 Well, hello and welcome back to my channel. My name is Sophie, I'm a teacher, coach and mixed media artist and I'm newly discovering the journey through sketchbooks. I've re-found my love of creativity after years of being in a kind of creative desert, if you like. I'm trying lots of things, I haven't really got me to where I want to go. I finally found something completely different from what I was doing before that I absolutely love and I think this is my new future direction and I'd love to share that journey with you alongside of course sharing the usual business topics that I share on this channel. So I hope you do enjoy the mixture of art that's coming up and business. I think right now I have a lot of videos on this channel for you to watch all about marketing and sales and making a living from your art and social media and productivity. If that's something that you really want to watch, there's plenty of videos for you to watch and for those of you that are interested to go behind the scenes in my studio, in my own creative work and now sharing my love of sketchbooking, I have so many, I've re-woken up an old Instagram account that's Sophie Mahir Art. So if you want to follow my journey pictorially, please follow me over there as well. So in this video, I'm going to be talking about why I've decided to commit to a year-long daily sketching practice. Yes, you've heard me correctly, a year-long daily sketching practice. Now you might say to me, oh goodness me, Sophie, that's an enormous challenge and you would be right. But right now I feel like it's something that's easy in flow and I'm doing it anyway. So why not actually make a challenge and see where I can get to? So I've been sketching every day for the last month and it feels so in flow and gives me so much joy and I've already developed and grown of course during those 30 days. So my question I suppose is, well, how much could I grow and change and develop over a year? So I want to share three things in this video, kind of what my challenge is going to look like, what are the benefits of doing a year-long challenge and how you might like to get involved as well. So first up, how is this going to look for me? Well, very often when you hear people talk about a year-long challenge, they will then say, oh, I'm only doing it Monday to Friday or Monday to Saturday. And you know what? It doesn't really matter. So long as you've made the commitment, you stay consistent and you stay on track for what you said you're going to do. So what feels good for me is the Monday to Friday. So I'm going to commit to doing Monday to Friday. So I think for the next 12 months, that gives me 261 days. Yeah, I have worked that out, which somehow doesn't seem very much at all. But anyway, that's all good. And if I happen to do anything extra the weekend, then that's a bonus, I'm going to do things like timed sketches. And I really love that. I follow a few sketchbook and illustrator artists at the moment. So I really like what they're doing in terms of putting a timer on 15, 20 minutes. It's something I used to do when I was teaching back in the day with the students. And I think that it's going to serve very well now, because what can happen is you can just start your sketch. And before you know it, you've actually created a finished drawing. And that's really not the idea here. The idea is to capture the moment and get something that's a little bit quicker. And if you want to go in a bit more detail, then maybe take it out the sketchbook and put it somewhere else, right? So I'm going to do timed. And I'm going to write at the bottom, whether it was a five minute, 10 minute, 15, I think 20 is probably going to be the maximum amount of time that I'm going to do. I'm going to try lots of different media. Now at the moment, I've got already quite a large amount. I had a large amount before. I was a collector of art materials. Don't forget to leave me a comment below. If you too are a collector of art materials, do you have a studio stuff full of things that you're not using? Well, here's a real benefit, right? I collected a lot of things over the years. Now I'm just blowing the dust off them and going, look at that fantastic set of amazing watercolor pencils that my children used at school and I kept them. And now I think, wow, that's quite a that's quite a good start, right? I've added to that over the last few weeks and actually have something arriving today. I've just had a notification. So that's super exciting. So yes, I'll be trying out lots of different media. I've got a whole long list of extra things that I would like to try that I don't have. So I have a little shopping list. So I'll keep you enrolled in what I'm buying and how it looks like. And then I'm going to be exploring different topics. It's very interesting though, because having already done this for 30 days, I found that I've gravitated into the complete opposite of what I used to paint when I painted large semi abstract canvas. You can probably see the bottom of one above here in the shot. And that's Cornish St. Ives seen on a really large canvas that took me a really long period of time. And you know what? Now I've discovered that I don't even use the same color palette. I'm actually inspired by what's around me. Finally, it's taken so long. If you know me well, you're going to laugh at that point in the video. But I'm actually loving greens. Green is my new favorite color at the moment. We'll see what I say in a year's time, right? I'm sure it will have changed. But at the moment, I'm drawing trees and plants and flowers and the wild flowers. And I'm drawing houses and buildings. I've also got a sketchbook that I'll link to above here that you could watch. That was my first one from the Europe trip. And I'm already halfway through the second book, which is predominantly Sicily in Italy. So I'm kind of doing that, working back on that as well. And once that's finished, I'll