Tasting Circles: Using Synesthesia in Art

Scientific American describes synesthesia as: “an anomalous blending of the senses in which the stimulation of one modality simultaneously produces sensation in a different modality.”

It’s too bad that none of that was in English.

To put it in words we can all understand: synesthesia is when one sense is triggered (ex hearing) and that triggers another sense to kick in as well (ex sight). So someone with synesthesia will see music. Another will taste the word marshmallow. Another will somehow associate a color for every person they know.

Keep in mind this is an involuntary response. We’re not talking about color coding your notes to do better on a test (although synesthetes are known to do better on tests because of their unique brain). Those with synesthesia just do it without thinking, and will one day be listening to a podcast and will learn that no, not everyone associates a color with every letter of the alphabet.

That’s what happened to me. I was listening to this episode of the Savvy Painter Podcast and learned that I myself was lucky enough to experience this phenomenon. You mean to tell me that not everyone associates the color blue with an A chord? That not everyone can smell the word house? Not everyone associates a color with people’s names?

Interesting side note: my first name Allina is red. My nickname Lina is a light, sunshiny yellow. The name Edgar is gray. The name Dean Winchester is a pretty chestnut brown.

Photo by Steve Johnson on Pexels.com

Now I have what you might consider a mild case of synesthesia. When I hear a song I might see colors in my mind. Someone with a more intense version of synesthesia will actually see the colors emanating from a piano. Isn’t that wild? Superpowers exist y’all.

Are you a synesthete? Take this test to find out.

While I know that not everyone has this, I know that the external world plays a tremendous role in our lives. What we do on a daily basis has been, in some way, influenced by the external world. Which means that it can, and does, influence our art.

I gave an intuitive art class this last spring, during which I blindfolded everyone in the room and played different songs and told them to draw what they heard. It was a fun exercise and resulted in a lot of laughter and a lot of scribbles. And what we noticed was that everyone’s art differed depending on what type of music we were listening to. We went from classical, to jazz, to Barracuda by Heart. It was a visual representation of how easily influenced we are by something we can’t even see. It’s why they tell you to go for a walk when you’re feeling stuck. Just seeing something new in your day can knock the stone loose and get your gears turning again.

Photo by anna-m. w. on Pexels.com

So, for Wordless Wednesday tomorrow, I want you to experiment with music and its relationship to what you draw/write/photograph/etc. Test yourself with a variety of different genres. Bonus points if you find songs you’ve never heard before. Let that song overwhelm you, become a part of you, and let it control your shadow self. Your arm is now just as automated as your breathing, your heartbeat, the very temperature regulation of your insides. Create from one song, then turn on a different song and start a new piece.

If you find yourself getting too critical of your work, to the point where you can’t focus on the music, then it’s time to put on that blindfold.

How do your pieces differ? What mediums did you want to change, if any? Is there a certain color you kept grabbing while listening to Stan Getz, as opposed to Ludovico Einaudi?

Not sure what to listen to? Here is a good variety of songs:

Queen’s Gardens by Christopher Larkin

Dreaming by Bruno Coulais

The Man by The Killers

24K Magic by Bruno Mars

Pass Them By by Agnes Obel

Airplanes by B.O.B.

Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi

After the Rain by Coltrane

I myself will be hanging out on Twitter tomorrow asking for song requests. Every song that is given to me, I will draw. So head on over there if you’d like to join in on the fun.

Until next time, may your words be gold and your music smell like sunshine,

What’s New on My Etsy?

I’ve been neglecting the last portion of Andy J. Pizza’s version of the “hero’s journey” which is the return. Sure I can make art, wrap it up, take it to art fairs, but the scanning and posting it to my Etsy shop? Fuggedaboutit.

But that’s changed! Art is now being added to my Etsy shop daily and I hope to spend the next few days scanning, posting, and sharing.

What’s new on my Etsy shop today?

