Artist Diary Day 2 🚪What holds you back from putting your ideas on paper?
Don’t let these mistakes stop you from keeping an artist diary!
Yesterday I shared how I kept an artist diary since 1999.
Did I do it perfectly?
No.
Far from it.
Here are some of the ways I was held back in the practice. I’m not proud of them, but I share them here so you can learn from my mistakes.
You are now reading Day 2 of this FREE 5 day email course, where I give everything you need to start and maintain an artist diary.
Missed Day 1? Start there: Why it’s so easy to get ideas but so difficult to turn them into anything tangible.
How I almost failed at keeping up with my artist dairy? (mistakes to avoid)
1. You don’t need the most expensive sketchbook..
You don’t need the most expensive sketchbook, or leather bound journal or the latest set of calligraphy or technical drawing pens.
Any book and writing/drawing instrument will do. If you want to make it nice, fine, but don’t let that hinder you from actually using your artist diary! There have been so many instances where I just stopped cold because I didn’t have the right pen, or notebook, or date stamper.
Yes instead of writing the date by hand I needed to wait till I could get to my date stamper to start working in my artist diary. Stupid I know.
In 2020, when the world was in lockdown. My wife stapled scraps of paper together for me to use as sketchbooks because all the shops were closed. And that helped me get over perfectionism real quick.
Don’t let your materials or lack of materials impede you. Learn to make do. What you put into your artist diary is way more important than the tools you use to create them.
2. You don’t need to block the first hour of the day…
You don’t need to block any particular hour of the day to start.
I’ve been there, I oversleep and miss my ‘sacred hour’, now I’m grumpy the whole day and can’t do anything in my diary until tomorrow, because I missed the best time to create.
Morning routines and evening routines are great, and if you manage to use your artist diary as part of a perfect routine, brilliant.
But it’s even better to have your artist diary with you all day. Whip it out while waiting in line, or while eating a meal alone or on a commute. Try this anytime you might be tempted to whip out your phone for no reason, whip out your artist diary instead!
And you don’t need an hour. Ten minutes, Two minutes. Any scrap of time will do.By that same token, if you’re feeling inspired spend half a day working through your artist diary go for it.
In the beginning you might need to set a reminder to use your artist diary, but over time you want it to become second nature.
If you can get yourself hooked on your artist diary the way you’re hooked to your phone, you’re going to be making so much better work!
Learn to use your artist diary anytime and anywhere!
3. You don’t need to wait until you’ve perfected your handwriting or found your “Art Style.”
This is not a beauty contest.
This is more like a place for you to do your art workout. You’re supposed to take risks, try things and make mistakes. Yes you will stumble upon the occasional gem. But don’t count on it, instead let yourself draw the way you draw and write the way you write.
What you really want to try to do is become ‘more you’ not ‘more polished’, not ‘more trending’ not ‘more aesthetic’. ‘More you.’
And you’re not going to even know what it means to be more you until you get into a habit of writing and drawing in your artist diary every single day. (Or at least as often as you can)
The skill you’re going for is merely the skill of making an effort to add ink or graphite or paint to the page.
Aim to get an ‘A’ for effort. To show up for about 10 minutes a day.
4. You don’t need to show anyone your artist diary (or worry about doing it wrong)
I’m a bit of a self help junkie.
I think it’s because I had trouble in school until I read a book called ‘how to study’. It didn’t solve all my problems, but I did go from the bottom of the class to near the top that one time. And that’s where I got the belief that there are perfect answers to all life’s questions in books.
I was of course wrong.
Books work so much better when you take the advice prescribed selectively and mix it with your own life experience. And so it is with your artist diary. There is no wrong way to do it. Just keep using it. And the more you use it the more it will work for you.
Approach it with reckless abandon.
It’s easier to do this when you know you’re not going to show it to anyone. Yes maybe you’ll want to share selective bits with on occasion. But your default should be that this is work you do for yourself.
And because you’re doing it for yourself…
5. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
All you need to do is take some time to put things down in your artist diary.
DAY 2 Creative Action:
Take time
You need to take time from something to start a new habit. ( I suggest stealing time from screen time)
It doesn’t have to be first thing in the morning although it can be. It’s really up to you, for today’s activity I want you to think about two ten minute slots you might find in your day tomorrow.
Why two? If you miss the first one, you’ll have a back up.
Maybe think on paper. In your artist diary, write, draw, and somehow determine 2 potential times you might use tomorrow to use your artist diary. Maybe you could write a paragraph or a sentence or two about it. Or draw some icons to represent where you’re going to take time for your artist diary.
There was a time I would use the moments between meetings to draw or on a lunch break. I know one reader takes time in her sketchbook when her daughter is in gymnastics.
Take what works for you.
Now if fail to take time, consider those few minutes before bed as one final opportunity to visit your artist diary.
And whenever possible take time from screen time.
Tomorrow I’ll give you my best ideas from filling up your artist diary.
📆 Check your inbox again in 24 hours for Day 3
PS: Paid subscribers receive a Creative Spark every day in 2026, each spark contains an idea and a prompt that you can use with your artist diary to ignite your creative joy.
Here’s the entire 5-Day Course in case you missed a day or want to binge:
The Artist Diary
Day 1: What is an artist diary, and why you should keep one
Day2: What stops people from beginning or sticking to this practice
Day3: My three best Artist Diary Setups (repeatable prompts)
Thanks for sharing this. I find myself gravitating to content like this. I think Im really an artist trapped in a Project Manager's mind :)