How to Set Up Your Artist’s Studio

​So I finally got around to renewing my expired content marketing certification (I know, like it shows, right ^^) And while I was at it I had to come up with blog topics and this was one of them ~ sort of like, ‘for your next blog’. So this is me kind of ‘giving truth to the lie’ ^o^

I do have a few thoughts on this, very personal thing ~ I think setting up one’s ‘painting factory’ as I’ve repeatedly, *affectionately* referred to it here on the jillablog ~ is like one’s toothbrush. (Or one’s hat, as H Marion Crawford’s Watson put it ^_^) Or having kids ~ none of other people’s business ^^

But you know ~ on the off-chance anyone who might just be starting out or wondering about how to go about setting up studio space ~ for what they’re worth, here’s a jillamonster’s two cents ^^;
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Your studio is wherever you make stuff

I had a ‘co-writer’ once (we were both writers for the same agency) who told me she knew a guy who made shelves and such and that he could probably make racks for my canvases. ‘So you can have a real studio,’ she said.

I also vaguely remember (when I was doing art class a few years ago) someone saying how their studio was their kitchen table. I remember thinking 1. As someone making giant (for me) paintings in literally half a room, I totally got that, and 2. Well that’s terribly practical. Access to water, for one, and schnacks for another.

I think (eheheheh here we go, here we go) many people might have a, romanticised idea of what it means for an artist to have a studio. You know, floods of natural light, picture windows, easels everywhere, that kind of thing.

Sorry, I know I say ‘I remember’ a lot ^^; (I’m at that age, I suppose.) But I also remember visiting ~ well quite a number of ‘houses of famous artists’ back here, but in particular one belonging to the dad of a fellow Inkie (who is a famous artist in her own right).

That was one *romantic* studio if I ever saw one ~ complete with racks too lol ~ completely separate from the adorably tiny *cottage* in the rear of a grassy (and *treesy*) backyard which was the studio proper.
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You don’t need a *romantic* studio

The artist with the kitchen-table studio seemed to me to be a bit embarrassed by not having a ‘real’ studio, but really, that person had zero cause to be.

Because for me, if you made art in your prison cell, for instance, your cell already is your studio (racks notwithstanding). If you made art on the road, that roadside, riverside, or crow-filled field of gold is your studio.

Heck, that said, when it comes down to it you don’t even need a bloody studio. All you need really is your giant brain and the urge to make something ~ you’ll find stuff to make it with and space to make it in as a matter of course.

And whatever stuff or space you find, I’m confident you’ll be able to *make do* ~ and make something wondrously fabulous, too ^_^*
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But you may need a few things

Okay when I say ‘need’ here what I really mean is ‘find these handy’ -slash-helpful-slash-useful in setting up your artist’s studio. Of course, your studio will depend on whether you paint, sculpt, install, and so on, and you’re going to have to factor in things like size and process.

So the following are things that I, as a painter have found handy, and what many of us as artists probably will, as well. Again, you won’t need all these things to just get started, but it might help to have them in mind as you put your studio together. In any case, it probably won’t be long before you find all these in your studio, anyhow ^^
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1. Working Space

I mentioned size and process, so ~ obviously, someone who likes to drip paint onto 20-foot canvases will need more space than someone who prefers to paint individual hairs onto 2-inch canvases.

Although I’m very much a desk jockey type of artist I do like to have (lots of) space for working just so I don’t feel *claustrophobic* ^^ I think I’d say that even if I didn’t use to work in half a room, mainly because I like to be able to ‘stand up, back up, and look at’ the thing I’m working on (even if I made it at my desk).

​(In case you were curious, I used to have to open my bathroom door to do that in my half of the room ^o^; ) Thankfully, that’s gotten a whole lot easier to do here in my ‘dream-house-slash-studio’ where I like to keep that empty space also for when I need to *dig things up* (more on this in a bit).