Original Art

All of my original pieces will come with their own custom off-white mat. Most of the listings have three sizes you can choose from so that you can get the right fit for the frame. Other listings have a mat already cut and placed around the painting, and the frame size will be listed.

My original paintings also arrive with a Certificate of Authenticity and, for works on paper, a small guide on how to take care of un-framed art until you have it behind glass.

Hand-Bound Sketchbooks and Zines

I really love making these. The hand-bound books are small and bound with high-quality watercolor paper. Some have been tea-toned and others have not. They also have covers made of Khadi hand-made cotton paper.

The zines are tea-toned and cut/folded and are a more affordable option, especially if you are looking to buy in bulk.

Keep checking in for new arrivals such as tiny art, bookmarks, and prints!

A Gift For My Eccentric Chai Readers:

And, as a special thank you to YOU for reading my blog, I’m offering you 20% off your purchase. Just click here to use the code.

Join Me for Intuitober for a Chance to Win

Intuitober is a small prompt list I put together for the month of October in the hopes of getting more people scribbling from the subconscious. The list is only six prompts long, and the idea is that each prompt will spark something in you that is more intuitive than literal. For instance, you can’t exactly draw a “crackle.”

Participate in the Giveaway!

In order to be entered into the drawing you will need to complete all six of the prompts. You don’t have to do them in order. You don’t have to do them all at once. Pick and choose based on your mood. Go with your flow. That’s the first step of intuitive art.

Once you’ve drawn/scribbled something inspired by the prompt you will then need to post it on Instagram or Twitter and use the hashtag #intuitober. Feel free to also tag me @linaforrester so I will definitely see it! It will also help others find me and the prompt list in case they would like to join in.

Again you can do them in any order and on any day(s), just make sure you do all six prompts before the clock strikes midnight on Halloween night (October 31st).

What will you Win?

Those who participate will be entered into a drawing and the winner will receive a “Wordless Diary” kit. In it will be one of my little hand-bound sketchbooks (made with thick paper good for any medium), a few of my go-to tools (pens, watercolor samples, etc.) and tips on how to get started with your own intuitive practice.

Intuitive Art Tips

For those of you who are brand-new to intuitive art, or aren’t even sure what it is, you can check out the following blog posts:

I also suggest you check out my podcast. Several of the episodes discuss intuitive art and how you can get started.

A few more tips:

• You’re not here to draw a masterpiece. You’re merely here to enjoy the process. Pay attention to the way the pencil leaves a texture on the paper, how the ink bleeds, how the paint smears.
• Use any medium. Go with what feels best.
• Just as you would in meditation, keep mindful by paying attention to only your senses. How does the pencil sound on the paper? Have you lit a candle? How does it smell? Watch the watercolor spread into another color. Feel the pen between your fingers and the touch of it on the paper. Did you just get a drink of coffee? Savor it. How does it taste?

If you have any further questions or would like to join a community of scribblers, you can head on over to my Discord channel, Lina’s Scribble Club. There you can ask questions, share, learn, chat with other artists. See you there!

Until next time, may your coffee be hot and your autumn smell like chimney smoke.

Tips for Adding Extra-Creepy Vibes to your Art

I couldn’t tell you why it only just now occurred to me this morning that you can make spooky intuitive scribbles but I suppose this is yet another example of how our thought processes have a tendency to put everything into a box, blinding us to what’s really possible. For the past several years I’ve spent my Octobers drawing fun figures with skulls for heads and painting gouache ghosts, and while that’s still true—because I can never resist making my own prompts for Inktober and creeping people out with eerie, skeletal paintings—I have been feeling sort of locked in place, as if those were my only two options to go spooky in the fall.

But today is yet another Wordless Wednesday! And I like to scribble on these days. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of black and white scribbles, occasionally adding a delicate pink if I really feel it in my gut. This is probably due to me watching a lot of Helen Wells reels on Instagram. She’s awesome at what she does and her sketchbooks make me super jealous. So this morning when I got on Instagram to start filming my own reel for Wordless Wednesday, I decided I would only work in black and use the white of the paper as my contrast.

