Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hello, my name is
Jenny Coland and I'm an artist and surface pattern designer from San Francisco, California. This
class is for you. If you have wanted to start
a sketchbook practice, but have struggled to
show up consistently, maybe your creativity
ebbs and flows. You run artistic marathons, and then you sit on the
sidelines for long stretches of time to build a creative career Takes a artistic endurance. A sustainable approach to
making art that allows you to consistently show up day
after day and get stuff done. While any artist knows
that you can go through magical periods of inspiration, to be a working artist means showing up and
finding ways to keep creating even when that
inspiration is on vacation. This class is all about building up that artistic endurance through showing up for a sustainable daily
creative habit. It keeps the gears
turning and it gives your ideas a home
and a sketch book. And it makes sure that
you continue to play, which is essential
for all humans and especially creative ones. Though I've been creating art since before I
could hold a brush. I have been working as
a professional designer and artist since 2018, when I began designing and
producing stationery stickers, art prints, and
children's products. I now also license and sell my surface pattern
designs on fabric, wallpaper, gift items,
and craft supplies. Additionally, I'm the host of a creative co working membership
called the Co League, where I mentor and support other working artists and creative entrepreneurs
on their creative paths. For the past three years, I've been creating
art in some form, every day or nearly every day. And whether I feel
like it or not, while I might not always feel
like it at the beginning, I am always so happy
that I did it at the end and that I sat
down and made something. In this class, I'm
going to share some of my personal drawing
exercises that I return to when I'm unsure of how
to approach the blank page. And I'm also going to share some tips for how
to set yourself up for success with starting
a daily creative habit. By the end, you will
have seven days of sketchbook spreads
and you will be equipped with the tools to make your own daily creative habit. Moving forward, you'll be
well on the way to building the creative
endurance that you'll need to make it as a
professional artist.
2. Class Project: In this class, you will build up your creative
endurance and be on your way to building
a sustainable, faily creative
practice by starting with seven days of quick
drawing exercises. Having a thriving
creative career requires a long term commitment. We can only show up for the
long haul by building up stamina and habits that
support a consistent presence. In this class, we'll
be using one of my favorite tools for
getting myself to make art, and it's the simple timer
app on everyone's phone. Every day we'll just
set a timer for 10 minutes for
that day's prompt. And it'll show you that
you do in fact have time for a daily practice art. Every day does not require a fancy studio or
tons of patrons. It can be as simple as
five to 10 minutes a day, which is time that we all
have to dedicate to art. If we make it a priority
in terms of materials, you will need a sketchbook and a pencil at a minimum
for this class. But to really dive in and enjoy the process of playing
with your creativity, you'll probably want a few more drawing
influence than that. You can find the
materials I used for my sketchbook spreads in the
Projects and Resources tab, which span my go to supplies for sketching
in my daily practice. They include graphite pencils, colored pencils, brush pens, wash paint, fine liners, markers, and some is
art supplies as well. A couple notes on Sketchbooks. One misconception is that Sketchbooks have to be
all about sketching, and that's not, so
you can use paint, collage, any material
that you want. The sketchbook is more of a vessel for holding ideas while you're still working
through them before they are finished pieces of art. Those ideas can take many forms. Also, there's no rule that sketchbooks have to be big if you want to start
sketching daily, but want to make it
more manageable. Pick a small size, they'll be filling up pages like
nobody's business. As far as paper, I like
picking sketchbooks with slightly thicker paper
that are suitable for wash paint and wet media, as well as pens and pencils. It doesn't have to be officially watercolor paper to be
good for painting on. And you can find more
affordable sketchbooks that aren't billed
as watercolor grade. I find something
around 90 pounds to be suitable under that might be a little bit too
thin for wet media. Just know that there is
no right answer here and having the
perfect sketchbook is not what is holding you back. Just start with
what you have and if you don't have something yet, go to a local store
and buy something that feels good to you and
is in your price range. Your class project is
to create seven days of sketchbook spreads following
along with the prompts. And then at the end, you can upload those to the projects and resources tab and share award
of En for a fellow creator.
