One thing that I think most of us feel at some point or another when we sit down to create is the pressure to make something really good. Our expectations get the best of us and it can feel like a waste of time to spend an hour creating if there’s no guarantee it will turn into a masterpiece. Feeling like you’re wasting time can easily translate into “I just don’t have time to create” and before you know it, days – weeks – MONTHS go by and you’ve convinced yourself you don’t have enough time to devote to your art…

We know that practicing consistently is the best way to improve, but what happens when you feel like you don’t have enough time to make progress? I’d like to try and turn that mindset on it’s head. What makes you think you need to create a masterpiece every time in order to make progress? Why not take the pressure off, have fun with it, and just play around with your art supplies for a bit and see what comes out?

This brings me to the importance of mark-making. There is something so freeing and playful about just making marks. You’re not trying to create anything specific or draw something representational, you’re just making marks and seeing what comes out. Mark making on a practice sheet of paper is a GREAT way to destress and have fun learning about a new medium. And it’s also a great way to practice different techniques and see what kind of effects you can create without the pressure of it looking like anything in particular.

If the idea of sitting down to create without having a specific goal in mind is a bit intimidating, I have just the thing. Join me in my brand new mini course, Getting Started with Brush Markers! Inside this course, we’ll make plenty of marks, play around with all the different lines you can create, and have fun practicing different blending and shading techniques. No pressure to create a masterpiece, just fun!

If you’d like to join us, click the button above to learn more about the supplies you’ll need for class (hint – only 3 brush markers are needed!) and enroll in the course. The artist within is just waiting to be discovered, you just have to take the pressure off and start making marks!

xoxo