From Fact Finding to Quick Start
She searched ideas by watching what others had made. Then she realized that she had spent hours trying to find the inspiration. And it was already too late to start making anything by her own. Besides, she was feeling overwhelmed.
Does this sound familiar to you? You might get inspired of this or that, but feel powerless to start making your own. It can be only that you are tired after a long day. Then the best you can do is to go to sleep. But if repeatedly find yourself having difficulties to begin, it might be that you are using the wrong method when searching for inspiration.
Use your imagination when browsing other people’s work.
When you use your imagination, you will get your own, not other people’s ideas. This requires that you do not take anything you see as a fact. Instead, you should focus on the feelings and associations which they raise.
Here’s a crayon drawing which I made as a teenager. It is about a girl coming from the library. The weather is predicting the end of summer.
But actually, you don’t need to know anything like that. The fact that the girl is standing in the middle of the picture should be irrelevant to you too. The purple dress is interesting only if you react to the color. Maybe you are touched by the combination of blue purple and bright yellow? Or maybe you get cold vibes when watching the image? Like when you were sitting on the floor of your new unfurnished home thinking of how to renovate it. Which reminds you of new beginnings and how much hope they hold. A little bit like puppies and young children …
Now you ask: would that mean that I should draw a puppy dog? Or just grab the idea of softness? You could if you feel inspired enough but I would advise you to have a bit larger mix of things. So let’s pick another image.
Here’s another work from decades ago. I used watercolors to replicate a black and white photograph of my grandmother and her three friends. Here you might think how stiff and serious people used to be in photographs. Those forced gestures are a complete opposite for the puppies. How funny the similar photo of four puppies would be!
Now you might get inspired by expressing the two opposites: stiff and free-form, hard and soft. Hard can still be soft inside, like the hearts of the four young girls.
Make a Quick Start using the ideas as a starting point.
When I began working from this standpoint, I knew only this: I would begin with coloring four soft areas and at some point add both organic and angular lines to express the opposites. Then I turned the music on and went with the flow.
In the end, I wrote where my thoughts had led me to: “The sun always rises in the morning”. I had illustrated the change of day and night and expressed how every morning is a new beginning. Now, there’s hardly any resemblance to the images I started with. Still, they gave me a jumpstart on creating.
When browsing, focus on your inner thoughts.
If you get stuck with having no ideas and being overwhelmed by other people’s work, you think too much about facts and give too little value to your inner thoughts. You will browse endlessly because facts never stop if your own thoughts will never get noticed. Instead, look at few images or read few sentences and think: What is here that comes to my mind? What basic combination could I create from these just to get started?
If you look for the perfect inspiration starter, you may never find it. In fact, there’s no such thing. But if you value your own thoughts, creating art will generate happiness regardless of the source of inspiration. Your art journal or any end result will become more and more perfect because you are perfect for yourself.
Subscribe to my weekly emails – Get a free mini-course!
Stretch Your Artistic Style
In art, I am fond of thin strokes and decorative details. I have often thought that blurry painting is like a bad photo – in need of sharpening. But slowly I have begun to get interested in blurry paintings. Those wide strokes have begun to feel tempting. The concept, where colors can take the leading role, has been sneaking into my thoughts. So, when I wanted to express something very familiar to my home country, I thought that the impressionistic style would go well with the theme.
The theme was melancholy and for me, it’s all about white flowers. In general I do understand the beauty of white, but personally, I see it as a symbol of loss and emptiness. The painting called “Condolences”. I wanted to give both white and black the position where they can be heart-breakingly beautiful. I wanted to treat them as real colors, not only as the elements to create contrast or compositional space.
Taking a New Route in Painting
Before I began to paint, I spent weeks of pondering the idea in my mind. After I had got hold of the feeling I wanted to express, I felt unsure of how to master the technique. Then I realized: if you want to stretch your style, you need to take a new route at some point in the creative process.
My new thing would be the way I used the acrylic paints. But I could start with familiar things: watercolor the background and set the basic color scene.
After creating this background, I felt comfortable: same old, same old! Then, with the help of Coldplay’s best hits, I got into the mood where I felt no uncertainty. When I have a clear theme in mind, I prefer to listen to the music that is pompous and not too deep. Then the music helps to improve my self-esteem without taking the focus away from the theme.
After few moments of walking around the room – that is a great way to boost your creativity too – I took the step. I mixed the paint, picked the broadest brush and dipped it into the paint. Then I began to brush boldly and very fast.
If you want to accomplish something new: think before you do it, not while you do it. Let your reason go through what you should create. But while you are creating, work very fast so that you reach the pace of your creativity. If you have some kind of image in your mind about the end result, it is important to focus on the feeling you want to express. The feeling should overcome the image while you are working.
Finishing Touches with Colored Pencils
There is something quiet and covered in the way the people grief, so I added a lot of blacks and other dark tones. After passing the most exciting phase, I became worried about the lack of depth in dark areas. After working with acrylics, I added details with colored pencils. The white lines were made with a white gel pen.
I made the final touches with colored pencils by picking complimentary colors or colors very near their complementary.