2. *Random Access*

I came across this ‘guy who got insanely rich and now makes YouTube videos for other guys who want to get insanely rich’ once, who said it’s a ‘productivity hack’ to keep what you needed for work, handy. While I was never a fan of these kinds of videos (I needed to watch that guy for work, once), that guy made a whole lot of sense.

I think the point was that some folks have a hard time ‘getting going’ because they need to ‘dig things up’ (no, this isn’t it yet lol) and ‘set things up’ before they can get around to actually arting. Get the easel out of a closet, for instance, unfold it, get the palette out, lay the colours out, arrange things, get some water, rags, and so on.

If all this stuff was handy or already out, then that’d make it easier, was what that guy was saying (no he wasn’t an artist, he was one of them online gazillionaire entrepreneurs or some such). In any case, that's why I’ve got this stuff handy in this here tray on my desk, and it’s in a tray so I can just move all of this off my desk in a jiffy if I needed the entire table top.

3. Deep Storage

So yeah I’d be lying if I said I no longer dream of having a giant studio I can live and work in until I died (at this point I’d better hustle, lol). (Lately I’ve been rewatching a few episodes of that old vampire-turned-cop show where the bloodsucker in question lived in a warehouse ~ and he had oodles of space to paint (and a grand piano, too).)

~ mainly because having a giant studio would mean having everything readily accessible. That’d be the ultimate dream for me; until then, I need deep storage for the tools and things I don’t always use, as well as for finished pieces (and pieces that have yet to be born).

Incidentally, I remember (sorry) one of my classmates at art school who told me she made it a habit to just destroy her work after it served its purpose. ‘Preserve ~ I hate that word,’ I remember she said when she told me. (I mean she did live in a small apartment with her family so I totally understood, but I hope you know what I mean ^^; )

4. *Read Only*

Speaking of that classmate (also my sometime fellow Inkie) I remember being inwardly horrified when she told me that ‘preserve’ thing and hoping that she at least preserved her award-winning work which I’m lucky enough to have a copy of…

…somewhere here, I think ^^; In any case, as part of deep storage you might also want to have a place for any books or references you use for your practice. I’m glad I have these shelves now because I used to have to stack my books back at my parents’ house and it’s so much easier to pick a volume out whenever I need it.
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5. Cleaning Considerations

Whatever size studio you have, I think it helps tremendously to set it up to make it easy to keep things tidy ~ especially if your space isn’t very big. ‘Clean as you go’ is one of my 7 ways to survive in a small studio, and that means keeping cleaning implements handy, and easy access to water for painting or cleaning your tools as well as waste disposal.

​So remember when I mentioned ‘digging things up’? This is why I find ample empty space especially helpful ~ it makes it so much easier to hunt up finished pieces in deep storage and clean up, afterwards.

One of my wonderful neighbours (who used to live in the flat I’m in now; she moved to the bigger one right beside mine) has told me how my apartment is much too big for just me alone ~ well, she hasn’t seen me dig anything up before, during which the empty space fills up fast (hence the daydreams about living in the vampire cop’s warehouse ^o^).

And you may want a few other things

I realise calling this jillablog post a “how to” is a bit of a stretch ^^ But let me wrap it up by saying that as much as many of us will need to make the most of however much space we’re lucky to have ~ we will probably want to make space for a few *extras*.

In my case, those extras include the odd horse, the pillow for desk naps, and Mithrandir my studio gnome. Other than that, everything in the painting factory is completely utilitarian.

I mentioned schnacks earlier; having easy access to these and the artist’s best friend will probably be another consideration for ‘setting up shop’ ~ which is why, again, that artist with the kitchen-table studio arguably has the best studio ^_^

Speaking of which, it’s been ages since I’ve eaten anything so this is me toddling off to my pantry (haven’t got a kitchen-kitchen, myself ^^; ) now ^^ But if you’ve got any advice to share for setting up and maintaining a studio, I’d be very grateful if you could let me know.