Today’s guest is art journaling expert Caylee Grey from GetMessyart.com. Caylee is a South African artist living in Germany. We really wanted to have Caylee on the podcast as her mission is close to our hearts, to encourage people to have a regular creative practice.

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Caylee has a fascinating story of how she started art journaling as a challenge she set herself. This then turned into her full-time business. She teaches others how to journal and most of all to love the process of creating art.  Her mission is to empower 10 000 people into a regular creative practice.

You can find the free Journaling starter course that Caylee mentions in the podcast at https://getmessyart.com/kick

Caylee talks about

• How and why did she first got started with journaling
• How her first journal pages made her feel
• That you don’t need to be good at drawing to art journal
• What she means by a phrase she uses – dancing naked in perfection’s face (and no it’s not rude, shut that dirty mind down now 🙄  )
• Why it’s important to enjoy the process and not worry about your art sucking especially at first.
• Tips for getting started with art journaling
• How her journaling challenge developed into her business
• Balancing a young child and family life with creative time and business and why it’s sometimes necessary to stick fake eyebrows on your baby🤣.

Find out more about Caylee Grey

• GetMessyart.com
• Instagram @getmessyartjournal
• Instagram @cayleegrey

If you enjoy the podcast you can support us by buying us a coffee. We want to make a coffee froth moustache. Thank you!

Today’s guest is Laura Frankstone www.laurelines.com. Laura is an Artist, Urban Sketcher and Illustrator from North Carolina. Sandra first came across Laura’s work about 12 years ago when she stumbled across her blog. It was Laura that inspired her to start her own blog all that time ago. 

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Laura’s work is lively, energetic and full of life. And her blog reflects that perfectly. One of her passions is travelling which is reflected in her travel sketchbooks. She arranges her travel to coincide with places she wants to draw. Listening to Laura will definitely make you want to run and pick up your sketchbook. In fact, go and grab it now and sketch while you listen.

Laura talks about

• How she got started with drawing
• What inspired her to start her blog and how important blogging has been over the years?
• How she has filled hundreds of sketchbooks over the years and what she thinks the secret is to be such a prolific sketcher?
• The basic sketching kit that she always carries, even when she travels with only a carry on bag
• Joining the urban sketchers movement and her passion for travelling and drawing on location
• How her passion for travel sketching developed and how she creates a series of works inspired by her travels.
• How she got started doing illustration work.
• Sketching her garden over the years as she transformed it after being inspired by Les Jardins Agapanthe in Normandy

Find out more about Laura Frankstone

• Blog https://www.laurelines.com/
• Instagram https://www.instagram.com/laurafrankstone

If you enjoy the podcast you can support us by buying us a coffee. We want to make a coffee froth moustache. Thank you!

In today’s episode, we are going to talk about completing a creative challenge. As many of us who have taken part in creative challenges will know starting a creative challenge is easy. You start out full of excitement and great intentions. However, maintaining momentum to see the challenge through to the end is much harder.

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Some of the tips for completing a creative challenge that we discuss

• How you could prepare prior to the creative challenge.
• Scheduling time for the challenge
• Making sure a challenge works for you and fits with your goals and time constraints
• How to pivot if a challenge isn’t working out
• What to do when you really haven’t got time
• Dealing with the days you just don’t want to create
• Ways of holding yourself accountable for completing your challenge. There are several ways of doing this that we cover,
• How to stuff yourself with a massive cream cake at the end as a reward. Ok, we didn’t discuss that, but we should have done and did mention how a reward might help with motivation.

What are the best ways you have found to motivate yourself to complete a creative challenge?

And of course, we also talk about what arty things we’ve been up to during lockdown and mention the Zoom life drawing (clothed!!! – Sandra posed) sessions we’ve done with the group.

If you enjoy the podcast you can support us by buying us a coffee. We want to make a coffee froth moustache. Thank you!

This week’s creative question

What is the ultimate creative challenge you would like to set yourself? What is stopping you?

The best answers will be read out on a future podcast.

You can Tweet us your answers @KickCreatives or let us know in the Facebook Group, which by the way if you haven’t already joined, I highly recommend that you do! We will put the question up there and also on the facebook page… and of course, on our Instagram page @kickinthecreatives.

If you have any suggestions for the podcast or our challenges please feel free to get in touch.

