Sketchbook Project Countdown

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This year, I decided to join a multitude of artists in the Sketchbook Project over at Art House Co-Op. Although I signed up earlier this year on May 7, I've put the book away several times during the year and still have 25 pages to complete, plus the covers to decorate, decoupage and draw upon.  The postmark deadline is January 15. Over the next few days during my countdown to the deadline, I plan on revealing a few of my completed pages at a time to help keep me focused on this project.

The last time I put the book away and picked it back up again, I thought it was such a daunting task, but I was able to overcome this just by starting up again without any expectations of greatness. I had to remember at one time, I was filling in larger Canson sketchbooks over the course of a year, so this smaller sized, thinner book shouldn't be a problem at all. Between December 7 and today, I've managed to fill 10 pages, plus get all my completed pages photographed and color corrected for future posts. 

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One thing that also helped me during the past week is to have an early morning ritual. At 6:45am, I eat my oatmeal or cereal breakfast (something quick and easy) and dive right into my sketchbook while listening to some podcasted interviews at Blogcast FM, which I recently discovered thanks to a Tweet by Michelle Ward of When I Grow Up Coach. I feel quite productive when listening to the advice of A-list Blog Gurus and the common thread they have in each interview is to just keep at it. This motivates me and keeps me happily drawing, and from time to time, jotting down useful advice in my written journal. By mid-morning, around 10am, I've finished a few pages of playful creativity and feel inspired by new ideas I developed while drawing and a few business and social marketing tips to implement from the insightful podcasts.

If you're participating in this project, feel free to drop by my Sketchbook Project profile page and say hello.