FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
Q: What is an Art Practice?
A: An Art Practice is more than simply making art. It's a personalized system that helps you maintain your creativity, generate new ideas, and keep improving and growing. If you make art, you already have an art practice. The question is, is it helping you towards your goals? Watch the video for more:
An art practice goes far beyond just making art. While many people assume it means repeatedly practicing specific skills (like drawing hands or feet), an art practice is more comprehensive. I like to think of it as an iceberg. Making art is just the tip of the iceberg — what you see on social media or in movies.
Beneath the surface are essential elements of making art such as:
Research: Taking classes, reading, and observing.
Exploration: Discovering personal preferences, favorite techniques, and artistic identity.
Idea Generation: Activities like walking or yoga can stimulate creative thinking.
Analysis: Reflecting on completed work to assess what works, what doesn’t, and what can be improved.
Systematic Approach: A consistent system that keeps you creating and growing even when inspiration is lacking.
Community and Education: Engaging with others and continuing to learn supports long-term artistic growth.
In many ways, I believe an art practice is a system—something that carries you along, even when you don’t feel like creating. It keeps you making art, developing your skills, and moving forward, even when inspiration isn’t knocking at your door. It ensures that you improve because you’re consistently analyzing your work, staying connected to a community, pursuing education, and uncovering your personal voice.
This is exactly why I created myartpractice.com, an online community and educational platform focused on helping you develop a personalized art practice. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution—your art practice should be as unique as you are.
Q: Why do I need an Art Practice?
A: If you make art, you already have an art practice. But is it one that is helping you towards your goals?
Let’s use the metaphor of running. Just as anyone can go for a run, anyone can make art. But understanding proper form can help you avoid a running injury. Training with friends can help motivate you. You don’t have to be a professional marathoner to run every day. You don’t have to make money at running to buy nice running shoes and work at getting faster. Running can be a way of life without being a profession.
All of that is true of art making as well.
Whether you're a hobbyist or a pro, a well developed art practice can be a way to train smarter, faster, and more completely.
You can watch the video for more:
Here are three key benefits of an art practice:
Sustainability: An art practice prevents burnout by creating a sustainable system that keeps creativity flowing, even when inspiration is low. It ensures you can continue creating without exhaustion or feeling overwhelmed.
Professional Development: An art practice helps build professional skills, such as presenting, photographing, and talking about your work. It also connects what you create with your ideas and feelings, helping you develop a coherent message in your art. **Don’t let the word “professional” trip you up. It’s not about being a professional artist, but presenting in a polished and professional manner.
Skill Improvement: Consistent, thoughtful practice leads to skill development. Improvement requires intelligent, analytical practice, not just time spent creating. A structured art practice pushes you to explore and grow effectively.
An art practice is a system designed for rapid, consistent improvement, and myartpractice.com helps artists build personalized, sustainable art practices that support lifelong creativity.
What can an art practice help me with?
A: I have taught thousands of students over the past twenty years and I hear many of the same worries come up over and over again. Developing an art practice is the easy solution to all of these problems, and many more! Watch the video for more:
A: This video explains the whole thing:
Five Common Artist Problems Solved by an Art Practice:
"I don't know what my art style is."
You don’t need a defined style; you need an art practice.
An art practice helps you discover your voice through goal setting, consistent work, directed exploration, and analysis.
"I'm all over the place and can’t focus."
It’s okay to explore various mediums, but you need a unifying direction.
An art practice provides a system that keeps you focused, helping manage ideas, techniques, and projects without feeling overwhelmed.
"I don’t like the art I’m making."
Often, taste outpaces ability, making it hard to like your own work.
An art practice helps you bridge that gap by breaking down skills and guiding you toward creating art you love.
"I have trouble making decisions."
Art-making involves countless decisions—composition, colors, tools, and materials.
An art practice offers systems, confidence, and analytical tools to make decisions without fear, knowing you can always adjust and improve.
"I’m not really an artist."
If you make art, you are an artist—no need for external validation like gallery shows or sales.
An art practice builds confidence, allowing you to discuss, share, and develop meaningful work with purpose and unique ideas.
As you can see, an art practice is a structured system that offers consistency, exploration, and confidence in art-making.
MyArtPractice.com provides videos, worksheets, lessons, challenges, discussions, and community support—to overcome common creative challenges and thrive as an artist.
What do I get with the Monthly Membership?
A: You get immediate access to all previous content, the Core Curriculum, and the online classroom and message boards. New content is released every Monday and Thursday throughout the year.
Watch the video for more:
MyArtPractice.com is an online community and educational platform created by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer to help artists build and maintain a personalized art practice. The platform is designed for artists of all levels, whether hobbyists or professionals, to develop smarter, faster, and more complete creative routines.
Key Concepts of My Art Practice:
Engagement:
Community interaction through message boards, live chat, private messaging, and Zoom workshops.
Emphasis on connection for learning, enjoyment, and lifestyle support.
Learning:
A wide variety of lessons tailored to different learning styles, including interactive tutorials, written guides, process videos, and art history.
An expansive Core Curriculum focusing on building a thriving art practice, continuously updated.
Growth:
Hands-on practice sessions, group coaching, and professional development skills like presenting and discussing your artwork.
Regular feedback and critique sessions using structured methods.
Five Main Sections of the Membership:
The Hub:
Central community space with FAQs, tutorial videos, and community chat.
Features themed cycles, challenges (with a $75 Dick Blick gift certificate prize), critique clubs, contemporary art discussions, guest artists, and accountability groups.
Core Curriculum:
A comprehensive program covering key aspects of art practice, including passion, research, and exploration, with podcasts, worksheets, and videos.
Events:
Regular live events such as Q&A livestreams, group coaching sessions, book club, and asset reviews.
Process:
Insightful content focused on the creative process, including studio vlogs, real-time process videos, creativity sparks (short tutorials), curated YouTube inspiration, Guest Artists, and Julie’s personal studio notebook practice.
Art Foundation:
Art school fundamentals, including techniques, materials, principles of art, art movements, artist profiles, and professional skills like self-promotion and social media strategies.
Join the supportive community of My Art Practice and get immediate access to its extensive resources, and my commitment to helping artists create art they truly love.
These are the eight key elements of the Core Curriculum and the My Art Practice framework:
Passion & Purpose: Understanding why you create and aligning your passion with intentional goals.
Research & Exploration: Combining learning (research) with experimentation (exploration).
Analysis: Developing the ability to evaluate your work and others’ critically.
Consistency: Building a regular and sustainable creative habit.
Technical & Professional Skills: Mastering art techniques and learning how to present yourself and your work professionally.
Ideas: Developing original concepts that give art depth and meaning.
Community: Building relationships that inspire, support, and educate.
Evolution: Pursuing purposeful growth in your creative journey.
The Core Curriculum draws on my twenty years of teaching and community-building. It’s based on a shift in the types of questions artists were asking me—wanting to move beyond techniques to deeper questions about artistic growth and self-expression.
My Art Practice is designed to fit into your life, making it easier to sustain. After all, developing an art practice is about living a good life—one filled with passion, purpose, curiosity, and connection.