https://kickinthecreatives.com/fun-art/

Welcome to today's art podcast, and today we’re going to chat about prioritising the fun stuff with your art. What we mean about that is making sure you make time to do the creative work you enjoy, rather than worrying about your art or getting bogged down by the business side.

Shownotes

You can find the shownotes for this episode at https://kickinthecreatives.com/fun-art/

Our Sponsor Evolve Art

This podcast is sponsored by Evolve. Evolve can teach anyone how to paint in a realism style to a professional level in a year. They offer online lessons, support and also provide the materials you need.

To find out more sign up for a free art masterclass at

https://kickinthecreatives.com/evolvewebinar

Our Art Challenges

We have 3 challenges every month:

https://kickinthecreatives.com/all-creative-challenges/

On Social Media

Instagram | Facebook Group

Character and Cartoon Course

Just a quick reminder about our new Characters and Cartoons course

https://kickinthecreatives.com/cartooncourse

https://kickinthecreatives.com/artmindset

Welcome to today's art podcast! Today, we're talking about how your mindset affects your art. Whether you're new to art or already selling your work, your mindset plays a big role in how you improve. Let's dive in!

Shownotes

You can find the shownotes for this episode at 

Our Sponsor Evolve Art

This podcast is sponsored by Evolve. Evolve can teach anyone how to paint in a realism style to a professional level in a year. They offer online lessons, support and also provide the materials you need.

To find out more sign up for a free art masterclass at

https://kickinthecreatives.com/evolvewebinar

Our Art Challenges

We have 3 challenges every month:

https://kickinthecreatives.com/all-creative-challenges/

On Social Media

Instagram | Facebook Group

Character and Cartoon Course

Just a quick reminder about our new Characters and Cartoons course

https://kickinthecreatives.com/cartooncourse

Welcome to today's art podcast episode. Today we’re going to chat about art scams, spoofs and trolls. Here are a few of the things we discuss

You can find the shownotes for this episode at https://kickinthecreatives.com/artscams

This podcast is sponsored by Evolve. Evolve can teach anyone how to paint in a realism style to a professional level in a year. They offer online lessons, support and also provide the materials you need.

https://kickinthecreatives.com/evolvewebinar

We have 3 challenges every month:

https://kickinthecreatives.com/all-creative-challenges/

Instagram | Facebook Group

Just a quick reminder about our new Characters and Cartoons course

https://kickinthecreatives.com/cartooncourse

Today we are talking about drawing from life versus drawing from photos and which is best. And I think we know, now more than ever before, what a different skill drawing from life is since we started doing a lot more sketching trips out and about.

It’s really easy to rely on photo’s for practice, and while there’s nothing wrong with drawing from photos, it’s important to also practise drawing from life as much as you can.

In today’s interview, we are talking to Artist Ian Fennelly. Ian is an urban sketcher who creates and sells his amazing sketches. His work mainly features buildings which are painted with splashes of beautiful vibrant colours and use lively linework. Not only is Ian a fantastic painter he is also very entertaining and tells some interesting stories in this podcast.

Today we are talking about fun things you can do with a creative friend. Art can be a solitary activity, but it needn’t always be that way. Particularly now we have the internet. More than ever before we can connect with other creative people and find fun things to do together without even having to meet! In fact, Sandra and I didn’t meet in person for at least a year.

We can put so much pressure on ourselves to be productive and creative. Sometimes you really need to allow yourself a break to recharge ready to make new art.

Today’s guest is Illustrator and Urban Sketcher Lynne Chapman. Lynne has had a fascinating career and lots of tips to share if you’re an aspiring illustrator. But what made us reach out to Lynne was her amazing urban sketching. As you may know Sandra and I are both working on improving our sketching on location and whenever I’d google urban sketching tips Lynne’s name would pop up. So if you’re interested in illustration or urban sketching I think you’ll really enjoy this interview.

Today we are talking about the importance of going out specifically to sketch from life, and how to plan a successful trip.

