Dan Berry is a cartoonist, illustrator, podcaster and educator based in the town of Shrewsbury, UK. He is a frequent collaborator with the author David Gaffney and is currently working on the follow-up to The Three Rooms in Valerie’s Head; a book called Rivers.
Since 2012 he has produced the podcast Make It Then Tell Everybody in which he has spoken to over a hundred and sixty other artists about what they do and how they do it.
Between 2008 and 2019 he was the Programme Leader for the illustration, comics and children’s books degree courses at the School of Creative Arts, Wrexham Glyndwr University.
Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/danberry
-His fascination with being able to create something that puts ideas and images in other people’s minds.
-Being hospitalized from the extreme stress he experienced working as a designer for a marketing agency.
-His decision to quit teaching.
-How everyone has different responses to stress, and the value in being able to determine your own.
-The large amount of work that you can get done in one hour.
-The stress level of effort and “half-assing it” to aim for a B-grade instead of an A.
-Why he called his podcast “Make it then Tell Everybody.”
-Illuminating the “grubby underbelly” of the creative process.
-The BMX story and the false belief that growth in your career has to come from the outside.
-Telling people about your work, both old and new.
-Some of the resistances that his guests have experienced.
-How he gets past “page fright” – the fear of the blank page.
-How he interacts with his ideas and why he is wary of the ones that come into his head fully formed.
-Why he draws people as birds.
-The experience of drawing an entire comic in 24 hours and other forms of “stunt drawing.”
“It was a good and fun job. Up until the point it wasn’t.”
“Creativity is not a muscle that you can just flex. It’s also a gland and you’ve got to relax it.”
“I managed to convince myself that everything else was stressful aside from the thing that actually was.”
“You could be the best artist on the planet, but if you’re only drawing in your bedroom and never showing anybody, you basically don’t exist.”
“I had this belief that any growth in my career had to come from outside.”
“Trying to remain enthusiastic about something that isn’t representative of your current level of ability is difficult.”
“If it exists, then you’ve done it right.”
“Once you have something that exists, you have something that’s editable.”
Make It Then Tell Everybody | How artists do what they do
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud
The Three Rooms in Valerie's Head by David Gaffney and Dan Berry
Dick Rivets & Other Stories by Dan Berry
Website / Podcast / Store / Twitter
Emilija Angelovska : Podcast / Website
Danielle Clough is a multi-disciplinary artist from Cape Town, South Africa who specializes in the mediums of embroidery, photography, graphic design and video art.
She has been profiled by Instagram, Colossal, CNN, Vogue and The New York Times and had her work and in various exhibitions in South Africa, The USA and Russia.
Her new Skillshare class shows the basics of how she creates so that you can give embroidery a try for the first time.
Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/danielleclough
-Her mindset when she made the decision to quit school and also to change career paths.
-Learning to trust our heart and our instincts when they tell us that things aren’t right.
-How we sometimes think too far into the future and put too much pressure on ourselves before, during and after the creation process.
-Her biggest takeaways from Red & Yellow School of Logic & Magic.
-Seeing herself as a brand instead of an artist and her work as a product as opposed to statements.
-Keeping her personal life out of her social media presence.
-Her perfect formula for defeating imposter syndrome (and also cultivating it).
-Her mental state while creating pieces that take longer than a month.
-How she often feels like she is the sum of the last thing that she created, for better or worse.
-Why she doesn’t like the word, “inspiration.”
-Her advice for anyone who wants to get started with embroidery.
“I stumbled into embroidery through a sequence of opportunities and mistakes.”
“As soon as you say you’re going to ‘stick something out,’ that’s probably an indication that it’s not right for you.”
“I always feel like I am the sum of the last thing I put together.”
“That motivation to actually turn something into something tangible is so much more important to focus on than those neurons firing for three seconds.”
“Trust yourself and trust what you love.”
Danielle Clough's Skillshare class
Red & Yellow School of Logic & Magic
“Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert
Skillshare / Website / Facebook / Instagram
Dan Berry : Website / Make it Then Tell Everybody