Spooky piano music emanating from my iPad I also decided to turn on a filter that made the whole video black and white with a bit of shakiness/filmy appearance to add a creepy, old-fashioned vibe. I decided that I would try to draw creepy marks and shapes instead of my usual nature shapes (leaves, tree branches, roots, etc.)

It did pose the question: what makes a mark creepy? This is one of those times when I realize those random illustration classes I’ve taken in the past might help with this. In them I learned that sharp edges have a tendency to make us feel tense, as do jagged lines, and so I figured that was a good place to start.

I also took past reactions to the landscapes I’ve made with eyes peeping out from between the hills. No matter how “happy” or “beautiful” I made the landscape/colors/shapes the eyes would always freak out my audience. Which I loved. So I knew I would have to add a few of those.

Then there is the shape I like to call “goopy.” It almost appears as though something is oozing down the page. With a piece filled with eyes and jagged edges, I’m sure anyone’s mind will begin to wander at the sight of all that goop.

Still, once I finished this morning’s scribble I began to wonder what other marks could one make if he/she/they wanted to give his/her/their work an eerie vibe? So I put together a small visual list for you in case you’d like to add a few details that will give your audience goosebumps.

Long, thin lines.

Tim Burton is king at this, right? His characters are often unnaturally tall, and they have lines on their clothing to accentuate that effect. Why does he do this? Because long, vertical lines have a tendency to make us feel uneasy. And unnaturally tall characters, even if they’re nice, can give us a subconscious shudder.

Hair-like lines

Not long and tall like Burton’s, and not simply vertical but pointing in multiple directions. I chose these types of lines because when we use things that are not uniform, it makes viewers feel uneasy. They also make me think of spider legs, which is creepy enough on its own.

Angular Shapes

This goes along with what I’ve learned in previous illustration classes, that sharp edges have a tendency to make us feel tense. Because when we see sharp, our minds think “danger.”

A solid black shape

What’s more ominous than a black shape? What is it? Why is it there? Is there something lurking in it? I’m getting creeped out just thinking about it. Bonus points if the black shape is your subject.

Use the Psychology of Color

Say your piece is mostly monochromatic, but you really want to add an element of danger, or evil, or just an eerie chill. This is when you can use the psychology of color against your audience. For instance, red, is a danger color. We use it for Do Not Enter signs and Stop signs and Warning signs because of the feeling it provokes in our brains. It also might make us think of fire, as does orange. Using either of these colors might make a piece feel more dangerous, or “evil” as we might associate fire with demons or hell. Another color you could use, especially if you want your audience to feel kind of icky, is green. This color can be pleasant if we have it in a pretty landscape or the painting of a rose, but add it to an almost black image of a creature lurking in a dark cave, and then we’re downright grossed out. Another color, like a desaturated bluish gray, can make your piece feel cold and can set a lonely/frigid atmosphere.

Make it off-balanced

Use diagonal lines, or shapes that appear almost sporadic. Give your painting a tilt so that your viewer almost feels as though the subject is going to fall.

Whatever you decide to paint/sculpt/scribble/photograph/etc., I hope these tips will help you add the extra creepy vibe.

What sorts of things do you like to add to your work to make it super spooky? Talk about it in the comments below!

How To Meditate With a Pencil

I remember first attempting meditation when I was fifteen years old. I sat on the floor of my tiny square bedroom, the only light being a single candle in front of me. Twenty years ago, the internet was still in its infancy, and so I’m not entirely sure where I learned how to meditate. Most likely a magazine. Regardless, I felt prepared enough to give it a try. I did what the instructions had said, to focus only on the candle, and that if things pop into my head I was to acknowledge them, then go back to looking at the candle. I’ll be honest, as a fifteen-year-old that made no sense to me. I found myself focusing too hard on focusing, then drifting off to random teenager thoughts, before going back to focusing too hard on focusing, even squinting my eyes to make doubly sure I was only looking at the flame.

