I was sitting at my drawing table, which is conveniently located near my computer, and I was pulling something from the rolling taboret next to me when I realized I sure have everything set up well in my studio! And this isn’t to brag or anything–I’m sure a lot of artists have theirs set up as well or better. It’s just that it took me several years to get things to the point where it works best for me. My studio has become more than the place where I make my art and keep my tools: it’s become a tool itself. So, in this article, we’ll discuss why my working area is pretty keen, and what you might do to make yours equally so.
Over the last ten years, I’ve had studios as small as a wall of the bedroom all the way up to a large room with closets (which I have now). I know people with larger studios away from their homes, which include a separate office, darkroom, relaxation area, etc. But no matter what size your studio is, there are some important qualities it should always have: comfort, convenience, flexibility, and personality.
Comfort: Obvious? Maybe, but some artists work in cramped squalor that is more akin to a torture chamber than an artist’s studio. If you work sitting down, make sure your chair feels good. Make sure you have plenty of light, and good ventilation. Try to arrange things so you don’t have to contort yourself to get to important items. You’ll be here a LOT – so make the space work for you without sacrificing your health!
(Let me take a moment to add: if you have a spouse, parent, or other housemates, make a deal early on that this is YOUR space. That means that you will clean it when you feel like it, you will put into it what you want, no one can open drawers or otherwise snoop. Your studio needs to be your unassailable sanctum in this crazy world, and that’s that. Oh, and tell them to ignore the occasional toxic smell, too…)
Convenience: Make sure things are close at hand. If you have a drawer full of things you often need that isn’t within arms-reach, then it’s in the wrong place. The key here is not to go with how things are first set up, or even how you might logically think they should be… make changes every time you find you are inconvenienced! And speaking of making changes…
Flexibility: Try not to get locked into one thing. If your studio is set up only for oil painting, you run into trouble when a big inking job comes your way. Or if you build your shelves around your current printer, and you get a new one that’s too big…uh oh! (Yes, this happened to me once…). So try to plan for as many possibilities as you can. Tables and other surfaces with locking rollers are very handy; lots of large shelves can help, and shelves with open backs are the best.
Personality: This is YOUR space, not some nine-to-five office you work at! Try to get it to reflect you! Posters, toys, pictures of your family… whatever you need to make your studio an extension of yourself, be sure to include it.
Equipment: What do you need? I won’t even try to approach the subject of what you’ll need for specific media in your office… Some artists will work only in one or two mediums; others (like myself) work in several. So, let’s just pretend that you have the minimum necessary you need to work in your chosen art. Oil painters have easels, pencil artists have drawing tables, digital artists have computers (if not, they may want to rethink things a bit!)
