Two index card doodles. Why do I love doing abstract doodles so much? After all, as a #visualpractitioner, I get to draw as part of my work—isn’t that enough? Well, no. No, it’s not. 🖍
Here’s the thing: even—and perhaps *especially*—if your creative thing is your job, it is absolutely essential that you *also* have dedicated “creative sandbox” time, wholly disconnected from commerce and obligation, where you are 💯% free to explore and experiment, and not worry IN THE LEAST about the outcome.
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In other words, dedicated pure PLAYTIME. 🖍
This time MUST be held sacred. The second commerce or obligation enters, it changes your relationship to your creativity, however subtly. Over time, it can poison it. Even shut you down completely.
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Your creative sandbox time doesn’t have to be big. “Think tiny & daily” is Guidepost #4 of my book, The Creative Sandbox Way™, and the tinier the better, really, because the goal is simply to get you to DO SOMETHING, and we all know the hardest part is simply getting STARTED. So making your time commitment TINY is much more likely to lead to success than a big chunk of time you’re liable to put off!
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For me, abstract improvisational art feels like pure play. And because I’m not trying to match some platonic ideal in my head, it confuses my gremlins. I can focus on being in the moment and having FUN, rather than getting mired in perfectionism (a big trap for me!)
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What feels like pure play to you?
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#doodle #dailydoodle #dailycreative #dailyart #imperfectionism #letitbecrappy #artistsofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #doodlesofinstagram #tinyart #abstractart #doodleart #creativesandboxway #creativeplay #pigmamicron
Snapshot from My Studio: August 15, 2019 at 09:11AM
Another page from my conference notebook. I see this and remember all the things I *didn’t* capture, memories which will no doubt fade away to nothing with time, but because I took notes, I will at least remember pieces of the day. 😊
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#visualfacilitation #graphicfacilitation #visualnotes #graphicrecording #sketchnotes #sketchnote #sketchnoting #sketchnotearmy #graphicrecorder #visualthinking #neulandmarkers #pigmamicron #moleskine #vizthink #ain2019 #thejazzloft
Snapshot from My Studio: August 13, 2019 at 10:26AM
In my 2 weeks away, I went to 2 conferences: first the International Forum of Visual Practitioners, where I was surrounded by graphic recorders of such amazing skill and talent that my gremlins went into overdrive, trying to convince me I should quit on the spot. “Who are you trying to fool?” “You can’t take visual notes to save your life!” “You’re nowhere near as good as they are, and you never will be—why don’t you just spare yourself the humiliation?”
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Etc. ad nauseum!
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5 days later I was at the Applied Improvisation Network world conference in NY, taking sketchnotes in my private notebook (like this page spread, from a pre-conference workshop, or “Learning Journey,” at the Jazz Loft in Stony Brook). 🖍
That’s right: even though my gremlins tried their darnedest to convince me to STOP, because I don’t live up to my heroes’ level, I didn’t take direction from my gremlins! I kept right on going.
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And here’s the really interesting part: when I shared pics of my sketchnotes in the Facebook group for the AIN conference, people went NUTS over them! They didn’t tell me where they could improve—they told me how much they LOVED them!
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So I went from the first conference, where (thanks to the Comparison Trap) I felt like a total loser, to the second conference, where people raved about how amazing my sketchnotes are!
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Talk about a paradigm shift!
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My skills did not change in the 5 days in between. The only change is the perception of the people viewing them. 🖍
To paraphrase a calligraphy teacher of mine, Peter Thornton, “Other people see your work for what it IS. You see your work for what it ISN’T.”
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When I compare my work with my heroes’, all I can see is how mine doesn’t measure up. But when I share my work with “non-experts,” they see all the things they think is cool about it! And if let myself be open to it, that helps me see those things, too. 😊
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Can you allow yourself to see your work for what it IS, instead of what it ISN’T? What is LIKABLE and COOL and INTERESTING and VALUABLE about your work, instead of focusing on where it doesn’t measure up to your hoped-for ideal? How might that change your relationship to your art?
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Snapshot from My Studio: August 12, 2019 at 06:34PM
I rather like how this page spread cake out, too. 😊
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#ain2019 #visualfacilitation #graphicfacilitation #visualnotes #graphicrecording #sketchnotes #sketchnote #sketchnoting #sketchnotearmy #graphicrecorder #visualthinking #neulandmarkers #pigmamicron #moleskine @pablosurgames @rcclimate
Snapshot from My Studio: August 12, 2019 at 06:31PM
I’m back from 2 weeks in NYC and environs, at 2 AMAZING conferences, where I took lots of #sketchnotes. This is one of my favorite pages from my notebook. .
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#visualfacilitation #graphicfacilitation #visualnotes #graphicrecording #sketchnote #sketchnoting #sketchnotearmy #graphicrecorder #visualthinking #neulandmarkers #pigmamicron #moleskine
Snapshot from My Studio: July 26, 2019 at 08:59AM
Index card art. Sometimes you’ve just gotta make a little 3×5 doodle to start the day, you know? .