Nowadays, even with the internet in our literal pockets, I still haven’t found an article that can describe meditation efficiently enough for fifteen-year-old Lina. I think it’s because meditation is…kind of hard to explain. And for someone who is super visual, learning how to meditate by reading an online article, or a spread in a magazine, is going to end in squinty eyes and frustration.

It wasn’t until I took Marie-Noelle Wurm’s class on free form abstract art that I began to understand. Now, four years later, I have a firm enough grasp on the idea of meditative art that I feel confident enough to pass on the info. Especially for those of you who are visual like me, and need more than just a candle to keep your mind centered.

For this exercise you will only need a pencil and a piece of paper. We’re not going to go too crazy.

Next you need to find a quiet place to sit. Whether it’s in a coffee shop or a laundry room, you just need to find a place where there are no major distractions.

Finally, you can work in silence, or if you’re like me and are distracted by silence, you can put on some music. Make sure the music is also not distracting. Nothing with words or rising and falling crescendos that force you to stop to change the volume.

Before you begin, remember the only thing I want you to focus on here once you put pencil to paper is just that. The pencil on the paper. As you work I want you to listen to the pencil on the paper, watch the pencil move as if you are a bystander watching someone else draw. If at some point you realize you’re thinking about something else—that’s normal—then just return your attention to the pencil.

When you’re finally ready to begin, I want you to pretend you are writing, but don’t use actual letters. Just flourish and scribble and move from left to right as if you’re writing a letter. This is called asemic writing.

Once again, pay attention to that pencil only, even if you have to focus on where it actually touches the paper. Let your hand move automatically, not consciously. When you notice your mind wander, return to that pencil. It might feel tricky at first but once you get into the flow of things it almost will feel as though you are moving with your own natural rhythm. Because you are.

Don’t stop until you’ve filled the page with your “letter.”

Congratulations! You’ve just meditated.

As you practice more and more you will be able to try other methods such as filling your paper with circles or parallel lines. You can even move up to other mediums like ink or even paint. It doesn’t matter what you use or create, all that matters is you keep those automatic motions and focus only on the medium as it touches the surface. In other words remain present.

How do you like to meditate? Is it something you do daily or whenever you need the water to clear? Talk to me!

Don’t forget to tune in the Eccentric Chai podcast this Friday!

Why You Should Turn Your World Upside Down Every Once in a While

Let’s face it, we all live in our own happy bubble. Most of the time. We get used to what works and go with it, because why fix what ain’t broke? We get the same order from the coffee shop, cook the same meals, walk the same routes, wear the same outfits, talk to the same people, go to the same places on vacation.

And this isn’t just true with our normal day-to-day lives. As artists, we’ve also created our own creative bubbles. We choose the same color scheme, the same medium, the same surface, even the same spot next to the window to work. Same background music. Same subject matter. Same camera. Same brush.

Gaining a Deeper Emotional Connection With Your Art

Pair this article up with episode 10 of my podcast, Eccentric Chai!

We all get into that “assembly line” mentality, essentially creating for the sake of having more content. And that can work to our advantage if we have, say, a trade show coming up, or our Etsy inventory has gotten a bit low.

But sometimes I feel like I’ve just been banging out painting after painting and getting absolutely nowhere. This is when it’s time to get back to the basics. I have to get back into that mindset of this is what I love instead of this is what I do.

There are a few things I do in order to re-connect with my art. Use them when you start to feel that disconnect so you can get back to making meaningful work that not only reaches you on an emotional level, but your audience as well.

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Start From Scratch

Lately I’ve been focusing more on making tiny books and zines because they feel so special to me, like a little treasure, and there’s no question as to why that is. It’s because I make them from scratch. From cutting the paper, to folding it, to staining it, to binding and creating covers. I do all of that before I even start the project of adding little paintings to each page and telling a nature-y story. In other words I find that emotional connection before I even begin.

