Give as many answers as it takes to solve a question.
Iterate with scale, rhythm, light, and everything available to the medium until the work has been put in. Pause. Let life get in the way.
Then, come back to it and work the idea over some more, even if that's a year later. That's it. Keep it simple and keep iterating.
Occasionally, stop and publish.
Once I started experimenting with digital art in the mid-90s, I knew I wanted to pursue it as a career.
I have used it to form and express ideas ever since, so naturally, it has evolved along with me. The art you see on this site today is the current me, interested in the hard-earned payoff of pursuing a simple idea until I've caught just enough of it to realize it's worth chasing indefinitely.
With my pattern-based art, developing a new collection starts with forming building blocks and simple repetitions that can be stacked, shifted, scaled and stained ad infinitum.
My approach to photography is more simple: capture what I'm unable to create myself. Nature is a complex subject, but I can choose how and what I capture on my canvas.
Speaking of canvases, I never did make art my full-time gig; I became a graphic designer almost immediately because you know, bills. It's been a dream career, I just can't seem to wake up from it and experience the dread of supporting my family as a full-time artist.
Besides, some clients actually value human creativity and working in a world of briefs, deadlines, and budgets isn't always a bad education for an artist.
Source photography for the above images is by Eadweard Muybridge, 1830–1904.