Obviously, not everyone can dedicate a whole day to sketching on a regular basis. It might be that you can only spare your lunch hours at work, but we can talk about ‘snatching time to sketch’ in a future episode. Today we are focussing on arranging a dedicated sketching day trip.

Today’s creative guest is artist and illustrator Barbara Johansen Newman from https://www.johansennewman.com/

Barbara has had a fascinating career from puppetry to illustration to licensing. And now she has gone back to her first love which is painting. What is interesting about Barbara’s art is that although her figurative paintings are interesting in themselves, she builds a world around them using found objects and by painting on unusual surfaces.

As Leonardo da Vinci once said, “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” 

Sandra wasn’t entirely sure it was Da Vinci, but we’ve checked it now… Phew...she was right

Today we are talking about how to recognise when your piece of art is ready to be abandoned. Not knowing when to stop can be the difference between a beautiful piece of work, and something that is overworked and almost sterile.

We release a new episode every fortnight on a Monday, you can subscribe in all the usual places.

Today’s creative guest is Deb Weiers from http://debweiersart.com @debweiersart. Deb is a mixed media artist based in Red Deer Canada who creates amazing semi-abstract faces. Her art is incredibly distinct and she uses a very intuitive approach to create her art. It was seeing Debs Faces that inspired me to try creating a few semi-abstract faces myself for our Abstract April Challenge.

In today’s episode, we talk about why artists and writers often live with guilt and how to overcome it. Although everyone can feel guilty at times, the problem for creatives is that they tend to get a double dose. Artists and writers can feel guilty when they are creating and yet they can also feel guilty when they’re not. So this is where finding a balance is really important.

In today’s art podcast  we’re going to chat about art resistance and how to resist it!

What is art resistance: Art resistance is very different to art block, it’s a much more temporary thing. It’s the procrastination side of not making art. Like when you have a day when you plan to paint and then find 100 different things you can do before you actually make a start.

You can find the shownotes for this episode at https://kickinthecreatives.com/art-resistance/

This podcast is sponsored by Evolve. Evolve can teach anyone how to paint in a realism style to a professional level in a year. They offer online lessons, support and also provide the materials you need.

https://kickinthecreatives.com/evolvewebinar

We have 3 challenges every month:

https://kickinthecreatives.com/all-creative-challenges/

Instagram | Facebook Group

Just a quick reminder about our new Characters and Cartoons course

Don’t forget we have an early bird offer of $29 dollars! 

https://kickinthecreatives.com/cartooncourse

Today’s creative guest is Karen Abend from www.karenabend.com. Karen is an artist and illustrator who licenses her work. You may also know her as the creator of Sketchbook Revival, a free online event which has run for the last two years. Sketchbook Revival brings together a group of art teachers to share their ideas and inspiration for filling up your sketchbook.

In today’s episode, we talk about the importance of experimenting with your art and daring to break out of your comfort zone. But you might be asking yourself why is that even important at all? If you’re happy with how you paint, what’s the point in mixing things up?

But it’s very easy to stick to what you know because you want to master one technique… and there is nothing wrong with that, but by never experimenting with new techniques and mediums, not only could you be missing out on a whole lot of fun, but you might be denying yourself the opportunity to evolve as an artist.

We also talk about a new project we are launching called the “Rediscover Your Art” Sketchbook project to encourage more people to create art. You can find out more about the project here.

Today’s guest is Carrie Brummer from www.artiststrong.com. Carrie was originally an art teacher in school, but then moved into a more administrative position. She started a blog about art in her spare time and discovered that people all over the world wanted to learn to draw and paint. That blog later became known as www.artiststrong.com where Carrie formed a community and taught people to draw through her online courses.

In today’s episode, we talk about the pro’s and cons of turning your passion into your career. We both have quite strong feelings about this topic. 

