Project Notes: For this project divide your spread into two sections. We will use the right page for the Art Assignment, and the left page for notes.

This project is meant to supplement your daily art practice rather than replace it. It will give you tools to tackle your daily practice with more confidence and skill. I will leave it to you to decide how you will make time for this extra practice.

Welcome to day 3:

How to draw anything.

“Coming to terms with drawing as a form of language is important.”

— Martin Salisbury

How to draw anything.

It’s really simple. Break a subject down into shapes. Then draw those shapes.

Read more

Project Notes: For this project divide your spread into two sections. We will use the right page for the Art Assignment, and the left page for notes.

This project is meant to supplement your daily art practice rather than replace it. It will give you tools to tackle your daily practice with more confidence and skill. I will leave it to you to decide how you will make time for this extra practice.

Welcome to day 2:

Shapes

“Observational drawing is all about shapes, light and shadows and reality as we see it. Once we have mastered these concepts, it is possible to deconstruct and select what we deem relevant, adapting reality to our personal point of view”

— Isabelle Arsenault

Read more

Project Notes: For this project divide your spread into two sections. We will use the right page for the Art Assignment, and the left page for notes. In the example below you’ll see I left the left page for notes, and used washi tape to mask an ‘Art’ area. Once the washi tape is removed, the blank white space will create a nice frame for the artwork.

This project is meant to supplement your daily art practice rather than replace it. It will give you tools to tackle your daily practice with more confidence and skill. I will leave it to you to decide how you will make time for this extra practice. Perhaps you will take an additional ten minute slot per day. Or maybe you can manage a few hours somewhere in the week. Revisit the first project, if you need help making the time for this additional practice.

Some of you might also already be thinking of doing this using ‘No extra time’ and somehow baking it into their daily practice, you’re free to try that too.

It’s just important to maintain your self initiated daily practice, while adding these skill builders.

With that let us begin!

Welcome to day 1:

Mark making

“You are only ‘n’ actions away from any goal”

The way to attain any goal is to take a series of actions.

Read more

If you’ve not done Day 1, please start there.

Project Notes: This is the last assignment for the Artist Diary project. i encourage you to pick one of these methods as your default go to method and spend 10 minutes a day, filling a spread in your diary, over time this will evolve into something completly unique… don’t rush to get there, let it happen organically, in the chat some people have shared their unique practices.

My aim here is to get you started or started again. Your job is to pick something that gets you excited to do daily, see it as a pleasure not a chore.

We’ll break for 2 days, use that time to review the 10 dispatches we’ve gone through already, try any of the assignments you missed, engage with the others in the group, and keep going in your artist diary.

I will check in with you over the weekend but there won’t be an assignment. Next week I’ll be sharing some drawing tools and ideas that really helped me improve in a short time. it’s going to take practice for sure. My hope is that knowing what to practice will be a big help.

With that all out of the way,

Shall we go?… Let’s go!

Welcome to day 5:

Start with an image

Tony Buzan famously emphasized starting a mind map in the centre of a blank, horizontal page, stating that this gives your brain …

“freedom to spread out in all directions and to express itself more freely and naturally”

In his mind mapping technique, he teaches us to explore our mind on the page by creating a map. Using his techniques I once went from 4th last in class, to 4th, securing a place in one of the ‘good’ classes in high school.

We’re often told to use our brains, but not often told how. Mind mapping, and specifically starting with an image, is one way to do that.

Interestingly Lynda Barry also teaches us to start with an image. And she calls an image a place.

In one of her exercises she asks us to imagine a specific car. This provides the center all image. Then she ask us to picture ourselves as the viewer, and write from that perspective (you can also draw but writing is faster).

Where are you she asks? Inside or outside, behind or in front, what’s to your left, right, above, below. What’s behind you and ahead of you.

Where Tony Buzan introduced a map. Lynda Barry brings you on a guided tour, to the place where images are. And she teaches you how to go there.

These two methods are ways to use our brains, our whole brain, that requires all that logic and reasoning, but also requires, imagination.

Read more

If you’ve not done Day 1, please start there.

A note on the assignments: If you’ve done the Ten Minute Visual Journal Method, you are going to recognise this format. I spend 5 whole days talking about it here. And you can feel free to dig into that. I just felt that this Artist Diary project would be incomplete if I don’t mention the method. This is my go to daily format, and no matter what else I’m doing I will always try to sneak in these four panels.

