Mindfulness Archives - Mindful Art Studio

5 Ways to Fill Your Sketchbook

05.02.2019 by Amy Johnson Maricle // 8 Comments

Dear Wonderful, Creative You:

Recently I’ve been feeling really tired. It’s nothing serious, just a short-term adjustment happening in my body, but really trying, nonetheless. This week, when it was time for me to do my Wednesday Art Chat where I share tips and tutorials on art and overcoming the inner critic, I knew I needed to offer something, but also to nourish myself. I want to share with you the insights about how I make art when I feel uninspired.

This is a simple, fun exercise that helps get my creative juices flowing, and makes me feel more grounded and light. It leads to lots of new ideas for my sketchbooks and art journals too. I’d love to hear what your experience is with it in the comments, and be sure to grab the free workshop at the bottom of the post too!

Make Marks in Your Journal

Let the lines and marks wander across the page and explore the space like the line is on an adventure.

Practice making thinner and thicker lines,
Drag the pencil or pen lightly
Make it thicker or thinner

Vary Your Pen Grip

Hold the pen super loosely, like you might drop it
Use a death grip
Hold it in your non-dominant hand
Hold it from the top or close to the bottom

Use a Variety of Mark Making Tools

Drawing pens – I like Micron
Pencils
Brushes – I like bamboo brushes like these and India ink
Homemade brushes using sticks and pine needles, thread, or other ideas I share in this Pinterest board on mark making

Give Yourself Permission to Make a Mess in Your Sketchbook

Lately I’ve been writing in my journal: I’m tired. That’s the whole page. That’s it. And you know what? That’s enough.

Not every sketchbook page should be beautiful. In this age of social media and constant comparison, I think we get a false idea about what an art journal or sketchbook should be. A sketchbook can help you improve your art skills, but it can also be your friend. Your art journal can be an excellent listener. Give it a chance.

Using the mark making method, I can make a mess of the page, and at the same time, make order of my feelings. Funny how that works, right? I think the trick is giving yourself permission to make a mess in your journal.

Making a mess can be good for my feelings, but it’s also good for my art, because in this loose, anything goes state, lots of interesting marks and patterns can pop up.

Make Different Types of Marks in Your Sketchbook

Continuous lines: Let the line explore the space of the page
Short lines, long lines, skipping lines, jagged lines, fat and thin lines
Circles, openings, pods, leaves
Write whatever comes to mind in your non-dominant hand
Write in giant looping, overlapping handwriting so it’s more of mark making than text

Get the Mark Making Workshop for Free!

You’ll also join the Mindful Art Studio mailing list:

Mindful Art Tips

Slow down – Pay attention to the gift of the materials and time to make marks
Notice what appears on the page – see when the lines start to skip, get darker or lighter, overlap, and create shapes
Notice what your body feels like, where it feels warm, loose, tense, straight

I’d love to hear how you do with your mark making, be sure to drop into the comments!

Creatively Yours,

Amy

Making Art with Simple Materials

03.07.2019 by Amy Johnson Maricle // 34 Comments

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Dear Wonderful, Creative You:

When was the last time you felt completely engrossed in your creative process? Lately I’ve been incredibly engrossed in my art, making art with simple materials. I’d like to help you imagine the same for yourself. In your mind’s eye, imagine yourself doing the following, and see what it feels like:

You carry a small sketchbook and drawing pen with you everywhere, making little notes and sketches as something catches your eye, or an idea strikes. When you open your sketchbook, you see patterns, shapes, and notes for your art pieces. It’s a jumble of scribbles, sketches, notes, and little drawings. It’s not neat and perfect, it’s an inspiring place where ideas are free to co-mingle and marinate. Art making is not just something you do when you sit down at your art table, it’s something you weave into your life.

When you sit down to create, you flip through your journal for inspiration, and pull out some paper to play with one of the ideas. You sit for hours, making slow, steady progress, noticing the shapes emerging, the sounds of art making, and your breathing. You finish tired and happy.

It sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?

This could be your story. Playing with simple art materials has offered me incredible creative license, and I want to show you that it can for you too.

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Making art with simple materials – just paper and a blade, is incredibly satisfying.

Limitation is the fuel of my creative fire.

But really, I am working with so much more than paper. Once you cut into a page, you begin dancing with light and shadow. All your focus is on shape, form, rhythm, and the way you let the light in.

Wouldn’t you like to let some more light into your life?

Enter your name and email for your PDF

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When you give yourself limited materials and permission to create intuitively, without a plan, magic can happen.

I’ve got a brand new class, Layers of Light, that focuses on this kind of intuitive approach to paper cutting. Paper cutting is an old craft and art form, but it’s usually practiced in a very planned, exacting way. I want to open the door for you to create in a way that fills your soul, and brings you delight.

