30 Days of Creating
And some of it wasn’t terrible!
Studio Notes Issue 10 | October 8, 2026
Hello spooky season! My first day back from vacation at the end of August I forced myself to spend a little time in my studio. I was excited to paint, but also feeling a bit lost as far as what to do and what I wanted to focus on. I ended up creating something totally different: a geometric abstract featuring very bright color palette.
It was nothing like my usual style, but it was the perfect low pressure way to start creating again. Since then, I have been "creating every day." I didn't start with that intention, but after a week passed and I hadn't missed a day, I decided to see how long it lasted. Sometimes it was only a 5 minute tiny pen drawing after a long day at work and sometimes it was a 3 hour long marathon session because I was in a groove listening to my audio book (Prince Harry's Spare, but we'll get to that later), but I have painted or sketched every day since August 23.
Things I have noticed during this month of creativity:
Being creative is a muscle that I wasn't flexing as much as I should.
Sure, I was being creative almost every time I sat down to "work" in the studio. Writing is creative. Working in Adobe Illustrator on a pattern is creative. Even filming and editing content is creative. But all of those other creative things come from creating actual art. Tracking my studio hours for the first half of the year showed that I wasn't spending time creating art as much as I should.
I'm honestly not sure what kind of art I want to focus on right now.
Over the past month, I have spent time:
Creating artwork for patterns.
Painting minis.
Working on slightly larger paintings (only slightly).
Sketching ideas.
Painting intuitively.
Painting more realistic.
Revisiting paintings that I started, but never finished.
After all of this creating, I'm not really sure what I want to focus on. I have this voice that says I should be creating a collection of paintings, but at the moment it feels a bit forced. I am also loving working on patterns, which is just as time consuming as trying to create a painting collection. I do have a lot of ideas though, so I'm hoping that something is just percolating away in my subconscious.
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I really like creating artwork for patterns.
I have been a pattern making machine since I got back. I have worked on refining an old collection, submitted individual patterns for Spoonflower challenges, and submitted for a design call in my surface design membership Pattern+. (I'm sharing more about patterns in the next issue!) Creating artwork for patterns is a very different way of creating. Sometimes I have the pattern in mind when I start creating, like when I created a series of small mountain scenes that I wanted to turn into a toile style wallpaper for a Spoonflower challenge. Sometimes I'm creating the building blocks of individual motifs that will turn into mushrooms or flowers or carrots. Other times, I'm just making marks along a theme and waiting to see what happens, like the evening I spent drawing wonky buildings. I'm not sure how or when I'm going to use them, but I'm kind of in love with the concept.
I don't need long painting sessions to make progress and I would even argue that some of my best results have come from shorter sessions.
As if I need yet another reminder that consistency is always more powerful than intensity. While I wanted to see if I could create something every day, I did not put any parameters for how long I needed to paint or draw. I work full time and am building a creative business on the side. My hours working in the studio vary and can be severely limited if I am having a crazy week or month at work. My primary goal was always to get into the studio and make progress. If I started something and was bored, or even if I just wasn't focused, within 5-10 minutes, I didn't have to keep going. That probably happened 50% of the time, but you'd be amazed at what you can get done in 10-15 minutes if you are doing it every day.
Am I going to keep up my streak in October?
It's a definite maybe. Mentally, spending a little bit of time making art is great for my nervous system. It is a much more productive way to spend my time after work than scrolling my phone. It's also helpful for everything else - patterns, newsletters, content, etc.
But I also have a tendency to take all or nothing a bit too far, like the day I was up at 5am to go rock climbing before work, and then worked a 12 hour day because we had an exhibit opening at the museum, and then was stressed that I hadn't created any artwork yet once I finally got home. This was one of those days where a 5 minute pen sketch was all I could manage. Forcing myself to create on days like that isn't necessarily what I'm going for. I need to remind myself that I can emphasize creating before I dive into other projects, especially computer work, but I also need to be flexible so that I do not make one of my favorite parts of being an artist become a chore.
Have you ever stuck to something for 30 days?
How did it turn out?
Coming Up This Month
The Mountain Living Collection is now live on Spoonflower! I'll be diving into finalizing this collection in the next post.
A holiday drop is in the works(-ish)! I'm working on two different ideas that may or may not make it to the finish line: a small desk calendar featuring my favoriting minis from the year and maybe finally releasing some of the ornaments from my annual ornament project for sale.
This Week's Recs...
What I'm watching: I have two Amazon Prime shows for you this week. First we watched The Pendragon Cycle: Rise of the Merlin. This 7-episode series felt like a very interesting take on the King Arthur legend and King Arthur hasn't even been born yet at the series conclusion! I liked how the series was based in a Roman-ish version of Britain and there is a bizarre intersection with the Atlantis myth. It was a bit violent, but I hope it gets renewed for a second season. Recommendation two is Steal which is a British crime thriller staring Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner. Billion dollar pension fund heist where you are not really sure which character you should be rooting for, yes please.
What I'm reading: Since I have been creating every day, I have also started listening to audiobooks again. I completely binged the 16-hour Spare by Prince Harry. It was entertaining and a bit melodramatic, but 100% what I was looking for during my painting sessions. I have since moved on to the audiobook The Year of Less by Cait Flanders.
Radom Rec: Long walks outside, without your phone. Since being home from vacation, I have been making a point to take walks without my phone. It has done wonders for my brainpower and usually leaves me itching to get into my studio to jot down an idea.
Until next time!