Danny Gregory > Quotes

“Please DO waste art materials. Use paper. Empty paint jars. Deplete pens. if it's teaching you stuff, it's not being wasted.”
― Danny Gregory

“There are no bad drawings.
Drawings are experiences.
The more you draw, the more experienced you'll get.
In fact, you'll learn more from bad or unpredictable or weird experiences than from those that go exactly as you'd hoped and planned.
So let it go.
Release your ego's desire for perfection.
Take risks.
Stretch.
Grow.
Create as much as you can, whenever you can.”
― Danny Gregory, The Creative License: Giving Yourself Permission to Be The Artist You Truly Are

“The true purpose of illustrated journaling [is] to celebrate your life. No matter how small or mundane or redundant, each drawing and little essay you write to commemorate an event or an object or a place makes it all the more special.”
― Danny Gregory, The Creative License: Giving Yourself Permission to Be The Artist You Truly Are

“Remember: Writing is drawing.”
― Danny Gregory

“It’s ironic that people speak of artists as dreamers. I think they are the most grounded people around. Conscious and present. As an artist, you really see life, connect with its beauty, and create something that shares those observations with others. You notice things.”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“An artist is someone who sees and feels realty very intensely. Creativity doesn't mean just making things up out of thin air. It means seeing and feeling the world so vividly that you can put together connections and patterns that help to explain reality. It means you see the beauty in the world rather than trying to hide from it.”
― Danny Gregory, The Creative License: Giving Yourself Permission to Be The Artist You Truly Are

“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life.” -Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“Birds sing, wolves howl, crickets chirp. But why? Money? Fame? Record contracts? Endorsements? What's it all for? They do it because they're alive. They do it because life is about making things.”
― Danny Gregory, The Creative License: Giving Yourself Permission to Be The Artist You Truly Are

“This day is full of extraordinary things that you are missing. Wonderful sights, like the sun on your counterpane, the hairs on your cat's tail, the cracks in the paint on your radiator, the leaves piling up against the curve. Wonderful smells, wonderful sounds. Wonderful people. Wonderful opportunities. Today is wonderful. But perhaps you have lost your sense of wonder.”
― Danny Gregory, The Creative License: Giving Yourself Permission to Be The Artist You Truly Are

“Creativity isn’t a luxury. It’s the essence of life.”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“Life is just a long succession of small epiphanies.”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“Mistakes are lessons in disguise and accurate reflections of your true state. Maybe you need to slow down. Maybe your initial expectation was actually what was wrong. Maybe you need to draw more often.”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“bear in mind that interesting art doesn’t come from trying to slavishly turn a photo into a drawing. Try to add as much as you can of your own to the image.”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“Time is short. Don't waste it beating yourself up.”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“look before you draw and believe what your eyes, not the rest of your head, tell you.”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“Contour, negative space, and measurements. You just learned the three important lessons in drawing and saved yourself four years of art school.”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“These voices — the inner critic, the inner nag, the inner pest, the inner jerk and all the other monsters who try to talk you out of moving forward— are the part of you that is threatened by change and progress. We all have them. They are trying to protect you from new and scary things, but they are out of sync with you right now and not helpful. They hate what you are doing, but that doesn’t make them right,”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“Celebrate your life now, as it unfolds.
Turn away from judgement and negative theories about your worth, your potential, and your destiny. See what you already have.”
― Danny Gregory, The Creative License: Giving Yourself Permission to Be The Artist You Truly Are

“Art with a big “A” is for museums, galleries, critics, and collectors. art with a small “a” is for the rest of us. Art is a business, an industry, a racket. art is about passion, love, life, humanity— everything that is truly valuable. Art is sold, resold, put under the gavel, and insured up the wazoo. art with a small “a” is not a product. It’s a point of view. It’s a way of life. Art is made by trained professionals and experts. art is made by accountants, farmers, and stay-at-home moms at restaurant tables, in parking lots, and laundry rooms. Art takes Art School and Talent and years of Suffering and Sacrifice. art just takes desire and 15 minutes a day. You may not be an Artist. Big whoop. But I know you can make art— with a wonderful, expressive, teeny, tiny a.”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“Keep your eyes on the things you are drawing 80 percent of the time and on your page just 20 percent.”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“Read this book when you are stuck. But don’t read it instead of drawing.”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“Un disegno dieci minuti di pan tostato è un zilione di volte meglio di un disegno a zero minuto di pan tostato.”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“Don’t go crazy with art supplies at first. Just get a sketchbook and a pen that’ll fit in your bag and keep them with you for when a moment opens up.”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“Every day contains a thousand little servings of free time you might just have overlooked. And each moment contains beauty, wonder, and models you never need to pay.”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“creativity isn’t a luxury. It’s the essence of life. It’s what distinguishes us from the mush. And it’s why our ancestors survived while other less adaptive critters perished. They responded to change by being creative in some way, by inventing a new answer to the chaos.”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“Get used to eating cold toast. Draw your breakfast every day. Then eat it.”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“7. Get a drawing buddy. Or join an online group like Everyday Matters on Facebook.”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“Making art will show you how much you already have. Your real treasures. A brand-new Maserati is a lot less beautiful to draw than a rusty old pickup.”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“Imagine if you signed up for a drawing class and from day one, the teacher hung over your shoulder and harangued your every move. Imagine if she told you you can't draw and will never be able to, told you to just forget the whole thing. Imagine if she constantly chipped away at your confidence, your personality, your self-worth, turning a simple drawing exercise into a judgment on you as a person. You'd drop the class and ask for your money back, right? Your inner critic can be just that sort of nightmarish voice in your head. And the fact is, that voice is wrong. Every drawing you do has some value. It teaches you new and valuable things. And it is vital to realize that the moment when you finish a drawing is not the time to judge it, not the time to learn the full value of the lesson.”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are

“Skip perfection. A lame drawing is better than no drawing.”
― Danny Gregory, Art Before Breakfast: A Zillion Ways to be More Creative No Matter How Busy You Are