SPEED UP, JOIN DRAWTOBER DREAM BIGGER GO GET GHOSTED
Speed up with a Creative Practice Drawtober is back!
ISSUE 23
You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have! Maya Angelou
HARMONY IN EVERY HOME
TABLE OF CONTENTS THE VISION Draw, doodle, and sketch your way to become a stronger digital communicator. LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Speed and the importance. SPEED How Steve did it and how you can too! DREAM BIGGER Bringing Space Ships and Sci-Fi Dreams to Life. GO GET GHOSTED Wisdom for dealing with rejection online and at events.
THE VISION
Draw more! Draw daily!
We’ve had Steve Hartley at several of our Comedy Shows and I’ve seen him at weddings and Christmas parties. He’s amazing and so fun to watch and he’s a great client. Helping Steve tell his story online has been a joy. He’s a quick study when it comes to editing a video and crafting creative content. Often when I make visits to my clients homes I uncover other passions which I’ll share about in this publication. I invite you to see where you can speed up your creative practice by participating in Drawtober this year. You can follow dozens of prompts on Instagram under #Drawtober or use our suggestions a few pages in. Get creative and help a ton of people! Financial Joy requires creative confidence.
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Speed up, slow down, practice again and again! If you have ever had your face drawn at our LAF Tech comedy show or a local fair, it was likely from this month’s feature, Steve Hartley! My favorite part about Steve is the speed he brings to our events. He is so fast at drawing but also elevating moods for our guests! I admire his ability to capture someone so quickly, and accurately.
One of my loves about data art is it pulls me of the screen and often gets me drawing. While it’s slower than Steve, it’s a state of flow that all marketers could get more comfortable in. Maketing these days isn’t a 6 month process, it can happen in days. Speed is rewarded and new clients and cashflow is often the reward. Slow doesn’t work too well with social.
A video idea 6 months later is still better than never, but I invite my clients and readers to lean in to the speed of creating, communicating, and casting your vision online. Be inspired by Steve’s story!
Marcelle Allen Editor-in-Chief
SPEED: HOW STEVE HARTLEY GOT FAST AND HOW YOU CAN, TOO Customers really are collaborators at events!
If you’ve ever watched Steve at a fair, one thing stands out: serious speed. He’s turning out caricatures at a mindblowing pace. But speed like that doesn’t happen overnight, it’s built on years of hands-on drawing, structured practice, and, just as importantly, intentional learning.
What Makes Steve Hartley Fast? Years of Practice: Steve Hartley has been drawing caricatures for over 44 years.
That’s thousands of faces, features, and practice sessions culminating in muscle memory and automatic seeing. Learning to See Shapes: Instead of getting lost in the details, he breaks everything down into basic shapescircles, squares, triangles. This foundational approach (shared by master painters) lets him quickly capture a likeness without overthinking. Strategic Placement: Where you put the eyes, nose, and mouth matters. Speed comes from knowing not just what you’re drawing, but where to put it on the page. Repetition and Confidence: The more you draw, the more your body and brain conserve energy. You don’t have to consciously analyze every line- you just do it. With confidence comes efficiency
How Can You Get Fast?
You might not have four decades to catch up, but Steve Hartley’s advice is both inspiring and practical: Break It Down: Stop focusing on the details. Find the shapes in what you’re drawing or creating. Whether it’s a face, a budget, or a storyboard, ask: What’s the biggest, simplest structure here? Practice, Practice, Practice: “It’s always about practice,” Steve says “Commit to daily repetitionseven if they're fast and rough. Just doing the work, again and again, builds your skill and speed.”
Know Your Goal: For Steve, likeness takes priority over comedy. For you, clarify your focus - do you want accuracy, humor, emotion? Knowing what matters most will help you cut what doesn’t and speed up the process. Embrace Mistakes and Rejection: Not every drawing, pitch, or creative effort will land. Accept that “you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.” Let go of your ego, and learn from each attempt. Build Confidence Through Repetition: Speed follows confidence and confidence follows repetition. Draw (or perform your craft) so many times that it becomes second nature.
Which big events do you have coming up that could ue a caricature artists?
Speed is a skill and like any skill, it can be learned. Steve Hartley didn’t start out fast; he got there through years of practice, learning to see strategically, and pushing past discomfort and rejection. You can do the same, whatever your craft may be. Focus on fundamentals, allow yourself to practice often (and badly), and watch your own speed take off. I don’t believe we should just speak, talk, and blab on in our videos. We must give visuals that pull others in, craft stories that get watched, entertain, educate again and again with processes and new perspectives. Leadership is not just about speaking, it’s about creating & editing. Sometimes we create a speech, or a video, a vision, or a reminder. We showcase what is possible. My encouragement to my clients is to play in these 4 quadrants on the next page.