Some of the things we discuss: How having a creative job can kill your original creative passion (I know this well) How if you get it right you’ll feel like you’re never working How it can be hard creating things “to order” How you can hone your skill and learn new skills while someone else is paying How you can end up creating things you’re really not interested in. How working for yourself can be great as you get to set your own hours How a creative job can help push you out of your comfort zone

Today’s guest is Jacqui Penn, also known by her pen name Penny Appleton. Jacqui who is 71, is the mother of well-known writer and creative entrepreneur Joanna Penn (The Creative Penn). Jacqui was a teacher for much of her life. She has also expressed her creativity in the past through painting in acrylics. Jacqui only started her writing career in recent years encouraged by her daughter Joanna Penn. She writes sweet romance books, based on aspects of her life.

In today’s episode, we talk about why it’s important to face your fears and draw or paint what you think you can’t. It’s all too easy to stay well within our comfort zone, but daring to break out of it is an important part of being an artist.

And what's the worst that can happen? Well if your fear is drawing deadly venomous snakes from life, quite a lot. Apart from that a bad drawing or painting is not the end of the world (I'd just stick to fluffy bunnies and butterflies)

In today’s episode we talk about ways of conveying a message or a story through your art.

This can be anything from saying something you feel the need to say without having to actually say it; in other words a way of expressing a message or your feelings. To creating a piece that tells its own story. And everything in between.

We recently asked on social media what topics you would like to cover and Nea Edmans was interested in advice on selling art. So this week our guest is Cory Huff from theabundantartist.com. Cory has a unique blend of expertise in the creative industry along with experience of working in online marketing. He now helps artists to market and sell their art offering advice through his blog, podcast, courses book and coaching.

In today’s episode, we talk about ways that you can improve your drawing. And of course, with everything the key to improvement is practice, but there are things you can do to help speed up your progress. We share some of our ideas, and also some of your suggestions. Different things will also work for work for different people.

Today’s guest is Stewart Hil, an ex-army officer who in 2009 suffered a traumatic brain injury during a second tour in Afghanistan. Along with perforated eardrums, a loss of his sense of smell and taste, Stewart’s ability to process and organise information were also affected. Since then Stewart has found a new purpose in art, initially using it as a way to help him focus. He is now a professional award-winning artist and he is also an inspirational speaker.

Welcome to today's art podcast where we’re going to talk about coming out of an art block. It’s a little update on episode 133 where Sandra was having a serious art block and Tara was having a mini one. Catch up with how we are getting on and maybe pick up some tips for dealing with your own art block.

You can find the shownotes for this episode at https://kickinthecreatives.com/coming-out-artblock

This podcast is sponsored by Evolve. Evolve can teach anyone how to paint in a realism style to a professional level in a year. They offer online lessons, support and also provide the materials you need.

https://kickinthecreatives.com/evolvewebinar

We have 3 challenges every month:

https://kickinthecreatives.com/all-creative-challenges/

Instagram | Facebook Group

Just a quick reminder about our new Characters and Cartoons course

Don’t forget we have an early bird offer of $29 dollars! 

https://kickinthecreatives.com/cartooncourse

In today's episode, we talk about sketching in public places and how to do that with more confidence.

After our sketching trip to London late last year, we thought now would be the perfect time to talk about the topic.

Obviously, our number one tip would be to get yourself an incognito disguise like a furry hat and moustache or horses head mask. Failing that, we do have a few other suggestions from ourselves and the advice you all shared on social media (thank you).

This week’s guest is Will Terry. Will has been a freelance illustrator for 23 years. After finishing his BFA project at BYU he began working for magazines and newspapers not far from where he grew up in Washington D.C. His early clients include publications such as Time, Money,  Wall Street Journal and Mastercard. He has illustrated around 30 children's books for many of the top publishers including Random House Scholastic and Penguin. He has created several indie ebooks that have sold tens of thousands of copies. He also co-owns www.svslearn.com - online illustration classes for children's book illustrators selling in over 80 countries.

In today’s episode we talk about whether you’re ever too old to start making art…. And the answer to that question is NO.

So that’s it for today, we’ll see you next time!!

No, but seriously… It’s a question you hear from older people, wondering if they’ve left it too late to learn. In fact Sandra wondered it too as she didn't take art seriously until she was in her 30s.

