In today’s podcast we’re going to talk about using your sketchbook to explore and have fun, rather than thinking of it as a portfolio. With the kind of sketchbook flip-throughs  you see online, it’s easy to think a sketchbook should be a work of art in itself… but that’s not so! You wouldn’t expect an author’s first draft or notes for a book to be perfect so why should we treat a sketchbook that way.

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Things we discuss about having fun with your sketchbook

• When you see sketchbook walk throughs don’t be daunted. These are often portfolio sketchbooks by someone who has mastered a technique/medium and keeps their sketchbook for this purpose. They are made to be shown
• Not everyone’s sketchbook looks perfect – If you flicked through mine, to look at some of the sketches you would think I couldn’t draw at all and it doesn’t look like a cohesive thing,
• You should have at least one sketchbook which is a place for experimentation and to not be afraid of the result. It’s often those experiments which can lead to something interesting in your work.
• Use your sketchbook to collect inspiration… This might be memorabilia, Labels, tickets, colour swatches, photo’s, fabric.
• Try cutting up bits of magazines or old catalogues and leaflets and stick them down and use them in your art
• Make notes in your sketchbooks…Use your sketchbook to scribble down thoughts, ideas, titles etc
• Use your book to make thumbnails. These are small drawings that you do to work out compositions and ideas.
• Sketchbooks can have multiple different purposes, they don’t have to conform to anyone else’s idea of what a sketchbook should be.
• Keep a secret sketchbook (or as Sandra said by mistake “sex book” – check the blooper at the end of the podcast)… Padlock it if necessary! Treat it like a diary. You wouldn’t expect someone to read that, so your sketchbook can be just as private. This is something a previous guest Chris Riddell Advises.
• Don’t be precious. Start drawing with your hand at the end of the pen so you don’t have much control, let your hand wander then make it into something
• If you create a page you don’t like use the blank bits of it to doodle other things or try out different pens.

This week’s creative question

Q. If you wanted to hide a secret sketchbook, where would your perfect hiding place be?

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.

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In today’s podcast, we’re talking about drawing and sketching people. It’s a subject a lot of people avoid because drawing people can be tricky, especially if they are moving. Drawing people is something that Sandra and I both enjoy and want to keep improving. There are lots of different ways to practice drawing people, whether that’s from life or photos and videos.

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Ideas for practising drawing and sketching people that we discuss

• You could take a life drawing class. While it may not be possible to do that in person at the moment (due to the Pandemic) you could always do it online with both clothed and nude models. Check out our blog post about online life drawing. Some of the online life drawing classes Tara likes are @thejollysketcher @thamesmeadlifedrawing @thedrawingsesh and @CabaretCouture. Sandra also talks about her experience of attending an in-person life drawing class.
• Croquet Cafe – If you don’t want to try a life drawing class then check out Croquet Cafe – They used to be on Youtube, but have moved their content over to Vimeo – https://vimeo.com/croquiscafe They have videos of models and a timer so you can practice timed sketches.
  
• UPDATE Croquet Cafe is no longer free try checking out New Masters Academy on YouTube instead for free content.
• If you’re not comfortable with the idea of a life drawing class, you could draw yourself in front of a mirror or from a selfie. We have people in the group doing daily portraits.
• You could practice drawing your partner or spouse or even a friend if they are willing.
• Practice drawing moving people – if it’s not possible from life, then why not try drawing a newsreader, or a weatherman because you know that their movements will be limited.
• Also to practice drawing moving people you could loop a Youtube video. Check out https://youtubeloop.net/ which lets you loop sections of a video
• Once we’re allowed to venture outdoors more (after lockdown) another good place to draw slow-moving people is in a cafe. You will find people moving around a little bit but not much. Even if they get up and walk away, someone else will often take their place.
• Practice capturing movement with a basic line of gesture (line of action) to get the feel of movement.

If you are new to drawing people, expect your sketches to be bad at first. But with practice, they will only get better.

