I love this: "Life is not spiral-bound" A quote for the ages.

I think like many other things life ebbs and flows and we need to honor the process and not feel guilty that it doesn't jive with what we think other people's expectations are for us. It's a battle but we must in order to be authentic.

Keep on keeping on - your path, Danny!

It's good to hear from you again, Danny. I hear what you are saying. Now that you have explained yourself (which you probably felt compelled to do as our journaling "leader"), you can relax and know that we do understand. Just a hello now and again, to catch us up, is fine. My own artistic efforts go in fits and starts all the time. Since none of us can be in two places at once, we must define our priorities and expect and accept that life will intervene. Do what you can when you can, and share with us when the spirit moves you. Oh BTW...happy birthday!

I like spiral bound because I always associate spiral bound sketchbooks with rucksacks and setting off on expeditions.

This is a great post. I don't relate to your fame at all (since I'm not famous), but I recognized a lot of familiar territory there. Keeping an art journal blog has definitely changed my approach to drawing, in ways good and bad. I'm much less likely to spend time doing a drawing if I think it won't be scan-worthy. Yes, the focus has switched from being attentive in my life to thinking of audience. So thanks for articulating this so well.

Thanks, Danny. You do have a way of putting words as well as images to a thought, a feeling, a moment in time.

As for the watercolor moleskines, I was so looking forward to them... and then mine came and that perforation just bugged me no end. I love the freedom of drawing across a two-page spread. Somehow even the suggestion of removing a page was irrationally upsetting to me. Eventually I gave the unused moleskine to my husband (who didn't mind the perforations and was happy with the paper) and decided to stick with my messier but more permanent-feeling homemade journals.

Daily drawing creates for me a quiet space where I can look and reflect. Keeping a sketchblog lets me see the drawings and reflections accumulate over time and lets me share and link to others.

I am glad to hear that drawing for yourself and for its own sake has moved back into the center of life for you. Not that I'm not grateful for all you have been contributing to the rest of us, through books, and articles, and community-building - because your generous support has done so much for so many of us, in ways you can never know - but it is important to know that you are finding the delight in exploration again.

Thanks for everything - and happy birthday!

Good to hear from you again, Danny. You may not feel particularly special but it's pretty clear that you have a special set of gifts and have certainly enriched and motivated this community. I love your last paragraph. I need to cultivate more of that attitude. Thanks, as always, for sharing.

A very good read and I can relate to the feeling of being pressured. I think it has somewhat halted my creative process in the past month however I am set to change that too. I am coming to the end of a very thick sketchbook I carry constantly with me and am not happy about it. I am on a hunt to find another, it has very smooth, bright white pages and isn't overly large. Maybe I will try one that you have suggested.

I've really enjoyed the new sketches you've posted and a happy belated birthday to you.

Danny -- your words are so heartfelt and your sketches -- a return to the YOU that has inspired others so much ... I do think sometimes we need! REALLY -- I mean NEED -- to stray from our own path so that we can have a space to reexamine our lives, to try on different shoes so to speak, so that, what was that poem "we can go home again" to see it all anew, fresh and with new commitment.

I am ever grateful for your honesty, Danny, for sharing the soul of you .. THAT alone is a priceless gift you give to others ... and we all so much appreciate.

And I am thrilled beyond measure to have you BACK!!! and hope that your return brings you all the peace and joy you so richly deserve!

Great read Danny...I have never been able to figure out how you could do as much as you do!!! I too seem to have lost my way in this drawing thing. It is a focus thing and it is essential to keeping on the creative path. Your inspiration is vast and I see your current time of reassessment as part of the ebb and flow of life. Just keep showing up and saying
"Hello" from time to time.
We need to know you are there...Thanks always for your most amazing inspiration.
I have been with you from the beginning......keep on sketching....the more this becomes big business the less it gives meaning to our lives.

Hugs, Carole JOY

Good comments about remembering priorities - I tend to forget that myself.

I also like the Moleskine Pocket (3.5 x 5.5) books, but the paper doesn't work for me. I buy the page-a-day planners (they're thicker - about an inch), remove the inards, and put in a book block I coptic bind with 90lb watercolor paper. I'm on my eighth such book now.

