Developing Your Artistic Voice
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: This quarter in The Gathering, we are focused on developing your voice as an artist. So many of my students tell me that they love the slow drawing and botanicals we create, but they struggle to make their own patterns and drawings. They...
Guided Watercolor Meditation for Beginners
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: I’m excited to offer you this guided watercolor meditation for beginners. I think you are going to love it, and I can’t wait to see what you create! Meditating Through Art Have you ever slowed down enough while you are...
7 TRICKS TO MAKE TIME FOR ART
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: One of the things I’m most passionate about as an artist and teacher is showing people that they do have time to create. Today I’ve got 7 tricks to make time for art in this short 3-minute video: What do you think? Which trick...
Easy Flower Drawing
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: Let’s dig right into this fun and easy flower drawing on a full-spread art journal page! I think you’ll be amazed at what you can do when you relax, take your time, and enjoy these simple steps. Wasn’t that fun? If you...
How to Make a Tracing Paper Envelope
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: I’ve got a wonderful video tutorial for you today. It’s one of my favorite techniques for making an art journal page interactive – a tracing paper envelope. I love the delicate, almost vulnerable feeling of tracing paper...
Fuel Your Creativity With Small Art
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: The Inchie Challenge has past, buuuuut, I still want to help you play with tiny 2 x 2 squares – that I loosely call “inchies.” It’s totally free and so much fun. You can sign up for my free weekly slow drawing...
Basic Watercolor Supplies + Skills
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: I get a lot of questions about watercolor painting and supplies, so today I’m setting out to make a comprehensive guide to help you on your watercolor journey. Watercolor can be a very technical, precise art form, but lately I love...
Jump-Start Your Creativity in 2024
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: This year is going to be SO full of creative goodness in this community, and you are invited to join in. The Simplest Things Challenge is a free 5-day challenge where you create something simple each day in your art journal. Sign up for...
5 Beginner Watercolor Techniques
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: Over the last year I’ve been playing with 5 beginner watercolor techniques that are relatively simple, and yet they give me room for so much play and discovery. Watercolor is so much about freedom and play for me – and I love...
What To Do After An Art Challenge
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: Art challenges provide a wonderful burst of inspiration, accountability, and community. But they all end eventually, and to really dig into your own art practice, you can’t always be responding to a challenge. So what do you do when...
How To Art Journal Every Day
This video will show you fun and easy ways to create tiny pieces of art and then combine them in beautiful little art journals. You don’t need any experience, this is for everyone!
Play With Repetition: An Art Tutorial
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: When I’m creating art journal collages, some of the elements I like to play with are repetition, variation, and texture. Let’s start with texture. Texture in Art If you haven’t thought about texture in art before,...
More Art Play Makes Better Art Work
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: I spend a lot of time urging you to repeat yourself, to focus on exploration, and to luxuriate in the joy of the process. Today I’d like to illustrate what that looks like for me in the hope of inspiring you to push further in your...
The Power of Starting Simple
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: What is the simplest thing I could do artistically right now? I’ve found this is such a powerful question for my art practice. I don’t ask: What masterpiece could I make? We need to build our skills over time. You’re not...
The Complex Beauty of Simplicity
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: It happens so often with the “simplest” slow drawing patterns – folks initially dismiss them, but once they do the workshop, they say how surprised they were because they loved the simplicity and found a lot of room to...
Draw Yourself Calm Is Available In The UK!
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: I’m more than pleased to tell you that my book, Draw Yourself Calm, is now available in the UK! Even more fun is that folks in the UK can purchase with a special coupon code I’ll offer at the end of the post. I thought it...
Making Art Work In The Time You Have
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: Last week I had the great pleasure of returning to Maine to camp for the week with my family. It’s always a time of incredible views, hikes, bikes, and far too many sticky buns and ice cream cones. It’s also a time that I...
What Can I Do With My Slow Drawings?
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: Slow drawing has seeped into every part of my art practice. I love the way these nature-based patterns seem to have a connection to everything, and everyone sees them differently. It speaks to the way these patterns repeat throughout...
Finding a Sense of Wonder in Your Art
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: I’ve been hosting Slow Drawing Parties since the beginning of the pandemic, and so many folks have told me how important the practice is to their lives. But when folks first start, especially if they are new to art, it can be hard...
The Inchie Challenge 2021
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: Each summer I host an art challenge that focuses on getting you to meet your top art goals – make more fun, meaningful art. There is so much that can get in the way of your creative life. I want to help you make art making so...
The Simplest Things
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: At the Nature Spells Book Retreat last week, one of the things we discussed was the power of making space for the simplest things. We think our ideas need to be grand, or complicated, in order to be good enough. But it’s not true. I...
How to Sew Your Own Journal
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: I have been making my own journals for some time – some sewn simply, some rolled or loose, and some folded accordion style. I love the playfulness of these techniques. But I have longed to sew a more traditional book – a...
Playing With Inchie Art
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: I had to keep quiet about my BIG ART approach for a long time while I was building my class – it’s so fun to share with you now about it. I wanted to get playful, I made a little video for you that shows my process: For this...
Mindful Art Parties
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: Since we went into quarantine, each week I’ve been holding a live, free Mindful Art Party. It’s a time you dedicate to yourself, to connect and create with artists from all over the world. Despite social distancing, we can...
Art Can Help Us Through Times of Loneliness
Dear Wonderful, Creative You: Like many of you, I’m feeling some anxiety in this time of uncertainty. When I lay down to go to sleep at night, there are a host of thoughts and anxious questions that start reeling through my mind. These questions need to get set...
Drawing Beautiful & Imperfect Faces
If only you give your portraits a chance to exist – imperfectly, beautifully, just like us – they will take you magical places.
Get Inspired with Paper Cutting Artist Carol Held
Get inspired to do paper cutting when you see the work of paper cut artist, Carol Held.
5 Ways to Fill Your Sketchbook
Use these 5 simple methods to fill your sketchbook, gather your ideas, and improve your drawing skills.