We’ve now got a Youtube Channel where we put up a new Art Video every Sunday.
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Today’s guest is Lewis Rossignol, an illustrator and artist based in Portland, Maine USA. He specialises in combining hand-drawn and collaged imagery.​​

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I first discovered Lewis on Instagram when I became interested in Abstract faces. His art was so distinct and unlike anything I had seen before. He created portraits that were the complete opposite of high realism. His drawings were grungy, predominantly black and white and very cool. And his work was part of my inspiration to find my drawing style. Sandra is also a big fan of his work so we were thrilled when he agreed to come on the show.

Tyler The Creator IGOR Album Artwork

Lewis talks about

• How and why he went to art college later in life as a mature student
• His Tourette’s syndrome and how art helps with the condition and how art/creativity could help with your mental health
• Artists that have inspired him and influenced his work
• Why he likes to “mess up” the page before he starts drawing
• His favourite mediums to work with
• Where he gets his inspiration for the faces he draws
• How he built his following on Instagram
• Crowdfunding his books

Some of the Artists Lewis mentions

• Ralph Steadman 
• Richard Thompson 
• Alan E Cober 

Find out more about Lewis Rossignol

• Website www.lewisrossignolart.com
• Podcast called Thumbnail www.thumbnail.podbean.com
• Etsy Shop www.etsy.com/shop/LewisRossignolArt where you can buy prints and books
• Instagram @lewisrossignol
• Youtube Channel www.youtube.com/lewisrossignol

If you enjoy the podcast you can support us by buying us a coffee. We want to make a coffee froth moustache. Thank you!

Today’s episode is all about creating themes for your sketchbooks.

But why would you want a theme for your sketchbook?

It can really help with indecision, having a theme can prevent that feeling of not knowing what you are going to draw. But if you are worried you will get bored with just one theme, you could have several sketchbooks on the go, each on different theme. For example you could have one for doodles, landscapes, portraits, cartoons, challenges etc. Then just pick up the one that you feel like doing the most.

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A few of the sketchbook theme ideas we discuss

• You could have a sketchbook just full of collage.
• Creating an experimentation sketchbook
• Have a sketchbook where you use unusual tools or materials
• An idea to create a food or recipe journal
• You could have an art journal, where you journal your day
• What about creating an “I wish journal”!
• A character sketchbook theme
• You could also have a more intuitive themed sketchbook where you start drawing and see what happens.
• Creating sketchbook full of random cut or torn paper, squiggles and ink blots to use as starting points for a sketch
• A sketchbook based on memories, old cards, photos or little notes you have written or collected from the past.
• A daily exercise sketchbook theme. So each time you go on your daily walk or run you take photos and then use those as a reference to create a sketch later

Plus we had lots more ideas and suggestions, along with us chatting about what we’ve been getting up to during the lockdown period.

If you enjoy the podcast you can support us by buying us a coffee. We want to make a coffee froth moustache. Thank you!

This week’s creative question

What positive things so far, have come from the isolation period for you?

The best answers will be read out on a future podcast.

You can Tweet us your answers @KickCreatives or let us know in the Facebook Group, which by the way if you haven’t already joined, I highly recommend that you do! We will put the question up there and also on the facebook page… and of course, on our Instagram page @kickinthecreatives.

If you have any suggestions for the podcast or our challenges please feel free to get in touch.

We’ve now got a Youtube Channel where we put up a new Art Video every Sunday.
Subscribe to our channel and click the notifications bell to be alerted on all our new videos.

​​Today’s guest is artist Ian Fennelly. Ian is an amazing urban sketcher, artist and teacher, who loves painting on location.

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Most of Ian’s work involves painting buildings which he paints in a lively vibrant way. When we previously interviewed Ian we were speaking to him after the show and he mentioned his interest in art and mental health. With everything that is going on at the moment with the Corona Virus lockdown, we thought this was the perfect time to get him back to share his knowledge.

The Five Strands of Mental Health

In this podcast, Ian talks about the five strands to mental health and how they relate to art:

1. Being active
2. Connecting
3. Giving back
4. Taking notice
5. Learning

At the moment, as we record the podcast most of the country is in lockdown for the Corona Virus Pandemic so it’s difficult to go outside and urban sketch. However, Ian also has alternative suggestions to how you can still use art to help your mental health. He has adapted from painting buildings and streets all over the world to concentrate on painting interiors of his house and garden.