This week’s creative question

Q. Aside from cooking, what is the most creative thing you have either done or seen done with a vegetable? (you can blame Sandra for this one, no rude answers please 🤣 )

Check out @katybobsyouraunty on Instagram to see some of the fun things she does

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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Happy new year and welcome to today’s episode, the first of 2021! Today we are talking about our personal favourite art books… and not just tutorial books, but other inspirational books too. There are lots of obvious ones we could talk about, the Danny Gregory’s and the Austin Kleon’s, but we’re pretty sure that most of you will have heard of those, so we’re going to talk about the less obvious ones.

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Books we mention in the show:

Art Tutorial Books

• Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards
• Sketching People and Urban Sketchers Guide to Drawing Figures and Faces – Lynne Chapman
  Lynne Chapman has also been on our podcast on Episode 45
• Dare to Sketch, by Felix Scheinberger
• Urban Watercolor Sketching by Felix Scheinberger
• Sketching from Square One, to Trafalgar Square, by Richard E Scott
• Jean Haines’ Atmospheric Watercolours
• The Simple Secret to Better painting, by Greg Albert

Fun Art Books

• 52 Exercises to Make Drawing Fun – Carla Sonheim
• It’s Great to Create, by Jon Burgerman, also check out the podcast we did with Jon
• Making Comics – Lynda Barry

Art Inspiration Books

• Street Sketchbook and Street Sketchbook Journeys – both by Tristan Manko
• Basquiat – Brooklyn Museum
• Remedial Sketches – Lewis Rossignol
• A World of Artist Journal Pages – curated by Dawn Devries Sokol
• Dot Dot Dash – Designer Toys, Action Figures and Character Art
• Any of the Pictoplasma Books

Books Where We Love the Illustrations

• The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy
• Winespeak, by Ronald Searle
• Charlie and Lola: We honestly can look after your dog by Lauren Child
• Travels with my Sketchbook, by Chris Riddell who was on podcast episode 72

More Unusual Creative Books

• Thinkertoys, A handbook of Creative Thinking Techniques – Micheal Michalko
• Neighbours, by Lucy Dawson

Please note that some some of the links are affiliate links, so if you decide to purchase via our link we get a small commission. Thank you for your support.

This week’s creative question

Q. What is your favourite art book and 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.

Today’s podcast is all about our favourite art materials as well as some of the ones our guests have mentioned to us along the way. We’d love you to share the art materials you love in the comments too. Everyone loves new art stuff don’t they!

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Art Materials we mention in the show

Please note that some of the links are affiliate links, so if you decide to buy using our link we get a small commission. Thank you for your support.

Pencils for Art

• Stabilo All Black Pencil – writes on most surfaces
• Pentel Graph Gear 1000 Mechanical Drafting Pencil 0.7mm
• Derwent Graphitone – Water Soluble graphite pencils
• Conte Pastel Pencils H – Art and Illustrator Chris Ridell loves these as mentioned in episode 72

Artist Pens

• Pigma Sensei waterproof pens
• Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pen – black
• Pentel Brush Pen – which Laura Frankstone also mentions in Episode 63
• Platinum Carbon Pen
• Lamy-Safari Broad Nib and Lamy Joy Calligraphy Pen
• Sailor Fude Fountain Pen
• Zig Cartoonist Dip Pen

Ink

• Lami Ink as is water soluble
• Noodlers Ink as is water resistant but won’t clog your pen
• Higgins black magic works well with a dip pen too and is water resistant
• Quink Ink for washes

Markers

• Windsor and Newton Watercolour markers
• Ohuhu Markers

Other Artists’ Paints and Mediums

• Neocolor 2
• Inktense blocks
• Gamblin brand of oil paints and mediums
• Old Holland Oil Paints are mentioned by Kevin Murphy in episode 73
• White Nights Watercolours

