I doodled this live from Whistler, Canada, today! Sharing strong feelings about the importance of self-compassion when you fall off your creative practice wagon. Of all the practices we engage in, the MOST important is simply getting back on the wagon, with an abundance of self-compassion! If you beat yourself up, you’re actually LESS likely to stick with it in the long run (think about it: your brain now knows that the next time you stumble you will get a beating! And it’s inevitable you WILL stumble again, because you’re HUMAN, and life happens! So the sensible part of your brain — the part that doesn’t want another beating — will decide to just stop trying!)
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In the craziness and stress of getting ready for this trip (two weeks, three conferences, speaking, teaching a workshop, having to pack 5,000 LEGO® components, plus a multitude of facilitation supplies—so many moving parts!!), I let my circumstances get in the way of my Creative Sandbox playtime. I seriously could not manage to get in even 5 minutes of doodle time! Absurd, I know! And yet, it happens to the best of us, EVEN ME, the one who preaches the importance of making time for this stuff!
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But I did not beat myself up. And that is 🔑 KEY!!! 🖍
Beating myself up would accomplish nothing useful. And here’s the thing: missing my doodle time IS NOT THE PROBLEM. How I RESPOND to missing my doodle time is (or is not) the problem!
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If I beat myself up, BIG problem. But if I respond with gentleness and self-forgiveness and self-compassion, then ZERO PROBLEM! In fact, this is a golden moment! This is a chance for me to love myself more, and reconnect with my art practice, to notice how important it is to me, how much better I feel when I take the time to play a little, how “meh” and hollow and bereft I feel when I don’t. Now I have more data I can use (self-awareness!) to help me stay on track the next time!
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Do you see how self-awareness + self-compassion=the key to everything good? Do you see why I call that my Golden Formula?
#creativesandboxcommunity #creativesandboxchallenge #inktober #inktober2018 #doodle #dailydoodle #dailycreative #dailyart #imperfectionism

Today’s Inktober prompt is “bottle,” and I decided to actually try making some bottles, instead of pure abstract shapes. If you look at my Instagram feed, you’ll notice this is rather rare for me these days. Not unheard of, but I mostly prefer to work with zero preconceived notions when I approach the page. Why? Because when I don’t have a “platonic ideal” in my head that I’m trying to match on paper, there’s nothing for my gremlins to compare my work with! They can’t get disgusted with me for falling short. 😊 And when I choose intentional imperfectionism and abstract improvisation, it just confuses them, so they end up wandering off in a daze. 😉
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Today, though, I decided to go with the prompt of “bottle,” and make improvisational, abstract, intentionally imperfect (“crappy”) bottles. My inner 4-year-old still had a blast (she especially loved writing “label” on the labels! 😂), even though this was a totally different style and approach for me than my typical abstract doodles.
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It’s fun to play in a different style sometimes, when you can let your inner 4-year-old take the reins and play in the creative sandbox! Come join me at my Creative Sandbox Community Virtual Playday on November 17th, when we’ll be celebrating my birthday and letting our inner 4-year-olds play in the sandbox for 2 hours! Watch me make art and talk about my process, and make art right alongside me, and ask any questions you have, too. It’s totally FREE, but you do have to register in advance—link in profile, or go to http://bit.ly/2CEGAwg
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#creativesandboxcommunity #creativesandboxchallenge #inktober #inktober2018 #doodle #dailydoodle #dailycreative #dailyart #imperfectionism #letitbecrappy #artistsofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #doodlesofinstagram #tinyart #abstractart #doodleart #creativesandboxway #doodlebot #creativeplay

I totally forgot to even check what today’s Inktober prompt was (it’s “swollen,” in case you were wondering), so today’s Doodlecam doodle has nothing to do with it. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Well, maybe some of those bubble/rock shapes are a little more swollen than the others… That’s all I got. 😉
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I still had fun, though, with my inner 4-year-old inhabiting the tip of my pen, taking the reins. Especially after getting a lovely message from @riseshinecreative that watching me draw is “meditative” (aw, thank you! 🙏❤️), and seeing @ania_archer_designs Instagram Story about re-reading The Creative Sandbox Way™, and how that really helped her shift her perspective on her “crappy doodles.” (Yay!!! Totally warmed my heart and made my day! I shared her Story in my own Story if you want to check it out.)
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The Doodlecam of today’s doodle is up in the “Live” tab of my Story for the next 24 hours if you’d like to watch, and I’m also uploading it to my IGTV channel. 🖍
Meanwhile, if you also find it meditative to watch me draw, come to my FREE Virtual Playday on Saturday, November 17th! It’s a 2-hour birthday celebration plus art-making party! I’ll be making art and sharing my process, live on Doodlecam, and you can watch, and make your own art right alongside me (virtually), plus ask any questions you want!
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You do have to register in advance, though. Link in profile or go to http://bit.ly/2CEGAwg
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#creativesandboxcommunity #creativesandboxchallenge #inktober #inktober2018 #doodle #dailydoodle #dailycreative #dailyart #imperfectionism #letitbecrappy #artistsofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #doodlesofinstagram #tinyart #abstractart #doodleart #creativesandboxway #doodlebot #creativeplay