Think about ways you can start from scratch with your work. Could you stretch your own canvas instead of buying a pack from the store? Could you make your own beads for the jewelry you create? Could you make your own watercolor paint? I guarantee you it will bring you closer to your art.

Tie in Your Own Life Experiences

As an intuitive artist a lot of my art will be influenced by current emotions/experiences, but sometimes I will find something that “works” and will run with it and before you know it I’m back in that assembly line mentality and I’ve painted six landscapes that all look pretty much the same. This usually means I need to take a step back and go live life a bit so I can come back with new material. It can be something as simple as a color I saw in the wildflowers growing on the side of the highway, or a murmuration I saw billowing overhead, or the feeling I get from watching Heartstopper for the 50th time. Then I can tie these experiences/feelings into my work.

Think about something that has inspired you lately. The color of the school bus as it picked up your child. The feel of your cat’s fur as you dug your fingers into it. The pattern you saw in a rock on your morning walk. Even emotions like anger and frustration that come from things like watching the news can all be slipped into your work in some way. And when you come back to your work in the future, you might even remember what it was that inspired you in the first place.

Finish with a Bang

I have this issue with following through once a piece is finished. Usually I’ll just set it aside until I decide to enter it into an exhibition and then I either grab a frame from another piece and re-use it or buy a frame on sale. But I’ve realized lately that this is doing a disservice to my art. I need to remind myself that once I’ve signed the bottom of my painting that I’m still only 2/3 of the way finished. The final 1/3 of the process is the display.

So instead of finding the cheapest frame or re-using one that’s falling apart, I need to think about the perfect frame for this particular piece. If there is a frame out there that was made for this painting, I need to put effort into finding it. I also need to think about the matting. Do I want to bring out that pop of color I added with a double mat? I’ve seen artists do amazing things with their mats, from stitching things into it, to extending the painting down to the frame itself.

What can you do to display your work in the way it deserves? Is there a special box you can find for those earrings you made? Could you search for frames at an antique store instead of a supermarket? And when you find the perfect way to bring your piece to a close, leave it. Don’t steal the frame for another piece or rip it from its mat. Making this promise to yourself (and your piece) will further solidify your need to making the perfect choice when choosing the best way to show it off to the world.

Finding that emotional connection with each and every piece is not exactly something we actively think of at every step of the creative process. And I think that’s how we slip into that mindset of quantity over quality. But art isn’t something we can–or should–assembly line. We create to see ourselves, to use our voice, and to help others be seen. So instead of going through the motions, work toward finding that connection. Find a reason to care about each individual piece as if each piece is the only one of its kind. Because it is.

Until next time, may your art be meaningful and your connections be strong.

Tea-Toning on a Rainy Sunday Morning

The rain was unexpected. I woke at 7am to my husband returning home from work. We exchanged good mornings/nights and I went downstairs as he went to bed. Him working the overnight shift has been weird for us both, but it’s times like these when I’m glad (instead of guilty) that I have a mostly work-from-home job. Because if I didn’t, who would help Goo get to and from school? Or manage the household during the day while husband is asleep? These are the things I can do for our family, even if the art income wanes.

When I entered the dining room, I looked through the large paned doors that lead to the back deck and noticed how cloudy it was. It wasn’t supposed to be cloudy at all. Hot and sunny, in fact, but instead it looked like it was about to rain. And it did rain. When I poured my coffee I took another look outside and saw the first droplets on the wood of our deck.

With September only a few weeks away I can’t help but already be in “fall mode.” Especially with the fog and the cooling temperatures, and now this morning rainfall. I grabbed a sweater, lit a candle, and decided to make some tea-toned paper for later projects. For some reason, rainy days are the best days for tea-toning paper.

