5 tips to speed up your workflow as a freelance digital artist

After years of experience working with tight deadlines, tightier budgets and always desiring more free time, here's a brief list of the most impactful strategies I use to get more work done, faster.

Hello there! I’m Gabriele - in art Flygohr - a multidisciplinary visual artist that likes creativity, personal growth, and productivity. This is my journal!

This post might not be for every profession, but I’ll try to be as generic as possible so you can draw some inspiration from the strategies outlined below no matter what you actually do as an artist. The tips here will hopefully help you squeeze more precious minutes out of your day, and maybe even enjoy some extra long weekend!

Without further ado, let’s get to the actual list.

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Tip #1: Take breaks. No, seriously 📖

You know it already. It’s so difficult, so difficult I’m writing it down to remember it myself. There’s not much that can be said here that’s not been said already in countless blog posts, but the benefits are real.

I get much more work done when I regularly ‘waste’ half of my day playing video games, reading, or simply walking outside than when I pack my week full. I understand it might not seem an option for you, especially under pressure, but try to force yourself to take 5 minutes breaks every half an hour of work. No phone, no podcasts, no nothing. Give your brain a rest by letting it wander by itself.

Just get up, get yourself a glass of water, stretch your legs and look out the window. You might also look into the Pomodoro Technique if you don’t know it already.

Tip #2: Use the damn keyboard shortcuts ⌨️

I’ve seen so many colleagues do most of their actions on the screen manually reaching each button and command using the mouse. After years spent learning keyboard shortcuts and being able to operate most software with both hands on the keyboard.. that looks tiring as hell.

Most modern software even comes with the same, standardized shortcuts as well as handy guides or overlays explaining what the key combinations are. If they don’t, just Google them up and you’ll find nicely formatted infographics detailing the most important commands. Print them out! Take some time to have the shortcuts sink in, those wasted seconds will repay your initial investment in a matter of a few weeks.

There’s really no reason for you not to use the keyboard shortcuts, especially for hidden commands that might require multiple clicks to be found. If you are still not convinced, ask someone to hide your mouse. You’ll thank them later!

Tip #3: Create your own keyboard shortcuts ⚡

This is one of the juiciest tips I have in here. If you are just starting out you might not need this tip, but I’ve seen pros with years of experience under their belt perform the same repetitive actions over and over again. I’m talking about entire workflows, like applying a complex color filter or creating the same document structure for each design.

As a matter of fact, if you find yourself repeating the same set of actions more than a few times, you might need automation. Most software comes with ‘actions’ you can record and play again to get the same result (sometimes they are called ‘macros’ as well). If they don’t, I highly recommend AutoHotKey for Windows or the numerous Mac OS alternatives.

Such tools allow you to create your own shortcuts for pretty much everything. I use AHK to set up shortcuts for:

• Creating complex folder structures

• Auto-expand text like email signatures and endings but also business-related codes, emails, and my social media links

• Creating entire UIs to manage complex text generations like quotes, or daily note templates

• Creating key combos that open specific software or folders

Apart from the system-wide shortcuts, I mainly use automations in Photoshop and Clip Studio Paint to facilitate my illustration workflow. Specifically, I have shortcuts set up for:

• Creating different file templates with different layers depending on the target result: comic book page, black and white illustration, sketch, full color, etc.

• Applying filters and color corrections that I customized over the years

• Saving and exporting my work in different sizes and formats with just one keypress

That’s it. If you’ve never thought about it, take some notes about your processes and try to spot repetitive tasks over the days. Once you have a few listed, you can start thinking about automating them and creating some shortcuts for them.

Tip #4: Have a repository of reusable assets 🔁

I know you reuse your assets. I know you probably have a .png file with your signature somewhere, or even better, you’ve made it into a proper brush or stamp in your design software of choice. But I’m talking more broadly here.

My suggestion here is to define a folder on your device - that’s not the download folder, mind you - and use it to store all the assets that you find yourself wanting to re-use time and time again. Those can be color palettes, textures, icons, brushes, reference images, or entire style guides.

Softwares like Clip Studio Paint also allow you to categorize, tag, and organize your assets in-app, something that I found other big players to be lacking. Blender, the popular free 3D software, recently added that feature as well and it’s been a game changer for lots of pros I know.

The key here is not to have your assets neatly organized - the search features of operating systems or Google Drive are powerful enough to forgive you of your inability to properly name files and folders. The goal is to have a trusted place - and a trusted repository of assets - where you can find everything you need without all the mental overhead of trying to remember where you downloaded that font from, or where was that nice palette you used a while ago.

Tip #5: Do your work in batches 🤖

This has been the game changer for me. It’s my go-to recommendation when talking with beginners. I’ve been there - we have a tendency of wanting to see each piece of ours done before we move to the next one.. even if they are part of a bigger project that requires multiple assets of the same type to be delivered.

My example will be with comic book pages - it’s the most straightforward one - but this can be applied to whatever. I used to receive requests for 20+ pages long comics, and I used to tackle one page at a time and discuss it with the customer before proceeding to the next one for a variety of reasons. I wanted the client to perceive me as involved and constantly working on their project, timely delivering updates. I also had anxiety, and I wanted each page to look good so I didn’t have to think about it anymore while I completed the rest of the comic book.

For each page, I would undergo the same exact procedure. I would search for references and build a loose layout. I would provide a rough sketch, then a more detailed one and finally, I’d ink the page. I would then add the color in a flat way, and then I’d finalize it with shadows and highlights. I would then apply all the lettering and effects. And in between each stage, I’d run rounds of revisions with the customers. Yeah, it was really slow.

What I learned to do was to do each stage of the workflow once, instead of proceeding one page at a time. I would leave the client in the dark for two weeks or a month, but instead of taking six months to deliver, I’d take just two. Basically, I would first create the layouts and the rough sketches for all the pages and only then run them all to the customer for review. I would then do all the inking at once. Then the coloring, and so on, with just a round of revision every 20 or so pages instead of just one.

In hindsight, this might seem obvious, and maybe for comic books, it is. But this can be applied to any field, you may just need to spend some more time identifying what exactly to batch together. You also get some additional benefits, like an enhanced bigger picture of what you are doing that you couldn’t possibly get by working so zoomed-in on a single asset in the first place.

This concept of batching also introduced me to the idea of ‘routines’, something that is now a keystone of my productivity system. I might want to spend some time on routines here one day, but this is enough for now.

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About me 👤

I am a self-taught digital artist from Italy. I am a multidisciplinary artist and a huge nerd. It means I can draw, paint, code, write, compose, sculpt, and more. I also like books, RPGs, and documentaries. I might be a productivity junkie.

You could say I started out as a homeless, alcoholic punk degenerate in the early 2010s. Now I have a few assistants, a studio, and lots of work I love on my plate. Most importantly, I’m sober and I can afford takeaway food multiple times a week. This is my journal.

Every few days I dissect some of my most recent projects, activities, and discoveries. I try to make it a 5 minutes read (well, apart from this one here.. this turned out pretty long). You can find lots of links and a bio on my main website, or you can follow me on Twitter where I post daily.