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Today’s episode is all about Creative New Years Resolutions. Don’t you just love them?

Why is it that after chugging down a load of wine and eating too much chocolate we feel that we need to make a resolution? Oh yeah, maybe it’s just that we’ve chugged down a load of wine and eaten too much chocolate.
Anyway, allow yourself to breathe and let that top button pop open, as we don’t think you should be making resolutions. However, we do think there are better ways we can make positive changes and build those creative habits too. One of your resolutions was going to be to be more creative or draw more, wasn’t it? And to listen to more podcasts?

Some of the New Year’s Resolution ideas we discuss:

• Why you might make New Year’s resolutions in the heat of the moment (after wine) rather than thinking through what’s actually achievable.
• You’re not taking into account what is really doable, how much time you really have to dedicate to it
• How having goals rather than resolutions is more achievable
• How chunking down your goals can help
• How doing smaller challenges and reviewing them might be a better option

So get out that last chocolate you’ve been eyeing up (it’s bound to be a coffee cream – yuk) and savour it while you listen to the dulcet tones of Sandra and I nattering on about New Year’s resolutions.

This week’s creative question

What is the most creative thing you can think of doing with a pencil, other than to write or draw?
Now you may have trouble hearing the question on the podcast as I was practically crying as Sandra read it out, and she was too when she realised how funny it sounded. (Ahem… Let’s keep those answers clean shall we?)

The best answers will be read out on the next joint 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.

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Today’s episode is all about why too much social media can kill your creative confidence. Of course, social media can be a great place to share your work and meet like-minded people. However, along with the good side of social media, scrolling through too much of it can be a sure way of feeling inferior and it can even end up destroying your confidence.

We talk about how what you see on social media is not necessarily the whole truth. Images can be manipulated and filtered and you don’t often see the background struggle behind what’s going on. So you might see images of friends smiling and looking like they are having an amazing time at a barbecue. But what you don’t see is that all the food was burned (or maybe that’s just our barbecues) and the actual party was quite dull. It’s just that no-one is going to post an “I’m bored to death” photo online.

In general, it’s the same with art and creativity. We mostly share the work we like, not the pieces that look like you were using a wobbly jelly pencil (In case you were wondering, I don’t have a link where you can buy one of those). We only see a finished piece of art. We don’t see the bin full of scrunched up paper or the artist’s strop when arms were thrown into the air shouting “I’m crap at this!” prior to creating the finished piece. When I created a timelapse drawing of a 10-minute sketch of Danny Gregory, I drew him about 10 times. Plus I forgot to press record or set the timer once or twice. Only then did I think I had a reasonable version that we could use to promote our podcast interview with him. You didn’t see the previous 9 attempts – poor Sandra did!

Some of the social media creative confidence issues we discuss:

• How easy it is to feel intimidated by other artists on social media
• Why you shouldn’t take everything at face value (retouched eye bags)
• How we can use social media for inspiration and encouragement
• How timelapse can distort our view on the ease of creation
• How we can curb our social media addiction
• How we should compare our own work with our past work rather than anyone else’s

Apps we mention on the Show

• Focus – Social Media and Website Blocker for Mac.
• Cold Turkey If you are on PC
• Freedom (Mac, PC iOS) or Antisocial (Android). for phones and tablets

This week’s creative question

Your in a plain white, empty room with no windows. All you have is a pen and a sketchbook. What do you draw?

The best answers will be read out on the next joint 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.

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Today’s episode is all about how time management for creatives. One of the common things we hear that creatives struggle with is finding the time to create something, whether it’s finding time to write each day, or time to draw or paint. In this podcast, we discuss ways that you can make the best use of whatever time you have to keep your creative projects alive.

One of the problems many people have is that creative time ends up at the bottom of their list of priorities. Even below those important things… like stuffing your face with that last piece of cheese in the fridge before anyone else had time to pinch it.

Some of the time management ideas we discuss:

• How to curb your use of social media
• How to fit your creative passion into small chunks of time
• The Pomodoro time management technique
• Taking the resistance out of creating by having your creative materials at hand
• Getting up an hour earlier each day – That evil Sandra tortured me and challenged me to do this for a couple of weeks a while back.
• Using waiting time (waiting rooms, picking up kids) for creativity
• Scheduling ideas to build a balance of work, life and creativity into your day.