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#doodle #dailydoodle #dailycreative #dailyart #imperfectionism #letitbecrappy #artistsofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #doodlesofinstagram #tinyart #abstractart #doodleart #creativesandboxway #creativeplay #pigmamicron
Snapshot from My Studio: July 22, 2019 at 09:00AM
The drawing I did for today’s LinkedIn post. Can you guess what these icons are supposed to represent?
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Clockwise from top left:
-Believe
-Mental model
-Improvise
-Safety
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I’m not 100% happy with any of them, but the beauty of visual communication is that the icons you use don’t have to be perfect, they just have to be *something*. 😊 .
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#visualfacilitation #graphicfacilitation #visualnotes #graphicrecording #sketchnotes #sketchnote #sketchnoting #sketchnotearmy #graphicrecorder #visualthinking #neulandmarkers
Snapshot from My Studio: July 19, 2019 at 09:29AM
Morning doodle.
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#doodle #dailydoodle #dailycreative #dailyart #imperfectionism #letitbecrappy #artistsofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #doodlesofinstagram #tinyart #abstractart #doodleart #creativesandboxway #creativeplay #pigmamicron
Snapshot from My Studio: July 13, 2019 at 05:14PM
People often ask me what kind of pen I use. I’m always happy to tell them, but really, the best pen is the one you have in your hand. 😊 I felt like doodling just now, and the only pens near to hand were ball points, so that’s what I used. Not my favorite for drawing figures, but better than no pen at all, and if I had to go upstairs, I might not have jumped through that particular hoop in this particular moment, so ballpoint it was! 🖍
Hence: the best pen is the one in your hand! 😉
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So here I’m playing around with drawing the concept of “servant.” How to convey that as quickly and simply as possible? I’m not so skilled at drawing kneeling people (yet!) Those figures need some work! I’m happier with my standing stick figures, thought they read more as waiters than servants, I think… Servant is so generic, it doesn’t have an easily identifiable costume. 🖍
That’s the tricky thing about drawing ideas: you want to transmit an idea in as few lines as possible, and ideally (as much as this is possible) make it universally recognizable. It’s an ongoing challenge!
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Which is, of course, what I love about it! 😊
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#visualfacilitation #graphicfacilitation #visualnotes #graphicrecording #sketchnotes #sketchnote #sketchnoting #sketchnotearmy #graphicrecorder #visualthinking #doodle #imperfectionism #letitbecrappy #creativesandboxway #vizthink
Snapshot from My Studio: July 02, 2019 at 07:56AM
Index card art. A little play to start the day. For me, abstract improvisational doodles are pure play. I start with a random mark and go from there. It’s like a game of solitaire improv, with pen and paper instead of a deck of cards, but you end up with something tangible at the end (and it’s way more fun than cards 😉).
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#doodle #dailydoodle #dailycreative #dailyart #imperfectionism #letitbecrappy #artistsofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #doodlesofinstagram #tinyart #abstractart #doodleart #creativesandboxway #creativeplay #pigmamicron
Snapshot from My Studio: June 24, 2019 at 08:07PM
Another flip chart for tomorrow’s “Innovate with LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® workshop. Hat tip to @malgosiakostecka for teaching me to make pretty lists in her Graphic Facilitation training at the @groveconsultants in San Francisco (if you ever get a chance to take a workshop with her, run, don’t walk!)
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Likes: I like that I incorporated some images, and that the color scheme is simple.
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Wishes: I wish the spacing were more even—for the title, and for the leading between the text blocks. And I’m not sure whether I like the border or not. It feels rather busy. I do like that the border appears to be *behind* the box, though. 👍
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(Hat tip to Malgosia for this lovely was of self-critiquing your work, with “likes” and “wishes.”)
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#visualfacilitation #graphicfacilitation #visualnotes #graphicrecording #sketchnotes #sketchnote #sketchnoting #sketchnotearmy #graphicrecorder #visualthinking #neulandmarkers #flipchart
Snapshot from My Studio: June 24, 2019 at 07:53PM
I made 25 flip charts for tomorrow’s 90-minute workshop. This is the very last one—I finally got to use my monster pen! 😄 With my signature Neuland #lettering. (I used to teach this style of #calligraphy around the country, but never this large!)
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I have to say, I really enjoy making flip charts. The bar is pretty low, as people don’t expect flip charts to be much (actually, if they expect anything, it’s PowerPoint slides!), so I’m able to loosen up on my perfectionism and have fun. Really, whatever I do will probably be interesting and engaging, so as long as I communicate the content, it’s a win. 😊👍
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The only thing I don’t enjoy is how time-consuming it is to make these charts, and I wish they were as easy to swap out and move around as PowerPoint slides! 🖍
Sigh… no technology is perfect. .
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#visualfacilitation #graphicfacilitation #visualnotes #graphicrecording #sketchnotes #sketchnote #sketchnoting #sketchnotearmy #graphicrecorder #visualthinking #neulandmarkers