Damn, it’s basically spring and I’m itching to do some sketching or painting or maybe all of it all at once and—it occurs to me that, yeah, far from being powerless to achieve all this I don’t really need any extra motivation to make something spicy but it never hurts, either.

Last October I gave myself a suburban sketching art challenge. One sketch every day for one whole month. It was an honest to goodness challenge. Finding thirty to sixty minutes a day to draw, let alone trying to figure out the subject—well, that’s the hard part. The putting cute lines on paper less so.

It will be May in a couple days from when I’m writing this. My month is looking curiously busy at the moment, though I’ve yet to lock down anything one hundred percent firm on that. My free time will be filled with running training, playing music as I continue on my piano adventures and also prepare for our spring concert, and getting the garden planted.

Hopefully spring sticks, but even if it doesn’t… well, that’s life in the middle of freaking nowhere, right?

I sat down last night I did something I really quite enjoyed. I did a tiny painting. I took a square of blank watercolour paper about 8cm on a side and, limiting myself to a small handful of colours, made a small scene with some textures and tones.  Forty-five minutes, most of that waiting for the layers to dry, and it felt nice to get back into the paint pots.

I think I want to do another art challenge in May: no restrictions on subject or medium, just a sketch or a painting or something like that each and every day of the month.  And by saying “I think I want to” what I really mean is that I’ve already decided and I’m going to do it whether it’s a smart time management plan or otherwise. It’s a done deal. I’m doing it.

How do you challenge yourself to be more creative? Do goals and challenges and deadlines work for you? I’ve been writing about all this and similar creative topics on 8clicks.8r4d.com. You should check that out and let me know.