Our lovely followers on Facebook and Instagram also had some great suggestions for time management which we read out on the podcast. Thank you for all your suggestions

Apps we mention on the Show

• Todoist – A To do App that Sandra and I use for Kick in the Creative
• Trello – another To-Do app
• Focus – Social Media and Website Blocker for Mac. If you are on PC try Cold Turkey and for phones and tablets Freedom (Mac, PC iOS) or Antisocial (Android).

December Challenges

We also give a quick mention of some of the exciting creative challenges we’ve got coming up for December

• Doodling December – Create a doodle a day for the month of December.
• Digital Art December – Create and share a piece of digital art, every day throughout the month of December.
• Quick Kick December  – We are challenging you to sketch something ‘festive’ every day (in 15 minutes or less).
• Kick Time December – Create one piece of art, writing, poetry, craft using December’s prompt trouble

This week’s creative question

What is a subject you most avoid in your work and why?

The best answers will be read out on the next joint 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.

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This week’s guest is artist Jon Burgerman. I think we’ve mentioned Jon in nearly every joint podcast episode we’ve done so far. But if you haven’t heard of him you should definitely check out some of his work.

Jon was born in the UK but moved to  New York City in 2010. His art has a doodle like quality about it. What I like about his work is that it seems to be very much about play and experimentation.

Jon’s work exists in many forms including canvases, murals, sculpture, toys, apparel, design, print and even tatoos. He also does some really funny animation and video projects.

As well as writing and illustrating books, teaching on Skillshare and his other projects Jon has also collaborated with some very high profile brands including CocaCola, Samsung, Nintendo, Nike and Sony.

John talks to us about his artistic life and how he thinks you develop an artist style. He shares a few of his fun creative projects that he has done on the subway, which he does spontaneously. The projects start because he is perhaps bored, or feeling mischievous or perhaps just spots something he finds interesting.

We hope you enjoy the show.

The video that Sandra mentions in the podcast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=UIjGLK3Hzr4

Jon’s Books:

You can find Jon’s Books on Amazon, they include:

Books on his art:
Pens are my Friends (I love this one)

Colouring books such as:
Jon Burgerman’s Burgerworld: A Colouring Book

Creativity and Drawing Books such as
It’s Great to Create: 101 Fun Creative Exercises for Everyone

Children’s books such as:
Splat!

Jon’s Skillshare Courses

Digital Illustration: Doodles to Designs

Creative Exercises: 6 Prompts to Jumpstart Your Next Project

Don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast and our newsletter so you get notified of all our challenges.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you use the link to make a purchase we will receive a very small commission, without any extra cost to you. This will help to support our website and podcast. Thank you so much.

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In today’s episode, we talk about how to recognise and deal with a creative block. And, more importantly, why do we even have them?

And it comes at a good time because both myself and Sandra have been through one quite recently.

It seems that just about every Artist out there goes through this at some point, if not a couple of times a year and it is all part of being a Creative. But knowing that doesn’t always make it any easier to deal with.

Amongst our normal sidetracking chatter, including Sandra getting the completely wrong idea when I mentioned “Idea Sex” we discuss the following things.

Some of the things we discussed:

• Some of the causes of a creative block
• Warning signs that you are having a creative block
• Ideas to help get you out of a creative block
• Why you should try not to worry too much about your creative block

We both share what some of the causes of our creative blocks were and the things that helped us to get over them. Along with that, we mention some of the fantastic tips that you suggested on our Facebook Page, Group and on Instagram.

November Challenges

We also give a quick mention of some of the exciting creative challenges we’ve got coming up for November

• Linovember – A lino print challenge (or another type of printing if you prefer – got any potatoes handy?)
• Quick Kick November – Draw using a brush and ink (or paint if you don’t have ink)
• Kick Time November – Create one piece of art, writing, poetry etc, etc using the prompt during the month
• Kick Collage – Use collage every day in your work, this can be pure collage or you can paint or draw over a collaged surface.

This week’s creative question

Is Creativity something that we are born with or is it something we can learn?

The best answers will be read out on the next joint 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.