Welcome to day 4:

Comic Diary

I find that adding structure—through repetition, rhyme, and color—makes my ordinary, individual experience interesting to others.

—

Most of what we’ve done so far creates a kind of personally satisfying but sometimes in coherent rambling sort of work, or at least that is what it’s supposed to do.

A comic does something different.

Read more

If you’ve not done Day 1, please start there.

A note on the assignments: Some assignments lend themselves more to being shared others might produce work that is more private. It’s tempting to think that if you can’t share it then the work is not valuable, that’s not true at all. The work we make ‘for ourselves’ become the raw material for future work. By keeping an artist diary you are collecting ingredients, and good ingredients is the first step to any good meal.

Okay Let’s go, welcome to day 3:

Daily Diary

All of us are far richer than we imagine. While we may worry about being original, remember that you are the ‘origin’ of your work

— Julia Cameron

For the past 25 years, millions of creative people across disciplines have either read the Artist Way, or had to fight of other artist telling them that they absolutely had to read it. The bestselling book included this concept called Morning Pages.

The idea was to write freehand longform for 3 pages first thing in the morning.

It is a revealing practice if you have the stomach for it, but it’s also excruciating for so many reasons. The act of free-writing takes you places you might not want to go, and for 3 pages, that jinn is is not going back in the bottle.

Freewriting is hard, it’s digging through mud to find gold.

But it’s mostly digging through mud.

Read more

If you’ve not done Day 1, please start there.

A note on the assignments: It’s been so great to see how quickly the community here is taking shape, and people are trusting and encouraging one another. If you are not getting the emails, you may have them toggled off, this is the page to toggle things on again. If you can manage 2 ten minute sessions in a day, I encourage you to keep going with the one sentence in addition to what I’ll introduce to you today.

I want us to be super clear, we are doing this as a form of training. A physical act.

Okay Let’s go, welcome to day 3:

Daily Diary

We know that athletes, musicians and actors all have to practice, rehearse and repeat things until it gets into the body, the ‘muscle memory’, but for some reason, writers and visual artist think that they have to be inspired before they make something. Not suspecting that the PHYSICAL ACT of writing is what brings that inspiration about.

— Lynda Barry

I was talking to my friend yesterday,and we were discussing teenage rebellion.

Read more

Welcome to day 1 of Artist Diary, ‘draw one sentence’

Here are some of my recent artist diaries, along with my notes for today’s dispatch.

Artist Diary

“There is a kind of hopefulness to a daily project like this, that I can use time to my advantage, that little simple bits of effort over time, turn into more interesting and complex things”

— Austin Kleon

The first ingredient in a daily practice is setting aside the time.

The next ingredient is the actual practice, now that we’ve carved out some time, what are we going to do with it. That is what we’re going to cover over the next five days in this Artist Diary project.

Read more

If you’ve not done Day 1, please start there.

A note on the assignment: For today especially, use a piece of scratch paper for the assignment. Take your notes and be extra messy and playful on your scratch paper, then draw the assignment again in your template, share both your scratch paper and your assignment in the chat/gallery.

Shall we go, Let’s GO!

Shall we go, Let’s GO!

Shall we go, Let’s GO!

Welcome to day 5:

Sacred Time

The clock lets me know the drawing took a certain number of minutes, but I didn’t feel those minutes in the usual way.

The drawing seemed to take a long time and then no time at all, even a minute after I had finished I could hardly remember the beginning stages, and it took a feeling of having appeared on it’s own, somehow making itself come into being

— Lynda Barry

Read more

Over the next 5 days we’re going to work at identifying, setting aside, enlivening, inhabiting and defending our sacred time.

Let’s begin with what I’d like to call high voltage time.

To quote Scott Adams:

“The energy I have for a task is more important than the time I allocate to it”

You’ve felt this, it’s as true about a hard conversation you need to have with a friend, a problem at work, a movie you’ve been wanting to watch, or even playtime with a kid. if you don’t have the right energy for a task it could end in disaster.

My teacher says “an hour in the morning is worth two in the afternoon”. And while this is not always true for everyone. There are a number of factors that make those early morning hours the most high voltage. As in you have a lot of energy to give to whatever task you have.

