Pressure to perfect!

Today's tip for creativity is a long-term strategy. When we put unnecessary pressure on ourselves to creative the perfect piece of art work we stifle our creativity. We need to be willing to be wrong and wanting to make some mistakes as we push the envelope of trying to not only get better but also find the technique that helps to make the art better.

Its okay if the painting doesn't ever go anyway farther than your own kitchen fridge. Putting pressure on yourself to produce something outstanding can actually make it more difficult to create anything at all.

There are too many people that will say they are not creative at all, but we are all creative in our own way doing our own thing. Just try your best and see what happens.

Look at something blue or green

Okay, I will admit this one is a little strange for me, except I have seen those individuals with the dyslexia look through a blue sheet of paper to help focus on the right stuff, so why not try it. I am told the colors tend to enhance performance on cognitive tasks because people associate the colors with other things. Blue goes with water, sky, and openness in general, while green is all about growth. I got it, next time you are having a struggle look at a map of the world with all those blues and greens!

A little Story

A little story

This is a story about four persons named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Now Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody would do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

Anonymous 

RUN! ZOMBIE!

I titled this blog RUN, cause one wonderful way to boost your creativity is to exercise. According to some studies, which at this time I don't know to document for you but they happened, when we are physically active and moving around and doing the groovy dancing moves, the body loosens up adn our mind is a little more free adn open to those wonderfully creative thoughts that are floating around just waiting for our brains to grab onto and develop.

Get Social

I want to add another tip to boost your creativity. So get out there and be social with your friends and family. When we spend time with people we trust, we are more likely to engage in conversation that is deep in meaningful. There are those that believe that the chats often lead to thinking of a creative nature because we are really able to open ourselves up and talk about those things that are near and dear to our hearts. You know those passions we are sometimes too afraid to talk about to the general public. We have the chance to see possibilities that we would not otherwise see.

What I learned from Noah's Ark

I don't know who originally wrote this, but here's somethin':

All I need to know I learned from Noah's Ark;
One... Don't miss the boat.
Two... Remember that we are all in the same boat.
Three... Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark.
Four... Stay fit. When you're 600 years old someone may ask you to do something really big.
Five... Don't listen to critics, just get on the job that needs to be done.
Six... Build your future on high ground.
Seven... For safety's sake travel in pairs.
Eight... Speed isn't always an advantage. The snails were on the boat with the cheetahs.
Nine... When you're stressed, float awhile.
Ten...Remember the Ark was built by amateurs, the Titanic by professionals.
Eleven... No matter the storm, when you are with God there's always a rainbow waiting. 

Meditate

Are you feeling like your having all the same thoughts and can't seem to think of anything new? When in the heat of needing to think, take a few minutes, ten or so, and try meditating. It promotes divergent thinking, and a state of mind in which we can get the new idea generator on its way to fun and exciting thoughts.

Close your eyes and let your mind wander or focus it on the calm and tranquil.

Articles of Art (first batch)

Talent is the ability to persist until you get it right. This is completely true. However, you also need to have an eye to be able to know what is right. Many designers over-design a project without knowing that they reached the best solution but kept going.

If it doesn’t communicate, it ain’t art [design]; any fool can make a mark.
Maybe the truest statement here. The purpose of design/art is to communicate whatever it is you’re supposed to communicate. If you don’t do that, it doesn’t matter how beautiful, hip, edgy, smart it is. It HAS to communicate.

Decide what you want to say and say it.
I love this one. So many designers start something without knowing exactly what they are doing and end up somewhere they never intended. It’s so important to always keep in mind the purpose of what you are doing.

Draw what you know, not what you think you see, until the day you know what you are seeing and then draw it.
This is more of a drawing principle, but very important. We so often draw what’s in our mind rather than what’s right in front of us. The relationships of negative/positive space, colors, contrasts, dark/light shading, lines, and textures in actuality are much different than what we perceive them to be.

To do a good drawing sooner or later you are going to have to look at it.
When drawing or designing it’s so easy to be so focused on the details that you don’t take the time to stand back and see the big picture, see the context.

If it looks dumb, don’t draw it.
Too often someone will draw something because it’s there. We are under no obligation to draw everything we see. This isn’t photography. See next.

When something looks out of place, remove it or add more of it.
One of my favorites. I’ve seen a lot of designs that would have sucked if this principle hadn’t been applied.

If you live by the sword, you die by the sword (if you are going to do something, do it all the way).
It’s almost always apparent when someone does a half-effort job. Even a bad idea can work if pushed to an extreme (unless it’s an extremity in badness).

I didn't include every Article of Art here as given by the great art Professor Leon Parson but there are a few soundbites and some additional info from a fellow artist. Hope you enjoy the silly photos from the silly lens features of the silly electronic devises we carry around and don't do enough with!

randomnesses

Over the next little while I am going to be sharing some tips I was given to boost creativity. With each post I have included a page from some sketch books that I have made by repurposing other items from cereal boxes and un-used worksheets from elementary schools and else where. I have included pages that are cool and exciting and ones that I am happy to show but I have also included those pages that I am not that excited to show the world but I am doing this to show that there isn't always great days of art. You have to keep movig through the not great art days.