do a flip through video of that as well. So won't be just greens, it'll be buildings, it'll be wherever I am at the time. And I'm going to be open to exploring all different sorts of topics, right? Because that's how we grow ultimately. And I really feel that by doing this, it's going to push me outside of my comfort zone, right? You know how it's easy as us creators just to stay doing what we do. Well, I know how to do those, I'll do those. But actually, I want to go back to drawing still lives. I used to love those when I was way back as a young person. I used to do a lot of still lives. So I'm going to try those again. I'm going to try people that I'm really not very good at. But the more you do it, the better you get, right? So I'm going to get out of the comfort zone and try sketching things I wouldn't normally sketch. One of my goals that I've written down for this challenge is to really loosen up. I know that by nature, I can end up being quite detail and quite line orientated. I think that goes back to my original training back in the day. But I want to be looser and freer. So I aim to make a mess. And that's something again, that creatively, I don't tend to do let alone in a sketchbook. So that's the goal is to be looser and to make a mess. So again, I'll let you know how that goes. I'm definitely going to be inspired and use other people's prom lists. So once you start in this world of sketchbooking, you soon find that there are a lot of people out there who provide you with prompts and you can tag them and use their hashtag and you can get involved in a month of a certain theme or perhaps a week of different ideas. Because at the end of the day, 261 days is a lot of time for you to come up with different sketching things. So you might just as well use other people's prompts, right? So I'm definitely going to be doing that. I'm also going to be making up some of my own as well. And do you know what's really, really great? I'm going to be posting every day. I'm doing it at the moment anyway. I've started. So my Instagram at the moment looks very blue with boats at the bottom. And then there's a change post. And now it's my drawing on my sketching. So it's going to be a little bit slow to get going. But you know, this is the thing with social media, you just keep going. So if there's anybody out there who's reviving an old Instagram account, so long as it's the same audience and the same type of topic that you're posting, you should be good. You just continue with your engagement, you're posting, you just keep doing, and eventually it takes back off again. All right. So that's what we're doing there. So number two, what are the benefits? So obviously quite a few of the things I've mentioned in number one are also the benefits for you if you decide to take up the challenge. So firstly, massive improvement, right? When you do something consistently day in, day out, you are going to get better. So if you are starting out, or you feel like you've probably got some room for improvement in your art, then a massive benefit of doing something like this, obviously, is that you're going to improve no matter what, right? Honing your style. Now this is something that I get asked an awful lot about. You know, I'm not sure if I found my style, you know, should I adapt my style to make it contemporary and saleable? And oh my goodness me, I've spoken about that before in other videos. At the end of the day, you will define what's you. You want to develop your style. And if you become great at marketing, then you will sell what you're making. But we're not talking about selling at this point. We're talking about the benefits of doing something day in, day out. And for sure, honing your style is going to come out of, especially by doing a year long practice. So I have a look that I've had probably since I started drawing seriously as a late teen. But I'd like to see where that could go because I'm really interested in stretching this and perhaps going into illustration. So I want to know what could happen if I did a year long practice, you know, with an illustrator kind of thought in my head. So honing a style is definitely a benefit of doing a challenge like this. Of course, trying out lots of different ideas to view that person who has got all these things running around in the head that they'd like to do, then a sketchbook practice is the place for all those ideas. It's perfect, right? Staving off the boredom. Now this might sound strange, but I know myself that sometimes there's a finite period of time that I want to spend on a certain piece. And by doing the time sketches that I love in the sketchbook, there's no chance to get bored. You're constantly on the roll for the next one and the next one and the next day and the next day. So if again you find that you're doing the same sort of thing day in, day out and it's not giving you the creativity and the satisfaction that you're looking for, then staving off the boredom would definitely be a massive benefit for you. What about journaling your life? Now I know there's a bit of a difference between sketchbooking and art journaling, right, in inverted commas. In sketchbooking you really are just developing your creative practice, your drawing, your painting, your you're doing either representation or non-representational. Journal perhaps has a lot more writing in it. It might even have sort of stuck in, I know, tickets, photos, things, perhaps from your life, from your travels, if you make a travel journal, but there's no reason that you can't mix the two, right, you can still be sketching and write some things about it and just create the book the way that you would like to. For me one of the major benefits is content for social media. How many of you watching are scratching your head, tearing your hair out, saying Sophie, how do I find enough content for my Instagram or Facebook page? Well you're going to be drawing daily, there's your