The new year is a perfect time to make a new or renewed commitment to your creative practice. I know it can be daunting to begin, the clean white canvas/paper/panel stares back with a mocking glare. It dares us to be bold and brave. So then what?

Here are a few simple steps to help you get moving:

1. Commit to Curious!! - Curiosity is the single greatest quality to inspire your creative practice, in my opinion. If you can just stay curious while playing and making marks, it disarms any self-judgement and keeps you moving forward. Read about this more in my BLOG POST HERE.

2. Love what you love. I’ve said it a hundred times, and I’ll say it again - LOVE WHAT YOU LOVE. That is how you honor the truth of your authentic being. Don’t try to follow trends, or copy the latest “thing”. Have the courage to simply choose colors, marks, images, etc, that make you feel good, and begin to find your way.

3. Start a sketchbook. Begin a visual library of inspiration you love (as mentioned above). It’s great to have a physical journal to cut and paste in your favorite things. Print them out and glue stick into the pages. You don’t need to “sketch” or make it pretty. Just gather the things that capture your attention and make notes about what you love. This is a reminder of who you are - visually, and you can reference it through the years.

4. Revel in Glorious Color. From your sketchbook inspiration, choose a simple color palette that you love and try to mix the colors as best you can. Look on Youtube for color mixing instruction or look at color theory books and blogs.

A simple way to learn to mix colors is by choosing 2 different colors - i.e. a blue and a yellow of various hues, to mix a full range of greens. Do 10 different small paintings just using those 2 colors. Then try 2 other colors - repeat. See below.

Use a photo and a “color picker” (in Procreate or another app like Photoshop or Illustrator) to isolate colors and try to mix a few of those colors. Make swatches in your sketchbook for future reference.

I did this photo composite in Procreate using their color picker to see what the colors looked like isolated. It was easier to identify and mix the colors I liked best, and then possibly use in a painting later on. Make “swatches” of your colors in your sketchbook with notes to remind you of how you mixed them for future reference.

5. Study composition. Look at photos and other inspiration and make simple studies of their compositions. Notice the strong verticals, horizontals, diagonals and other ways of breaking up space. Make notes in your sketchbook to refer back to when you feel stuck.

6. Commit to some kind of daily or regular practice. You don’t need to be ambitious. It can be 15 minutes a day just making marks or adding inspo to your sketchbook to be referred to later.

Or you can do a 30 day challenge of some kind - i.e. using a simple palette such as black, white and a third color. Then do 30 small paintings using that limited palette.

Small simple habits are easier to ingrain than taking big leaps that require a greater commitment of time or space.

7. Take a class. Remember, you don’t have to figure it out yourself! Just commit to learning one (or more) new things this year - either take a class in person or go online/youtube/google. Ask a friend, or several, to meet up weekly to make collages or whatever methods you prefer.

And I’d love to see you in my upcoming classes for 2025! Check back soon for Spring/Summer classes HERE.

The fact is these days there is no shortage of inspiration or techniques or artists to learn from - so get to it and enjoy the journey!

*If you have a prompt or practice that helps you get going on your art practice, please share below!

7 Ways To Jumpstart Your Creativity in 2025

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