“Angular” – Inktober prompt for 10/16/18. And the word in my head as I started today’s Doodlecam, which you can watch in my Story for the next 24 hours. 🖍
As with yesterday’s doodle, I’m not crazy about how this one turned out, but again, it’s not *about* the outcome, it’s about the *process*. I’m not worried about the fact that I don’t like this one, because I make doodles pretty much every day, so it’s only a matter of time before I make one that I like again. (Plus it’s just a piece of paper!) Besides, you need the crap to fertilize the good stuff! It’s the practice of creating that will lead to something good in time. 😊
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#creativesandboxcommunity #creativesandboxchallenge #inktober #inktober2018 #doodle #dailydoodle #dailycreative #dailyart #imperfectionism #letitbecrappy #artistsofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #doodlesofinstagram #tinyart #abstractart #doodleart #creativesandboxway #creativeplay

10/15/18: weak.
This doodle felt very weak to me. I don’t like it. I didn’t like it while I was creating it on the live, streaming Doodlecam (which you can watch on my Story for the next 24 hours, or on my IGTV channel). But it’s not about whether you like it or hate it, it’s about DOING IT! It’s about letting your inner 4-year-old take the reins for a bit. Muck about, not try to impress anyone. Did you try to impress anyone when you drew with crayons when you were 4? (Or if you were any overachiever, if you were 3. Or 2.) NO! You did not! You were simply exploring! Asking yourself the question, “What would happen if..?” 🖍
This is what it means to play in the creative sandbox. This is what my Creative Sandbox Way™ Guideposts are designed to help you do! To let loose! To make messes! To free yourself from perfectionist paralysis so you can CREATE and get back to having FUN again, without worrying about whether what you’re creating is “good enough.”
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Who the ***** cares if it’s “good enough”??? What the heck does that even mean, anyway??? This doodle is a big, ol’ mess. My gremlins are horrified and embarrassed that I made it, embarrassed I’m sharing it, but you know what? My inner 4-year-old had a blast making it! And THAT is what matters!
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So who are you gonna listen to? Who are you gonna take direction from? Your gremlins? Or your inner 4-year-old? I can tell you which one will lead to greater happiness, and it’s not your gremlins.
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Rant over.
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#creativesandboxcommunity #creativesandboxchallenge #inktober #inktober2018 #doodle #dailydoodle #dailycreative #dailyart #imperfectionism #letitbecrappy #artistsofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #doodlesofinstagram #tinyart #abstractart #doodleart #creativesandboxway #doodlebot #creativeplay

The last third of Creative Sandbox Playday, after finishing one page spread in my Paris travel journal, I debated about taking the rest of the time to just doodle and muck about with line, shape, color—no attempt to make *things* that look like anything. But ultimately I decided to plow ahead with another page spread, because hey, I was on a roll, so why not? The only time I’m probably going to work on this is at a Playday or a Retreat, so why not just do it, right?
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I didn’t finish this spread—not even half way there—but you know what? I had so much fun doing this! It utterly delighted me to paint this, try to figure out *how* to tackle the various elements, and to let it be imperfect!
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That is the greatest lesson and gift of this entire travel journal: just doing it—in pen and watercolor, totally “unforgiving” media!—is giving me great practice in intentional imperfectionism! My drawings of photographs don’t look like the photographs, and whereas 30, 20, even 10 years ago that would have terribly upset me (so much that I probably wouldn’t have even made the attempt at all—can you say “perfectionist paralysis”?), today I really *enjoy* my wobbly inaccuracies! Now they *delight* me, because I see that they are what give my drawings character.
It also doesn’t hurt that this journal is of our trip to Paris, where we saw paintings by Matisse and Modigliani, et al, *whose portraits did not look like photos of their subjects*!!!!
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I’m not interested in being a camera. I have a camera for that. I’m interested in capturing *feelings*. And it delights me that my journal does that.
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#traveljournal #artjournal #creativesandboxplayday #intentionalimperfectionism #moleskine #watercolor #pigmamicron #artistsoninstagram #artistsofinstagram #creativesandboxway