© Ian Fennelly

Ian’s Online Urban Sketching Courses

If you have always wanted to try one of Ian’s live workshops, which book up really quickly you are in luck. He has adapted his way of teaching to deliver pre-recorded online urban sketching workshops. You can find out more about his courses at:

https://www.urbansketchcourse.com/

Studio 56 Boutique Online Workshops

© Ian Fennelly

Find out more about Ian

Visit his website – https://www.instagram.com/ianfennelly/

On his Instagram Page – https://www.instagram.com/ianfennelly/

© Ian Fennelly

If you enjoy the podcast you can support us by buying us a coffee. We want to make a coffee froth moustache. Thank you!

Today’s episode is all about how to find creative ways to cope with isolation following the coronavirus outbreak. As well as the podcast we put together this bumper blog post with links to free creative courses, resources and ideas for things to do during the Coronavirus outbreak.

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Since the news right now is overwhelmed with negativity, which is bringing all of us down, we want to suggest ways to help those people cope during that time… and possibly even make that isolation period change their lives for the better.

What if, instead of focussing on the negative aspect of having to isolate, although it’s difficult we try looking at the positive side to keep our spirits up? What if we all use that time to do something we have always wanted to, but never had the time because of work or other commitments? That could be anything from learning a new language to learning to paint and draw.

It is widely known that having some kind of creative outlet is good for our mental health, unlike isolation, which has the opposite effect altogether. So, creativity could be just the thing to counterbalance that negative effect.

Some of the things we discuss

• Some places to find free creative courses
• Ideas for starting online creative groups
• Ways to get many creative courses cheaper than they are advertised
• Creative Challenges you could take part in
• Preparing your art to sell for when things improves
• Making cards for people you love
• Taking part in an art postcard swap – start your own with friends or join our Facebook Group Postcard Swap
• Online portrait drawing with friends, one of our group members has been doing this
• Visiting a virtual gallery on your own or with a friend via the wonders of Skype and similar platforms
• Creative Collaboration ideas
• Podcast suggestions

If you enjoy the podcast you can support us by buying us a coffee. We want to make a coffee froth moustache. Thank you!

This week’s creative question

What creative things will you be doing during isolation?

The best answers will be read out on a future podcast.

You can Tweet us your answers @KickCreatives or let us know in the Facebook Group, which by the way if you haven’t already joined, I highly recommend that you do! We will put the question up there and also on the facebook page… and of course, on our Instagram page @kickinthecreatives.

If you have any suggestions for the podcast or our challenges please feel free to get in touch.

We’ve now got a Youtube Channel where we put up a new Art Video every Sunday.
Subscribe to our channel and click the notifications bell to be alerted on all our new videos.

In podcast episode 46, we spoke about how sometimes, taking a short break from our art can be beneficial and help to re-fill our creative well. But what if you haven’t drawn for months, or even years? You pick up that pencil again and somehow it just feels so alien, that you just put it down again.Today we are going to talk about that.

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So you want to start drawing again and you would think that the answer would be to just start. But of course, our minds like to mess with us and instead of picking up the pencil, we find every reason we can to put it off. What we’re really doing is procrastinating and doubting ourselves.

“What if`I’m rubbish?”

“What if I don’t enjoy it?”

So we have some ideas to help get you started

Some of the things we discuss

• How Tara started drawing by hand again after years of working digitally and how alien it felt at first
• How the way you want to draw now might be completely different from how you drew years ago
• That your taste for subject matter and mediums can completely change over time
• Why you have to prepared for your art tosuck for a while
• That copying can be a great way to learn (as long as you credit the original creator if you share your art) We all copied art as kids, so why not as adults.
• Why a cheap sketchbook may be better than a beautiful more expensive one
• Why experimenting is a great way to discover the art you love to make
• How a challenge can help motivate you to practice

When you’ve finished listening to this podcast, we challenge you to grab a piece of paper. It doesn’t need to be fancy – in fact, the less precious the better.. Find a pen and draw something you can see from where you are sitting. No messing about deciding what to draw.

We give you 30 seconds to decide.

This first will NOT be a masterpiece, but you have done the hardest thing and started. When you have finished, keep your drawing it will be fun to look back on to see how you improve.