Happy New Year (that sounds so weird when I’m writing this in December)

Today’s episode is a round-up of the arty things we’ve loved and what we learned in 2018, plus a look at what we’ve got coming up for 2019.

We want to start by saying that having great art materials does not make you a great artist. Any pencil or pen will do, but they are blooming lovely and collecting them is a hobby in itself.

Today’s episode is all about New Years Resolutions. Don’t you just love them? Why is it that after chugging down a load of wine and eating too much chocolate we feel that we need to make a resolution? Oh yeah, maybe it’s just that we’ve chugged down a load of wine and eaten too much chocolate.

Anyway, allow yourself to breathe and let that top button pop open, as we don’t think you should be making resolutions. However, we do think there are better ways we can make positive changes and build those creative habits too. One of your resolutions was going to be to be more creative or draw more, wasn’t it? And to listen to more podcasts?

Today’s episode is all about why too much social media can kill your creative confidence. Of course, social media can be a great place to share your work and meet like-minded people. However, along with the good side of social media, scrolling through too much of it can be a sure way of feeling inferior and it can even end up destroying your confidence.

Some of the social media creative confidence issues we discuss

• How easy it is to feel intimidated by other artists on social media
• Why you shouldn’t take everything at face value (retouched eye bags)
• How we can use social media for inspiration and encouragement
• How timelapse can distort our view on the ease of creation
• How we can curb our social media addiction
• How we should compare our own work with our past work rather than anyone else's

Today’s episode is all about how time management for creatives. One of the common things we hear that creatives struggle with is finding the time to create something, whether it’s finding time to write each day, or time to draw or paint. In this podcast, we discuss ways that you can make the best use of whatever time you have to keep your creative projects alive.

This week’s guest is artist Jon Burgerman. I think we’ve mentioned Jon in nearly every joint podcast episode we’ve done so far. But if you haven’t heard of him you should definitely check out some of his work.

Jon was born in the UK but moved to  New York City in 2010. His art has a doodle like quality about it. What I like about his work is that it seems to be very much about play and experimentation.

Jon’s work exists in many forms including canvases, murals, sculpture, toys, apparel, design, print and even tatoos. He also does some really funny animation and video projects.

As well as writing and illustrating books, teaching on Skillshare and his other projects Jon has also collaborated with some very high profile brands including CocaCola, Samsung, Nintendo, Nike and Sony.

John talks to us about his artistic life and how he thinks you develop an artist style. He shares a few of his fun creative projects that he has done on the subway, which he does spontaneously. The projects start because he is perhaps bored, or feeling mischievous or perhaps just spots something he finds interesting.

We hope you enjoy the show.

In today’s episode, we talk about how to recognise and deal with a creative block. And, more importantly, why do we even have them?

And it comes at a good time because both myself and Sandra have been through one quite recently.

It seems that just about every Artist out there goes through this at some point, if not a couple of times a year and it is all part of being a Creative. But knowing that doesn’t always make it any easier to deal with.

This weeks guest is Joanna Penn from The Creative Penn. Joanna is an Award-nominated, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. She’s an independent (indie) author and has written 27 books and sold over 500,000 books in 84 countries and 5 languages. And as if that’s not enough, she’s also an international speaker and award-winning creative entrepreneur. Joanna shares the secrets to her success in multiple ways including her award-winning blog and her own Podcast for writers, ‘The Creative Penn’ (spelt with a double n)

Welcome to today's art podcast. Today we’re going to talk about titling your artwork. We have quite differing opinions on this topic so it should be a good one. What are your thoughts, does it really matter?

Shownotes

Shownotes for this episode

https://kickinthecreatives.com/art-title/

This podcast is sponsored by Evolve. Evolve can teach anyone how to paint in a realism style to a professional level in a year. They offer online lessons, support and also provide the materials you need.

https://kickinthecreatives.com/evolvewebinar

We have 3 challenges every month:

https://kickinthecreatives.com/all-creative-challenges/

Instagram | Facebook Group

Just a quick reminder about our new Characters and Cartoons course

Don’t forget we have an early bird offer of $29 dollars! 

https://kickinthecreatives.com/cartooncourse

In today’s episode, we are talking about painting/drawing for commissions versus painting for joy. Within the idea of paid commissions, we are also including those “jobs” where friends or family ask you to create things for them (we’ve all been there!).

