Life & business tips for creatives
If I were to choose one secret weapon that helps my productivity more than any other, I'd have to say it's meditation. I know, it sounds weird to associate meditation – the epitome of non-doing – with productivity, which is all about doing, but if you think about it a little, it actually makes perfect sense. Meditation and action are polar opposites, but as with any opposites, one cannot exist without the other. We need the state of non-doing in order to be able to define doing, and vice versa. Meditation acts like a reset button on those thoughts, and enables me to get the most out of my time. Here are 5 ways meditation can boost your productivity. Read more...
I imagine that a lot of people reading this are artists that either have a job in a creative field, or have a business that relies mostly on creative services. On the surface, it sounds like the best possible way to live as an artist, right? Here you are, doing the stuff other people would kill for. But there are days when you realize it's not as shiny as it seems on the outside. Read more...
Some people say ideas are worthless without execution. Others say ideas are the currency of the future. You, however, seem to have a problem cashing in on this currency because you have more ideas than you know what to do with — it's both a blessing and a curse.
While I don't have a magic pill that will stop this craziness (and honestly, we wouldn't want to stop it), having a system to manage our wealth of ideas helps a lot.
Here are my suggestions how to handle this 'problem'. Read more...
I want to talk about an issue that I feel is greatly affecting our ability to be successful in our art and business. It's about our willingness to stand firmly in our uniqueness, and put our individuality in the spotlight in everything we do. Read more...
Let's welcome the new outdoor sketching season with a little art supplies geekout! I'm always voyeuristically scavenging blogs and Pinterest to see what sketching tools other artists are using. I've only mentioned my sketching kit once before on this blog, so I decided to create a post about this topic alone. Read more...
On September the 1st I celebrated the first anniversary of making the switch to full-time self-employment. I find it really funny to read all the advice now, because I broke pretty much every single rule along the way. And this made it more difficult than it had to be. If you're still in your day job, here's a heads-up on what not to do, and what to do instead. Read more...
When I was a kid and I started getting nice stationery for birthdays, my grandma warned me that I should not 'play' with it, but keep it safe for when I was older. I internalized this story: I don't deserve nice things now. Fast forward 20 years, I realized I still kept my 'nice sketchbooks' because I felt undeserving. Read more...
Don't ignore the question of pricing before anyone asks you. You need to come to the art buying conversation prepared. If you have no idea how to figure out how much to charge for your creations, I've got you covered! I'll show you the exact process I used to figure out the pricing for my art. Read more...
In the start-up world people often present early concepts of their work because they don't want to put thousands of hours of work and boatloads of money into something that isn't even interesting or useful to other people. And what do most of us do? We wait until we build it — no actually, we wait until we perfect it — and then we show it to the world. Read more...
About a month ago I took part in a free CreativeLive workshop Build a Successful Creative Blog taught by April Bowles-Olin of Blacksburg Belle.
Some of us who attended decided to create a blog tour, highlighting our biggest takeaways. If you want to learn how to improve your blog (or start a new one) definitely read this post, and the other posts in the series. Read more...
Recently I've been e-mailing back and forth with my online friend and we came across the issue of people's taste not being aligned with our own artistic taste. She mentioned how some of her very dear and important works went almost unnoticed, and those works that she didn't consider that good got a huge amount of feedback. The good side of this phenomenon is people like something. At least you have fans! The bad side is, they don't like what you want them to like. Read more...
We've been called unfocused, irresponsible, flaky, Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none and a gazzillion other things, mostly negative. Occasionally someone might call us a Renaissance person or multi-talented (usually people who are themselves multi-passionate, so they see the benefit), but in general we have a really bad rep in the world of specialization. Read more...
We usually imagine Resistance, or creative block, as a solid, heavy thing blocking our path. It's difficult to bypass and impossible to move or destroy. Sometimes we see it as a little nagging monster, riding on our backs the entire time, covering our eyes and generally causing mayhem. I propose a different visual that might feel less intimidating. Read more...
I this video I talk about how art journaling can help with releasing perfectionist tendencies. I call myself a recovering perfectionist, I'm still not completely completely over it, but I saw some progress and I'm really happy with how it's working so I want to share some of my tools and techniques with you so you can see this progress in yourself as well. Read more...
Here's a tip on how to use your calendar or planner in a different way than you might be used to — instead of just looking forward to things that you planned for the future, you can also look back and learn from it.
Companies invest millions of dollars into "big data" research that helps them make decisions that will bring in even more millions, so what can we learn from this example?
That data can be extremely useful when we know what to do with it. Read more...
Did you ever wake up one day super motivated and excited, with your fingers itching to make something today, only to get lost in menial work that isn't really what you had in mind? And then the evening came, and you realized you didn't get to do a single thing today that you were so excited about. But tomorrow morning you aren't really that motivated or excited. You don't really feel like doing any of the stuff you wanted a day earlier, even though you have time to do it. The magic is gone. Yesterday was your super awesome day, and today isn't. That's just the way things are sometimes. Read more...
Download this free guidebook and you'll learn: how to get more brilliant ideas, how to keep & organize your ideas and how to turn those ideas into reality. This book is formatted as a series of texts in which I share tips and inspiration, followed by worksheets with exercises so you can take action as soon as possible. Read more...
If you're not a visual creative yourself, and you find yourself in need of some design or illustration services for your project, there are two options: pay for them, or try to ask a friend to help you out for free (or cheap). If you opt for the second route, here is a short guide to help you approach your friend in a way that will not endanger your relationship and create resentment on either side. Read more...
What I'm about to write is probably very obvious to everyone, but since I've allowed myself to forget this time and time again, I decided to write about it anyway. As a reminder to myself. As a reminder to you. Read more...
I'm a huge fan of sketchbooks, so I'm very passionate about this subject. I hope that in this post I will give you enough reasons to finally start using them, and of course even if you don't consider yourself a visual creative, sketchbooks are a lot of fun!
In the end I'll also share some tips how to get the best from your sketchbook practice, and I'll show you a video of my sketchbook flip. Read more...