3. Setting Up for Success: Starting a daily
sketchbook practice is easier said than done. Right? Here are my tips
to help you get into the creative flow and build
your habit day by day one. Make it easy. This is what it really
all comes down to. If you want to have a
daily creative practice, it is probably because it brings you joy. Don't complicate it. Don't try to make it
harder than it has to be. Things that come naturally and easily can also be valuable and worthwhile whenever
something comes up that feels like
a potential block. Whether that's in this
class or otherwise, ask yourself, how can
I make this easier? Then lean to keep your
supplies accessible. Nothing will stop you
before you start like a lost sketchbook or hard
to reach pencil stash. Keep your sketchbook
and supplies out and accessible and ready
when you need them. If you have a dedicated
place for making art amazing, lucky you. If not, pick any
surface that you can dedicate to this class,
at least for this week. And see how having
your sketchbook right there when you need it
can be a game changer. Any tabletop or corner of a
desk that you can reserve for creativity will do
three, set a time. This is one of the key tools we'll be using for this class. I use it in all sorts
of ways in my life. Simply setting a
timer can remove some of the pressure and stress
that you can otherwise feel, starting something
new and daunting. You know that you
have permission to stop when the timer goes off, and whatever happens during those minutes in
between is progress. But remember, you don't have to stop simply because
the timer rings. If you're on a roll
and you have the time, you can keep going until you
come to a natural stopping, 0.4 draw what you're drawn to. We're making it easy, right? So don't pick subject matter, that's intimidating or boring. If you want to just draw
flowers, that's fine. Or fruit, delicious,
or dogs, I love it. If you're interested
in drawing it, you're more likely
to keep showing up. Don't worry about returning to the same subject
matter over and over. Plenty of artists
do this and it can be a great way to develop
your voice in niche and can be a secret Asset
five, limit your choices. It helps me get out
of my head and not to the page when I have
fewer decisions to make. Limit your color palette. Reduce the types of
materials you use. Pick just one sketchbook. Reduce your choices from
the start so that you won't be blocked by
indecision down the road. You can always return to the other colors or
pencils or papers later. But for this exercise less six, just you've heard it before. Think with your hands, if
you don't know what to draw, see what your
fingers start making when you let them
drive the show. If you're scared
by the blank page, then make a mark to mess it up and then you can get
down to business. Simply starting is the
best way to start. And seven again, the most important day of a daily practice is the
day after you miss it. Starting again
after a dropped day is the best way to
practice your resilience. It's not about perfectly
showing up for one week, it's about consistently
showing up. Even when it's hard to after you missed today is one of the
hardest times there is. All right. Now on to the show.
4. Day 1: Fill the Page: All right, we are going
to start off with one of the most basic exercises
which is fill the page. Get out your sketchbook and pick one drawing implement
and just one color. Take 10 minutes on your timer and try to completely
fill the page. You can use abstract marks, things in your line of sight. What you wait for
breakfast, anything goes, just fill that page with
ideas and let your train of consciousness take over so
you can think with your hand. Don't filter what's coming out through your
analytical brain. I usually start with floral, so that's where I'm starting. And then I'm just
going to see what happens from here today. I'm using a brush pen, so I'm just using black ink, and my goal is to completely fill both sides
of this sketchbook spread. I'm going to speed up
the video a little bit once I start getting
more marks on my page. This is where the fun part
really starts happening, where I can start trying
to fill in the gaps using the shapes left from
blank space between elements. I can put things there and use a problem solving puzzle side of my brain to kick into action. I'm just really drawing
the first thing that comes to mind at every
step of the way here. And they don't need
to go together, they don't need to make sense. It's just about filling
the page marks. Since our goal is
to completely fill this sketchbook spread in
the 10 minutes on our timer, We really can't dwell. If something doesn't
go exactly as planned, we have to accept
it and move on. When in doubt,
geometrics are always a great place to fall back on. Now is the really fun part where there's this teeny tiny parts of the page to fill in with little geometrics
or abstract shapes. There you have it, 10 minutes
full sketchbook spread, and that is day one.
5. Day 2: Shapes and Lines: Day two. Today's exercise is
called Shapes and Lines. First, set your timer. Then we're going to
take two materials, one for color and one for line. We're going to start by creating a series of shapes
all across our page. Just the shape filled
in with solid color, not any extra detail. Then we'll take our second
material for adding in line work to turn those
shapes into something. Some possible prompts for this exercise are
fruit and vegetables, so or monsters and robots. My materials that I'm using
today are tombobrush pens for the color and a micron
fine liner for the lines. Here is our completed
sketchbook page for day two in 10 minutes or less.
6. Day 3: Assembly Line: Welcome to day three. Today's sketchbook
exercise is assembly line. Set your timer for 10 minutes. Today we're going to pick a
motif to draw and you'll draw the first most simple
element of it. In this case, I'm
drawing some flower stems. Just the stems. And I'm going to
draw them again and again and again across my page. Then once I've
finished with those, I will pick the next element, the second simplest
piece of this motif. And I'll draw that element
again and again and again. The point here is
to break it down into simple pieces that
you can repeat again and again so that you
aren't thinking about the finished outcome yet. And you're going part by part, being involved in the process, able to evolve as you go. Each time you're
drawing this one piece, you're learning
and you're able to adjust it for the
next immediately. Then you're going to
draw the third element and the fourth, et cetera. And you're going
to keep building up your individual motifs, piece by piece,
assembly line style. I find that breaking
things down into their simplest repeatable tasks like this can be really helpful for getting going and
not getting too attached to any one part of the process. Then at the end, you'll have
a sketchbook page full of similar yet different
elements that can be really useful for things like surface
design or pattern design. Some possible prompts here are flowers like I'm doing or birds, or transportation like boats or cars or something like that, where you can do the same
motif over and over, making slight
variations each time, but ultimately coming back to the same repeatable
tasks that you can go assembly line one by one. I'm using colored pencils, prisma color colored pencils. I picked out a color palette
before getting started so that I don't have the
whole box in front of me, but just a few colors
that I have to pick from to limit my choices. You can see that each
of these flower sprigs is not like the next, and yet I still composed
them and built them up from the same basic elements
over and over again. Great way to at
once create unity among illustrations and
motifs that you're drawing, but also to explore different
options and variations. Now day three is
done, a third spread.
