What if the secret to feeling less scattered in your studio… is to work on more than one artwork at once? I’m not just talking about multiple works in progress.

I’m speaking about something strategic that helps you show up more and make more art.

Yes, really.

It’s called batching, and it’s a creative superpower most self-taught artists overlook.

Hey there! 👋 I’m Carrie. Here on Artist Strong, I help self-taught artists go from unsure to unstoppable, so they can create their first real series of artwork and start building a portfolio they’re proud of. 

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Today let’s continue the conversation around batching and how it can help you make more art AND be more creative!

What Is Batching, Anyway?

Batching means having multiple works in progress that share something in common: maybe it’s a technique, a subject, or even a color palette. Instead of starting and finishing one piece at a time, you move through a rhythm of making, allowing each artwork to inform the next.

It’s not just efficient: it’s a path to creative flow.

You’re less precious with a single piece because your ideas are spread across several.

You’re not wasting time switching tools or mindset every hour.

You’re seeing your ideas in conversation with each other, deepening your personal style.

I have a whole article that defines batching in more detail here.

“But Won’t I Feel More Scattered?”

Actually, batching does the opposite.

When you move through your art in batches, you reduce decision fatigue. You create momentum. You stop overworking things. Your studio becomes a space of rhythm, not pressure.

Still skeptical? Let’s look at some artists who work this way, so you know you’re in excellent company.

Real Artists Who Batch…and Thrive

🎨 Yayoi Kusama

In her Infinity Net and My Eternal Soul series, Kusama doesn’t just paint similar works: she paints dozens at a time. Her studio is filled with canvases she moves between in a meditative rhythm. Each piece builds on the last, reinforcing her signature style and creating cohesion.

🖌️ Julie Mehretu

Mehretu’s monumental layered works are often developed in tandem. While one layer dries on a massive canvas, she moves to another. Her batching allows for scale, fluidity, and time to reflect between stages, a huge benefit to artists who tend to overwork or second-guess.

🖼️ Kerry James Marshall

Marshall often explores themes of Black identity and history across several paintings at once. In his Garden Project series, he created a suite of works that speak to each other, using shared compositions, palettes, and subject matter. The result? A body of work more powerful together than any single piece alone.

🧵 Sheila Hicks

If you’ve ever seen Hicks’ soft sculptures and weavings, you’ve seen batching in its most tactile form. Hicks explores materials in multiples, creating bundles and installations that reveal variation through repetition.

🎬 Cindy Sherman

Even in photography, batching shows up. Sherman prepares multiple costumes and personas for a single photo session, staging and shooting a whole body of work in one go. The prep may be intense, but the result is a series that feels cohesive and intentional.

🖍️ Mark Bradford

Bradford builds his abstract mixed media works through layers: collaging, sanding, and painting across multiple pieces at the same time. The technique? Repetition. The process? Rhythmic. And the effect? A visual language that feels unmistakably his.

If you’re enjoying today’s conversation please like and subscribe. Tell me: what’s the biggest aha or voice of resistance you hear? Let’s connect in the comments below.

Batching in My Studio

In my own studio, I use batching all the time in different ways.

When I’m painting, I’ll prep 3-5 canvases at the same time. I will prepare my research and any visuals I need for those works at the same time. Then I draw them all out together. Then I’ll do my underpaintings at the same time. I used this process all the time for my Anonymous Woman series, which you can see here.

When I’m deep in drawing. I’ll have 3–5 drawings underway that share a technique, like colored pencil blending, or explore the same theme. I’ve recently started a series of drawings inspired from my collage work. I prepped the same size paper and printed out image references to work with in advance of starting. Here I generally work only on 1-2 at a time so I can keep track of my colors, but the prep in advance is batched.

The one place I haven’t yet considered batching is for my diaper cloth embroidery series. I generally design the phrase and image to go on the surface and do each step individually for each diaper.

I’m pointing this out so you can see it doesn’t have to be used all the time or for every step of your creative process. Where I do use it, however, it frees me up. I move from one piece to the next. I stay engaged. I feel momentum, and that’s priceless in a world full of distractions.

My Students Use Batching Too

I’m seeing more and more self-taught artists inside my community embrace batching, too. I have students who use batching to help prep and finish their artworks: prepping wood panels as a unit, sealing and framing a bunch of finished art at one time.

I also see it in their process. One student is working from family photos and began drawing several at a time as thumbnails to help her study value while she also considered her focus and message through composition.

Batching isn’t just for pros. It’s a tool anyone can use to grow faster, and feel more confident doing it.

Want to Try It This Week?

Here’s your invitation:

🎯 Batch one part of your studio practice this week.
Pick a theme. A color. A technique. And make at least three small pieces using that shared element.

✨ Need ideas? Try:

• Three blind contour drawings using the same pen
• Three tiny paintings using the same limited palette
• Three embroidered patches using the same stitch or fabric

Then tell me: what did you notice? Did batching help or frustrate you? Did it unlock something new?

👇 Let’s Talk About It!

Comment below and tell me:

🧵 Have you ever batched your art before?

🧑‍🎨 Which of the artists above inspires you most?

🎨 What would you try batching this week?

Want More Like This?

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Because, remember: you already are an artist.

Thanks again for watching, and see you next week.

Together, we are Artist Strong. 💪🎨