Before the first module we sort out your setup, whether that is a stack of copy paper and a ballpoint pen, an iPad, or a hardbound sketchbook with all the fancy bits. Then we build your Like List, so you are drawing what you want to draw instead of someone else's prompts, and look at how to stay inspired by understanding how the art you love was actually made.

So much of building a habit is feeling good about the process in the beginning. If success is "I sat down and drew for thirty minutes" and you do that, you have succeeded, even if the drawing was terrible. Do that a hundred times and you will get better and start making awesome stuff. This week is about starting a good rhythm and a positive loop. We are what we repeatedly do.

Being inspired is one thing. There is also real craft to brainstorming and ideation: coming up with a concept, making it better, finding a different way to do it, or just landing on a cool idea immediately. With a good toolbox the blank page stops being intimidating and becomes the fun part.

Most of us want to draw our characters, creatures and worlds without hunting for the right reference every time. The only way to draw from imagination is to have a visual library: you cannot draw what you don't know. The sketchbook is the tool for building it, through studies and understanding, and this week we look at how to use reference so it helps you draw from imagination instead of keeping you dependent on it.

Maybe you have all the time in the world and still can't get off the couch. Maybe you have half an hour a day between family and work and wonder if it is even worth it. Maybe you draw all day for a living and come home with nothing left. This week is the tactical stuff that makes a sketching ritual actually work for your situation, and it goes with you into the holiday break.

Maybe it was working for a couple of weeks and then you stopped. The reality is that if you just pick yourself up and keep going, nobody else notices and nobody else cares. All that matters is giving it another go and working out what didn't work and what to try next. This week is also for when your life changes, a move, a new job, a new responsibility, and the time that used to work no longer does.

Once the habit is going, you may want to create more detailed sketch pages or finished illustrations in the book. This week walks through how that works: planning an illustration, working it up, adding the details, and choosing the sketchbooks and paper that let you build up more detailed work in graphite or whatever you want to use.

Getting good at marker or watercolour could be a whole course on its own. What this week gives you is simple, tactical ways to start: how to add a little tone and a little colour here and there to elevate a sketch and have fun with it, even without a fancy watercolour journal. It applies to most tools beyond pen and pencil.

An iPad or tablet can be one of the most effective ways to get more art done, depending on what is happening in your life: it is clean, portable, and you can add colour without water and markers everywhere. The challenge is keeping the sketching ethos and not ending up with a Procreate folder full of messy, half-finished pages. This week covers the tools and techniques, and how to think about creating something finished and collected in the digital realm.

Post your last debrief: how the habit is going now, what works, what you want to change. I run the final feedback sessions and we look at how to carry the habit forward as your life keeps changing.