Find Your Artistic Voice: The Essential Guide to Working Your Creative Magic

Keep a growing list of all the artists you find yourself wanting to mimic.

the problem is that if you succumb to fear or doubt (even with their lofty intentions), your creative journey will move either very slowly or, frankly, it won’t move at all. To keep things moving, I like to speak directly to fear: “Thanks so much for doing your job! But I GOT THIS!” And then, instead of shoving fear out of the way (which isn’t a ba

One of the first tips my former agent, Lilla Rogers, gave to me was that I should give myself assignments when I didn’t have paid work; I should use the time I had to make the kind of work I wanted to get hired to do by clients.

Kate: One branch might be an interest in a certain style of illustration. Another branch might be this movie that has stayed with you for five years. Another branch might be all the cool things you collect from thrift stores. Another branch might be a particular interest in a period in history or weird experiences you had as a kid. And then you put

BEGIN ANYHOW:

Monica Lee-Henell, an artist friend of mine, has some great advice on how to use Pinterest. She creates a bunch of boards themed around things she’s drawn to, like landscapes, or portraits, or the color yellow. Then she pins like a crazy person in each of the categories! You might go into this thinking “a portrait is a portrait,” but once you’ve cr

Concentrated, regular practice leads to the fastest growth.

The other half of the program, Tharp intentionally leaves a mystery until she arrives. She doesn’t plan what music she’ll be using or which dancers she’ll be working with. She won’t even think about the lighting or costumes until she arrives. The large white room will become her motivation to create something brand new.

Creative thinking happens in most people, but what differentiates most productive artists from the rest of the population is that they are compelled to do something with their ideas, and they are also usually able to work through fears about not being ready or not having the right set of tools.

be conscious of how you are transferring those influences into your own work. Always ask, “How am I transforming this influence into something of my own? How am I innovating?”