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This weeks guest is Joanna Penn from The Creative Penn. Joanna is an Award-nominated, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. She’s an independent (indie) author and has written 27 books and sold over 500,000 books in 84 countries and 5 languages. And as if that’s not enough, she’s also an international speaker and award-winning creative entrepreneur. Joanna shares the secrets to her success in multiple ways including her award-winning blog and her own Podcast for writers, ‘The Creative Penn’ (spelt with a double n)

A few of the topics we cover in the podcast:

How and why Joanna started writing

In this podcast, Joanna talks about the first non-fiction book she ever published and why she decided to publish it independently. This was well before it was commonplace to do so. Even though financially that first book was not a success, it was successful in terms of how it moved her forward in her career. She talks about how miserable she was in her corporate job and how she knew she had to make a change.

Joanna didn’t believe she could write fiction

You will learn that Joanna didn’t believe she could write fiction. It was only after someone challenged her that she had a block in that area that she created her first novel. She began writing it by taking part in the writing challenge, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Since then her fiction work has gone from strength to strength.

Goal Setting and Advice

Joanne talks about how she sets herself very specific goals, and you can tell by listening to her just how driven she is. Also, her enthusiasm and positivity are infectious. Not only will the writers learn valuable tips on how to build a successful writing career, but much of her advice is applicable to other creatives too.

Connect with Joanna

You can find out more about Joanna at www.thecreativepenn.com where you can also download her free Author 2.0 Blueprint and Email Mini-Course. The blueprint Includes tips on writing fiction and non-fiction, self-publishing, book marketing, and how to make a living with your writing.

Don’t forget to check out her podcast, books and courses too

We really hope you enjoy the show, don’t forget to subscribe and leave us a review at  – iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify | RSS

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In today’s episode, we are talking about painting/drawing for commissions versus painting for joy. Within the idea of paid commissions, we are also including those “jobs” where friends or family ask you to create things for them (we’ve all been there!).

We’ve been thinking about doing this episode for a while. Sandra has done a lot of commissions this year and I’ve also done a tiny commission recently and some in the past. So we thought now was a good time to talk about it. We’ve both recently been having a creative slump too, could that be to do with commissions? We talk about that in this episode.

Meanwhile, Sandra has been continuing with our Early Rise August Challenge to get up an hour earlier to create (rather her than me). She’s been doing a thing called the Miracle Morning which is supposed to “Transform your life” (read that in a deep movie voice) according to the website. I’ve tried it too in the past. Basically, it’s about doing things in the morning  – exercise, meditation etc that set you up well for the day. It’s a great idea in principle, but Sandra has her own ideas for a twist on the theme.

We also talk about how we recently met in person, much to Sandra’s surprise. She knew nothing about it as her husband had arranged it all

Anyway, I digress, back to the art commission’s topic I’m supposed to be writing about.

Here are a few of the things we discussed:

• When to say yes or no to a commission
• How to choose which commissions are right for you
• How commissions can be good for stretching yourself, but how far should you go?
• Why you’ve got to be careful not to let commissions kill your confidence
• Things to bear in mind when pricing a commission
• What happens if it doesn’t work out, and how to do your best to avoid that

Oh, and I delve back into the furthest recess of my mind to doing a few art commissions when I was about 15. I wonder what I bought with the money, maybe it was art stuff, maybe it was a Jackie magazine or a cool cassette tape. Who knows?

This week’s creative question

What’s your favourite art or creative quote and why?

The best answers will be read out on the next joint 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.

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This week’s guest is Jake Parker. Jake is an illustrator, writer, and teacher based in Utah. Jake has worked on everything from animated films to comics to picture books since 1999. He’s lived in six states, working at the best studios with some of the most amazing and talented people in the country. Now Jake freelances out of his own studio in Utah.

Jake started his professional drawing career straight out of school, and in the podcast, he explains how he got that first break which kick-started his career. Since then he has worked for many high profile clients including Disney, Warner Brothers and Google.

Jake’s work has been published countless times in way too many places to list here, but despite that, he might be best known to our listeners as the founder of the hugely popular October drawing challenge ‘Inktober’.

