How to Use This Course

Prompts are Not Requirements

The prompts are there for you to use, or not, as suits you in the moment. You can always choose to go your own way, especially if you are on fire to keep going on something from an earlier module or a project you’re working on. 

You can write a journal entry about the thinking prompt, or make a bullet list, talk it over with others (artists or not), or just ponder it over a cup of tea.

Meet Today’s Needs

I’ve included a variety of activity prompts: some for days when you’re up for a challenge, some for days when you’re feeling weary and in need of soothing, some for when you feel contemplative, some for when you feeling industrious. 

But there’s guarantee the day’s prompt matches your day’s mood and needs.

Sometimes, if you go ahead and dive in, you’ll find yourself getting absorbed in a prompt that didn’t seem to fit at first. But this is your studio notebook. Claim the right to say, “Nope, I’m doing my own thing today.” As you work through the course, you’ll probably find, or create, your own favorites. It’s perfectly okay to go back and repeat an earlier prompt, continue work on an earlier page, or change a prompt to better suit your needs. 

Revisit and Revise

After you finish the activity prompt, you may want to return to the thinking prompt to see if any new ideas have come up while you were working. Or, you may want to cycle back to earlier prompts to add new thoughts or embellishments. 

Reflect and Enjoy

Some days, I don’t even have the energy to pick up a brush. If you have a day like that, you can still get a lot of benefit from simply leafing through your studio notebook and letting yourself enjoy, or ponder, what’s already on the page. 

Reflection is an essential part of the creative process. Busily “doing” all the time can interfere with developing deeper insights. Allow your creative self time to simply notice, reflect, experience and enjoy.