CREATE with Artistic Confidence

Hey, Jason Nicholas here from The Inkspired Life. Hope you're having an awesome, awesome day today. I just want to pop on for a couple minutes. I was having a chat today with a student actually who was expressing that they were afraid to express their creativity and their artwork to other people. Their biggest concern was me— was a fear of kind of being rejected or having their, their creativity or their artwork be laughed at. And it's a common problem that we have as artistic people, as creatives, is that creative confidence to share our work and put it out there, that ability to express ourselves, right, freely. So I want to talk about a framework I put together to help build artistic confidence, and it's based on the CREATE framework. So I'm going to use the letters of CREATE, C-R-E-A-T-E, and we'll go through it kind of quickly here, and hopefully this will help, help you to maybe frame things or refresh things a little bit. All right, let's start with C. So the C stands for cultivate self-compassion. Um, you know, accept that every artist has a unique journey, including yourself, right? Um, silence your inner critic by focusing on your growth and not others' opinions. So when you're out there creating, sketching, in my case, I'm just trying to be better and just grow myself and not really worry about other people's opinions. Um, it goes back to what I also call the comparison trap. Don't fall victim to comparing yourself to others. Okay, the R in CREATE stands for reframe criticism as feedback. So whenever you do get some negative opinions, um Reframe them. Don't shoot yourself down like, oh, I'm horrible. Take that feedback, have an open mind, and listen to it. Sometimes other people, you know, have different— they see things differently than we see because we're so pigeonholed in what we're doing. So just open, listen freely to outside opinions, and, you know, don't worry about accepting them or not accepting them. Just be open-minded. The E in Create says express yourself freely. I think that says it all, right? Um, just be you. Put yourself out there on the paper or canvas. Don't worry about— again, don't worry about trying to be like someone else. So, um, I— this is something I used to wrestle with a lot, especially when it came to adding color to like my sketches. I was always afraid to add color and show people because I felt like the color had to be realistic and accurate to what was really, you know, out there in the building. Um, but I've learned just ever since, you know, I learned a few years ago just to put things out there, throw color down and express yourself and have fun with it. Okay, just be you on that paper. Or canvas, depends what your medium is. So that's the E in CREATE. The A is Acknowledge your progress. Celebrate small victories. Um, maybe your victory today is getting one line on a piece of paper. Maybe it's one brush stroke. Maybe it's trying a different color. Celebrate those victories. It helps to build that creative confidence that we sometimes need a little boost with. Uh, the T, Trust your artistic voice. Another thing it's taken a while for me to learn to do, but I kind of call it grab-and-go creation, or go with your gut. If your brain or your creativity, your heart, is telling you to, uh, to, I don't know, draw a flower that looks like an automobile, do it. Um, don't fight your artistic voice, that gut feeling. Go with your instinct. And then the E in CREATE stands for Engage with a Supportive Community. That's huge. It kind of speaks for itself. You know, share your work with others that kind of understand you, get you. Maybe they're the same medium. Just a real safe, trusting environment is a great way to put your work out there, get positive feedback, and be surrounded by people that you actually want to be around. There are trolls out there. I get some comments that are negative sometimes. Gotta block them out, block out those trolls, and find that community that resonates with you. So that's the CREATE framework for helping to build your creative confidence. I hope you enjoyed it. Before I head out, let's do a real quick sketch. I'm going to switch to the desktop view. Ta-da! All right, we're on desktop view. All right guys, so, um, You might notice I'm doing a little something different. I am trying not only to do sketches and show you guys what I'm sketching, give sketching tips, which I love, uh, I'm also getting more into the creative mindset area as well. So you'll be hearing me talk about some feedback, you know, giving some input or feedback about things like tonight, like I talked about creative confidence and other topics down the road. Let's do a quick sketch. Um, I don't have my comments on. I'll turn them on if you have questions or want to say hello, feel free. All right, what am I going to sketch tonight? I don't know. Um, let's see, I'm just looking around for some inspo here. You know what, we're just going to sketch something totally random, as always. Well, it's not always random. Tonight's random. All right, it's gonna be really quick. I'm only going to limit myself to— it's 9:01 till 9:05, and then we're gonna call it a night. And then I'll check the comments before I leave and see if you have questions and say hello. Well, actually, I'm going to pull this reference image out here. Hold on a sec, let me grab this thing. This is a, this is a cool sketch of part of the Biltmore, the amazing Biltmore building in North Carolina. So I love the way this sketch came out, so I'm going to use that just as a quick guide and try to capture the, maybe the shape of it or something here. And it's gonna be kind of quick and loose, as always. That's my vibe, my style. Remember, don't try to— don't try to be anybody else when you're creating. Be yourself. And if you don't know what your style or your voice is, that's okay. That's part of the journey. Part of the fun is exploring and trying different things. I hope that makes sense. All right, cool. We have kind of a rough outline here. Um, I'm just gonna— I don't think I'm gonna add any color tonight. We're just gonna stick with the Sharpie. I have like another minute or so. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to put them in the chat, whether you're watching live or the replay. Um, also, if you're on YouTube, I'd love for you to hit that like button if you like this and subscribe if you haven't. I would love to get to 1,000 subscribers, just a personal goal I have. Um, again, remember we talked about celebrating small milestones, right, in our CREATE framework? You acknowledge your progress, that's the A in CREATE. I would— that's a little, uh It's kind of a little marker for me. 1,000 subscribers would be just really cool. Why not, right? And I'll throw some hatch lines in here to add some shadows. All right, cool. I think I like this one. This might be, again, just a real quick sketch tonight. I think we're going to leave it at that. So, quick sketch inspired, or inkspired, by the Biltmore. See what I did there? Um, you guys are awesome. Let me go to the chat and say hello and see how you're doing, if there's any questions. And in the chat, I see Cameron. Hey Cameron, great to see you! Hope all is well. Hope you're, uh, doing well and school's off to a great start. Thanks for checking in, that's awesome. All right, cool. All right guys, that's a wrap for tonight. Remember the CREATE framework for helping to build creative confidence. If you missed that, it's at the beginning of the video tonight. Be sure to go through that. Let me know your thoughts. I'd always love to hear your feedback. I'm Jason Nicholas Nicholas with the Inkspired Life. Remember to use your creativity for positivity. Um, yeah, we need it. We definitely need it out there in the world. So let's spread positivity, guys. Also, you can also— if you want to sketch architecture, you can definitely do it. Follow my YouTube channel. I'll be giving tips as I always do. But I really think if you can kind of scribble, you can sketch architecture. If you look at this, it's really loosey-goosey, willy-nilly kinds of lines. Alright guys, you're awesome. Thanks again. Make sure you go back and watch the beginning, catch that Create Framework. Peace out. See you real soon. Awkward wave till I hit the finish button. One of these days I'll end— figure out a smooth way to end the streams. Take care.