Creative Energy Journaling

Creative Energy Journaling | Technical How-to

What is Creative Energy Journaling?

So many of us are over-busy, stressed and fully occupied with just getting a few more things crossed off our to-do lists. Deep down, we know we need a way to keep our thinking creative and flexible. We need a way to recharge and get back in touch with our dreams. But we get stuck on the “not enough time/space/skill” stumbling blocks. Creative Energy Journaling is a collection of the activities and practices I use and share with my students to keep my creative energy flowing even when life is biting me in the butt!

Line and Wash – Watercolor Painting Anyone Can Do

Line and wash is a combination of line drawing with watercolor washes to suggest a scene. It’s a great way to get started with watercolor, or with travel sketching, even if you “can’t draw” and have never tried watercolor before!

Creative Energy Journaling | Studio | The Other How-to

“No Mistakes” Art-Making

Do you ever make mistakes when you’re working in your journal? Or doodling? Ever put down a wobbly line? Smear some ink? Drip watercolor where you didn’t mean to? How does it make you feel? Perhaps a bit aggravated or disappointed? Do you ever want to tear a page out of your journal because it…

Creative Energy Journaling | The Other How-to

Digital Doodles

I know many of you have iPads (or other tablets) or smartphones. Have you ever thought of using them to make art? There are many, many fun apps that allow you to draw, doodle, “paint” and modify your photos—and a lot of them are free, have free versions, or cost only a few dollars. Even…

Creative Energy Journaling | The Other How-to

Get Out of the Moment

Huh? Everything you read these days seems to extol the virtues of being “in the present moment”. I’m not questioning the value of being attentive, appreciative and aware. In fact, a few weeks ago, I suggested some ways to use art-making to deepen your appreciation for the beauty and wonder in your everyday routine and…

Creative Energy Journaling

Spiral In, Spiral Out

The 30-Doodles-in-30-Days Challenge is drawing to a close, but one thing I have discovered is that everyone has enjoyed having a daily doodling suggestion (a “prompt”) as a creative springboard. Since I’ve been on a spiral kick myself lately, I invite you to create a “doodle” (or doodles) based on a spiral or spirals. (Remember,…

Creative Energy Journaling

The Sound (and Look) of Music

Last week, I talked about the power of “doodling” or art-making to focus your full attention on a sensation or experience. This is one of the main reasons I make art. Not to hang something on the wall, but to enhance my experience of life. Sketches while traveling or walking the woods, watercolor washes capturing…

Creative Energy Journaling | Studio | The Other How-to

The “Mindfulness” Craze—What’s It Got to Do with Art?

I want to talk to you for a minute about mindfulness. Wait! Before you hit “delete”, please hang in with me for just a little bit. I promise I will get back to art and creativity in a minute. Mindfulness is trendy. Everywhere you look there are articles on the health benefits of a meditation practice….

Creative Energy Journaling | The Other How-to

New Year’s Permissions

What would you do, if only . . . ? New Year’s resolutions . . . we love to hate them, but we make them. Even when we resolve not to make resolutions, there’s still that feeling that now that the holidays are over, we’ll get our lives in hand again, and this year do…

Creative Energy Journaling | The Other How-to

Celebrate Light!

Isn’t it a wonderful quirk of nature that just as the coldest months are about to begin, the days also begin to lengthen? The winter solstice is this Sunday night. After that, the days start lengthening toward spring. Why not take a little time from the rush and stress of the winter holidays and simply…

Creative Energy Journaling | The Other How-to

Explore and Inspire Yourself with Word Clouds

Have you ever noticed the cluster of words that sit in the sidebar of some websites, some of them bigger, some smaller, sometimes in multiple colors? Bloggers often “tag” articles with keywords to help readers search for topics of interest. The bigger the word in this “tag cloud”, the more often the author has used…

Creative Energy Journaling

Drawing on Gratitude

It’s Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. as I write this post, and it seems everyone in America is writing about gratitude in some way or another. I’m going to write about gratitude, too, even though you won’t see this post until Friday or Saturday, when the dominant theme will have moved on to “leftovers”. But first, I…

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