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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You can checkout the entire Gameplan here.

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.

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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 one day and we were discussing teenage rebellion.

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

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.

Also at the end of 30 days (or whenever you can manage it) you will need to submit your assignments, they won’t be graded but they will need to be complete for you to receive Part 2: your personalised 30 day project.

Looking forward to seeing more of your assignments, there will be a week after the last project to send in your assignments.

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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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