Day 16 of the July #creativesandboxchallenge inside the #creativesandboxcommunity: door knocker. I used to agonize over getting everything so precise, so perfect. For a self-assignment like this, I would have pulled out straight edges and rulers, driven myself crazy to get it just-so. 🖍
In fact, I spent more time NOT making art, because nothing I created could ever live up to my impossible standards! THAT is what I call “perfectionist paralysis.” It’s excruciatingly painful, because NOT creating when you have the hunger to express yourself through making stuff, causes psychic distress. First it makes us feel lousy. Cranky. Angry. Annoyed. Sad. Then it leads to an unexplained depression. And worse. You start spending money on stupid things, trying to fill the void. Or eating. Or otherwise self-medicating.
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Really, what you need is simply permission to play again! To create like you did when you were 4. When it wasn’t about impressing anyone, but simply about following your curiosity.
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THAT is why I developed my Creative Sandbox Way™ Guideposts: out of desperation to dump the perfectionist paralysis so I could get back to creating again! I knew PLAY was the answer. PLAY was the doorway to the kind of creating I needed—NOT the stultifying meticulous creating I’d been doing, with straight edges and rulers. I needed to MAKE MESSES, like a little kid playing in a sandbox!
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That’s why I practice INTENTIONAL IMPERFECTIONISM today. I embrace the charm of the wobbly line. It has life that the perfectly straight line will never have! And it will NEVER squeeze the life out of me by taunting me that it isn’t perfect enough, because it’s not *trying* to be perfect!! 🖍
When I practice intentional imperfectionism, it confuses my gremlins. And when my gremlins get confused, they bump into each other and wander off, instead of snarling their nastiness at me. Woot! Win!
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It takes practice, but it’s worth it. It helps to have a community who is also practicing with you, like my Creative Sandbox Community for women. We support and encourage each other, cheering each other on. 🖍
I’m opening the doors next Tuesday to new members. Check the link in my profile. #originalart

Playing with color in my sketchbook. Knot doodles and Neocolor II. .
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#doodle #doodleart #doodlesofinstagram #creativesandboxway #creativesandboxcommunity #sketchbook #imperfectionism #originalart

Today is day 15 of the July #creativesandboxchallenge inside the #creativesandboxcommunity, and today’s prompt is “monastery.” I did a Google search on “monastery icons,” and here are four attempts in doodle form. Symmetry is clearly not a strength of mine! 😂
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I love thee monthly challenges, because they help me expand my visual vocabulary. Other members use them as writing prompts, or to practice drawing skills, or for photography, or poetry… it’s up to you. But it’s always so fun and inspiring to see what other members come up with!
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And the Sandbox is a safe place to share. Not everyone feels comfortable putting their creative efforts out for the world to see, but in the Sandbox they know they’ll get a gentle, loving reception. It’s like getting your bearings in the shallow end of the pool before diving head-first into the depths of the ocean! The water’s fine, and the life guards have your back. 😊
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We inspire each other in so many ways in the Sandbox. In just over a week we’re starting the Great ClutterBust—3 weeks of clearing out the stuff that’s taking up space and weighing us down, so we can make space for what’s important! 🖍
When you see other people share “before” and “after” pics, and hear their successes, it motivates YOU to take action and finally tackle that Closet of Doom you’ve been putting off dealing with forever. I’ve got piles of junk from last year’s kitchen renovation that I still haven’t gotten around to that I’m targeting for clutterbusting. 😊
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Wanna join us? Get on the waitlist here: http://bit.ly/2pPbRDZ I’ll be sending more info this week!
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#visualnotes #visualthinking #visualcommunication #monastery #vizthink #neulandmarkers #doodle #originalart #dailydoodle #doodlenotes #creativesandboxway

Refuge. Day 13 from the #creativesandboxchallenge inside the #creativesandboxcommunity. I modeled this after the sketch that member (and challenge host) @carla.la.la.olson made (which you can find on her Instagram feed). I was so inspired by it! 🖍
That’s one of the things I love about the Creative Sandbox Community: we inspire each other! Seeing the art, photos, writing, clutter-clearing “before” and “after” pics that people share… and hearing/reading the stories of their insights… it inspires ACTION!
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We see, read, hear what someone else is doing or has done, and it jazzes us up to try something new ourselves, or to make a change, or to take that step we’ve been wanting to take but have been afraid to.
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That is the power of a community of kind, generous, open-hearted souls. All gathered together with the intention to care about and support one another. It’s the closest thing to magical I know of. I love these women so much! 🖍
I am doing things I never would have done, thanks to the support of the Creative Sandbox Community. And I am far from alone in saying that.
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It’s been a long time since I’ve opened the doors to the public. We’ve moved off Facebook and into our own private space on Mighty Networks, and I’m getting ready to start welcoming new women in as early as next week. 🖍
We’ll kick off with three weeks of clutter-clearing, to make space to create. Stay tuned! This will be fun! 😁
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#visualnotes #visualthinking #vizthink #visualcommunication #sketchnotes #originalart #doodle #dailydoodle #dailycreative #graphicfacilitation #creativesandboxway

