Summer sketchbooks and charity donations [28]

We discuss our different approaches to summer – Louise doesn’t slow down in summer and in fact, her online course is about to start which means she is working even harder. Alice has children, which means her summers have always been a time for family. So how do we fit art in to that?!

Keeping creative through the summer

Even with the best will in the world, it’s almost impossible to work while caring for young children so I have always had to find ways of creating which could be squeezed into the gaps around family time. This has included other creative projects including home decor, gardening, cooking, and reading the art books that I usually don’t have time for.

We also discuss sketchbooks and the different ways we have both used them, including how we divide ideas up vs a scrapbook model and an idea for a sketchbook-in-a-day project if you like a deep dive! THIS is the simple sketchbook I mentioned and would recommend if you would like to have a go at this.

Oh, and also we started a hashtag for sharing how you are keeping in touch with your art practice over the summer!! Simply use #artjuicesummer over on Instagram

If you would like to join Louise for her “Find your Joy” FREE mini course which kicks off on 2nd August there is still time to join. 

Audience Question

Our audience question is about charity donations: The listener wrote:

“Had my fill this week! Would make an interesting podcast. The tactics they use to get free artwork. How to say no. How to not feel guilty. If I’m targeted then others artists must be too.”

We have a slight reframe on this one … rather than seeing it as a bad thing, we talk about how to approach these requests in a more positive manner.

Perhaps you can split the proceeds? Perhaps you can choose a charity you feel strongly about and donate to that. Maybe the charity has high net worth donors and this might be a good marketing opportunity? Perhaps, as Alice has, you can find a more creative way to raise money than just donating a piece … but we both agree that there is no need to feel guilty about saying no. The charity has to ask for donations – it’s what they do – but you do not have to make them, any more than a local business has to give a gift voucher if they don’t want to.

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Credits
“Monkeys Spinning Monkeys” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License