Starting is Better Than Not
Today marks the end of an amazing workshop that I’ve been part of for the past 150 days, The Creative’s Workshop. Creatives of all types and persuasions, from so many different areas of interest and parts of the world gathered daily to share parts of their process and gave us windows into their worlds. There were poets, writers, podcasters, photographers, film makers, musicians, cartoonists, and visual artists to mention a few broad groups. It was so interesting and inspiring and a bit mentally exhausting - but in a good way.
Progress made on a couple of chocolate bar wrappers
The workshop encouraged us to contribute something, anything, daily for 100 days. Many made it daily to the end. To ship something was better than not. Another way of saying that is to start before you’re ready.
I was inspired at the very end, this morning in fact, to start writing a blog and to add something here daily. I’m hoping that by doing this I will move closer to being me rather than who I think I’m supposed to be.
So here I am, starting before I’m ready. The blog page doesn’t look the way I want. I don’t have a well thought out plan for what I want to do or a specific goal by a specific time. I know, however, that saying things out loud even if no one reads this blog allows me to work off my ideas and be able to then change and edit and nudge new ideas out.
Pressing the “Save & Publish” button now!
A Video of Work on my Glass, Mirrors and Reflections from the MFA Drawing
I am still participating in The Creative’s Workshop. Today was Day 17/100 to show up and do something. A couple of my friends from the course asked if I could make a video of me drawing since they were not artists and don’t know the process.
I filmed a portion of my glass, mirrors and reflections drawing from the MFA three times. Two of them had technically difficulties. My camera seems too heavy for the arm of the stand and the screw to tighten the arm is very stiff. Two of my videos had slow motion movement of the camera moving its focus from the drawing to just the photo I’m working from. Not so informative!!
I hope you find it interesting as a small glimpse into the process of drawing a complicated picture using a photo as a reference.
Procrastination - Starting's really not so bad!
Botanical watercolor of a tulip.
My botanical watercolor of a tulip is all done! I’m very pleased with both how it turned out and also for getting it done. I have so many unfinished drawings in my sketchbooks that part of what I’m doing with my dailies* is to work on some of them and get them finished before starting new drawings on empty pages. I’m hoping that will clear some of the clutter and distraction in my head.
What I found interesting about working on this tulip from a creativity point of view is how long I resisted and procrastinated working on it - 2 years. I was very good at coming up with excuses to avoid it. Many of my reasons had to do with color matching and blending colors. There was a lot of internal whining.
The funny thing was once I started, it was surprisingly simple and straightforward. Once I mixed a color and put it down, I could leave it or change it by adding another layer of color. It was that easy. And if I really messed up by spilling water across the page or big blobs of color got on the picture somehow, I could chose to continue or I could turn the page and draw it again and start over or not. The choices weren’t difficult but my mind before starting did a great job in over-complicating things.
Procrastination is all about fear but if somehow you can take a first step or action, then you have something to react to and make a decision on. It’s no longer the unknown. Progress is made.
What are you procrastinating on? How can you take a step forward with it? What will you do?
(* I am currently taking the online class, The Creative’s Workshop, and they encourage the participants to show up daily with something they’ve been working on. Rough and incomplete is fine. Just show up. I posted in the class for 4 days running with progress on this tulip.)
Creativity and Fear
Color Mixing Chart of Sennelier Indian Yellow watercolor with some greens
Day 6/100 of Creating and Showing Up
Today’s daily for The Creative's Workshop brings a page of color mixing. This particular sketchbook (Stillman & Birn Zeta) is primarily full of these kind of color mixes. I took one color of watercolor and mixed it with all the other colors I had, individually, to see what kind of mixes would be made. The left side of the chart is straight from the tube as is the right side with three mixes of the two colors in between.
Above each of the charts is a wet-into-wet combination of the two. That kind of thing which can be a beautiful characteristic of watercolor doesn’t work well on this type of paper. It’s also possible I’ve never quite learned how to do it very well. But I am one page away from finishing this sketchbook and will not continue this series. Sometimes it’s good to know when enough is enough and move on. I will keep on with color charts though!
I wasn’t spending a lot of time thinking about my paints while I did this exercise today. I was considering the concept of fear and what holds me back from creating in other areas of my life. I do want to do more with my art somehow, but I think that exploring how to be more creative with my words and business will help push me to do more with my art too. Showing what I make with my art is safe because it’s easy for me. Putting words together to describe me and what I have to offer is really my creative challenge. Playing with words is what I will try for in my future dailies. I’ll do a picture too just because I like the visuals.
What does being creative mean to you? Do you follow your creative urge or does something hold you back? How do think you'd feel if you went through with it anyway?
100 Days of Creating! Ready, Set, Go!
I signed up for Seth Godin’s The Creative’s Workshop yesterday. I am both excited and wondering what exactly I have gotten myself in for.
“This is a workshop for writers, painters, playwrights, sculptors, musicians, stand up comics, designers, coaches and anyone else who has a craft and a point of view. It’s for people who have a job doing this work for an organization, or for indies who want to do it on their own.
“In this workshop, you’ll learn to find your voice, to do work that a professional can stand behind, to make a living while making a difference.” Seth Godin on The Creative’s Workshop
The students are creatives from all walks of life, from all over the world. I’ve just been on the class site for over 24 hours and already the range of topics is astounding! In addition to responding to fellow classmates and what inspires you from their stories and comments, the course encourages you to do the Dailies and the Prompts.
Dailies are everyday posts about what you’ve been creating and working on. They can be rough, they can be incomplete, but the challenge is to show up and do them daily for 100 days. More if you want to. The Prompts get sent out three times a week. Since those are external, it can be a challenge to respond, but new ideas can be generated form getting out of your comfort zone.
I signed up because I want to push myself creatively to see what I can do next and because I wanted to meet creatives across disciplines, see what holds them back, what inspires them and what do they do in this workshop. The last day to sign up is February 18th. Join in on the challenge to take your creativity to new places!
My first Daily for the Creative’s Workshop Day 1/100. Chocolate Wrappers, ink and watercolor in my sketchbook.