Project Notes: Continue working in your artist diary for 10 minutes a day, use week 2 as a minute of options if you need some ideas.

I read when I was 11 that being a comic artist is great work if you can get it.

The article in Wizard Magazine went on to explain how every comic fan want to draw Spider-Man, and at the time there were only a couple of opportunities to do that, so everyone was fighting for the same spot. And that lead me to believe that being an artist or an illustrator was an ultra competitive job where, you’re goal was to be the one.

To outdo everyone else and get that scarce job. I was wrong.

Obviously.

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You can checkout the entire Gameplan here.

Project Notes: Continue working in your artist diary for 10 minutes a day, use week 2 as a minute of options if you need some ideas.

Today we think of our practice as a means of collecting tried and tested material

Crafting something is a long uncertain process a maker should show her work

— Austin Kleon

A comedian is someone who can do the most terrifying job on earth (speaking in public) and make it seem effortless.

A comedians prowess is measured in minutes, how long are they able to stand on a stage in a room full of strangers and make them laugh, reliably. It’s measured in minutes not because it’s a test of stamina or mental prowess. It’s measured in minutes because everything the comedian says on that stage is part of an act.

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Project Notes: Continue working in your artist diary for 10 minutes a day, if you don’t know what to work on use week 2 as a menu. This project explores one aspect of interfacing with an audience, in the tech world you might call this discovery or product market fit, next week we’ll be talking about earning true fans, this is not that yet… this is the step before, figuring out who you’re making art for and what you want to make for them.

Today we will ask when is a work of art done?

All in all the creative act is not performed by the artist alone…

the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting the inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.

— Marcel Duchamp

A work of art is never really done is it.

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Welcome to: Artist Diary: Part 4/5 , this day one of a 5 day project where we discover 5 ways to fill a blank spread in 10 minutes.

This project is the first the second of 3 projects of “Start a daily drawing habit: a Gameplan”, go here for the full table of contents.

A note on the assignment: 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.

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Welcome to: Sacred Time: Part 2/5 , this day one of a 5 day project where we explore our relationship to time and aim to set apart 10 minutes of quality time each day for a drawing habit.

This project is the first the first of 3 projects of “Start a daily drawing habit: a Gameplan”, go here for the full table of contents.

A note on the assignments: It’s nice to see that so many of you know when your high voltage times are, from early in the morning to when you find your seat on the train. I hope you’ll be using one of those high voltage times to do today’s assignment.

If you can’t that’s fine, better to do it than wait for perfect circumstances, but if you do use that high voltage times you’re going to get a little bit extra out of it.

The assignments are a codified and visceral way for me to communicate some ideas to you, not everything can explained, and even if they can, I’m choosing not to explain everything upfront, so just know you will be learning by doing. I don’t mean to be a strict teacher or a demanding parent, maybe a coach.

So if coach (me) says make a drawing, or do some writing, try to do all the steps. You’re converting an idea into a thing in the world that you made by hand, and that is a powerful thing.

Remember to share your work in the gallery, we all love seeing the work of brave amateurs, and every pro, was once a brave amateur.

With that out of the way, welcome to day 2:

Time Tetris

“People sleep more, work less & have more leisure time than they imagine”

— Laura Vanderkam

Laura Vanderkam is a time scientist.

Not the kind that thinks about time travel, rather the kind that studies hundreds of participants from all walks of life to see patterns in how they spend their time.

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Welcome if you’re new and if this is your second time, welcome back!

Here’s what we’ll be doing here.

1. Building a ten minute habit. A daily minimum that transforms your identity.

2. This habit will produce an output that will serve as a source material.

3. We will fashion that source material into a ‘product’ for true fans.

If you’ve done this before, I hope you’ll read every dispatch as carefully as you did the first time around. I’m revisiting them daily too editing for clarity, sharing new examples or stories and sometimes things just land different the second time around.

Creative Habit

You’re going to have to do something, you’re going to have to spend time taking action, all the actions are designed to be something you can do in 10 minutes, but I do recommend setting aside 30 minutes each day. This will give you some time to get comfortable before you start and a moment to reflect after.

If all you have is 10 minutes that works too!

For some assignments, it might make sense to read it in the morning, ponder and do the drawing later in the day.

Creative Engine

Too much of what we do in this social media age is performative.

You see people frantically set up lighting and cameras to take a relaxing sip of coffee. This 10 minutes is different it’s not for show. Instead this 10 minutes serve to spark your imagination and usher in those imaginings into the world in their rawest form.

What you end up doing with these uncut gems of creative output will be up to you. The goal is to help you uncover them daily.

True Fans

I think there is a step many artist are unwilling to take, and that is to earn and cultivate true fans.

Yet the true fan is the completion of the creative process. Whether it’s someone to laugh at your joke, gaze on your artwork, or read your masterpiece. For all your tinkering, crafting and toiling in private, the task is incomplete until it has found an audience.

