Doodlebot loves rock climbing, too. Though I do all my rock climbing in a gym. .
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#doodlebot #doodle #dailycreative #doodlesofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #artistsofinstagram #imperfectionism #originalart #abstractart #tinyart #tinyanddaily #creativesandboxway #pigmamicron #blackandwhite
Snapshot from My Studio: September 25, 2018 at 09:30AM
So much to do today!!! Proposal to get from draft form into InDesign. Podcast to produce and schedule. White paper to work on. Speech to practice. But before it all, I still take time for Creative Sandbox playtime. Why? Because it’s essential. Because my whole day goes better when I take even just a *tiny* bit of time to play, just for me. 🖍
“Think tiny and daily” is Creative Sandbox Way™ Guidepost #4. It makes a difference, that tiny and daily, creating in the books and crannies, even if it seems like it’s a stupid waste of time. It keeps your toe in the creative stream. And those small daily acts add up. (And you can still do a deep dive and come to a retreat or a Playday, too! It doesn’t have to be “either, or”! It gets to be “both, and”!)
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What can you do today, *right now*, to make your creative spirit happy? What’s the trendiest, tiniest little playful thing that would delight her?
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#doodle #doodlebot #imperfectionism #improvart #intuitiveart #tinyanddaily #artistsoninstagram #artistsofinstagram #doodlesofinstagram #originalart #abstractart #tinyart #dailyart #dailycreative #smalldailyacts #creativesandboxway
Snapshot from My Studio: September 22, 2018 at 09:16AM
Doodlebot is wearing a hoodie today! (I didn’t even know Doodlebot had wardrobe options! Doodlebot is always surprising me. 😊)
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#doodle #doodlesofinstagram #dailydoodle #dailycreative #imperfectionism #artistsofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #originalart #tinyart #blackandwhite #doodlebot #abstractart #pigmamicron #creativesandboxway
Snapshot from My Studio: September 20, 2018 at 10:34AM
Doodlebot says hello. 😊
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What are you creating today? And if the answer is “nothing,” can you carve out just two minutes to doodle? Seriously!! It’s amazing how taking a *tiny* bit of time for creative play can make a big difference toward refreshing your entire being! You think more clearly, you see possibilities where before there were none, your entire outlook lifts from “bleah” to “better!”
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Creative play is not an indulgence. Not a frivolous waste of time. It’s essential. How are you going to give yourself some today?
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Ready to immerse yourself? Come to my next Creative Sandbox Playday or 5-day Creative Sandbox Retreat (links in profile) and watch your life transform. 😊
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#artistsofinstagram #originalart #artistsoninstagram #makestuff #blackandwhite #tinyart #tinyanddaily #doodle #doodlesofinstagram #doodlebot #abstractart #pigmamicron #creativesandboxway #imperfectionism #intuitiveart
Snapshot from My Studio: September 17, 2018 at 09:21PM
This bedtime doodle is definitely inspired by the Dada art I saw at the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Artists playing—that’s what Dada feels like to me. 😊
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Goodnight!
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#doodle #dailydoodle #dailycreative #intuitiveart #improvisation #spontaneousart #whimsy #dadaism #doodlesofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #artistsofinstagram #creativesandboxway #originalart #abstractart #tinyart
Snapshot from My Studio: September 17, 2018 at 04:20PM
Detail shot, after adding some of those distinguished grey whiskers I so love in the beard of that man of mine. 😊
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I still kind of can’t believe I even attempted to draw a *portrait*! Yet it’s not the first one in my Paris/Basel travel journal. How did I brave such a task? By planting myself firmly inside the Creative Sandbox, where it’s all about PLAY! Where there is no wrong (Guidepost #1, in case you haven’t read my book, The Creative Sandbox Way™), where we think process, not product (Guidepost #2). Where we dismiss all gremlins (Guidepost #8) and treat ourselves with compassion (Guidepost #10). 🖍
At Creative Sandbox Retreat, we practice all of the Guideposts, and more. And we laugh a TON while we’re doing it. 😊 We celebrate “mistakes” and “failures,” and talk about jumping on the “crap wagon.” (Because we all know we need to let ourselves make crap in order to improve! We need the crap to fertilize the good stuff!)
