Day 5: Gratitude — your most creative state
Alternate versions of the future
You’re reading the ultimate guide to the Ten Minute Visual Journal Method.
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.
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:
Art Gym with Katie Stack is a monthly skill building workshop with a huge library
Art Quest with Jen Gubicza