We’ve been thinking about doing this episode for a while. Sandra has done a lot of commissions this year and I’ve also done a tiny commission recently and some in the past. So we thought now was a good time to talk about it. We’ve both recently been having a creative slump too, could that be to do with commissions? We talk about that in this episode.

This week's guest is Jake Parker. Jake is an illustrator, writer, and teacher based in Utah. Jake has worked on everything from animated films to comics to picture books since 1999. He’s lived in six states, working at the best studios with some of the most amazing and talented people in the country. Now Jake freelances out of his own studio in Utah.

Jake started his professional drawing career straight out of school, and in the podcast, he explains how he got that first break which kick-started his career. Since then he has worked for many high profile clients including Disney, Warner Brothers and Google.

Jake’s work has been published countless times in way too many places to list here, but despite that, he might be best known to our listeners as the founder of the hugely popular October drawing challenge ‘Inktober’.

Today’s episode is all about general tips for artists. It’s a bit of a follow on from Episode 15 about making the best of your creative space.

We cover a lot in this episode. Just in case you’re not aware, Sandra is an experienced oil painter who paints highly detailed still lifes. Prior to discovering her love of oils, she used to paint in watercolours. So Sandra has a wealth of tips to share, plus I throw in a few tips of my own that I’ve learned over the years too.

One of the biggest things you’ll learn is to take your bathroom cabinet out of the bathroom and transfer it to your art space. It appears that Sandra has miraculously found a use for everything in hers for painting. Even I found some of the suggestions a little eye-opening!

We are delighted to have the incredibly talented artist and co-founder of Sketchbook Skool, Koosje Koene on the podcast today.

Koosje was born in the Netherlands and lives in Amsterdam. She studied Graphic Design but later went on to become an award-winning photographer.

After 10 years as a photographer, Kosha got itchy feet and her pencils began calling her. She quickly re-discovered her love for drawing and started her blog.

Koosje then began developing online classes and not only is she now a highly talented illustrator, but also an online teacher. She also hosts ‘Draw Tip Tuesday’ where she offers weekly drawing tips, encouraging people to draw every single day. She shares how she gets inspiration for both Draw Tip Tuesday and her own personal art.

In the podcast, you will hear more about Koosje's creative journey on the way to co-founding Sketchbook Skool with Danny Gregory in 2014. She also shares her hopes for the future of Sketchbook Skool and her own creative work.

Today’s episode is all about making the best of your creative space. Now that includes keeping your stuff organised and tidy. Anyone that knows me well, will know that tidiness is definitely not my forte. In fact, my partner (who never stops hoovering) would be rolling around laughing at the thought of me giving anyone else advice on this stuff. Hands up who else has an “I don’t know where to put it” drawer

Now if you were panicking and thinking why on earth would I listen to someone so untidy, fear not. Fortunately, Sandra, who says herself that she is a little OCD in the clean and tidy department, can help balance out my messiness.

So just like you, I will have to listen back to this episode to see what Mrs Tidypants (as Sandra will be known from this day forward ) has to say about creative space organisation.

This week we are delighted to have Danny Gregory from Sketchbook Skool on the podcast. In fact, delighted is pretty much an understatement, especially for Sandra who had to decide what outfit she would wear for our voice-only podcast.

I'm sure if you love art and drawing you'll know all about Danny Gregory, but just in case you've had your head buried under a sketchbook for the last few years, let me tell you a little more.

Danny spent three decades working as one of New York's leading advertising directors. When his wife had a tragic accident which left her paralyzed, Danny started drawing and keeping a journal as a sort of therapy to help him come to terms with what happened. He has been drawing ever since. He also used drawing to help him cope with the death of his wife through another accident years later.