content, right, you don't have to think about it anymore. You do your sketchbook practice, you take some photos, you make a post and if you're clever you make some video as well so that you can make a little mini real perhaps and see if you can get a little bit more engagement and grow that account a little bit faster. So that leads us on to growth. When you do something over a long period of time we know that you improve, you grow, you're likely going to grow your social media following, you're going to grow your art business as well because likely you won't just be doing that, you'll be making product or you'll be making an income stream, you'll be developing the business. So I would say definitely one of the benefits of doing this is ultimately it is going to grow your art business. So these are amazing benefits of doing something simple like, there's my sketchbook, there's my prop, picking up one of these every day, allocating 20 minutes and having fun in here. I mean who doesn't want to do that right? So you two can do the same. So number three, let's look at what that might look like for you if you want to join me on this challenge. So the first thing you'll need to do is gather up some empty sketchbooks. Now if you're anything like me you've got a pile, I can't even show you the shelf over there, I have piles of sketchbooks, some of which have things in them, some of which don't have anything in them and some of them have one or two pages at the beginning which is easy enough to tear out and there you have a brand new sketchbook. So one will do a startup but if you have a little pile of them because sometimes I find I want to use a landscape one or a portrait one or a square one depending on what theme or what I'm doing on the day. So sketchbooks number one, number two obviously materials. So if you're a working artist you'll likely have a pile of materials. So you want to think about pencils, pens, markers, watercolours, gouache, small brushes, things that were easy for you to transport if you decide to go outside and do it like that. Anything that goes kind of easy into a bag or a box and if you're like me you'll be purchasing new things I think they're behind me piles of more pencils and crayons and yummy things but you can start off with what you've got. So number two would be materials. And number three here now you really need to decide how long you're going to do this challenge for. Are you going to match me with my year long challenge and start with me I'm going to start officially on that first of October. Are you going to start them with me or are you going to say do you know what I'm going to try it for 30 days and then I'll have a look how that feels or maybe 60 days or even 90 days. Now for some people initially that seems daunting oh my god I've got to do the same thing for 90 days. We're talking 20 minutes out of your day plus a few minutes to take the photograph. You could say 30 minutes 20 minutes to do your sketch and 10 minutes to take some photo or video and make an instagram post. I mean that's insane right that's crazy. So 30 days 60 days 90 days whatever you're going to do or you could do what I'm going to do which is that 261 days or you could say I'm going to do every single day 365. It doesn't matter choose one and commit to it. Then you just need to block out your your 30 minutes every day right. I think it's a great idea to do it first thing before you get into anything else because otherwise the day can go by and then you haven't done it right but on the other hand if you are an afternoon or an evening person you're created you're most creative then then that's what you're one you're going to do it. So make sure to follow me over on my art Instagram that's Sophie Mahir Art. I'll put a link below this video for that account because I'm going to be sharing I'm already sharing and I'm going to be sharing obviously my posts every day. I'm also going to share prompts and helps and tips and ideas for those of you that would like to join me on the challenge. So what do you do if you want to join the challenge? Well number one you could either message me below in the comments below this video you can shoot me a direct message on Instagram or you could just start and then I'd love for you to tag me in your post so that I can see what you're doing and you can use this hashtag that I've created specially Sophie Sketch Daily Sophie Sketch Daily not Sophie's sketch just Sophie's sketch daily also that's in the description below and obviously as soon as I start on the first I'll be using that in every single post as well so if you want to save that hashtag and follow that particular hashtag then obviously you'll see all my posts and anybody else who's using that as well kind of exciting right that gives us an opportunity to grow together and of course I would like to know how long you're committing for for your sketchbook challenge so to sum up if you're really looking to improve your own art you really would like to get into a routine with your creative practice you want to grow your social media following and ultimately you want to grow your art business by doing the simple thing of 30 minutes a day doing some sketching then you're in the right place this is the video for you I want to hear from you if you're going to sign up I'm going to sign up I'm going to I want to hear from you that you're committed and how long you're going to do it for don't forget to tag me use those hashtags and of course to look out for more videos are going to be helping you along the way and don't forget to check out this one if you haven't already and that's my sketchbook tour from the first part of my Europe trip this summer for the UK winter for Australia this July and August and the second one is coming along nicely too and once I finish that I'll make a video tour through that book as well all right thank you so much for watching and I'll see you on the next video bye bye