For some you might seek a small audience to influence with your message, for others you might need a larger audience to sustain your practice and form the lifeblood of your career. During this journey we will look at ways to cultivate these true fans.

Your Gameplan will be delivered to you in 2 parts

Part 1: Daily Dispatch

This is the table of contents of the entirety of Part 1. Once you’re signed up you can dive right in, REMEMBER to toggle on the section to get emails and notifications when each new dispatch drops.

How ever you choose to do it, each dispatch contains an idea and an assignment to help you take action, each step emboldens you to take the next step!

Project Roadmap:

Sacred time

1. High Voltage Time

2. Time Tetris

3. Taking Time

4. Alive time

5. Sacred time

Artist Diary

1. One Line a Day

2. Daily Diary

3. Free Writing

4. Daily Comic

5. Start with an image (the messy page)

Draw Anything

1. Mark Making

2. Shapes

3. Blocks

4. Blobs

5. Better Stickmen

Writing on Stage

1. When is it done?

2. Show your work

3. Talking to other Artist

4. Talking to the Audience

5. Make it a process

Earning True Fans

1. 1020 True Fans

2. Multiple Fan Clubs

3. Be Findable

4. What are you working on

5. Go Direct

Projecting your Creative Voice

1. Constraints

2. Tools

3. Uniqueness

4. Influence

5. Passion

Part 2: the 30 Day Project

At the end of part one you will be given the opportunity to submit all your 10 minute assignments, and a short questionnaire. When you submit your completed assignments and questionnaire. I will give you a personalised 30 day project to continue your journey tailored to your specific outcome.

Hello, I’m Adam Ming.

Since turning 40 in 2021, I have illustrated 15 Childrens books for top publishers. I went from literally forgetting that I was an artist, to doing my dream job. I wrote about my journey for 5 years, and have mentored others in group and 1-1 settings. Gameplan is my attempt to distill the most valuable lessons, surprising insights, and painful mistakes, into something that is immediately usable to you.

It’s for you if you’re looking for an entry into a dream job, trying to make this creative life work, or even just want to get mote out of a daily 10 minute drawing practice.

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To make it as useful as possible, I’m going to say two things.

1. These are my opinions, but I am going to state them as if it was true fact. It’s important for me to be as specific and opinionated as possible. Some of the things I share might go against conventional or general knowledge. And that is intentional. I’m not writing generalities I’m sharing what I believe or have found to be true. My specific knowledge. Use what you can and ignore anything you might not agree with, take what works. But do the assignments.

2. You might be tempted to skim, you might think I know this, that and the other already. And you’re free to do that. But there is a risk you might miss something. I often tell this story of an agent writing back to be when I was seeking representation with something like, “I’m not feeling it”. And after getting angry, I came back and reflected on the sentence, and it led to a series of actions which created some of the biggest breakthrough and helped me get my foot into this industry.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to go on this journey with you!

What surprised me about the program was the level of engagement and togetherness exhibited in the group chat. People shared their work and encouraged one another. Not everyone made it to the end we all work at different pace, and sometimes life gets in the way. These two factors prompted me to start another cohort, an opportunity for everyone to start again and Experience the community vibe throughout.

On July 6 2026 a new cohort kick off. If you ever wanted motivation, inspiration and a step by step guide to building a creative practice, with a supportive community, this place is for you.

PART 1 : Here is what we’ll cover in the first 6 weeks. (10 minutes a day)

Week 1: Sacred time

We’ll explore our relationship to time, through a series of writing and drawing exercises, by the end of the week you will be more and ready and capable to set aside 10 minutes a day for your art.

Week 2: Artist Diary

Now that you have made the time, you will need a practice. This week we explore 5 different candidate practices to become your daily practice. By the end of the week you can select one of them as your default practice or have a menu to choose from.

Week 3: Draw Anything

‘Gameplan: How to be an Artist’ is suitable for all levels, which is why week 3 will give you some basic tools to be able to draw anything. From dynamic poses to abstract mark making, to graphic shapes… we’ll dig into how to draw anything!

Week 4: Writing on Stage

The last time did this some people were eager to get to this stage others were put off by it. Sharing your work as an artist can be daunting, which is why week provide a safe place in the chat, but at some point you need to share in public, this is your first step.

Week 5: Earning True Fans

If you want to make money from your art, you’re going to need a product or service, and fans. Here we talk about the idea of 1000 true fans, and how you can start charting a path towards earning an audience for your work.

Week 6: Projecting your Creative Voice

Some call it style, we’ll call it your creative voice, and in this last project we’ll learn to notice and amplify your true voice.

PART 2: When you complete the first 6 weeks of assignments you will be eligible to get a personalised 30 day project designed around your particular goals.

If you become a paid annual subscriber $50 before July 7th you will be upgraded to Gameplan for free, $200 in savings.

Subscribe now