Danny has written several books, some of which show his beautiful journal sketches alongside his words, we talk about some of them in the podcast including A Kiss Before You Go and Shut Your Monkey.

A few years ago Danny got together with Koosje Koene to form Sketchbook Skool. Danny never dreamed he would end up teaching people to draw, but now he is inspiring people all over the world to pick up a pen or pencil and start drawing again.

You can find out more about Danny Gregory on his blog or at https://sketchbookskool.com

Our guest for this episode is realist artist Callum Stephen, who you may remember from the BBC Big Painting Challenge. Sandra takes the reins today as she interviews Callum while I’m off on holiday in France, which funnily enough is where Callum is now living.

Today's episode is all about idea generation, a topic we love. I have to try and keep Sandra under control otherwise she comes up with bizarre ideas like inflatable knickers (don't ask!).

If you have ever sat with a blank sheet of paper not knowing what to create, then this episode is for you. You really don’t need to wait for that Eureka moment to have an idea. There are lots of different creative techniques you can try.

• Mind mapping - but we put our own twist on this
• How to get ideas out of your everyday life
• How to use a random word to get ideas - we also try this live to show you how it works - yikes (we don't even cheat by picking the random words first! )
• Freewriting - Sandra shares a scary app for this too
• Sandra talks about how you should carry a notebook at all times, but hasn't got one when we need one on the podcast :-)
• Idea mash-up - Its a bit like making a cheese and potato pie, but completely different
• Moodboards and White-Boards
• Poetry and Character Tear-Ups
• Oh my god I am still writing, and there are more creative techniques we shared that I haven't even mentioned...get your coffee ready.

This week we are delighted to have a guest on the show and that's Mike Young, better known as Youngman Brown creator of the popular podcast Your Creative Push. Now Mike has a lot to answer for, in fact, he is the reason that this podcast even exists. He's the one to blame when Sandra and I are warbling on in your ear, as we met via Mike's Creative Push Facebook Group. 

Mike originally started his podcast because he was looking for a podcast about pushing yourself to be more creative, but he couldn't find one. Mike is a great writer but he found he wasn't motivating himself to write as much as he wanted to. Originally Mike was putting out one episode of the show a day, which is quite an achievement. Finding guests, interviewing and editing a podcast takes a huge amount of time and Mike was doing all that alongside his job of being a poker dealer. Mike shares how he managed his time and got so much done.

Mike shares some of the creative projects he is working on including Words plus music http://wordsplusmusic.com/ and Creative Push. He also speaks about some of the challenges he's taken part in. One was NaNoWriMo - a writing challenge, but Mike put his own twist on the Challenge. Cramuary was another challenge that Mike invented himself. The idea was that he would "cram"/do as much work on a creative project (his book) during January as he could. However, it didn't work out quite as planned which Mike explains more about in the podcast. Mike offers his tips for anyone else who is considering taking part in a creative challenge.

As a follow up to our episode about dealing with negative feedback, today's episode is about imposter syndrome.

If you haven't heard the term before, it doesn't mean you have to disguise yourself with a pair of googly eyes and fake moustache. Instead, it's that feeling you get that you get when you feel you shouldn't be in the position your in. That you aren't knowledgeable enough even though you have all the expertise and experience that you need to be where you are.

How to spot if you have imposter syndrome

• Feeling inferior amongst others in your field
• A fear of being ‘found out’... or people realising that you’re not really as knowledgeable on the subject as they’d thought
• Lack of self-confidence and self-belief
• Procrastination
• Feelings of self-doubt

Our experiences of imposter syndrome We share our experiences of imposter syndrome. Sandra talks about having Imposter Syndrome when her art was featured on the front cover of a magazine. Tara's art hasn't yet achieved such notoriety but she did once win a hamster cage age, (plus a teddy bear and R2D2 model kit that she forgot to mention in the show ;-) ). PS. she was only about 7. Tara has also experienced imposter syndrome on many occasions including the time she worked at a design agency and the most amazing designer worked there too - yikes.

How to overcome imposter syndrome Hold on to your hats, we got some ideas for you here, hint - that was one of them, but you can hear more in the show.