7. Day 4: Be a Kid Again: Today is day four, and our
exercise is to be a kid. Again, set your timer
for 10 minutes, find some kids art
supplies and let loose. If you have a kid at home, you may have lots of access, but I recommend
that everyone have a box of basic crayons. At the very least, art supplies that
aren't so precious are easier to mess
around with kids. Art supplies in general
are harder to be precise with and they lead
to really fun experiments. And it makes it easier to
let go of the results. Make some loose art and bonus if you can use all of the
colors of the rainbow. I'm using these tempera
paint sticks that are really chunky and fun to play
with for that very reason, They surprise me
every single time. And some possible prompts
for today are outer space, the beach, or candy, And that's a rap On day four, another sketchbook
spread was done.
8. Day 5: Line Drawing: Today, day five, we're
doing line drawing. Set your timer. And
using just one drawing, implement draw a series of
motifs only using lines. This exercise reduces
potential decisions by keeping you to one
color and one line. Fewer decisions means
fewer hangouts. Try to give as much texture
and detail as you can. All the while keeping your
marks to smooth thin lines, no filled shape, and
some possible props. Today, our house
plants, desserts, bugs, or whatever inspires you, I'm using one of my
favorite drawing tools, which is my black
wing matt pencil. It has the smoothest line and we're all done
with day five. Another sketchbook
spread for the books.
9. Day 6: Puzzle Pieces: Day six, and today's
exercise is puzzle pieces. First, set your timer. Put 10 minutes on the clock. This exercise is all about
going with the flow. Start with drawing one motif and then work outward
from that first drawing, fitting each element in
as close as possible. This will force you
to adjust shapes to work with whatever you
already have on the page. It can lead to some fun
and unexpected outcomes. I find that working in this puzzle building
way can also engage a different part of my brain
that takes the pressure off of trying to make
things look a certain way. It's so satisfying to see the elements come together
to completely fill a page. Some possible prompts
for today are foliage, leaves, buildings,
or rivers and lakes. I'm using Windsor and Newton de these leaves
all across my fig. Now I'm going to come
back in and make this even more of a puzzle by fitting in extra leaves in a slightly lighter color
in all the gaps that and day six is all complete. We have a full guash spread
of interlocking leaves, all under 10 minutes.
10. Day 7: Difference in the Details: Day seven, we've made it to the last day of this
week long challenge. First, set your timer. Put 10 minutes on your clock. Today's exercise is called the
difference in the details. We're going to start by making several outlines of the
same type of object. I like to start
this exercise with paper cutouts to
use as a template. If you're interested
in learning more about my method of using paper
cutouts in my work, you can check out my drawing
with scissors class. You can leave these
as just outlines made with a pencil or you can fill
them in as solid shapes. Then you're going to take another material to add the
details to each object, trying to come up with as many
possible fills as you can. Each one should be unique and
stand apart from the rest. Some possible prompts
are vessels or vases, clothing or cookies. The materials I'm using today are Tomborh pens for my color, a black pen for my details paper and
scissors for my cutouts, and finally, a micron fine liner for the details
in my flowers. And there's our finished
page for day seven. Another sketchbook spread
in 10 minutes for less.
11. Day 8 and Beyond!: Keep it up. Now that you know just how short
10 minutes really is and how possible it is to start a creative habit with a small
pocket of time each day. You totally have it
in you to keep going. When you're stumped for a
way to approach the page, revisit some of these exercises to get the creative
juices flowing. I've included a list of
30 days of evergreen drawing prompts in
the projects and resources tab for even more
inspiration year round. In my experience, the hardest time to create is when I've been out of practice or away from my sketchbook
for a little while. Coming back to my habit
of making can feel like getting old gears to turn that are in desperate need of oil. But a couple of days
in, I'm flying again. And then once I
remember the habit, I feel like something
is missing. If I miss a day, I feel
the absence in my bones. So when you feel that, go
back to your sketchbook. Don't dwell in the fact
that you missed a day, just don't miss another,
and go back and keep going. You'll be amazed what you can
accomplish and how you can grow in your creativity with just five to 10 minutes a day.
12. Thank You!: I hope you enjoyed this seven day creative habit challenge. And now it's time to
share what you made. Upload photos of your sketchbook spreads for each of
the exercises to the projects and
resources section of this class from a desktop
or laptop computer. And share a few words about
how the process felt for you. I'd love to know if you
learned anything about your own creative
rhythms and impulses. Keep up the good
work. I'd love to see your continued
sketchbook practice. Tag me at Jenny Colon on
Instagram so I can cheer you on.
Jenny Koland, Artist, Designer, Color Enthusiast