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Really, the only bad part about Creative Sandbox Retreat is having to leave. 😞
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The next *scheduled* Creative Sandbox Retreat is September 11-15, 2019… BUT you can come to a half-day Playday to get a little taste in the meantime (October 14 and November 25 are the next Creative Sandbox Playdays—click the link in my profile, or go to http://bit.ly/2NWuyAa for more info) plus you may not have to wait a full year to get in on the five-day retreat action. Plans are in the works for a Winter Creative Sandbox Retreat! Stay tuned and sign up on my mailing list to get notified! 😊
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#creativesandboxretreat #creativesandbox #traveljournal #artjournal #sketchbookjournal #sketchnotes #sketchnotearmy #originalart #artistsofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #originalart #doodle #moleskine #watercolor #watercolorjournal #imperfectionism
Snapshot from My Studio: September 16, 2018 at 11:25AM
Detail shot from 8/31/18 page spread of my Paris/Basel travel journal—the final page I’m working on at Creative Sandbox Retreat this year. Painting this goofy pic of my husband has been really fun! I’ve never considered myself “good at drawing” or certainly at drawing or painting people, and although this varies quite a bit from the photo, it still captures enough of his likeness as to be recognizable. It’s been a delight to have at it, and in PEN and WATERCOLOR, no less! Unforgiving media if ever there were any!
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This is the gift of playing in the Creative Sandbox, where there is no wrong (That’s Guidepost #1 of the Creative Sandbox Way™, in case you haven’t read my book yet), and where the goal is to think process, not product (that’s Guidepost #2). 🖍
Here at Creative Sandbox Retreat we endeavor to live by ALL the 10 Guideposts. To let ourselves make crap. To release our inner 4-year-olds and love ourselves up, instead of beating ourselves up all the time. To laugh a TON, and learn from each other. Would that the rest of or lives could always be like this, too!
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Right now the next Creative Sandbox Retreat is scheduled for September 11-15, 2019, though I’m itching to hold another one before a year is up, so there may be a Winter or Spring retreat—stay tuned, and let me know if you’d like to get on the list for a spot. 🖍
In the meantime, for a taste of what these experiences are like, join me at a Creative Sandbox Playday! Click the link in my profile or go to http://bit.ly/2NWuyAa to find out more and sign up—the next one is October 14th!
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#creativesandboxretreat #creativesandbox #traveljournal #artjournal #sketchbookjournal #sketchnotes #sketchnotearmy #originalart #artistsofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #originalart #doodle #moleskine #watercolor #watercolorjournal #imperfectionism
Snapshot from My Studio: September 16, 2018 at 10:30AM
A little more detail work on the 8/30/18 page spread from my Paris/Basel travel journal, on the last day at the Creative Sandbox Retreat. I don’t want this retreat to end! But people are already signing up for next Fall—September 11-15, 2019. (Okay, technically not yet Fall, but…) So we have that to look forward to. 😊 🖍
I’m also dreaming and scheming of doing Creative Sandbox Retreats at other times of the year. Winter retreat anyone? Spring? What do you say? Wanna join me? 😊
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#creativesandboxretreat #creativesandbox #traveljournal #artjournal #sketchbookjournal #sketchnotes #sketchnotearmy #originalart #artistsofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #originalart #doodle #moleskine #watercolor #watercolorjournal #imperfectionism
Snapshot from My Studio: September 14, 2018 at 11:23AM
This morning’s efforts at Creative Sandbox Retreat: painting this spread from my travel journal. Painting an existing page is less scary than starting a new page, so I’m easing into the day with painting. I plan to start a new page after lunch. 🖍
But it gets to be crap. I keep reminding myself — as if it’s a brand, new thought! — that whatever I do in my journal, whatever I create *anywhere* (here at the retreat or elsewhere!) gets to be crap!! After all, we need the crap to fertilize the good stuff! And this retreat in particular, we are really celebrating crap! I mean, we always do, but I made a little poster to hang on the wall with the quote, “I’m gonna get on the crap wagon!” after somebody said that at our opening circle Wednesday night.
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So hello, gremlins! I see you. I hear you. I appreciate your concern, and I know you’re just trying to keep me safe, but I’d rather grow, thank you very much. I’ve got this one covered, so I’m sending you off to get pedicures. Have fun, and I’m gonna get on the crap wagon and make art.
