Kick in The Creatives Podcast - We talk Creativity, Art and Writing with Creative Challenges and Gossip Tara and Sandra, met by happy accident. Tara had been listening to a Podcast that Sandra just happened to be being interviewed on, and having her own podcast at the time, she invited Sandra to be a guest. The two of them quickly hit it off and went on chatting, long after the recording had stopped… And they haven’t shut up since! Tara was a whizz at idea generation, but having been a graphic designer for 25 years, she had long lost her connection with a ‘real’ pencil. Sandra, on the other hand, was and still is, a realism painter, yet she had the inability to just ‘let go’ in her sketchbook. Over the following weeks, they began setting each other creative challenges. As a result, Tara rekindled her love for drawing by hand, and Sandra horrified to be handed a ‘chunky marker’ to draw with by Tara, was forced to let go of her pedantic sketching style and just ‘have fun in her sketchbook.’ It was clear that the two of them as a duo, were a good influence on each other and having finally met in the flesh, they became firm friends. Knowing the power that creative challenges had held for them, they decided that they wanted to help other people find and embrace their creative side and just ‘have a go.’
Episodes
Monday Sep 17, 2018
Monday Sep 17, 2018
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.
Monday Sep 03, 2018
Monday Sep 03, 2018
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’.
Monday Aug 20, 2018
Monday Aug 20, 2018
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!
Monday Aug 06, 2018
Monday Aug 06, 2018
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.
Monday Jul 23, 2018
Monday Jul 23, 2018
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.
Monday Jul 09, 2018
Monday Jul 09, 2018
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
Monday Jun 25, 2018
Monday Jun 25, 2018
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.
Monday Jun 11, 2018
Monday Jun 11, 2018
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.
Some of the creativity techniques we cover:
- 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.
Monday May 28, 2018
Monday May 28, 2018
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.
Monday May 14, 2018
Monday May 14, 2018
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.