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Danny Gregory: I help you make art again

by Danny Gregory

Each Friday, I send advice, ideas, stories and tips to 20K creative people like you. Author of 13 best-selling books on creativity. Founder of Sketchbook Skool w 50k+ students

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Featured Post

🌳 The art spirit

“Genius is not a possession of the limited few, but exists in some degree in everyone. Where there is natural growth, a full and free play of faculties, genius will manifest itself.” — Robert Henri I have always been a fan of Walt Disney. Not just of his animated films but of a certain image I have of the man himself. It’s not the dictatorial egomaniac that some biographers have depicted but the gentle, welcoming character who appeared at the beginning of each episode of The Wonderful World...

about 21 hours ago • 3 min read

Procrastinate like a pro. Hi Reader: I create things all the time. Usually, something small like a page in my sketchbook, a lesson for a class I’m teaching, a video for my YouTube channel or one of the essays I write twice a week. But every year or so, I work on a big project. Previous projects include books, courses, video series, and learning new skills in depth. Last year’s big project was publishing a book of essays, You Do You. My current project is an online course called Your...

4 days ago • 6 min read

What I've learned from all this. Hi Reader: Every essay I send you is a lesson for me. Here's what I've learned so far. Starting in 2003, I began publishing posts on dannygregorysblog.com. It was an uneven affair — there were stretches in which I’d write every day, but at other times, I’d leave it fallow for months and then resurface with a long apologetic post. Some of the essays were pretty good, others were careless, self-promoting, or glib. Finally, after almost two decades, I abandoned...

4 days ago • 3 min read

When I was thirteen, they showed a movie in Morning Assembly that screwed me up royally. We had moved to America less than a year before, and I was clueless about virtually everything that wasn't to be found on the shelves of my grandfather's library in Lahore. I knew about hunting ocelots, excising neck tumors, and the pretenders to the Romanian throne, but nothing about rock 'n' roll, heroin, or afro picks. This movie taught me about all three. It was a black and white 16 mm, faux...

8 days ago • 3 min read

💖 April Stuff I like and think you might too: Hi Reader: 📕 Did you ever wonder…. How should you look at art? Why do people spend millions on art? What do artists do all day? Do galleries make money? Why is the art world elitist? What are gallery walls white? How do artists become hot? Why does Art matter? What is a butt influencer? Then you must read Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See by Bianca Bosker. I...

11 days ago • 2 min read

I just spent a rainy weekend in 29 Palms, a tiny desert town tucked alongside the Joshua Tree National Forest. The landscape is flat as a billiard table, but trees poke up to make a skyline — gnarled pines and palms with neckbeards of dead fronds. Spending time in the desert floods all my senses with nature’s creations. The clear, cool light just after dawn. The sweet fresh perfume of wet creosote after the rain. Crows cawing. Wind strumming the grasses. Once the storm passed, curtains of...

15 days ago • 2 min read

A Fastidious Guide to Ink Hi Reader: I love ink, and I want you to, too. Sure, ink can be a messy business, but not if you know a few tricks I’ve picked up over many ink-stained years. First off, what is ink exactly? Basically, it’s pigment or dye suspended in some sort of liquid or vehicle. But the qualities of those few ingredients make a big difference in how the ink works. For instance, ballpoint pen ink is made from dye mixed with oil, so it’s nice and thick when it rolls out of the pen...

18 days ago • 5 min read

Would you like to have ideas and creations just pour out of you? Who wouldn’t? Let’s talk about what gets in the way of our creative brains and how to fix it. The ideal creative state is flow. It’s an incredible feeling of freedom in which each idea spawns the next, leading you deeper and deeper into new territory. Time flies. Magic happens. Then you emerge a little disoriented and blissed out, with treasure in your hands. The earliest experience we have of flow is in childhood. We call it...

22 days ago • 2 min read

Hi Reader: Imagine the Gucci, the Rolls Royce, the Vuitton of sketchbooks. One that was custom-built with the best materials just for you. A title stamped in gold on the leather cover. The best paper, the best binding, the best everything. Let me tell you the story of how I set out to indulge myself with this sort of luxurious craziness. And the important lessons I learned from the experience. When I started drawing in a sketchbook, there weren’t many choices in the art store. Black student...

25 days ago • 3 min read

Sometimes, I sit in front of a blank sketchbook page and feel that mix of thrill and sheer terror. Like, 'Yay, I can create anything!' but also, 'Oh no, (gulp) I can create anything…’ Been there? The solution will seem even scarier, but it will turn fear into freedom as you leap off a cliff called 'I Have No Idea What I'm Doing.’ Forget about trying to make the next Mona Lisa or out-Picasso Picasso. Stop dreaming you should be able to toss off a perfect copy of your favorite manga artist or...

29 days ago • 2 min read
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