 Hello and welcome to this video. Today I'm sharing some top tips on how to develop your creative practice. Now you might say to me, Sophie, what has that got to do with building my dream art business? And I want to say to you, everything. If you're not doing something other than the creating or making of your product or service, then you are missing out on developing your creativity. Having and developing a creative practice is essential to building your dream art business. And in today's video, I'm going to share exactly how you can really build something that works for you. Well, if you're new to this channel that are warm welcome, I share all things art business tip related. So if you're looking to build your own successful art business, then don't forget to subscribe to my channel, hit the bell to get notified every single time I post a new video. Let's take a look at these top five tips to developing your creative practice. So tip number one might sound really obvious, but sometimes it's the most difficult one to actually do. You need to carve out regular time to do this. Could be 15 minutes, could be 30 minutes, could be an hour. Now, depending on how you actually build your business, you work your day, whether you're still in a job and you're doing your creativity part time, sometimes finding that little pressure space can be the biggest challenge. But I promise you, doing it is really, really, really gonna help you grow, not just your creative practice, but your end product or service and of course then your business. So I'm gonna suggest that you set a regular event in your diary. Say it could be 15 minutes at the end of your working day, it could be 13 minutes when you first get up. You know, in the morning, perhaps all you need to do is set your alarm an hour earlier, get up an hour earlier and have that time to yourself when you can come into your studio space or creative space or kitchen or wherever it is you work and do something creative. Now, the important thing here is we're not talking about working on your artwork or working on your workshop or your class or the thing that you actually do, we're talking about creativity, playing and learning new things. We'll come to that in a minute. Tip number two is you need to commit 100%. That means if something else pops up, somebody says, oh, do you wanna meet me at this time to go jogging? Or do you want to pop over for a coffee or all there's a meeting on at this time? Or you could do something else. You're thinking, oh, I'm a bit tired when I wake up today. You need to commit to it 100%. And once you've been doing it for a month or two, it becomes a routine. And also once you start to really see something change in your own work, it's a bit like going to the gym. There's first couple of months, a hard slog, right? But once you break that kind of barrier and it starts to become enjoyable, you then get to the place where you don't wanna miss it, you have to go, all right? And that's where you need to get to with your creative practice as well. It needs to get to that point where you're like, I can't miss it. So the committing 100% definitely means saying no to other things, saying, oh, no, I've actually got something in the dire at that time and it's non-negotiable. And then once you get to that place of like, I have to have that time, I have to have that time and you might be at that place already, by the way, as a creative, then you honor that space and that time. The third tip is to start gathering inspiration ideas. Now this could be pictures on a Pinterest board, it could be cuttings from magazines and newspapers. I used to collect postcards and back in the UK in a box somewhere in my storage unit. I actually have a huge box full of postcards I've collected from around the world, which are inspiration, some are art history, some are places I've visited, whatever they are, they used to get out and be looked at a lot. It could be your own photographs, it could be physical things, maybe like myself, you're a beach coma and you have boxes of driftwood and shells and beach items. Maybe you have plants and leaves and you press them and you've got a whole load of flora and fauna items. It doesn't matter what it is, but you need to start collecting so that you have inspiration ideas around you ready to go. All right, tip number four, and that is to try new media or new creative expressions. So if, for example, you're a writer, it's time to start scribbling or drawing a photograph. Or if you're a photographer, it's time to start drawing or collaging or random cutting and sticking or whatever it is, some other sort of expression. As a painter, maybe it's time to get writing to journal. Even if you are an artist like myself, I'm sort of semi-abstract painter, it's time to maybe break out those pastels or some charcoal or some big marker pens. You want to use things that you wouldn't normally use in your day-to-day work, all right? You want to get a little bit out of your comfort zone, do something that feels a little bit awkward and something that will also allow you that element of play. All right, and tip number five, the final tip. And that is to actually turn things on their head if you like. So for example, this is really gonna help you get out of your comfort zone, but for example, if you do like to draw or mark make or you're doing something like that, try with your eyes closed. If you are writing or journaling and you're right-handed, do it with your left hand. Do it with your feet, use your feet and put the pen between your toes and start drawing or writing with your feet. You want to do something that's not usual, all right? If you normally work in color, work in black and white. If you normally work in black and white, it's a color. If you normally have vibrant saturated colors, try desaturating them and having a look at what you can do. Maybe go and buy colors you wouldn't normally use. You want to do something that's different. If you normally do abstracts, do something realistic. The practice of drawing and sketching and writing and journaling day in, day out is going to do nothing but improve the product or service that you are making. I know for a lot of you, it feels like that it's luxurious time, all right? You say to me, okay, I've got all these different things in my life. I'm really having to juggle business, marketing and actually being in my creative space, making my thing. And now suddenly you're telling me I've got to do something else as well. I'm telling you that this is the fundamental, most important part. The creative practice is what underlies everything. All right, I can also share with you that back in the day when I started out as an artist full-time in the UK, I got to the point where I was so busy creating for markets and fairs and my agent galleries, all of this sort of thing that I let go of that play element of the creative practice element and my work got stiff and dried up and I lost my enthusiasm and I ended up shutting down the business. Now, I'm not gonna say that's gonna happen for you. That's maybe a bit of an extreme, but I really lost my creativity and my desire to make and I don't want that for you. And the reason that we get juiced up is because we can actually try all these different things. I have random sketch pads and piles of collage papers that are just not something I would normally use but they're fabulous for playing. All right, I encourage you to do the same. So of course we'd love to hear from you which one are you committed to doing. I'm hoping it's all of them, but let us know in the comments. Is this something that you do already that's not what I shared today? Of course, I'd love to hear what you're doing. I'd love to hear other ideas. You know, share a screenshot if you'd like to as well. We'd really, really love that. So this is something we are teaching and supporting our members of the Art Business Academy membership. It's super important to get this piece done, all right? This is what lies underneath your successful dream art business. Now if you'd like to find out more about the Art Business Academy, then I have a free training coming up super, super soon. Depends of course when you're watching this video. If you're watching it at the time it comes out, you can look below in the description below and there will be a link for you to sign up and join that free training. It's all about how to sell more of your artwork online. This is something that we've been asked a lot about and so it was time to deliver that free training and at the end of that I speak a little bit about how you could be a part of the Art Business Academy membership if that sounds right for you. We'll also put a link for you to get on the waiting list specifically for that membership. We only open the doors twice a year to that and this is the first time in actually 12 months we are opening the doors. So really, really excited to be doing that. And as I say, if you'd like to find out more, all the information is below this video. Thank you so much for watching. I think it's time for you to go to your creative space and start developing that practice. Don't forget to put a timer on your phone, commit to showing up regularly, starting collecting that creative stuff and really enjoying the play and the process of it all. I'll see you on another video. Take care, bye-bye.