In August, I challenged myself and my painting community to participate in ‘Artful August’. We’d paint every weekday of the entire month. Each week would kick off with a single color as our prompt. We could paint, sketch, doodle, collage - whatever we wanted.

The objective was to create art using color as the starting point of our inspiration. My hope for myself and for others was to follow the nudges first. The tiny sparks that encourage us to play. The ones that we dismiss or shush because they often are the first ideas that come to mind.

And while I mainly focus on watercolors, I don’t think that our creative processes must be tied to a single medium, nor should they be. And while the Paint With Me community is based on a foundation of watercolor, other mediums are always welcome.

With this set of guidelines, I wanted to give us a “box” to play in - albeit a pretty big one!

I was surprised to find that I was able to complete the entire month relatively easily. I didn’t feel stuck, pressured, or like I didn’t have time. I suppose I made the time and gave myself permission to do what felt fun or simple first. I followed the nudges and I didn’t care or worry about how it would turn out. Strangely enough, instead of feeling forced, each page just kind of…flowed out.

This is not saying they are all pages that I love or think are masterpieces. But the feeling of each page - the memory of creating each page - felt easy and fun. I ended the month hoping I could do it again sometime. I want to carry that feeling forward and I definitely want to bring back this same challenge next year. (And from what I heard, so does my community!)

Below are the pages from my Artful August Sketchbook:

Sketchbook Details:

I hand-stitched this sketchbook using hot press watercolor paper into a 24-page journal. Below are the supplies I used to make the book as well as links to the DIY stitch I found on YouTube:

• Stonehenge Aqua Hot Press Paper 7x10 (folded in half)

• Awl

• Waxed Thread & Needle (similar)

• Bone folder (similar)

• Cutting Mat (similar)

• DIY Saddle Stitch Binding Video

If you’d like to watch a video and hear a few notes on the mediums used throughout, I’ve posted a video on YouTube:

And if you’d like to try this out for yourself and want the prompts that we used for Artful August, I’ll share them below. I’d love to challenge you to try this out for yourself, even if it’s not August when you are reading this.

We can choose to be artful anytime.