My Daily Routine

Getting a little glimpse into someone’s daily life feels slightly indulgent. It can also be inspiring, or even just relaxing. I thought it might be fun to do a “day in my life” post about my quiet, simple life as a fledgling illustrator. 

As I am new to the field and still learning and growing, a large portion of my time is spent honing my skills, and challenging myself, artistically. I also work on curating and updating my portfolio, as I continue to create characters, designs, and one-off pieces. Additionally, over the past 2 years, I have been working on a picture book, which I recently took out of hiding, after putting away the first draft several months ago. This blog is a monthly priority as well, as it helps me to organize and clarify my thoughts about the creative process. And finally, as I am currently seeking work and/or representation, I do A LOT of research, and am actively submitting my portfolio to companies and agencies. And now, with all that said, here is my typical day:  

Depending on the time of year, I change up my routine to get the most out of each day and night. It is currently late summer, so it’s warm-hot most days, despite being the “rainy” Pacific Northwest of the United States. Brutal heat waves aside, most days are not so hot that I can’t function normally. When it is insanely hot, I just go with it and use the time to read, listen to podcasts, and meditate. 

I don’t set an alarm, and usually wake up between 8am-9am. I light a stick of incense and do about an hour of yoga asanas. Sometimes it’s an active session, sometimes it’s a calming, relaxing flow. Sometimes it’s a little of both. Afterwards, I try to do a few minutes of meditation or prayer. Yoga is important to me, and even on the rare day I skip asanas, I still incorporate it into my day, by reading about or studying it, or doing a guided relaxation session. 

Breakfast is usually oatmeal, or peanut butter and banana toast, and coffee. I look at the news, read my book or a few articles online.

My husband and I live in a small, 1 bedroom, south-facing apartment on the top floor, so it gets hot, sometimes extremely hot, on summer days. If any heat-generating activities need to happen, the morning is the most practical time to get those tasks done. I bake several of our dietary staples, such as wheat muffins, wheat bread, and cornbread, so I usually need to bake something at least twice a week.

After the baking is done, I settle into doing artwork for the day. I don’t have a strict schedule of tasks, but I have a general framework that works well for me. I tried being more rigid in the past, but it wasn’t as helpful or useful as I’d thought it would be. Nowadays, I have a monthly task list that I look at each week, and stick to it pretty faithfully. I also have a few long-term goals, which are broken into small tasks that I work on each month, getting me a bit closer to the end goals. Overall I feel productive, and challenged, but not pressured.

Examples of monthly, art-related tasks are:

- Complete at least 2-3 stand alone illustrations

- Refresh online portfolio

- Practice sketching

- Draft a blog post

- Work on 1 revised illustration for picture book

- Practice sumi-e style art 

- Post on Twitter and Instagram

- Research/brainstorm

- Submission to 1 company or agency

I take a break in the late afternoon for lunch and, weather permitting, a long walk, usually for at least an hour. Lunch is light; half an apple and maybe some leftovers from dinner the night before, or avocado toast.

I work until about 6pm, taking a quick break at about 4pm for tea (also very important to me). Stopping at around 6pm leaves me with about an hour and a half to do whatever I need to do before I think about starting dinner. We tend to have dinner late by American standards, at about 8pm, and it’s always something simple - pasta and vegetable stir fry are a couple of our favorites.

We watch either a classic movie or an episode of an old TV show and, after clearing up, it's teatime. Bedtime is around 11pm or midnight. My husband lights a cone of incense in the bedroom, and I read for about a half an hour, then it’s light’s out.  

Sundays are my “day off”, and I try not to do anything art-related, to avoid burnout. After our ritual pancake brunch, I read, take a walk, do household chores, and maybe do an extra long yoga asana flow.

Peppered throughout the week are a few regular activities - plant care, grocery pickup, bill paying, housecleaning, laundry, and anything else that comes up. We are both neat people by nature, so there is never a huge mountain of laundry, or a stack of dirty dishes waiting to be done. 

That’s my day in a nutshell. The pandemic forced me into a major lifestyle change, and it took me a bit of time to get my bearings, but I feel like I have found my flow, and myself. My life is centered around creating art, which is what my husband says  I am "clearly meant to be doing".   

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my daily life.