And, Happy Birthday. We're the same age.

Danny, great post, though I sure wish there was a way to get your inner critic to have a lighter touch. Then again, everyone gets to learn by your experience of it.

I'm glad you're out of spiral sketchbooks for the time being. I love sewn signature books.

If you like the size of the Moleskine but not the regular paper it contains you might try the new sketchbooks by Hand Book. They make a two sizes of landscape and two sizes of portrait, and a 5 1/2 inch square one. I couldn't resist picking one of the square ones up at Wet Paint in St. Paul a couple weeks ago.

I tested the paper and it will take watercolor (with only a little buckling and then seems to flatten out) and just about everything else (all my favorite pens, including dip pens, though it is a bit scratch for them). It's hard to describe what it's like, but it's most like a Holbein drawing paper in one of their watermedia sketchbooks.

Of course I'm still in favor of binding my own journals, but the rounded corners of this book, and the elastic closure sucked me in. I had to try it out. I tell myself it's good to have a standby if I get behind in my binding!

I hope you had a fantastic birthday and that you enjoy the new watercolor Moleskine. You set a great example!

Roz

I was going to tell you about Martha's method (I met her on the SF Sketchcrawl last weekend) but I see she beat me to it! I was eyeing some of those fat moleskines but at the moment I'm really happy with my Sundance Felt 80# cover...

"I don't think I am a particularly special person" -- well, maybe you aren't, but what you've drawn and written has had so much, much more of an impact on so many more people than you'll ever know. I've lost count of the number of times I've been sketching and someone strikes up a conversation and I tell them why I do it and how liberating it is to go to Europe without a camera and, oh, by the way, there's this guy Danny Gregory, he has this blog, he has these books, you should check them out. (I'll be this happens to a lot of your readers.)

Happy birthday, Danny.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts about what has been going on these past few weeks, Danny. The line about you being more preoccupied by what you were rather than just being says a lot about where The Creative Licence and your forced role as a 'guru' of some sort were taking you. Your aplomb is reassuring. Bonne continuation...

I enjoy your writings and drawings, and am reminded by you to practice things I already know.If your path is circuitous (rather like a spiral), all the better. You'll percieve more and learn more along the way. You are a guru for those who need a guru, but in general you are simply a motivator for doing something people would do anyways. Thanks for the motivation.

I'm a dedicated Moleskine user, with an ongoing sketchbook moleskine for color pencil and collage, and the larger watercolor moleskine for ink and watercolor. I like the perforated pages in the Watercolor book, because my inner cheerleader (or maybe it's called prozac) tells me I may be famous one day and people will want to buy and frame my watercolor sketches!
Danny dear, the not-so-secret to a balanced life is keeping your priorites straight, and it sound like you've remembered that. Love you. Keep on sketchin'
Jane

Danny wonderful piece to read. And understanding it I sure do. I'm so happy to see your back and seeing your'e drawings and reading your'e words. I like coming hear cause for me you have been nothing else but every day matters person that has brought joy, thoughts and learning to my world. I like coming hear to vist like a friend would to have a cup of tea. So no pressure hear other then visit and let me know how your doing. I miss you and don't want anything more then to stop by and say hello and see what art journey you have been on. Cause every day does matters.
Your'e friend,
Linda

I'm new to your world, Danny, having bought The Creative License a month or so ago, and I just love your post here.

While I understand your concern about how you or your work will be perceived, and how destructive that can be to a person's creative process, we all have to remember that while we know we should do our art for ourselves first and foremost, it's also important to recognize that art does demand an audience, and that's okay.

Thinking about how a journal page might look to others isn't necessarily a bad thing, because it is indeed an artist's job to communicate and connect. When we write a posting, we want our words and meanings to be clear, right? We're concerned that others are getting our meaning, and we'll tweak and edit and have a healthy concern that we're communicating effectively. Yet we won't be hard on ourselves for that. Why should we be hard on ourselves for wanting a journal page to look good to others?