Read more

I’ve been enjoying looking at everyone’s visual journal in the chat/gallery.

Keep sharing your work and inspiring one another! You can find the chat gallery here.

Chat & Gallery

This gallery is for sharing your work from the FREE Ten Minute Visual Journal Method , where I share, the method that always helps me get centered and have something interesting to draw.

As I look at everyone’s work I wanted to share some of the things you’re saying as well as share a couple of additional pointers.

What you’re saying in the gallery

“It’s crazy how in the midst of the chaos, I just find myself wanting to escape to my sketchbook and disappear.” -

“I’m so excited to start this process! Drawing everyday has been a struggle and this gives me motivation.” -

My children both wanted to join me for this. (Which was just as interrupted as it sounds 😅) but my 5 yr old put “working with mom” as her grateful moment. Very sweet. -

And so much more,

Prep page

used one page for the work and another page for prep, which is a way I like to work too. I’ve made a sample page to show you what that might look like. In my sample (pictured) I use the left page as a prep page. I write a list of ideas, then using a red pencil I pick the best one, this lets you do a bit of planning and choose the best moments to feature in your journal. The left page can also be used to capture some additional notes after creating the visual journal page, this could be an idea you want to follow up on, or something you noticed.

Page Design

experimented with different page layouts, and is trying new things daily. I do recommend exploring different layouts, consider how you want to use the page of your particular sketchbook. In my sample (pictured) I didn’t even use the whole page, instead I designed a squarish box in the middle to give my panels a nice square proportion.

There is no right way to do it, and everyone’s doing great!

What’s important is you’re doing it!

I also want to acknowledge that it’s not always easy to share your work, sometimes the subject matter might be to personal, other times we might have feelings of inadequacy.

Sometimes, instead of sharing the entire ‘comic’ maybe just share a panel they you feel comfortable sharing.

And don’t stress about trying to impress anyone, we’re all just doing 2 minute drawings, its a great leveller:)

No one’s judging you, we’re all here to build the practice.

And if you follow along with the project, you’ll realise how powerful this simple project can be in transforming your life. Not because of the project, but because you are showing up for yourself in this present moment.

We’re all at different parts of our journey, but we’re also journeying together!

Keep Going

Find the complete FREE Ten Minute Visual Journal Method here 👀

PS: if you signed up for Gameplan, consider this the pre-training as we look forward to April 27th!

And this is Day 5, If you’re new to all this start at Day 1

Over the past 4 days I’ve showed you Ten Minute Visual Journal Method, and really broken down the component pieces. I’ve helped you think through different ways of interpreting the questions all to help you load up your ten minute practice with maximum potency.

And to that end we need to look at the last question

“What is one thing you are grateful for?”

The question specifically searches for one thing.

If you take this question last, you’ll already be in the headspace to pick a narrow range of items, just pick the first one you think of. And before you draw in make it as meaningful as possible in your mind.

It could be an object, a person, a moment you got to experience, a blessing or a piece of luck, it could have just happened or it might have happened ages ago. Pick the thing and in you mind turn up the volume, the saturation, being in smell, touch whatever you can to make it as vivid as you can in your mind.

Then load that image in your mind with as much meaning as you can muster.

Then unleash that image onto the page.

Day by day fill this panel with intense gratitude, this will compound so quickly, maybe one day you can flip through your book and it fill serve as a flip book of all the things you are grateful for.

They say that you cannot be grateful and fearful at the same time.

Which means gratitude either brings about courage or at the very least functions similarly to courage. Which is just the thing you need to make art.

Time to Draw!

By doing this habit daily, you are developing the habit of being interested, interesting, you’ll have reframed work as victory, and you will see visions of the future and finally you will put yourself in a state to act without fear.

Show your work in the Project Gallery

I hope you enjoyed this 5-Day Project to practice The Ten Minute Visual Journal Method. Paid subsribers will get a new project like this every month, and a community of artist to share it with via the Open Studio Chat. The subscription is $10 a month, but if you take an annual subscription for $50 you save 58% each year,

PS: The Check-ins

Each day we’ll explore one of the questions in a little more depth as we try to layer more and more potency into your ten minutes of practice. I’ll also send it to you once a day over the next 4 days.