How to tea-tone paper:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Brew a large pot of strong tea. I used about four cups of water with eight tea bags. The stronger the tea, the stronger the stain. This is also true with coffee-toned paper.
3. Pour the tea into a shallow dish or pan. I used our 9×13 glass baking dish. It’s a good size if I want to stain larger paper.
4. Immerse paper in tea and leave it in there, turning occasionally, for ten minutes (or more, depending on how stained you want them to be).
5. Remove paper from tea (letting it drain a bit to get off the excess tea) and then lay it on a baking sheet.
6. Bake for 5 to 10 minutes, flipping paper every couple of minutes until both sides are dry. Note: handmade paper sometimes takes a bit longer. Just keep turning paper every couple of minutes until it’s dry.

Goo joined me to tea-tone her own paper when the first batch was baking. I showed her how to immerse the paper and remove it carefully to be baked. Regular copy paper will be very fragile and could tear. This can be in your favor, however, if you want your paper to look old. I also showed her how you can crinkle the paper up after it’s been in the tea, before baking, to get a wrinkled effect.

I used some of the hot press sheets for abstract landscapes. For the ink I used the black Hydrus watercolor ink by Dr. Ph. Martin’s. I like this one because it has almost a purple/green granulating effect when you add salt. Combine this with the tan tone of the paper and the landscape resembles a split-toned photograph, something I’ve loved ever since discovering the photography of Irene Suchocki.

I also stained some small, leftover Arches cold press to make a tiny book of landscapes. For no reason other than it’s fun, and because tiny books of landscapes are adorable. I even stained a small sheet of Khadi for the cover.

The clouds held on until that Sunday afternoon, when it warmed up enough to take Goo to the pool. It was an interesting day, like living in two different seasons at the same time. Fall in the morning, summer in the afternoon. This is Missouri when the seasons are changing, and here by the river we get extra fog each morning to remind us that those longed-for chilly, crinkly-leaved, chimney-smoked days are just around the corner.

If you’d like to take a look at the landscapes in this tea-toned project, which I call “Prairie Winds,” you can head on over to my Etsy where they are currently available for purchase. They’re little paintings, meant to be looked at from a closer distance, and minimalist enough to be placed anywhere. I like to imagine them being placed by windows that are occasionally freckled with unexpected rain.

Step Away from the Canvas

Or, in my case, step away from the hot press.

I’ve heard a lot of people in the creative field discuss the importance of taking a break. They stress it, over and over, in podcasts and blogs, and yet I still see the unfortunate effects of burnout on social media, in my friends, and even in my own home.

Burnout is a very real thing that doesn’t just affect those working creatively. It can also affect those in the medical field, parents, and basically anyone who has a heartbeat. Chances are you have experienced burnout at some point in your life.

A few signs you’re experiencing burnout:

• You’re more tired than usual (for no discernable reason)
• You’ve lost interest in your career/hobby/pursuit
• You have zero motivation
• A negative outlook on things
• Feeling like you have no purpose or sense of self

If you’re dealing with any of these things, my first suggestion is to check in with your doctor to see if there isn’t something medically going on first. Then, if it’s determined you’re physically healthy, see if he/she would suggest medication and/or therapy. Both can be extremely beneficial in overcoming burnout and getting you back to feeling normal.

Burnout is nasty. During the 2020 pandemic, before the vaccine, when hospitals were overflowing with Covid cases and running out of ventilators, tons of medical professionals left their careers entirely because they just couldn’t take it anymore. The American Medical Association reported that nearly half of the 20,000+ surveyed medical professionals reported symptoms of burnout in 2020.

Burnout can cause college dropouts and end dream-come-true careers. I myself have experienced burnout so severe that I’ve quit entire hobbies.

What’s interesting about burnout is a lot of the time it can be prevented. I’m not saying we could have prevented the pandemic and saved those doctors/nurses from all that mental anguish, but I am saying that most of us, especially those of us working in the creative field, can prevent burnout if we just do one simple thing.