Paper and Surfaces

• Seawhite sketchbooks
• Canson Imagine mixed media paper smooth
• Daler Rowney Artboards
• Pink Pig watercolour sketchbooks
• Stillman & Birn Alpha Series
• Canson XL Sketchbook
• Belle Ari fine linen canvas

Art Tools and Gadgets

• kids brushes set
• Da Vinci Travel Watercolour Brush
• Double ended metal pencil holders – the ends are big enough to hold neocolors and some oil pastels
• Light box
• Spray bottle – To charge watercolours
• Wrist sweat band, to wipe brush
• Shaving brush
• Sketching stool (Lesfit)
• Camping cushion

This week’s creative question

Q. What is your favourite art material and 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.

Today’s guest is Artist Mike Brennan. Mike’s childhood dream was to ​be​ a cartoon. When he realised that wasn’t possible he became the next best thing – an Artist. He loves sharing experiences and making connections through his art, and helping other artists and creatives establish a daily creative habit of their own.

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© Copyright Mike Brennan

Some of the creative things we discuss

• Why Mike decided to go to college to study graphic design rather than art
• Why after 10 years with creating started creating again
• How art helped him with his depression
• Tips for anyone who want to start drawing again after a long break
• How Mike has built an amazing creative habit and has created art every day for the last eight years
• Tips for building your own creative habit
• Mike’s process for creating art and why concepts are so important to him
• Why Mike now often works digitally after his initial resistance to the medium

Find out more about Mike Brennan

• Mike website 
• Creative Chats Podcast 
• Daily Creative Habit Facebook Group
• Mike’s Course – Your Artist’s Journey 

© Copyright Mike Brennan

© Copyright Mike Brennan

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 cope with the feelings of stress and overwhelm that can come with being, or ‘trying to be’ a creative.

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Originally, we had planned to record this episode in March, because Tara had recently experienced overwhelm having completed and filmed a ‘find your art style’ experiment over 60 days… And then lockdown happened, and no one in the world had much to do, so we decided that wasn’t the best time to talk about having too much to fit in!

As Sandra has recently been going through her own feelings of overwhelm we thought now would be a good time for the episode (even though we’re in lockdown again). That’s because the work Sandra couldn’t do during the first lockdown all came at once as soon as it was over and this left her tearing her hair out and not having a clue how to deal with it all!

So, when you are going through a period where you just don’t know where to start… Where do you start?

Some of the things we discuss about overwhelm as a creative

• Prioritising what’s important and how we go about it and how sometimes we feel a good old fashioned paper and pen list is better than an App, though we use those too.
• Focus on one thing at a time. Better to get one thing done, than bits of everything but not finish any of them. When Sandra was overwhelmed she found she was doing everything badly instead of a few things well.
• If you keep procrastinating, make your own deadline and enlist the help of an accountability partner if you need one.
• Other ways of relaxing as well as making art (we don’t recommend Sandra’s weird sexy talk)
• If you know things are likely to get busy, see if there are things you can do or prepare in advance (that’s what Tara did for her Find You Art Style Challenge)
• See if you can automate some tasks or make them simpler.
• Remember that you don’t have to do everything at once, spread the tasks out
• Challenge yourself, but don’t bite off more than you can chew.
• Don’t underestimate the importance of finding time to do the things you want to do.

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

The Mona Lisa has her own mailbox in the Louvre because of all the love letters she receives. … If you could send a letter of any kind, to a piece of art, what would your letter be about and what piece of art would you write it to?

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 Kevin Murphy from Evolve. Kevin is an internationally recognized award-winning portrait painter and illustrator. Kevin created nearly 250 commercial illustrations for such major entities as: The Rolling Stones, National Geographic, Lucas Arts and Barnes and Nobel

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Kevin is the co-founder of Evolve. Evolve is a platform that can teach anyone how to paint in a realism style in a year or less. You can check out the free painting masterclass webinar  Kevin mentions by going to KickintheCreatives.com/EvolveWebinar

Click here to get a time sensitive discount off the Evolve program.
Please note that Kick in the Creatives are an affiliate of Evolve. So not only will you get a time sensitive discount if you decide to purchase the Evolve Artist Program, but KITC will also get a commission which will help us to continue doing what we do. Thank you for your support.

