by: Vicky Rubin Many artists feel difficulties with motivation and focus. We all want to get to the studio as we were meant to do. But no matter how important making art is to us, we can easily settle into a habit of putting it off. Digital distractions are especially lethal. There’s always email, Facebook, […]
by: Millie Swaby-Pritchard Taking your Creativity on the Road As a student who constantly travels around on trains, taxis and buses initially I was stumped as to how I could take all my art supplies with me wherever I wanted to go. Initially, I was lazy and just thought ‘I can work when I’m at home’ […]
We are all broken Our online world is filled with photoshopped avatars, self-serving social media updates, and perfectly timed press releases that are often far more myth than reality. Don’t get me wrong, there is certainly something to be said for putting your best foot forward, but there is also something to be said for revealing your flaws, […]
By: Liz DeMarco As creative artists, we’re very passionate about what we do. However, I think we’ve all had those times where someone you don’t know very well asks, “So what do you do for a living?” We answer the question honestly, “I’m an artist, freelancer, entertainer, musician, actor, etc.,” and even though we love […]
Perils of perfect As much as we would like to convince ourselves otherwise, perfectionism is not about having high standards or a keen eye for detail. Instead it’s like pretty much everything else we do that screws up our creative life— it’s really about dealing with our fears and trying to protect our fragile ego. […]
We long for connection, guidance, and encouragement from other artists. Although these things may make our creative journey easier, they won’t necessarily make us any better. Creative isolation I didn’t know any writers growing up. In my neighborhood, we didn’t have some wise eccentric neighbor who was a writer. There was no role model, […]
Whether you are a writer, a painter, or any other type of creative artist you know that your life and your art are constantly evolving. Like any other journey this one has a beginning, a middle, and an end (so to speak) and each stage comes with its own set of rewards and potential pitfalls. The courage to […]
by: JoAnneh Nagler Can we really have it both ways? Here’s the thing: artists are sensitive creatures. Starving and struggling does not, in the end, work for us. It’s like running too much electricity through already delicate circuits. It doesn’t help us focus on our art, or our creative inspiration. We think—from years of being fed […]
Is using technology to create a work of art cheating? Is how we create something really more important than what we create? Does the Medium Matter? by: Alison Huff Is how we create something more important than what we create? Throughout history, art has always reflected the culture of the period it was created […]
by: Angela Cross As an artist, you’ve probably felt unappreciated at some point in your career. Heck, even calling your art a ‘career’ might sound silly to you! It’s a common 20th-century misconception that popularity equals value. It can feel like you just can’t build a following unless you already have one, which is a […]
by: Haley O’Bryan I never wanted to go to college. I wanted to move to Milan and become a famous author/artist/runway model/owner of 17 dogs. Only being 18 with strict parents and no cash can be limiting, though, so I did end up going to college after all. And given my creatively-influenced aspirations, I chose […]
Where can you find free images for your website or blog without having to steal them? Here are my favorite places online to find all of the (legal) images you’ll ever need. C’mon, I just want a #@$%! picture for my website! How many times have you said something like this to yourself? You want to add […]
Judging a book by its cover Book covers are probably more important than you think. It doesn’t matter if you are publishing a book, an ebook, or just a PDF that you plan to give away on your website, the cover will often determine how many sales or downloads you will end up getting. Why? […]
What’s your creative process? by: Tara Leaver Even if you’re not a painter or a writer or a musician, there are likely places in your life where you do have a creative process, even if you haven’t seen it that way before. If you think about it, bringing anything into existence, from an email […]
It’s not about having the right tools or gadgets, it’s about putting in the work. Whether you are writing a novel, painting a picture, or trying to capture the perfect photograph. We like easy Let’s face it, we all love our shortcuts and gadgets. Whether it’s about making our waistlines smaller, our creative work better, or our […]
by: Stephanie O’Brien Sometimes, characters make mistakes. A character who never screws up is unrelatable and unrealistic, and every good writer adds some flaws to each member of their cast – unless a character’s unnatural perfection adds to the story in some way. But there are some mistakes that even smart characters make far too […]
Listening to people criticize our creative work is never easy, but it’s going to happen. So how do we take a punch in the ego and then get back to work? The creative writing teacher from hell In college, I had a creative writing teacher who told us the first week of class that his job […]
Most of us don’t need any more goals or things to add to our to-do list. What we need is a way to focus our mind and cultivate our creative soul… I was exhausted. Most days my head would hit the pillow and I would wonder, what did I really accomplish today? What was wrong with […]
Creative Inspiration to Go by: Rebekah Nemethy If you’re anything like me, you love to learn new things and may wish you had more time to do it. No matter how busy your schedule is, I bet there are plenty of times when you’re on autopilot and your brain could use a little engagement. You […]
Why I stopped talking to myself Back when we first met, we all seemed to get along okay. He was always kind of chatty but it didn’t really bother me because it was usually nice to have a familiar voice nearby when I stumbled into a new or uncomfortable situation. For whatever reason he […]
Time to create or cut bait? Have you ever been in the middle of a project only to discover that you have completely lost your enthusiasm for it and now it seems you’re just going through the motions? So how do you know when you should continue working on a project, and when you should […]
Where do I even start? Have you ever had one of those days where you felt completely overwhelmed because you had too many ideas swimming around inside your head and you just didn’t know where to begin? Perhaps you drank one too many Red Bulls that day, or maybe you went somewhere that really inspired […]
The Courage to be Imperfect If you’ve read anything I’ve written in the past for this site, it will probably come as no surprise to you that I often misuse (some say abuse) the English language. So I frequently find myself scurrying about the internet searching for a definition or origin of a particular word until […]
Amateur Art Amateur artists have gotten a bad rap. There seems to be a growing rift in the creative world between “professional” and “amateur” artists, writers, musicians, etc… and I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t made things any better by writing articles with ominous titles such as “The 9 Warning Signs of […]
We have an expression around our house that we tend to use on everything from solving tricky Algebra problems, to practicing instruments, to eating icky green vegetables — and that is the saying “Some is better than none”. All or nothing… Sometimes as creative artists we can get locked into this idea that if we […]
Who Pays Who? by: Andrew MacDonald When I started out in the arts and craft world over twenty years ago, I don’t think the idea of “artist’s application fees” had been invented. As far as I remember, in order to enter submit a work to an art competition you sent some recent photos and sometimes […]
When you change one thing, one habit, your whole life changes. Patterns renew and re-chemicalize to meet the new habit Becoming an Archaeologist of Joy by: Niya Christine In November 2012, in a Seattle Starbucks, I painted a Starbucks cup as fast as I could for fun. And, it was. In fact, it was so […]
So what scares the crap out of you? People always tell me they can’t think of anything to write about on their blog. For me the problem has never been coming up with ideas, but instead it has always been about having the courage to sit down and expose myself to the world. I’m not […]