Step away.

I’ve seen people on my Twitter feed dealing with such awful burnout that they wound up quitting the thing they loved doing the most. Many times I tried to give them the seemingly simple solution of taking a break. But this suggestion, as it usually does, fell on deaf ears.

What is it about the world we live in that makes us feel like we have to work ourselves to death? When did we learn that every hobby or non-work pursuit has to wind up being monetary or it just becomes a waste of time? It’s taken me years to break out of this mindset and I still find myself going back to it every so often. Even now, I still feel like the entire day was wasted if I didn’t do anything that’s been deemed “productive.” But the great thing about today and last year is that today I take the day off anyway. Just so I can see that the world doesn’t end.

I think it’s tricky for us working in creative careers because we seldom have a steady flow of income. We sometimes have to work 7 days a week just to get paid the same amount as we would in one day if we had a simple 9-5. So we work and work and work and when we see no monetary gain (i.e. no sales) we work even more.

The same is true for creative hobbies, only instead of a monetary reward we look for likes and shares. And the more likes/shares you get, the more you want next time. I’ve seen posts get hundreds of likes (more than I’ve ever gotten) and the artist upset because they felt nobody liked their work and so it wasn’t any good. Not only did this person seriously need to take a break, but they also needed to reassess their definitions of value and success.

What is your definition of value? What is your definition of success? Is it time for you to redefine those terms for yourself?

Don’t be afraid to take a break. Even for one day. Find something that has nothing to do with your career/hobby/pursuit and make it part of your daily wind-down. Set a specific time to leave the desk and go through with it. Make it a habit. Hand the kiddos off to dad or grandma for a while and go take a long bath.

Give yourself time to miss what you do, to remember why you wanted it so bad in the first place.

For me, currently, my non-artistic hobby is jigsaw puzzles. I’ll turn on some House or Supernatural and pull out a big 300+ piece puzzle and put it together on the coffee table. This is a great way for me to step away from the phone/tablet, the painting tools, and my to-do list. Outta sight outta mind.

A bonus is when it draws in Goo and the husband and we all wind up putting a puzzle together as a family.

If you’re finding that you’re all work and no play, it may be time for you to take that break. Don’t wait until you start to feel the burnout coming on. Prevent it by leaving the canvas every day at 3pm. Prevent it by getting a good night’s sleep instead of working until dawn. Prevent it by taking care of yourself.

If it helps, treat the break as another way to reach your goals(s). Sometimes the very reason we can’t figure out the direction of a piece is because we’ve been looking at it too long. Use that as your excuse to finally go on that hike. You’ll be surprised by how much clearer you are when you return.

“Do you have the patience to wait 
Till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
Till the right action arises by itself?”

Lao Tzu

That’s a Wrap: Lessons Learned from Recording Season One of my Podcast

Starting a podcast was something I’d wanted to start for over a year, but it was only until the beginning of this year that I finally worked up the courage to take the plunge. I listen to a lot of podcasts, but I knew nothing about starting one of my own.

Since that fateful episode one, I have learned a few lessons from the beginner’s perspective, and my goal here is to share these lessons with those of you who are also thinking of starting a podcast but have no clue where to begin (or are in the grips of terror, like I was).

Please note: I receive no kickbacks for any of the sites/software/platforms I mention in this article. These are simply the ones that worked for me.

Lesson One: You Learn as you Go

This might seem counterintuitive to this entire article, but there’s no truer statement when it comes to something like starting a podcast. Those of you who feel like you need to research everything before starting–and, in turn, not researching at all because it’s just…too…much–this lesson should be your beacon. Use it to guide you through the choppy waters of uncertainty and just go for it. There’s no better way to chart a map than to be immersed in the very place you’d like to navigate.

In other words, just start that podcast. It’s the best way to learn how to run a podcast.

