Alright, it's time to open it.
Hi, I'm Sarah Renae Clark
And today I have a very special package
from Johanna Basford that's ready to be opened.
Okay, I'll stop teasing -
let's look inside.
It's a beautiful little card here
from Johanna saying, To Sarah, here's your daily dose of creativity,
I hope you enjoy much love, Johanna.
I'll definitely be keeping that one.
So then we have a beautiful set of 24 super soft colored pencils from Staedtler.
I haven't actually seen these pencils
before, so this is exciting because it gives me a new set of pencils to try
and review and to use in whatever book we have in the center here.
Then we have small products from Staedtler
that are not traditionally what I would use in a coloring book
so this is definitely curious.
We have some pigment liners, we have a grey lead, and we have an eraser
and a sharpener because I definitely need another sharpener.
But now what we're really here for
this beautiful item in the middle in what is gorgeous wrapping paper.
I kind of don't want to ruin it.
It is really cool blue.
She's got all this customized.
It is so thoughtful.
And I definitely want to keep this paper
to wrap something in the future or maybe even to use in some artwork.
So let's be gentle and see if we can keep it in one piece.
Well, I tried.
And here it is.
Her new book, 30 Days of Creativity.
This book is full of creative prompts and inspiring ideas to get your
imagination flowing and exercise those creative muscles.
We're going to have a quick look through today.
But then I've got an extra special
challenge that I'll be sharing later in this video.
So stick around. I've been following Johanna Basford's work
ever since I started making adult coloring books.
She created the adult coloring book that ignited the worldwide adult coloring
trend back in 2013 and has sold more than 21 million books since then.
But despite being a big fan,
I'm here to admit that this is the first Johanna Basford book that I now own,
only because I've never really bought books from other artists until this year.
But I have been on the lookout for one of her books over the past few months.
And so when I saw that she was bringing
out this book, I knew it would be the perfect place to start.
So let's take a closer look.
This is really special.
She's even drawn my name in and signed from herself.
This book is going to be an absolute treasure
on my shelf.
There are 15 coloring pages and 15 drawing or doodling pages.
Don't worry if you don't finish the page,
the only requirement is that you spend a minimum of ten minutes on each task.
The challenge is not to complete
a creative work every day just to begin one.
I love this.
This so lines up with my attitude towards being creative.
It's not about creating a masterpiece every day.
It's about just creating some kind of habit.
And that really takes the pressure off when all you have to do is just start
something and do something small every day.
This paper is gorgeous.
It is so thick, it's smooth.
But it'd be really interesting to see how it feels with the pencils.
It is just so nice in my hands.
I don't think I've ever felt a coloring book with paper like this.
She has a gorgeous habit tracker here.
You can track your 30 days of creativity.
There is a downloadable version if you
want to do it again, or if you have something like the Coloring Planner.
I have a habit tracker in there that you
could use for this kind of thing if you're wanting to do this more often as well.
Okay, we're onto our first creative
challenge, and already I can see now why we have drawing pens.
Because this isn't just a coloring book
and decorations to the teacups and coffee mugs on the opposite page.
User designs on this page for ideas and inspiration.
So if you were to come across a page like
this in a coloring book, you would attempt to color the whole thing.
Instead, let's approach this like a ten minute challenge.
So here you have an option.
You can either choose to color in a few of these objects on the left hand side,
or you could use your ten minutes to just design one teacup on the right.
Now, you could either focus on just drawing and sketching with your grey lead
and then drawing with your fine liner and just sticking with the black and white.
Or you could take it a little step further and then add color as well.
And by just focusing on one teacup,
it takes off so much pressure and it gives you just something to focus on.
So in this one, you get to complete the Mandala.
That might be a bit ambitious for some,
but with the starting guide she's already given, I do think you can do it.
I love on this page she's talking about inventing your own flowers.
And one of the things about being creative
is that you don't always have to be 100% realistic.
Now, I'm someone who loves drawing realism, but I also love whimsical stuff.
And often it's hard to determine where that line is.
So my coloring books don't always have flowers that are actually real because
some of them you just make up as you go along.
And I love Johanna's art style because she does have that perfect mix where some
flowers have this look that you go, oh, that kind of looks like a daisy.