Day 1: The Visual Journal Method (this)

Day 2: Time as a Filter — learn to filter and pick your moments of interest.

Day 3: Present Focus — all work is aspirational

Day 4: Vision — vision drives reality

Day 5: Gratitude — your most creative state

Ten Minute Artist gives you a Gameplan to build a lifelong creative habit and attract your true fans - I’m also involved in these two other substacks:

• with is a monthly skill building workshop with a huge library

• with

And this is Day 4, If you’re new to all this start at Day 1

If you’ve been following along, you’re now more interested, more interesting and more energised about your work, and today we’re going to think about how to answer the next question.

“What’s coming up?”

At the most basic level this question will prompt you to take a look at your calendar and draw an upcoming event. This could be a meeting you’re looking forward to, a place you’re looking forward to going to, something that’s coming in the mail.

These are all great things to draw for this question, bringing a piece of the future into the present. When you draw it, you’re declaring on paper that it’s already done. You can start enjoying it in some measure now.

This ability to enjoy the future in the present is a wonderful vitamin to your daily life.

You could also take a different approch.

You can use this sections to explore what you might want to happen. The image you create based on your calendar, and the image you create from your imagination or both possible futures.

Both have not happened yet, both could happen.

What’s coming up can be a question about what you are expecting and it could just as likely be a question about the kind of future you want to create for yourself.

You could draw date night in that panel before asking someone for a date.

Or draw an adventure you’ve been meaning to have before actually making any concrete plans.

Both work, embrace the future with flexibility. It makes me think of the Odyssey Plan is a Stanford Life Design Lab tool for creating three distinct, alternative five-year future paths.

Use this space to poke holes into different possible futures, a mini daily Odyssey Plan.

Time to Draw!

Yes by now you’re figuring out that this practice uses the past present and future to triangulate your present moment. It is an exercise in deep presence. You just spend ten minutes but you can dig into the past, explore different futures and even experience the fruits of your labour in advance.

You can pack a lot into ten minutes, and with practice you’ll be able to load even more!

Share your work in the Project Gallery

And I’ll see you in Day 5, for the final piece and a plan for beyond these 5 days.

PS: The Check-ins

Each day we’ll explore one of the questions in a little more depth as we try to layer more and more potency into your ten minutes of practice. I’ll also send it to you once a day over the next 4 days.

Day 1: The Visual Journal Method (this)

Day 2: Time as a Filter — learn to filter and pick your moments of interest.

Day 3: Present Focus — all work is aspirational

Day 4: Vision — vision drives reality

Day 5: Gratitude — your most creative state

Ten Minute Artist gives you a Gameplan to build a lifelong creative habit and attract your true fans - I’m also involved in these two other substacks:

• with is a monthly skill building workshop with a huge library

• with

And this is Day 3, If you’re new to all this start at Day 1

If you’re still reading, I trust you’re following along with great enthusiasm, art you already finding yourself more interested in your days? Are you more interesting?

Yes! Yes you are!

Today we’re going to discuss the next question in the method,

“What are you working on?”

All work is aspirational.

Work is your sacrifice today for a brighter future. For that reason what you’re working on day to day is vastly interesting. Go into the minutia, did into the small details. What did the client say? What did you celebrate? Where did you fall short?

Draw that.

If you keep this habit for a long time you’ll get to look back at all the tiny building blocks that got you through the years. You’ll see the ways you chose to employ yourself. But this question doesn’t just apply to your occupation and your career.

Maybe you’re working on a relationship.

Maybe you’re working on building a skill.

Maybe you’re working on a side project. Or learning a new language or an escape plan.

Document that!

What you’re working on says a lot about where you’re going, bringing this to your awareness helps you chart the course.

How one drawing can multiply your energy

Okay here’s the power up.

When most people think about work they make a huge mistake. They only focus on the drudgery of the task rather than the outcome. Do people go to the gym for the pain or for the result?

Most people who struggle with the gym struggle because they focus on the work, the sweat, the grot. Instead of focusing on the fact that it’s going to make them feel great, look good, and have more energy.

We make this mistake about all kinds of work.

Urgh, I got to email editors.

Urgh, I got to finish these illustrations.

Urgh, I got to learn how to update my website.