Abandoned. Day 14 of the July #creativesandboxchallenge inside the #creativesandboxcommunity, my lab for women’s leadership through creative expression. Did you know the doors are opening to new members soon? We’ll kick off the re-opening with a Great ClutterBust on July 24th — 3 weeks of clearing out the clutter to make space to create! All members, new and current, get to join in. Turning an onerous task into something fun and playful, and actually getting it DONE, together. 😄 🖍
It’s a great way to start off your membership in the community: a fresh start, with a freshened-up space, that you’re excited to be in because it makes you feel good, makes you WANT to create! Not like this drawing of an abandoned house! 😂
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Stay tuned…
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#visualnotes #visualthinking #neulandmarkers #doodle #dailydoodle #dailyart #dailycreative #creativesandboxway #imperfectionism #originalart

Sketchbook page. Practicing hands from @evalottchen. She does the coolest illustrations!
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#visualnotes #visualthinking #neulandmarkers #originalart #imperfectionism #doodlesofinstagram #tinyanddaily #creativesandboxway

Day 11 of the Creative Sandbox Challenge inside the Creative Sandbox Community: graveyard. 🖍
Yes, it appears some of the residents of this graveyard are quite short. Ahem. I’ll have to work on that. Still, it gets the point across, I think, which is the goal, after all. 😊
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#creativesandboxchallenge #visualthinking #visualnotes #visualcommunication #doodle #doodlesofinstagram #doodlewithdinwiddie #sketchnotes #imperfectionism #originalart #neulandmarkers #graphicfacilitation #dailycreative

Frozen time. Day 10 from the July creative challenge inside the Creative Sandbox Community. 🖍
It’s supposed to be a stopwatch in an ice cube, though the blue streaks at the bottom make it look a bit like a gigantic stopwatch on a pillow on a bed with blue sheets! 🤣
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Context is everything. If I drew this image in a sketchnote, to illustrate the concept of frozen time, you probably wouldn’t see a pillow and sheets. But now that I mentioned it, it’s probably all you *can* see! If I added the label, “frozen time,” however, my lack of drawing skills would be forgiven, and you’d get what I was trying to communicate.
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Visuals don’t have to be perfect, they just have to be placeholders. Stand-ins. Something for our eyes to grab onto and say, “Ah, yes, I get it.” 🖍
Having that visual allows our minds to relax—the information is retained by the visual, so we don’t have to remember it. We can focus our attention elsewhere, knowing the information will be there for us when we need it.
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The visual holds the information for us, so much more powerfully than just words! Even if it’s wonkily drawn. 😉
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#powerofvisuals #visualnotes #visualthinking #visualcommunication #graphicfacilitation #sketchnotes #time #neulandmarkers #originalart #creativesandboxway #creativesandboxcommunity #imperfectionism #dailyart #dailycreative #creativesandboxchallenge #tinyanddaily

I made a how-to video for my IGTV channel just now, on knot doodles. This is the result. Of course Doodlebot showed up to play at the end. 😊 You can see the whole thing and learn to make your own knot doodles. They’re super fun, and very meditative.
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#knots #doodles #doodleart #doodlesofinstagram #doodlebot #originalart #abstractart #blackandwhite #creativesandboxway #tinyanddaily #doodlewithdinwiddie

Ugh. Being a beginner is so frustrating! But this is how we learn. I set a goal to practice some visual note-taking this weekend, on my 4’x4’ board. This is what I’ve got so far, from a tiny piece of a @creativelive class on body language with the always amazing @vvanedwards. There’s no organization, no useful structure going on here—no subhead for the “mistakes” section (gee, that would have been useful!) or any clarity around what is a fix vs a mistake.
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Sigh… doing this on the fly is HARD! I could come up with a much better layout after the fact, but as a facilitator, my goal is to support the process as it happens. 🖍
Lesson from today’s practice: LEAVE MORE SPACE! If I’d left space above my first mark, I could have created a subhead there. Now it’s kinda challenging to squeeze it in! Live and learn. 😁
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#visualnotes #visualthinking #learning #beginner #graphicfacilitation #neulandmarkers #visualnotetaking #originalart #thisishard #imperfectionism #creativesandboxway

Today’s prompt from the #creativesandboxchallenge inside the Creative Sandbox Community is “bicycle,” so I thought I’d make a little infodoodle on how to draw a bike! Anyone can do it! 🖍
2 triangles 🔺
2 circles 🔵
And a few lines
That’s it!
As you can see, it doesn’t even matter if your circles and triangles are wonky—it still reads as a bicycle! 😊
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Give it a try!
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#creativesandboxcommunity #creativesandboxway #doodlesofinstagram #visualcommunication #originalart #neulandmarkers #bicycle #howtodraw #howtodrawabike