Polar Bear inside a Snowglobe (Day 5). Inktense paint, Micron Pen, and Paint Pen on Watercolor Card. Over the past year, I've participated in several daily drawing challenges and now, I think they're a fantastic way to cultivate a daily artmaking habit. I started out in January with Jessica Swift's 100 Creative Days challenge, which would last through the end of April. I started out focused on flowers, and each day, selected a new one to draw. You can see many of those in my

Moleskine pocket sketchbook, Derwent Inktense paint, Micron 0.5 fineliner in purple. Clip: by Yumi Kitagishi for Hobonichi. When it comes to sketchbooks, here's my philosophy: Even an imperfect practice is a practice. If your goal is to draw every day, and you miss a day - that's completely fine. You can draw again tomorrow and pick it right up again. Daily creating in my sketchbooks is my lifeline. It's my sanity. Even the simplest version of putting pencil to paper frees so

Cactus and mountains. Moleskine Art Sketchbook, Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen Dual Markers. Earlier this year, I participated in an online program for the second time. It's called Surface Design Immersion with Bonnie Christine, and it's all about learning how to make art that can be used in pattern designs. It's an excellent program - everything from how patterns are built to the best tools in Adobe Illustrator for making repeating patterns. Bonnie is an incredible instructor

A page from my recent 100 Days of Flowers challenge. Moleskine Art Sketchbook, Inktense paint, Micron color pens in 0.5. A couple of weeks ago, I was reading Austin Kleon's book "Show Your Work." Somewhere in those pages, he mentioned the importance of having a home base for your work in the digital realm, and suggested that you secure a domain name before it's gone. I googled my own name, and found that despite being a very common last name, there was no other Niki Stewart o