So eventhough they are doing something that’s moving them towards their goal, they feel bad about it.

But not you, you know the secret.

Remember what I said at the beginning, All work is Aspirational. So why focus on the struggle, rather than the prize?

Here’s how one 2 minute drawing changes the way you think and feel about work. Instead of drawing the struggle, draw the prize!

In 2020, before I my wife was pregnant and I was just still figuring out how to become a picture-book illustrator, I drew a picture of myself in a bookshop with my wife and kid, all smiling, and a shelf full of my books. I experienced the feeling for years before it has happened in reality.

You’re going to work anyway. But you don’t have to fill yourself with a feeling of dread, instead you can fill yourself, with all the good feelings of the prize that you are working towards.

Learn to connect your actions to the feeling of that positive outcome, it will energise you.

So whenever you answer the question “what are you working on?”

Start by drawing that outcome, that victory, that prize.

Call it what you want, Imaging, Visualisation, Affirmation, Prayer, Magic or simply a Reframe.

One 3 minute drawing can transform how you feel about your whole day, every day!

Time to Draw!

How are we doing so far, right now this practice is already making you more interested, more interesting and feeling better about your work. I can’t wait to see this new version of you expressed over 4 panels.

Project Gallery: Show your work!

And I’ll see you in Day 4

PS: The Check-ins

Each day we’ll explore one of the questions in a little more depth as we try to layer more and more potency into your ten minutes of practice. I’ll also send it to you once a day over the next 4 days.

Day 1: The Visual Journal Method (this)

Day 2: Time as a Filter — learn to filter and pick your moments of interest.

Day 3: Present Focus — all work is aspirational

Day 4: Vision — vision drives reality

Day 5: Gratitude — your most creative state

Ten Minute Artist gives you a Gameplan to build a lifelong creative habit and attract your true fans - I’m also involved in these two other substacks:

• with is a monthly skill building workshop with a huge library

• with

If you haven’t, start at Day 1

If you’re still reading I’m assuming you did the exercise maybe for the first time.

What I love about this practice is that it’s infinitely repeatable. You can answer the same questions every day, but you will always find different answers. Or different ways to draw the same answers.

I encourage you to try repeating the practice for 5 days and see how it evolves.

I hope the first day showed you how potent a single ten minute session can be to bring up images that are completely personal in origin, over the next few days I want to show you some ways to get even more out of every panel.

“What did you do yesterday?”

Is the easiest question to start with, because the potential answers are limited.

They are limited to what you actually did, what you remember doing, and what interests you the most at this moment. A day creates some distance from the activity itself, so while it’s close enough to remember, we view yesterday with a bit more objectivity.

Time becomes a filter, and only the most important and interesting things come up for consideration.

Another thing that happens when you start answering this question every day is that you start to pay more attention to your actions in daily life. Partially to find something worth drawing, but another surprising thing it does, is it makes you want to try to do more interesting things.

Asking and answering this questions, creating a sequence of images day after day makes you more interested in your days and more interesting.

Probing questions

If for whatever reason you feel stumped with the ‘yesterday’ question.

You could consider, adding some probing questions.

What did I do at a specific time?

What was the first thing I did yesterday?

What was the last thing I did yesterday?

What was the most creative thing I did yesterday?

What was the most physical thing I did yesterday?

What was the funniest thing I did yesterday?

Feel free to play with the question, but keep to the core purpose of filtering your day for one precious nugget to draw.

Drawing Style

You are spending less than 3 minutes on each drawing, so we’re not exactly making art here, as much as we are capturing images. Still one of the benefits of the repetition is to try different ways and almost effortlessly something like a style will emerge.

But one thing you can do that can have a big effect from day to day is try different materials, or use the materials differently.

Approach each day playfully, this is your time to play.

Time to Draw!

Okay I’ve given you some things to think about as you continue to try out this practice, go ahead and create another spread using the Ten Minute Visual Journal Method.

Project Gallery: Show your work!

And I’ll see you in Day 3!

PS: The Check-ins

Each day we’ll explore one of the questions in a little more depth as we try to layer more and more potency into your ten minutes of practice. I’ll also send it to you once a day over the next 4 days.

Day 1: The Visual Journal Method (this)

Day 2: Time as a Filter — learn to filter and pick your moments of interest.

