I want to write about the creative experience of doing personal art projects alongside commission work, because the balance is something I see artists struggle with.

Commission work is a job. I do it professionally and I take it seriously. But it shapes your taste toward what clients want, not toward what you find interesting. Without personal projects, your taste calcifies around a service orientation.

Personal projects are where style actually develops. The visual choices you make when no one is paying attention are the choices that reveal what you actually care about aesthetically. After two years of consistent personal project work alongside commissions, my commission work itself improved — because my personal aesthetic got stronger and started informing everything.

I protect personal project time the same way I protect client deadlines. If personal project time is always the thing that gives when life gets busy, it will always give. Block the time as if it were a client appointment with the most important client you have.