The books we mention

Making comics by Lynda Barry
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards
Danny Gregory, Art before Breakfast – Non-perfect drawings are more fun 

*Some links are affiliate links which means we get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support.

If you enjoy the podcast you can support us by buying us a coffee. We want to make a coffee froth moustache. Thank you!

This week’s creative question

What is the biggest thing that gets in the way of getting to your art?

The best answers will be read out on a future podcast.

You can Tweet us your answers @KickCreatives or let us know in the Facebook Group, which by the way if you haven’t already joined, I highly recommend that you do! We will put the question up there and also on the facebook page… and of course, on our Instagram page @kickinthecreatives.

If you have any suggestions for the podcast or our challenges please feel free to get in touch.

We’ve now got a Youtube Channel where we put up a new Art Video every Sunday.
Subscribe to our channel and click the notifications bell to be alerted on all our new videos.

Today’s podcast guest is Eric Hanscom, an Intellectual Property Attorney who is answering your artists questions about copyright. Eric has been an intellectual property attorney for the last 20 years. He has successfully filed and prosecuted thousands of patents, trademarks and copyrights for his clients in more than 50 countries. As well as understanding copyright as an attorney, Eric is also a Drone photographer so understands the other side of intellectual property from a Creative’s perspective.

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A few of your artist’s copyright questions that Eric answers

• How long does copyright exist after the creation of a piece of work
• What’s the best way to protect your original art from being copied?
• If someone buys your painting who owns the copyright?
• Where does an artist stand on using magazine photos in mixed media collages?
• What are the rules for using someone else’s photograph/stock photograph as the subject of an original work of art such as a painting, drawing, print, etc.?
• Is it ok to include brands in your drawings, eg. MacBook with the apple logo on it or can drinks with branding?
• Is it enough to just put your name and date, plus copyright mark on anything you post on social media?
• Can someone who buys a painting of yours make and sell copies legally?
• What is licensing and what does it mean when you license your art?

Thank you to everyone who asked a question, we hope we covered them all.

Find out more about Eric Hanscom

Law website www.iciplaw.com/

Drone Photography – www.dronezone.club

Drone Facebook Page www.facebook.com/dronezoneclub

Eric’s Marvellous Pig Drawing that he Mentions in the Podcast

Eric and a Drone

Eric on a bamboo raft on the Li River Guilin China

We’ve now got a Youtube Channel where we put up a new Art Video every Sunday.
Subscribe to our channel and click the notifications bell to be alerted on all our new videos.

As Artists, we are often asked questions/statements that can really ruffle our feathers. And when Jackie Poulouktsi who is in our Facebook Group messaged us to vent a couple of questions that frustrate her, we thought of a lot of other ones we could add to the list.

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We start with the two statements that really frustrate Jackie:

• You’re so talented – when they think it just comes effortlessly without hours of practice.
• I could never do that, ‘I’m just not artistic – which is sad. I am sure if some of the people who said this took the time they would be surprised what they could achieve over a few months.

So some of the other frustrating things that people say to artists and creatives are

• ‘But it’s just a little hobby, isn’t it?’ – Sandra’s personal hate
• And Tara’s designer pet peeve is when a client says “Well you’re the designer!” when they don’t know what they want and can’t be bothered to write a brief
• Can you please do a ‘quick’ sketch of my house/kids?

But it doesn’t stop there. I am sure we will mention some of the things that people have said to you as artists that drive you insane. And if we didn’t, then drop a comment below and tell us about it. We didn’t ask you before because you know how much we waffle and the episode would have been 3 hours long!

If you enjoy the podcast you can support us by buying us a coffee. We want to make a coffee froth moustache. Thank you!

This week’s creative question

Have you ever been embarrassed to show your art? If so, why?

The best answers will be read out on a future podcast.

You can Tweet us your answers @KickCreatives or let us know in the Facebook Group, which by the way if you haven’t already joined, I highly recommend that you do! We will put the question up there and also on the facebook page… and of course, on our Instagram page @kickinthecreatives.

If you have any suggestions for the podcast or our challenges please feel free to get in touch.

We’ve now got a Youtube Channel where we put up a new Art Video every Sunday.
Subscribe to our channel and click the notifications bell to be alerted on all our new videos.