The more we collaborate, the more storyboarding becomes a tool to communicate that vision.
Remarkable leadership to me means playing in all 4 of these quadrants. Communicating to your digital marketing team becomes very important. Navigating tough storylines requires patience and inspiration. Is your content useful when you aren’t physically there? Social media isn’t just about posting our days, it’s about leading people to make important decisions and finding great resources. Join us for Drawtober?
Celebrating
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Business Communities in the PNW! EXPAND YOUR BUSINESS NETWORK, and Net-WORTH!
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See where your category is needed at PNAnw.com and unwrap the gift of new connections!
Drawtober Bingo Set a creative goal for the week
Record a 10second video clip of your creative process
Set intention for video (views, creative expression, etc)
Sketch a reel you recently watched (310- scenes)
Determine topic or theme for day/week
Create a simple storyboard with stick figures
Take a photo of your artwork today
Participate in a daily drawing challenge (Drawtober, Inktober)
Capture 10 five second clips
Share your artwork on Instagram
Ask someone for feedback on your art
Capture your hands working on something
Sketch out 3 scenes
FREE
Quickly sketch 3 scenes and ask a buddy to film you in them
Teach someone else a basic art skill
Try sketching using only basic shapes
Sketch the frames of a commercial you saw
Like 10 sketches on Instagram with the #Drawtober hashtag
Brainstorm a story you want to tell with your art
Network with another artist online
Try drawing at a faster speed than usual
Sketch a podcast interview
Try drawing at a slower speed to focus on quality
Share a reel of a how-todraw clip
As you build your creative practice, check off these items for a bingo. Text Marcelle for a prize if you complete 360-420-9966 (the prize has to do with collaboration)
Director Director Try sketching a scene a day. Use this list for inspiration. Running away Peephole perspective Driving slowly Spider view Close up A new location Someone Searching Typing on a phone Person standing Looking at your feet Person A giggles Person B whispers Person A leaves Dog walk Brewing Paranoid
Reading Mapping out Finding a reward Celebrating Person C Planning an event Explaining details Drone view Following someone Interview person A & B Close-up Person A on phone Person B drinking Spiders view of scene Chaos ensues Magic wand result
Participating in Drawtober gives you a structured push to create consistently, helping you develop both discipline and creative momentum. Even if you don’t finish every single prompt, starting the challenge encourages you to capture daily inspiration and build a habit around your art. Consider bringing Ai into the process for some added speed & inspiration.
Drawtober also offers an opportunity to plan and share your creative journey online in bite-sized pieces. By treating your daily posts as story snippets or highlights of your process, you’re crafting a visual narrative that not only builds your audience but also sharpens your skills. As you plan and capture these moments, you’ll find yourself improving not just at drawing, but also at telling stories through your images, helping others see your artistic growth day by day.
We aren’t planning a motion picture, we're planning a Reel.
Steve Hartley’s Passion Projects: Bringing Space Ships and Sci-Fi Dreams to Life If you ask Steve about his true passion, you’ll quickly discover that his heart belongs to more than just caricatures.
"My desire to make things in the vein of Star Wars," he says, "I like making spaceships and stuff like that.
For decades, the pulse of his creativity has been driven by a love for concept art, illustration, and, notably, building space ships inspired by classic science fiction.
That is one of my hobbies. I have 27 hobbies, but that's one of them."
While many know Steve from his vibrant caricature work at fairs and events, his artistic foundation extends far beyond quick sketches of smiling faces. His true calling always leaned toward concept art and illustration, with a special affection for creating models and designs rooted in childhood dreams of working for George Lucas at Skywalker Ranch.
The Art of "Greeblies" and Sci-Fi Model Making Steve Hartley is fluent in the obscure yet beloved language of model makers, talking about “greeblies” and “nurnies” - the geeky, intricately-detailed little parts that give sci-fi ships like those in Star Wars their distinctive, lived-in look. In classic model-building tradition, artists would raid model kit "boneyards" for these tiny pieces to glue on ships, but Steve Hartley has taken the process high-tech. With a new approach, he moved into 3D modeling and printing, leveraging digital tools to design and print any shape or detail he wants. This creative leap allowed him to share and sell his own custom pieces globally: “Once people saw what I was doing, because I would put my
stuff on Facebook... they’re like, ‘Hey man, that's really cool, can I buy that from you?’ So I have about 100 items in my store.” Going Global Always thinking about how to scale his passions, Steve Hartley has recently begun selling through a popular a global e-commerce platform: “The cool part is, is that I print them and I send them out. I get paid.” This new outlet opens Steve’s work to an international audience of hobbyists and sci-fi fans eager to bring detailed spaceship parts and concepts to their own projects.
