The Sticky Truth About Daily Creative Practice

Way back in 2013, before the world went insane, I found myself creatively blocked. I had lost interest in writing, but my creative drive was still keeping me up late at night and bugging throughout the day to create something…anything!

I clearly remember sitting in my home office one quiet Sunday afternoon, opening up a desk drawer and finding a new set of acrylic paints that I bought years prior. With nothing to lose and no writing project to work on, I opened the paints, dialed up a beginners' painting video on YouTube, and off I went on a painting spree that lasted for a few years.

Painting rekindled my love for drawing. I started doodling like crazy on sticky notes at work while I was on conference calls. After a few weeks of drawing these tiny works of art, I decided to post my primitive drawings on Facebook and Instagram. I received so much positive feedback from gracious artists who were lightyears ahead of me that I continued to draw and post.

The Early Days of the Daily Sticky Note Challenge

At some point, I realized that I had posted several drawings without missing a day. It was then that I decided to make a challenge out of this daily practice. Could I draw one sticky note a day without missing a day for a whole year? As soon as I had the thought, I knew it was something I had to do.

And so, the adventure began! The drawings were simple enough at first because I had so many ideas in my head, but as the weeks rolled on, they became more than cute drawings; the art began to express my anxieties, frustrations, and became mirror of the times.

When I look back at these drawings years later, I realize that all of my stress, creative woes, and personal anxieties were born into bite-sized works of art. They weren’t all serious, of course! Some of them were funny sight gags, while others told mini-stories over a few days, not unlike comic strips.

Some of them memorialized the deaths of famous musicians and celebrities, while others dealt with political divides and social issues!

As I continued on this journey, I began writing a few paragraphs to go along with each drawing. As you probably can guess, combining a daily writing practice with the artwork reignited my love for writing. My sticky note art challenge brought me full circle!

Having a daily creative practice kept me going through some tough times. The challenge gave me something to work on everyday. No matter what the result, I felt fulfilled and proud at the end of each day. Somedays, I would wake up and immediately knew what to draw, but other days found me banging my head against the wall and sometimes my desk in the hopes of inspiration striking.

I can tell you from experience, my brain would always come up with something, even when I thought that writer’s block or creative block or whatever you want to call it- had won out.

There’s so much truth the “butt-in-the-chair” philosophy. If you sit down and do the work, the muse will show up! I have over 400 sticky notes to prove it!

Sticky Note #365

This was the final sticky note of the challenge! I created this six-panel piece of connected sticky notes that shows me flying away in a balloon leaving behind a trail of sticky notes! I did continue drawing them after day 365, but never on a consistent basis. While I do sell prints of a select few in our store, I have almost all of them stored away in photo albums for some use in the future!

-Fred

We hope you enjoyed this post as much as I did writing it and taking a trip down memory lane! If you enjoyed it, hit the heart or leave a comment, or tag us in your own artwork on social media! 365 days of anything is no small feat... including drinking coffee: