Having a creative hobby helps you open the doors to a world of endless expression and possibilities. Whether you’re painting, drawing, engaging in photography, crafting, or any other form of artistic expression, the joy of creating something is utterly unique and not something we can experience through everyday tasks and activities. However, one of the most difficult things about maintaining a creative hobby is balancing the costs associated with it. Whether it’s a new camera, better paints, or drawing tablets, there are many different expenses to consider. While you can certainly still express yourself with cheaper equipment, everyone dreams of the creative possibilities they could have with better equipment and materials. So how do you balance these costs? Below, we’ll be discussing the delicate task of balancing costs in your creative hobby, and give you some tips on how to manage it.
By Team Savant
Image: Olia Gozha
The temptation of upgrading your equipment
When first starting out in a creative hobby, most people are content with anything that looks, feels, and works like more expensive things. For instance, a camera is still a camera no matter how you look at it, and a paintbrush can still paint strokes on a canvas. However, with better technology and equipment comes more control and possibilities.
It could be a new DSLR camera with incredible low-light performance, or it could be premium paints that are far more vibrant than what you’re using right now. These purchases can seem like they hold the key to unlocking your full potential as a creative, so it’s natural to want the best tools and materials for your craft no matter the price tag.
There’s also the “what if” thought that will always linger in our minds. What if you took that amazing photo with a better camera that could produce better colours? What if you painted that incredible scene using high-quality paints to make it more vibrant? These what-if scenarios can and will eat at us for a long time, teasing us of the possibilities and the potential for improved quality had we just invested more money into our craft.
So let’s take a look at some of the considerations to keep in mind to help us balance our creativity with the costs associated with it.
What impact will it have on your creativity?
Better equipment usually enhances the quality of your work. Better tools lead to better results often with less effort. This allows you to focus on other aspects of your creativity, such as your vision or the overall theme that you want to set with your work. This means you spend less time battling with subpar tools and materials that steal your attention away, potentially frustrating you since you can’t get them to create the ideal piece that you want.
However, it’s important to consider the pressure it puts on your finances.
A lot of artists are stuck in this pursuit of upgrading to the next big tool or getting the latest materials that might help with their creativity and future projects. However, it’s important not to get stuck chasing the latest items. When you’re constantly worrying about how you can afford the next upgrade, it could harm the way you currently produce art or enjoy your hobby. This can ultimately change the way that you see your hobby. You’ll no longer think of it as a form of creative expression, but more of an endless money sink that turns into a source of stress.
To make things worse, it’s easy to get caught in a loop of social media influencers and sponsored YouTube streams that tell us everything we want to hear about a new product. It’s common for us to browse social media and see all of the beautiful art that other people create, and we find out that they’re using new products and materials.
It tempts us to go out and buy the same so that we can use it, but it’s ultimately just a marketing strategy. There’s no telling if those tools and materials will work for you as well since you’ve never tried them, and no matter how trustworthy you think a creator or influencer is, there’s always a chance that their opinions are motivated by money and branding instead of giving you an honest down-to-earth review.
As you can see, there’s just so much to think about when it comes to upgrading your equipment and materials in order to continue enjoying your creative pursuits. Thankfully, there are ways to balance this so that you can focus more on your art while also avoiding the feeling that your equipment is holding you back.
Finding the right balance for your creative hobby
Let’s take a look at a few tips that will help you balance the costs of your creative hobby.
Setting a hobby budget
It’s important to make the distinction between a creative hobby and a creative career. A lot of people can justify spending a lot more money on the latest tools and materials because they’re professionals. They make money off their craft, and as such, they can warrant spending high prices because it leads to a better product that they can charge more for. To some people, those additional expenses are just a means to deliver a better product.
But when you’re just a hobbyist, it’s much harder to justify those expensive costs. Spending thousands on a new camera accessory or peripheral for your computer is a lot of money, and if it’s not something you inherently make money from as part of your career, then it’s usually not worth justifying the cost. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t treat yourself and indulge in the latest industry-standard equipment as a hobbyist.
The solution here is to budget better. Set up a budget and consider what’s realistic and what isn’t. Determine how much you can afford to spend on your hobby without compromising your financial stability. Your budget should cover all of the costs associated with your creative process. This means any basic materials like paints and brushes, or potential upgrades to your digital art setup.
Prioritise purchases that have a bigger impact
Once you’ve set up a budget, it’s a good idea to identify the most impactful tools that affect your creative purchase. For a photographer, that’s usually going to be their camera. However, they could purchase important tools and accessories that give them more options to use their camera. Perhaps they might invest in a different mount, maybe another light to improve their photography or even a high-quality lens.
In some cases, a purchase might be expensive but it could open up different ways to utilise your creativity and express your art. This could be a fibre camera adapter to open up different camera platforms and applications, it could be a graphics tablet to introduce you to digital artwork, or even an art table that can provide a more ergonomic solution for when you work on your art. These types of purchases have a huge impact because they open up different options to help you be more expressive and creative, and they should be prioritised when possible.
In short, focus on acquiring upgrades that make a bigger difference first. These key items are essential to help explore your creativity, and so they should take priority when you have a limited budget.
Exploring resourceful options and alternatives
Many would argue that true creativity thrives on being resourceful. Some incredible works of art are created with constraints. Perhaps it was different tools that were available in the past, or maybe it was the idea of breaking those boundaries and limitations to create something truly unique.
Lots of creatives embrace the idea of challenging what they know and what they can use to make the most of what they have. This way of thinking helps you focus more on your creative process and what you can do to overcome limitations, instead of just focusing on the different tools that give you more creative freedom. This can often lead to unexpected and amazing results that you wouldn’t have known if you didn’t use everything at your disposal.
The concept of being resourceful is a core component of any creative pursuit. It’s not good to focus on new technologies and materials as the sole solution to a problem or creative block. Instead, we should aim to work within our limitations in order to discover new things and overcome those constraints.
Summary
While it’s understandable that a lot of people want to upgrade their tools and materials to create better art, it’s important to place a heavier emphasis on value over skills. Sure, there are some invaluable tools that open up so many creative possibilities, but they ultimately can’t replace your capacity for creative expression, working within limitations, and making the most of what you have.
As a creative, part of the fun is exploring new techniques and honing your skills, and focusing on these values will create a more significant and noticeable difference than any new piece of equipment.