Kevin talks about

• His fascinating journey into art and the incredible lengths he went to fulfil his dream of being a professional artist.
• Some of the amazing projects he has worked on, including being asked to do a cover for a Rolling Stones Album
• Starting his own physical art school
• How anyone can learn to paint, given the right knowledge and practice and how Evolve can speed that process up
• How he started teaching his oil painting process online when he co-founded Evolve with Mitch Bowler (Pencil Kings)
• Why he recommends learning oil painting over any other medium first
• Why value and edge are the foundations for all art, how this works and why it’s important
• What art students can do with their realism painting skills. He also talks about how some of his students are already making money from their art, including through selling their course paintings

Some before and After Evolve Student Work

Find out more about Kevin and Evolve

• The Evolve program time sensitive discount
• Free Evolve webinar to learn how to create realistic art 

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 Chris Riddell, a British illustrator based in Brighton. Chris has illustrated many acclaimed books for children, including Pirate Diary by Richard Platt, and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver, which both won the Kate Greenaway Medal. He also writes and illustrates his own children’s books.

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Chris Riddell was a Children’s laureate from 2015 to 2017. The role of Children’s Laureate is awarded once every two years to an eminent writer or illustrator of children’s books to celebrate outstanding achievement in their field. Chris is also a renowned political cartoonist, whose work appears regularly in UK newspapers. 

We have been trying to get Chris on the podcast for over a year, and wow was it worth the wait. He is such an interesting man, we hope you love this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it.

The Cloud Horse Chronicles: Guardians of Magic © Chris Riddell 2019, Macmillan Children’s Books

Some of the things we chat about

• We ask Chris how he took his influence from Raymond Briggs, his tutor (who illustrated the Snowman), but went on to develop his own unique style. 
• His thoughts on whether artists are born with talent or if it’s something that can be learned
• Chris offers his tips on drawing from imagination, something many of us struggle with and suggests an exercise to try
• Why he recommends keeping a secret sketchbook
• What made him decide to write his own children’s stories as well as illustrate? He also has a fascinating process of how he does this!
• Chris’ work as a political cartoonist for the Observer and how the process differs from his children’s illustration
• His time being Children’s Laureate and what that means?
• How a novice illustrator can create their own opportunities.

Love in the Time of Coronavirus, text (c) Nikita Gill 2020, illustration © Chris Riddell 2020. From Poems To Save The World With by Chris Riddell, Macmillan Children’s Books

Books that Chris has been working on

• Pirate Stew 
• Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland
• Poems to Save the World With 
• Honey for You, Honey for Me
• A Clock of Stars: The Shadow Moth

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland © Lewis Caroll 1865, illustration (c) Chris Riddell 2020, Macmillan Children’s Books

Find out more about Chris Riddell

• Instagram – @chris_riddell
• Facebook Page – @authorchrisriddell
• Twitter – @chrisriddell50

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

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 art tutorials and tips.
Subscribe to our channel and click the notifications bell to be alerted on all our new videos.

This is the second part of our podcast about the best ways to present your artwork. In this part, we cover more of the physical side of presenting your art rather than sharing it virtually on social media.

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Some of the things we discuss about presenting your artwork

• Try virtually framing your art to test out ideas
• Sandra recommends going to a professional framer and she explains why
• Thoughts on choosing frames and mounts
• Ideas on picking out colours from your paintings or where your painting will hang
• Types of glass for paintings
• Ideas for posting out your art when you sell it so your buyer loves it
• Packaging up your art – Sandra gives an important tip on packaging oil paintings
• Thoughts on business cards and email lists

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 your favourite art-related joke?

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 art tutorials and tips.
Subscribe to our channel and click the notifications bell to be alerted on all our new videos.