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#creativesandboxretreat #creativesandbox #traveljournal #artjournal #sketchbookjournal #sketchnotes #sketchnotearmy #originalart #artistsofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #originalart #doodle #moleskine #watercolor #watercolorjournal #imperfectionism
Snapshot from My Studio: September 13, 2018 at 05:11PM
In addition to painting an already-inked page spread, and writing/drawing a half a page spread, this is what I did at Creative Sandbox Retreat today: a complete page spread in my travel journal—writing, drawing, painting! And after completing this, here’s what I have to say: WOW! No WONDER I didn’t get this done while we were on our trip! It took me 3 ½ HOURS!! We never would have left our hotel! 😆
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I had been feeling badly about not capturing the moment IN the moment, feeling badly that all the thoughts I had on the trip would be lost (and of course, many of them will be), but in our opening circle last night someone shared a story about her grandmother, who took copious notes in travel journals on her many trips. After her last trip, when she was very old, she looked at the box of notebooks and said, “You know, I wish I’d spent less time taking notes and more time in the moment.”
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So there you go. The upside of not spending as much time writing and arting on my trip as I would have liked is that I spent that time DOING THE THINGS that I’m now writing and arting about. 😊
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Plus I did have my phone with me, which I used to take lots of photos (when my hands weren’t occupied with my crutches!!), and those photos are super helpful now, to jog my memory for where we were and what we did, and what I was thinking and feeling when we were doing it.
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So it all works out. And now I’m enjoying turning the memory of the experience into art (despite what my gremlins tell me about it being a waste of time. Silly gremlins!)
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I hope you’re making time to play today!
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#creativesandboxretreat #creativesandbox #traveljournal #artjournal #sketchbookjournal #sketchnotes #sketchnotearmy #originalart #artistsofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #originalart #doodle #moleskine #watercolor #watercolorjournal #imperfectionism
Snapshot from My Studio: September 13, 2018 at 11:46AM
This is what I’m working on at Creative Sandbox Retreat: my travel journal from our Paris/Basel trip. Letting it be crappy. Which is something of a tag line for this year’s retreat (not a surprise, since it’s something of a tag line for ME! 😊) Last night at opening circle, when I asked people to share what they wanted to get out of our time together, there was mention of “making lots of crappy art,” and someone said she was “gonna get on the crap wagon” and make a similar goal. 🖍
We all need the reminder that it’s okay to make crap. That we NEED the crap! It’s the crap that fertilizes the good stuff, after all! I seem to need this reminder CONSTANTLY! And I’m the one who’s preaching it! But we teach what we need to learn. And over and over I learn what seems a brand new lesson each time: “Hey! It’s so much more fun when I let myself make crap!” Like it’s a surprising new discovery.
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Well, okay. I’ll let myself be delighted again by that “new discovery,” if that’s what needs to happen. 😆
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Today, and this week/weekend, I will continue to allow myself to release my inner 4-year-old and make crap, and have fun doing it. How about you?
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#creativesandboxretreat #creativesandbox #traveljournal #artjournal #sketchbookjournal #sketchnotes #sketchnotearmy #originalart #artistsofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #originalart #doodle #moleskine #watercolor #watercolorjournal #imperfectionism
Snapshot from My Studio: September 12, 2018 at 04:46PM
Door tags for this year’s Creative Sandbox Retreat. I get so much joy from making these by hand each year. 😊
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But here’s a secret: I got to the retreat and realized one of the door tags I’d labored over at home was missing!!! PANIC ATTACK!!! I couldn’t make a replacement, because I didn’t have any of the tools, or the paper, that I used to make the originals! 🖍
So what did I do? I quickly whipped up an *entire set* of replacements! And because I had an *extremely* limited time in which to make them (about 20 minutes), I COULDN’T get perfectionistic about it!
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That’s one way to scare off the perfectionist gremlins: *radically* reduce your timeline. When you have a Riding short amount of time to do something, you simply do not have the luxury of perfectionist standards. It’s actually very liberating! 😊
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#creativesandboxretreat #calligraphy #originalart #moderncalligraphy #handlettering #brushlettering #brushcalligraphy #kuretakebrushpen #tombowdualbrushpens #dropshadow #imperfectionism