Day 3: Present Focus — all work is aspirational

Day 4: Vision — vision drives reality

Day 5: Gratitude — your most creative state

Ten Minute Artist gives you a Gameplan to build a lifelong creative habit and attract your true fans - I’m also involved in these two other substacks:

• with is a monthly skill building workshop with a huge library

• with

I call it the Ten Minute Visual Journal Method.

And I use it to:

• Conquer the blank page

• Make art even on my worst days

• Stack my most valuable memories

• Center myself in the current moment

• Build a body of work without trying to

• Develop a personal visual style naturally

• To always have something unique to draw

• Turn any notebook into a creative practice

• Reconnect with the source of my creativity

• To gather an endless supply of original ideas

It does a lot of things at once, and It only takes ten minutes to do.

I always recommend this method when people ask me how to get started with a creative practice. One reader said it feels like having a treat every morning. That it gives them a sense of identity as a creative person, and that it brings creative joy into their daily life, let me show you how it’s done.

If I’ve shared this with you before, consider this version the ultimate guide of the practice.

Behold,

The Ten Minute Visual Journal Method

4 simple questions to center you in the present moment and capture it in words and pictures.

You can do this anywhere.

Sometimes I do it on a napkin, other times I take a page or even a whole spread out of an artist diary or sketchbook, the point is just that you do it.

I’m going to show you one way, but of course feel free to customise it to your particular notebook, journal or sketchbook.

The Basic Setup

Set a timer for 10 minutes then do the following steps

Step 1

Start by drawing a frame around the entire area you want to use. Then splitting that area into four. You should end up with what looks like a comic panel.

Step 2

Write one of these questions in each of the boxes, leave space to draw or add additional text.

What did you do yesterday?

What are you working on?

What’s coming up?

What is one thing you are grateful for?

Step 3

Answer the questions with words and images.

You could use a combination of images or words to answer each question. You can use it to experiment with different materials. You could experiment with lettering. You could draw yourself as a bird, anything goes.

The result will be something like a daily comic strip or a daily feed that you create for your self.

Step 4

Write or stamp the date.

Step 5 (bonus step)

Write a short title or caption for the comic.

Advanced Setup

You can position the questions in any of the boxes and answer them in any order, a different sequence might spark different ideas.

Once you find a sequence that works for you, I suggest keeping in because the sequence you use to answer the questions will become a kind of meditation.

Once you get familiar with the questions you don’t actually need to write it down, you can just write and draw your answers.

Material List

Use whatever material you like.

I’ve used a $0.50 Muji notebook and a pencil, diner napkins and fancy sketchbooks. Use what ever you have and no need to break the bank. If you’re reading this, I’m willing to bet that somewhere in your home there is a brand new unused sketchbook, or perhaps you’ve used the first 2 pages. ( I know because I always have a book like that)

Use that book.

For the examples these are the tools I have used.

1. Uniball eye fine

2. A Date Stamper

3. A Rhodia Sketchbook

4. Pentel Brush Pen

5. Koi Colouring Brush Pen

Make it a habit

Show your work

Now that I’ve shown you the method, I’d like to help you turn it into a habit, I’ve created 4 check ins for you to visit everyday, ONCE you’ve made a spread and shared it in the project gallery, pick the next check in and go deeper into the practice.

It might seem intimidating to share your work, but don’t think of the chat as ‘the public’, rather think of it as an ‘Open Studio’. You’re sharing with other creatives who are all here to support one another.

Project Gallery: Show your work!

PS: The Check-ins

Each day we’ll explore one of the questions in a little more depth as we try to layer more and more potency into your ten minutes of practice. I’ll also send it to you once a day over the next 4 days.

Day 1: The Visual Journal Method (this)

Day 2: Time as a Filter — learn to filter and pick your moments of interest.

Day 3: Present Focus — all work is aspirational

Day 4: Vision — vision drives reality

Day 5: Gratitude — your most creative state

Ten Minute Artist gives you a Gameplan to build a lifelong creative habit and attract your true fans - we do this through a series of 5-day projects.

Subscribe now

I’m also involved in these two other substacks:

• with is a monthly skill building workshop with a huge library

• with is and ongoing adventure party writing picturebooks together.