A few of the topics we cover in the podcast:

Talent versus learning how to draw

Jake talks about whether he thinks that some people are just born with a natural talent, or whether it’s possible for anyone to learn how to draw

Dealing with Creative block

Jake goes deeply into the kind of things that can cause a creative block and how to deal with it by filling up your creative bank account

Inktober Drawing Challenge

In the podcast, Jake explains how he started the popular drawing challenge Inktober to improve his brush pen skills and how the art challenge has grown ever since.

Kickstarter for Art Projects

Jake produces his own drawing and comic books some of which were funded via KickStarter including his latest graphic novel – The Star Seed.

Other projects funded on Kickstarter

The Antler Boy and Other Stories

Drawings

Artists that Jake admires

Two of the artists that Jake admires that he mentions in the podcast are Aaron Draplin (Graphic Designer) and William Joyce (children’s book illustrator)

Teaching Art and Illustration Online

As well as producing his own amazing artwork Jake also teaches art and illustration on the online platform he co-founded with Will Terry called SVSLearn.com. Here you can learn anything from portrait painting to children’s illustration.

We really hope you enjoy the show.

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In today’s episode, we share lots of ‘general tips’ for artists. It follows on quite nicely from Episode 15 about making the best of your creative space.

We cover a lot in this episode. Just in case you’re not aware, Sandra is an experienced oil painter who paints highly detailed still lifes. Prior to discovering her love of oils, she used to paint in watercolours. So Sandra has a wealth of tips to share, plus I throw in a few tips of my own that I’ve learned over the years too.

One of the biggest things you’ll learn is to take your bathroom cabinet out of the bathroom and transfer it to your art space. It appears that Sandra has miraculously found a use for everything in hers for painting. Even I found some of the suggestions a little eye-opening!

Some of the tips we share include:

• How to stop your paint from drying out so quickly
• How to clean and preserve your brushes, including the magic of Murphy’s Oil Soap
• How Gamblin oil paints are better for your health (also check out Sandra’s blog post about oil painting safety)
• How to stop dipping your brush in your coffee and drinking your painting water/medium
• How to stretch watercolour paper, including modern watercolour stretchers and watercolour boards.
• Some great apps for artists – including one that can replace that ridiculous wooden mannequin that would never stay in place
• A very ‘unusual’ way of removing dust from a painting!

We also include art tips shared by members of our Facebook Group, Page and our followers on Instagram.

Here’s the list of apps mentioned in the podcast

• ArtPose is an app that is a much better alternative to one of those wooden artist mannequins. With Artpose you can choose a figure, pose it in virtually any position, look at it from different angles and light it too.
• ProCreate is a fantastic app on the ipad that allows you to paint digitally, Some artists do the most amazing things with it. One of the really clever things about the app is it also automatically makes a video of you creating your art.
• Jackson’s ArtGrid lets you create an instant grid over a photograph which you can then translate onto your canvas so you can create an accurate drawing
• The ipad app Graphic – creates vector graphics very much like you would on a computer with Adobe Illustrator. Vector graphics are good as you can blow them up to any size without the quality deteriorating.
• Autodesk Sketchbook – this is another comprehensive drawing app available on desktop and tablet.
• Paper app by Fifty three – is an app for digital sketchbooks. It’s also beautifully designed.
• Adobe has a suite of apps for digital art on a tablet or phone which you can use for free.

This week’s question

What do you listen to while you create?

The best answers will be read out on the next 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.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you use the link to make a purchase we will receive a very small commission, without any extra cost to you. This will help to support our website and podcast. Thank you so much.

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We are delighted to have the incredibly talented artist and co-founder of Sketchbook Skool, Koosje Koene on the podcast today.

Koosje was born in the Netherlands and lives in Amsterdam. She studied Graphic Design but later went on to become an award-winning photographer.

After 10 years as a photographer, Koosje got itchy feet and her pencils began calling her. She quickly re-discovered her love for drawing and started her blog.

Koosje then began developing online classes and not only is she now a highly talented illustrator, but also an online teacher. She also hosts ‘Draw Tip Tuesday’ where she offers weekly drawing tips, encouraging people to draw every single day. She shares how she gets inspiration for both Draw Tip Tuesday and her own personal art.

In the podcast, you will hear more about Koosje’s creative journey on the way to co-founding Sketchbook Skool with Danny Gregory in 2014. She also shares her hopes for the future of Sketchbook Skool and her own creative work.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast and our newsletter so you get notified of all our challenges.