Russell Nohelty is a USA Today best-selling author who writes nonfiction as well as graphic novels which he describes as weird books for weird people. He's also an inspirational speaker helping artists to build better creative careers. If you're thinking about writing your own book, then this is the episode for you whether you're looking at going down the traditional publishing route all the cells publishing one, he really is a wealth of information. 

In today's episode, we are going to talk about the importance of creating art from the heart. And by that, we mean creating how and what you love to create rather than creating what you think you should, or what other people want you to.

Today’s guest is Mitch Bowler. Mitch has a fascinating story from growing up in a small town in Canada with dreams of being a video games artist, to making his dream come true and moving to live and work in the industry in China. Since then Mitch has created the well known art platform and podcast called Pencil Kings where he has helped thousands of artists learn to draw. 

Mitch’s latest project is an online learning platform called Evolve. It’s a program to teach anyone how to paint to a professional level in a realism style in a year or less. It’s some Sandra would have dreamed of when she was learning to paint. 

If you go to KickintheCreative.com/Evolve you can get a time sensitive discount off the Evolve program. (please note this is an affiliate link - thank you for your support)

Today’s podcast guest is Andy J. Pizza from Creative Pep Talk. Andy is an American illustrator, podcaster and public speaker. He has produced vibrant illustrations for clients like Nickelodeon and Amazon. 

Sandra and I are huge fans of Andy’s podcast the Creative Pep Talk where Andy shares creative advice, plus Andy knows how to tell fascinating stories which makes him a great speaker. You can’t help but find that some of his enthusiasm will rub off on you.

Today's episode is all about how to find your art style. But it’s a little different to our usual podcast

We’ll talk about how both of us found our art style, but Tara will be the main focus, because Tara found hers more recently. Tara didn’t stumble across her style… It didn’t just creep up on her through pencil mileage… she made a conscious effort to find it by developing her own 60 day ‘Find your Art Style’ experiment. And she filmed her process and her progress, every single day. It was something she hoped would work, but there was always the chance that it might not, so it was a huge commitment to take on, with no guarantees.

So, we thought it might be fun if Sandra interviewed Tara about her process, in the hope that she can help you to find ways to find your own, or develop the one that you already have. Plus Tara will ask Sandra a few questions about how she found her style along the way too.

Today’s guest is Caylee Grey from GetMessyart.com. Caylee is a South African artist living in Germany. We really wanted to have Caylee on the podcast as her mission is close to our hearts, to encourage people to have a regular creative practice. Caylee has a fascinating story of how she started art journaling as a challenge she set herself which then turned into her full-time business. She teaches others how to journal and most of all to love the process of creating art.  Her mission is to empower 10 000 people into a regular creative practice.

Today’s guest is Laura Frankstone https://www.laurelines.com/ . Laura is an Artist, Urban Sketcher and Illustrator from North Carolina. Sandra first came across Laura's work about 12 years ago when she stumbled across her blog. It was Laura that inspired her to start her own blog all that time ago. 

In today's episode, we are going to talk about completing a creative challenge. As many of us who have taken part in creative challenges will know starting a creative challenge is easy. You start out full of excitement and great intentions. However, maintaining momentum to see the challenge through to the end is much harder.

Today's guest is Lewis Rossignol, an illustrator and artist based in Portland, Maine USA. He specializes in combining hand-drawn and collaged imagery.

Website https://www.lewisrossignolart.com/

Podcast called Thumbnail https://thumbnail.podbean.com/

Etsy Shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/LewisRossignolArt where you can buy prints and books

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lewisrossignol/

Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/lewisrossignol

Today’s episode is all about creating themes for your sketchbooks.

But why would you want a theme for your sketchbook?

It can really help with indecision, having a theme can prevent that feeling of not knowing what you are going to draw. But if you are worried you will get bored with just one theme, you could have several sketchbooks on the go, each on different theme.

For example you could have one for doodles, landscapes, portraits, cartoons, challenges etc. Then just pick up the one that you feel like doing the most.