Lesson Two: You Don’t Need Fancy Equipment

I’ve heard several podcast hosts say this, and so I already knew it wasn’t necessary to buy the best of the best when it came to mics and headphones and all the fancy recording gear. This helped me tremendously as I wasn’t spending hundreds of dollars on something that may or may not even work out in the end. I managed to find a nice, quality mic at around thirty bucks and it has been a trusty companion since episode two. Episode one was recorded on a simple clip-to-your-shirt mic.

As for the recording software? Go with Audacity. It’s FREE. I haven’t had an issue with it yet, and it’s pretty user-friendly.

Lesson Three: You Don’t Need a Fancy Platform, Either

Honestly, the day I decided to just take the plunge was a day I’d published another article on this blog and WordPress asked me if I wanted to turn this episode into a podcast on Anchor. Minutes later I had signed up and was planning my first episode. The cool thing about Anchor is that you can use it to add your podcast to multiple platforms so that you can be found on the more popular podcast apps.

I’m sure it’s like this for any podcast platform, but I wouldn’t know because I just went with what was available and it has served me well so far.

Lesson Four: There Are a Ton of Good Music Licensing Sites

I did just a little bit of research for this part. I wanted to make sure I didn’t spend a fortune on music licensing, but I also wanted to get quality music and sound effects for my podcast. There are a ton of great sites out there, and it can get a bit overwhelming. The one I eventually went with was Epidemic Sound. It’s 15$/month for a podcast subscription and you get access to all the music and sound effects. Just make sure you plug them in your podcast and in the show notes!

Lesson Five: Prepare For Interruptions

Even if you’ve had the most uneventful day, once you hit record all of the crazy will come flooding in. It’s a button that somehow alerts absolutely everyone. From your kiddos to your spouse to your mother-in-law to that friend you haven’t talked to in ten years. Your phone is going to ring. Your tweet will go viral even though you’ve never gone viral before. Your husband will be unable to find clean socks and has no idea what to do about it. Your kid will suddenly be wasting away with starvation even though she’d just eaten ten minutes ago. If you’re like me, your entire family will come down with Covid after 2.5 years of evading it, preventing you from being able to record those two episodes you’d planned that week.

Prepare yourself. Use that pause button. Take deep breaths. Give your family hugs. The podcast will still be there when you return.

Lesson Six: Write an Outline. Always.

Remember back in speech class when you had to write your bullet points on a little notecard so you wouldn’t get sidetracked? The podcast didn’t exist yet back in those days for me, but who knew that they were preparing me for this very moment?

An outline will not only keep you from getting sidetracked, it will also make the editing process go much smoother. And, if you’re ADHD like me, it will keep you (somewhat) on topic and maybe even remind you to take a breath between sentences.

Lesson Seven: The Process Will Take Forever in the Beginning

My very first episode took me an entire week. A WEEK. I was recording every day, editing, deleting, learning the software, confusing myself over music and things like track volume vs playback volume. It freaked me out. There was no way I’d be able to do this every week and continue to have an art/illustration career. In fact, when I first started recording, my business took a serious nosedive.

I’ll say it again. It freaked. me. out.

The next week took a few days of the above nonsense and I was starting to feel overworked and frustrated. But I pressed on, making Fridays my target day to publish.

Week three was just as discombobulated as week one because I decided to just pick a topic and wing it. Big mistake. This is when I learned the valuable lesson of typing up my script and/or writing an outline.

Once I began putting together an outline, and once I’d gotten the hang of Audacity and Anchor and Epidemic Sound, the whole process began to take less and less time. Nowadays I can record, edit, and publish all within about two hours. So don’t balk at the time it’s taking you the first few weeks. Put aside some extra time for that learning curve, and remember that once you get the hang of things, it won’t take nearly as long.

Those of you who have listened to one or all of my podcast episodes I hope you have enjoyed them! Season Two of the Eccentric Chai podcast will premiere at the end of August.