A Message to Creators For those inspired by Steve Hartley’s story, he offers simple but powerful advice: “Just keep doing it. Don’t let anybody get in your way. Looking Ahead: "The Uglies" and More
Among his ongoing passion projects is “The Uglies”- an art game and character collection born from his love of quirky designs and fun storytelling. With hundreds already drawn and big dreams for the future, there’s little doubt that Steve Hartley’s space ships and sci-fi endeavors will continue to delight fans and inspire fellow creators for years to come. For updates, sneak peeks, and a visual journey into Steve’s world of space ships and art, check out his Instagram or reach out to join the community of fellow makers and dreamers he’s inspiring one spaceship at a time. Your Facebook groups form a digital galaxy. Some are thriving planets rich with remarkable characters. Others are abandoned outposts with impressive member counts but no signs of life.
The goal isn’t to visit every planet - it’s to discover where your people, purpose and opportunities are strongest.
Is there a brighter side to budgeting? In my social media marketing of The Allocation Station and data art, I’ve had fun finding joy in the bigger storylines around spaceships and adventure. I always say with data art; your data your medium. This means you can use pencils, watercolor, or fun graphic design elements inspired from your imagination. Some creative sessions have led me to see patterns not just of category; but of future, past, and current choices. Debt can be daunting but it can also be made more interesting. Appreciation is a force I wish more would embrace.
Go Get Ghosted Let’s talk about rejection. Get good at it! You’re going to get rejected. You’ll get ghosted, and it’ll sting. But here’s the wild part: getting rejected or ghosted is actually your assignment. You want the client? Send that message. You want to share art? Post the thing. You want the gig? Apply. But don’t just float something out there hoping for universal applause, expect silence. Expect nos. Expect people to scroll right past. You’re not made of glass. You won’t shatter. Instead, treat rejection as a badge, a milestone. Steve Hartley knows it: “Nobody likes rejection. Yeah, but it is necessary for growth.” Sometimes you need twenty nos to get a yes. Data art visualizes those attempts. Often people expect a video do do the heavy lifting, where in my world, the magic happens in the conversation. Although good videos can lead to more conversations. When the silence stretches- when the email sits unanswered, when the DM is left on “Seen” don’t make it about you. The person on the other side isn’t plotting your downfall. They’re just not your person, or not your client, or not your moment right now. It’s coffee or tea. It’s yes or no. It’s not personal. I’m not sure which is scarier, no data or rejection. What do you think? The top circle is a months of no data. I encourage you to play with your data, make rejection pretty.
The real trick? Desensitization. The more you get out there and collect the rejections, the less power they have over you. At first, it’ll take all your energy. You’ll leave your metaphorical easel in the middle of the walkway and feel every sideways glance. But soon, it’s just part of the process. Someone ghosts? That’s Tuesday. You don’t need permission. You need practice. Every time you reach out and get nothing back, it’s one step closer to your next yes or your next moment of not caring what anyone thinks at all. You’re proving to yourself that your resilience runs deeper than your pride. Your work is worth it. Your message matters, with or without applause. So go ahead. Get ghosted. Stack those nos. Each one is proof that you’re daring greatly. Craving a little encouragement? Join us for an upcoming virtual Smooth Organizer dinner party! We can celebrate and commiserate on our progress. Click the image above to see upcoming events.
Listen in to these resources and keep creating! Experience more of Steve’s creative spirit online
Click to watch
Filmed at our friends wedding - Steve’s skills
Book Steve for events
Steve’s website - Muggshotz.net See Steve’s Reels on Insta
May the Choice be with you by Marcelle
Reels vs Stories by Marcelle
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So much of Financial Joy is really about earning confidence. Making videos can be scary and with hundreds of options with every video, we hear ya! At our meetup we make it fun and enjoyable! Join our Developing Digital You meetup for upcoming workshops, online and in person!
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Hopeful for a safe place to move forward with others who will understand? @modernwidowsclub Need a remarkable caricature artist for your next party? @muggshotzcaricatures Want to volunteer, become a vendor, or simply join us to enjoy the Mukilteo Lighting Festival? @MukFest Want to trust yourself more? @NatashaVenter.11 Are you ready to love your property and help them linger longer with outdoor lights that delight? @OLPNorthSound Would you like to build a sales team and earn referrals? @pnanorthwest What does it look like to overcome trauma? @RebootRecovery
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