You can learn to paper cut from a pattern. But when you learn to create intuitively, building your own mark making “vocabulary” you open up to your unique expressive voice. You can do more than you think with your art.

Creatively Yours,

Amy

Getting Started with Intuitive Paper Cutting

I’d love to show you more of what I mean. Enter your name and email to get a free copy of my PDF guide: Getting Started with Paper Cutting. You’ll also join the Mindful Art Studio community.

Get your FREE PDF here:

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How to Develop Your Artistic Style

02.12.2019 by Amy Johnson Maricle // 8 Comments

Dear Wonderful, Creative You:

Here’s what I most want you to know about how to develop your artistic style: you can’t force it. When coaching clients and students tell me they want to develop a style, I suggest that what they need is not a style, but a consistent art practice.

When you make art consistently, and with permission to experiment and indulge your curiosities, over time you accrue a body of work around some common themes. These themes are what help make an artist’s work recognizable. I can see my themes across mediums, which is pretty exciting. Art lets us dive deeply into the things we feel passionate about. I want to help you get there too, so here’s a few secrets to get you started.

Secrets of How to Develop Your Artistic Style

How to Develop Your Artistic Style, Secret #1: Make a Lot of Junk

There are a few things many people don’t realize about being an artist. First, even incredibly talented artists make terrible art. A lot of what artists make is total junk. You never see it, but it’s there in the studio. Of course, few artists will exhibit their test pieces, or works that went to the cutting room floor. All this junk is necessary though. You have to make a ton of junky art in order to open space for the magic. So experiment freely, and give yourself permission to make a bunch of mistakes.

Just before an important rehearsal, an acting coach once told me to make as many mistakes as I possibly could. It was the most freeing advice ever. With permission to make mistakes, I was able to focus purely on feeling the part, because I wasn’t nervous. I take his advice often. So please, make as many mistakes as you can, right now. If you really struggle with this, you might love my class, Freeing the Muse.

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How to Develop Your Artistic Style, Secret #2: Push the Boundaries

The second secret to developing your artistic style is that you need to produce a lot of art in order to find your own way. Whatever your art form – writing, singing, dancing, or paper cutting, you begin acquiring skills by copying, imitating, and testing. When you only make 1 or 2 of something, there’s too much pressure to get it “right.” Also, over time, as you gain mastery, you put your own twist on things, and the art process becomes more adventurous, and your work reflects the freshness of your unique expression. Your work evolves from imitation, to something new that pulls influences from various resources. This post about working small can help.

How to Develop Your Artistic Style, Secret #3: Let Your Interests Evolve

The third “secret” about developing your own style is that it changes over time. Think about some of the great artists – Picasso worked in drawings, watercolors, prints, sculpture, and oil paintings. He allowed his interests and curiosities to lead the way. Even within his works on canvas, he shifted from realism, to the blue period, to Cubism, and of course there were other phases as well. Picasso allowed himself to explore life through art as it presented itself to him and to dive deeply into it. He was willing to go in new directions that weren’t easily recognizable as his “style.” Good art demands that you create a lot, and take a lot of risks. Why not give yourself this permission to play? This is a fun art journaling technique.

How to Develop YOUR Artistic Style:

Here’s my question to you: What would happen if you pretended that you had permission to dive deeply into your art process? To dedicate time to it? To work in a series, hone your skills, and push boundaries? What if you pretended that you had as much “permission” as Picasso to experiment, and indulge in your art process? What would that feel like? Visualize this: when you wake up tomorrow morning, a miracle has happened, and you are dedicated to open play and experimentation in your art process – what does your morning look like? Your day? Your evening? What changes have miraculously taken place?

So that’s my advice: Stop trying to develop your “style” and start making more art. You can do it. You are an artist like any other, and if you are waiting for permission to indulge in your art process, here it is: Dig deeper. Make more. Let a bunch of it really suck.

Helping You Take Your Art Further

Learning to push your artistic techniques is one of the best parts of the process for me, and one I love sharing with students. It’s also a cornerstone of my upcoming class, Layers of Light. It’s a mindful and intuitive approach to paper cutting. I’ll help you build up the foundational skills and make YOUR way through paper cutting. I’m tickled just thinking about all the amazing work you’ll create and the unexpected places you’ll take it. I’ll be putting the class on pre-sale soon, very soon, so stay tuned and let me know in the comments if you are excited to learn more.

In the meantime, answer those questions for yourself, and get ready to get really messy, tired, happy, and feeling accomplished because you’ve learned a lot, produced a lot, and you have one or two pieces you feel really good about this week.

Creatively Yours,

Amy