I have holidays, weekends off, sick time, etc.
So each week I work 45 hour weeks.
I think more artist need to treat freelancing like a job and less like a hobby they do during spare time but expect people to pay them like it's a business.
So I work normally from 8am to 5or 6 pm and draw from 8pm to 10 or 11pm
Often I have the weekends off cause I'm in a long distance relationship and visit my GF^^
I try to pace myself now and do stages to not push myself.
But most of the time, it's more of an average of 2 hours, due to a whole plethora of reasons.
We were coloring / illustrating comics. What I did was flat. I am a machine with the lasso tool.
Now I only do things for fun, maybe 5-10 hours a week (maybe 0).
Summer time it's like 1 hour a day, and saturday.