It felt somehow controversial to create this melancholic piece when the Finnish summer is at its best. But this was a good experiment. It raised an important question: Have I limited myself too much? Without too much questioning, could I try to create whatever comes to my mind?
Stretch Your Artistic Style!
Give yourself permission to experiment! Here are my tips:
1) Pick the direction to go! When stretching your style, remember to pick something you kind of like, but still have reservations about it.
2) What are the factors the new style has? Using a dry brush and only a few strokes were essential for my experiment. Think about techniques, colors, composition and pick the things that are essentially different than your ordinary methods.
3) Which the step in your process is the one where you take the new route? When will you start incorporating those new things? In my process, it was after making the background. Preferably start with the familiar way to get into the flow of creating.
4) Get emotional so that your emotion leads the way while creating. Think about the stories behind the emotion. Get into the state where expressing the emotion is more important than mastering the new method. Turn the music on if you need some courage to express your emotion.
5) Work fast without too much thinking. If you need to think, interrupt your work. Stand up and move around. Never forget the feeling you want to express.
6) Sleep overnight and finish your work on the next day. Embrace the good and fix the bad. Do not make major changes anymore as there will be a new day, a new blank paper, a new play, a new chance!
Stretch your artistic style
and get inspired by the world of art: Sign up for Imagine Monthly Fall 2016
The Art of Finishing
This collage is called Dawn of Change. It is inspired by the history of art. There was a time when I preferred modern art. If I went to an exhibition showing older than 20th century’s art, I used to yawn and think how pretentious it was. But the more I have examined art, the more I see in the old art. I see colors and concepts that can be reproduced in many different angles. Also, seeing good art makes me think of finishing – how much it affects the experience of the viewer.
The Creative Process
When I began to create Dawn of Change, I kept the painting of Giotto di Bondone visible on the table. I did not copy the image; I just kept it as a reminder of what to aim for.
The first layers were painted with watercolors. Then I added some Copic Opaque White to create lighter areas. The white layers were rubbed so that they shined vaguely on the watercolored surface. I also sprayed some Dylusions mists to make the background even foggier.
After a little bit of doodling with colored pencils, black marker, and white gel pen, the background started to show the guidelines for collage pieces.
Then I picked up the box of hand decorated papers and began to attach the paper pieces. In this phase, I always get surprised how well the papers fit the artwork even if they are all different. Creating your own papers will bring you that happiness! Try to avoid using same papers many times in the same artwork. That way the result looks more interesting.
After a little bit of doodling, I was getting tired and decided to end my session. Even if the composition was accomplished and nothing major decisions left to make, I felt that the work was incomplete. I needed to ponder how I was going to finish it. Over the years I have noticed that finishing does make a difference. In arts and crafts, the finishing rarely alters either the message or the use of the work, but still has a high impact on how appealing we will find it. Sometimes that extra addition of quality will change entirely what we think about it.
So, if you want to improve your results, get into the habit of taking breaks. I like to have a good night sleep, walk the dogs or work in the garden. Especially physical activities make the subconscious work best. Then, when I grab the thin brush I know exactly what I want to achieve and how to do it.
Finishing Art – Making Subtle Changes
In this piece, I wanted to increase the impression of the colors fading together. The acrylic paints were the best to accomplish that. I added small strokes of various shades of grays to create a more muted look. Then I also added some pale yellow and off-white to create the fading in lighter areas.
The difference between before and after is not big. When placing the two pictures side by side, you have to search for the differences. But I claim that the overall experience of the quality is better after finishing.
So I challenge you to finish your work – even if it already feels finished!
Let me be your mentor in art: Subscribe to my weekly emails!
Using Molding Paste in Collage Art
I have had the idea for this painting for a long time: to mimic fabrics including their surface structures. I wanted to combine watercolors and decorated papers with the structures I also had a deeper theme: being open for combinations. Fabrics in a quilter’s stash have no hierarchy between each other. Similarly, we can accept different sides of ourselves and our lives and make them work together.
Creative Process with Molding Paste
I began the artwork by painting a watercolor paper yellow. I love my White Nights watercolor set, its colors have such a great intensity! After the watercolor background, I added splotches of molding paste and made it look like corduroy by drawing straight lines. My paste is a Danish product, Schjerning Smooth Structure Paste, but if you are going to purchase some, I would recommend Golden Molding Paste.
The great thing about molding/structure paste is that, after it dries, you can watercolor on it.
You can also paste extra layers.
It is difficult to doodle on the layers but if you leave some areas free of paste, you can doodle there. The combination of the structured surface and doodled areas create great contrast.
You can also add decorated papers and achieve a more detailed look that way. I tore most of my papers by hand so that their soft edges remind from the softness of fabrics.
I do not usually look my paintings from the distance before they are almost finished. I feel it is unnecessary to try to balance an unfinished work. The last little details are added based on what I want to emphasize. In this work, I wanted to create a composition of several equal areas. The final step was to add the little turquoise pieces in the lower part of the work. Working as a contrast color, that made the weight of the orange equal to the other bigger areas.
Have you ever used surface structures in your art or craft? How? Which do you enjoy more: structure or color?
Let me be your mentor in art: Subscribe to my weekly emails!