I suppose it comes down to what the motivation is...if we want something to look good for self-agrandizement, the wind will soon go out of our sail. But if we want visual appeal so that the reader/viewer is delighted and/or becomes inspired, then that concern is coming from a place of wanting to share. And that's different.

Anyway, I'm so happy to be a new visitor to Danny Gregory World. Are there any cool roller coasters here? :)

Birthday Blessings Danny! Take care of YOU!!!

"Life is not spiral-bound." Thank you for the treasure you've given me in those few, spare words.

Oh, Danny...how I can appreciate your latest comments! I enjoyed making my first travel journals so much more than now, because I could be "free", thinking no one would see them but me. But now that I have shown them around, people are anxious to see what I will do next and I find myself "choking" and worrying that I won't live up to their expectations. It was so much better to be anonymous. I bind my own books for sketching and watercoloring. The newest one is ready to begin. I remembered seeing a copy of Washington Irving's classic called "Sketchbook" in a used book store. It is quite thick, had the stories of Rip Van Winkle, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in it. And I found it, cut out the text block (imagine!) and sewed my own pages into it...It held thirteen signatures of six pages each so should last quite awhile. i am looking forward to using it for random drawings, not any planned theme. And I hope I can get back to drawing things everywhere I go, even if is is only the salt shakers on the tables. You have inspired so many people by your books and blogs...you have made your entire life a work of art! I tell everyone about you, too. mary beth

Yep...life is definitely not spiral bound; and yes one must spend less time at the computer and more time creating and living. Something I need to think about more!!! I have a problem with sketchbooks too and spend too much time worrying about it. Good luck!
MD

I just want to say that this site has become such an inspiration to me! It has gotten me back into sketching every day. I love your cityscapes and your writing too. Now I am shutting off the computer so I can draw.

Hi Danny,
Every day I go on-line, read my couple of emails, delete all the junk emails, and then start looking for interesting things. Your site is the first place that I go. Thank you for all the cool comments and sketches. They are refreshing and wonderful.

Happy Birthday to you! Welcome back but keep remembering your priorities. Oh, Jack's new skateboard is fabulous.

Best,
Kate

Hi Danny. Thanks for your post. Interestingly, your post, particularly the part about losing the initial focus/goal to make art, is the topic of a eCoaching whiteboard session this week from www.accidentalcreative.com. (They have a free 14 day trial going on.) The topic is dirivation and how we get sidetracked from just wanting to make art to things like making art for money, etc. And how to get back on track. There are a lot of great, concrete, simple ideas on the site both free podcasts and the eCoaching. Anyway, thanks for continuing to share. Jennafer

Hi Danny and I am so appreciating your blog. This post in particular has meaning for me. I stopped blogging in August when I got back from an amazing vacation and ..it hit the fan when I returned. I have enjoyed my computer break so much and really am listening to my creative voice much more. I do not have as much time now that school has started but that voice is very important. It too tells me that family, health, friends,TIME are all important too....not building a readership on my blog. I am so glad you share so much of yourself with us. Please say hi to Patty and Jack!

You definitively are a special person as you helped and are helping so many people through your books and this site! I think everyone goes through the thoughts you wrote in this post. I had a cool bounded sketchbook which I put on pause because now I prefer to sketch on a cheap kids drawing notebook (I love the yellowish rustic paper!)...it might not be hip and charming but I love it and I am happy when I sketch on it! :) Happy Birthday!

Birthday Boy, you deserve a break, and without guilt. It would be so much better if you checked in when the spirit moves you than to lose you altogether because The EDM site has become too overwhelming. Real Pals don't hang a lot of expectations on each other. You have already given us so much.

On another note, thank you for turning me on to Eric Meisel via A Writer's Paris. I loved it and your drawings. I just picked up A Writer's San Francisco. That's my (heart's) home, and Paul Madonna's illustrations help me feel the fog on my face. Eric mentions his next book will be a writer's NY. I HOPE you will be illustrating it.

Thank you for sharing so much of yourself through your books and blog. Be well and gloriously happy, Pal.