But then it has an element that is just clearly not from earth at all.
And so it gives you a real creative
freedom to take some elements from, to make things look realistic,
but to also bring in your own element of fantasy to use whatever colors you want
to not get stuck in any kind of box to just be creative as you want.
So here is your chance to do that to create your own hybrid flowers.
So you could use the inspiration from hers.
You could take the petals from one, you could take the leaves from another.
And if you want more ideas on drawing
flowers, it's a different style to what she shows here,
But I do have another video talking through some other basic floral designs
to get your creative muscle flowing and drawing some different type of flowers.
And you can check that out at the link just above here.
I really like the approach to this book
where she's done half the work for you and lets you finish it off.
That just takes off so much pressure of starting from a blank canvas.
I can't wait to jump into some of these. Coloring candy.
I definitely have a love for drawing sweet food. Drink stationery!
I feel like we're both on very similar trends here with some of the designs
in my coloring planner and the hot air balloons.
I really did that too.
Great minds think alike. Johanna
we are on the same wavelength here. I love it.
I love it.
I actually really wasn't expecting this book to come with so many good tips.
I thought this would be fun and just
a really good activity, but I'm actually really seeing
the potential in this to be a great starting point for someone who's wanting
to learn how to be more creative to learn how to draw.
I'm really impressed at what Johanna Basford's put together with this book.
Use this page to create the cakes of your dreams.
I will. If you're not someone who wants to draw all the time.
There is a lot to color in here as well.
But I do challenge you to step out of your comfort zone a little bit and just try
some of these other activities because you'll find the more that you stretch your
creativity in different ways, the more you'll find that your coloring
and your general love for creativity will increase as well.
This would be a good page to practice
coloring gold like I showed you in that other video.
Just making sure I'm throwing a few more plugs for my own stuff there!
Given that so many of these pages have 9,10 or even 12 different elements on them,
if you're only going to do this for ten
minutes a day, this is not just 30 days of creativity.
There is potentially a whole year of ten minute activities in this book.
Well, we're busy plugging my stuff for a moment.
Let's just take a tip here from Johanna Basford.
I often get asked advice on picking colors if you are feeling a bit unsure.
My top tip is to try a limited color palette. Select five to six colors
from your pencils, and then color your picture in only those colors.
I think we have something for that, don't we
shane? Reducing the number of decisions you
have to make means picking colors is much easier and a limited number of colors
ensures the finished picture will have a pleasing, coherent look.
So the color catalog.
Check it out. Okay.
I'm sorry this video isn't about me.
Well it is is my channel, but it's about Johanna's book.
All this looks like a fun page to just unwind and just keep drawing.
You just keep drawing patterns on patterns on patterns.
You could totally fill these in a bit more
with your pen or just keep going and you could copy what she's done or you could
just keep going with a completely different design.
I love it.
I also appreciate that she has given you a test page at the back, so if you're ever
worried about your markers bleeding through, you can test them on her paper
in her book without wasting one of your beautiful pages.
There is so much in this book.
Well, I'm not going to spend too much time
in this video working through the challenges in this book.
After all, it's 30 days of creativity, not 30 minutes.
Instead, I've set myself a 30 day challenge And I want to invite you to join
me step one subscribe now and turn on your notifications.
Then for the 30 days of November,
I'm going to be posting a daily video on YouTube shorts, Instagram reels,
and TikTok with each of the daily challenges from this book.
If you've already got this book by then, you can join me for each challenge or you
can do something similar on your own paper and still join in.
If you want to share what you've done
with me, you can post it in my Facebook group or on social media.
Use the hashtag 30 days of Sarah or Johanna's hashtag 30 days of creativity
and I'll pick a few posts every few days to share on my own Instagram stories.
If you're watching this video after
November, don't worry, you can still join in and do your 30 days at any time.
I'll create a playlist with all the 30
daily videos I've made, so they'll be easy to find on my channel forever.
It's going to be a big month and a daily
challenge can be a stretch at times, but building a regular creative habit is
an amazing way to unlock new ideas and exercise your creative muscles.
I'm really excited and I can't wait to see what you create.
Here's another video to catch up on while you're waiting for the challenge to begin.
What are you doing here, Sarah?
Yes.
Are we about to collab?