This week’s gleanings include a creative linkfest/feast, tips for mental detoxing, and the necessity of frequent practice for visual artists–even teachers with many years of experience.

1. Skelliewag has posted an incredible list of 110 links on a wide variety of creative topics, including idea generation, photography, cartooning, writing, blogging, and much, much more. Skelliewag is authored by a staff writer at Problogger.net, whose mission with this blog is to share information about “creating content your site’s visitors will fall in love with.”

2. One of my pillars for maintaining creative momentum is de-cluttering as a way to create room for growth. A guest post by Carole Fogarty over at the Positivity Blog (which features self-help information that’s genuinely helpful!) offers nine simple ways to “detox” a crowded mind.

One suggestion by Carole–open your mouth slightly–sounds absolutely silly, but I tried it, and it works! All the suggestions are very good. Carole runs her own blog, The Healthy Living Lounge, which covers holistic healing and living.

3. Jeanette Jobson, who blogs over at Illustrated Life makes several insightful observations about, well, observation as she recounts a recent evening spent teaching a drawing class. I was especially struck by her comment about the difficulties of drawing the human form accurately and the necessity of practice. She writes:

“After 30 years or more of drawing, I can capture lines fairly well, but if I did not practice daily, that skill would slow and limit my ability to draw effectively. Some individuals who attend (my) life class don’t do any drawing between classes. (That is s)omething that I am trying very hard to change!”

Practice really is what keeps the muscle of mastery strong, even in one as experienced as Jeanette!

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