When you finish for the day, write a note reminding yourself of what you plan to do next. This helps you to remember today's great idea when you get back to work tomorrow.

Color is one way the eye and the brain work together to define the external world. However, not all cultures see color in the same way, nor do they give it as much importance as in western culture.

You owe it to yourself to make your creative development a top priority.

Allow some warm-up time each day to stimulate your creative flow. A pianist does keyboard exercises. A gymnast stretches. An artist needs to loosen up, too. It takes a few minutes to shift from the real world into a creative mode.

Let yourself daydream sometimes... Allow spontaneous images to come and go. Capture one in a sketch. These images express connections with your inner self.

Listening to music as preparation or background for your work brings you into a creative mood... choose one type of music to calm down, another to reach a higher energy level, depending on the artwork you are doing.

Whatever direction your life takes, your underlying themes remain. Discover and explore your themes to open the way for rich creative development.