June Challenges We give a quick mention to the three challenges we've got happening in June

Copyist June Replicate a sketch, drawing or painting by a master or from an art book, every day throughout the month. One of the best ways to learn how to draw well is to copy from other artists who are masters of their craft. By replicating their style you will learn a lot.

Cartoon in June This is a challenge to create a cartoon every single day throughout the month of June. Your cartoon could be a single character, or an entire comic strip! You can use any medium.

For ‘Quick Kick June’ - Create a COLOUR sketch in 10 minutes or less. This challenge is particularly suitable for those who have a tendency to overwork their sketches or those who have limited time.

This week's podcast question Q. What is your favourite famous painting and why? The best answers will be read out on the next podcast.

Welcome to today's episode, which is all about taking part in an art show. We are doing this now as Sandra did an art exhibition a few years ago with a friend and Tara recently did a stall at an art and craft show. We are definitely not experts but can share what we learned as beginners.

Shownotes

Shownotes for this episode

https://kickinthecreatives.com/art-show/

This podcast is sponsored by Evolve. Evolve can teach anyone how to paint in a realism style to a professional level in a year. They offer online lessons, support and also provide the materials you need.

https://kickinthecreatives.com/evolvewebinar

We have 3 challenges every month:

https://kickinthecreatives.com/all-creative-challenges/

Instagram | Facebook Group

Just a quick reminder about our new Characters and Cartoons course

Don’t forget we have an early bird offer of $29 dollars! 

https://kickinthecreatives.com/cartooncourse

Today we are talking about dealing with negative feedback and we'll be sharing some of our personal experiences. Now, I am sure if you have listened to the show before you're thinking, ...but Sandra and Tara are way too fabulous to have ever had any negative feedback. That was what you were thinking wasn't it?! But it's true we have both had some gut-wrenching experiences - I don't think I need to elaborate anymore other than to say the words "nose whistle" and "the teddy bear got its revenge". It will all make sense when you listen.

Often it means you stepping out of your comfort zone and trying something new or stretching yourself, which is actually a great thing. It’s just that people aren’t always that tactful about giving criticism.

We need to try and remember that feedback, whether good or bad is only someone's opinion. Sometimes the criticism can help us learn something and improve what we do, other times it's best to ignore it and realise it's more about the other person's insecurities, jealousy or downright tactlessness. We share how our negative feedback affected us at the time and how we might deal with it if the same thing happened now.

Along with dealing with negative criticism, we also make some suggestions on how to boost your own confidence and make yourself feel better. This does not involve eating copious amounts of chocolate, although we are open to testing if it has beneficial effects.

We also give a mention to some of the fantastic members of our Facebook Group who are creating and sharing regular art in the group. You are welcome to join us.

Thank you for all of your answers to our previous question. It was fun reading some of them out,

What would be your dream creative project?

Today we share some tips on how to make your sketchbook more interesting. Plus, as usual, we go on a few tangents and talk about other things that pop into our heads, usually art related, but we can’t completely promise that!

We also mention our April Art Challenges which had just started as we recorded the episode - Abstract Art April, Imitation April and Quick Kick April. Quick Kicks are our monthly challenges that you can complete in 15 minutes or less, so most people can fit them into their day.

Anyway, just like the podcast, I have already managed to divert my attention away from the main topic of sketchbooks. First, we discuss different suggestions for making your sketchbook cover more interesting. Sandra is a big advocate of this, but I prefer to concentrate on the insides. It reminds us both of having to cover exercise books when we were back at school in the dark ages. Does anyone else remember Fablon that sticky plastic stuff or is it a figment of my imagination? Do kids still cover exercise books? Do exercise books even exist anymore or have they been replaced by holograms?...... Read the rest on the show notes

In today's episode we talk about the benefits of having a creative mentor and where you can find them. We are also encompassing the idea of having creative friends or allies. These are the people who help encourage you to create and improve. We also talk a little about our April challenges - Abstract Art April, Imitation April and Quick Kick April.