Increase Your Creativity
People often say to me that they have very little creativity. They describe how difficult it is for them to let go when crafting or making art. I assume that everybody have blocks in their creativity. I struggle with them too. But here’s how I managed to get rid of many obstacles and enjoy creating.
First, speed up! Create faster. You will get into uncomfortable, unbalanced state where the voices in your head say: “Slow down! You need to think first! Don’t do that! NO!” And then it’s easy, you just do the exact opposite: increase your speed, stop thinking what color you choose, implement all the wildest ideas (like mess up the areas which begin to look ok). Replace your NO with YES! You can do anything!
Stop drawing lines that do not intersect! Put the elements on the top of each other. Get rid of the clear shapes. If you work fast enough you will stop comparing your work with others. You will have your unique thing going on. The truth is that somewhere under the surface is your own style, your own creativity, your own spirit.
Just a while ago I read an article about visual culture now and after 25 years. An expert was interviewed. He said that it will be proven that all the images are equal. It hit me: even if there are great masters in art, great talents, in the end all the images are equal in the general perspective. And even more important: in the personal perspective the most important images are created by ourselves. Only our creative mind can reveal all the wonderful things that are hidden behind the no’s and dont’s.
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Art Journaling Doilies
I haven’t ever been brilliant with watercolors but I have grown to like them very much. Recently I have used them more and more in art journaling. On this page I have used just watercolors, color pencils and markers.
This page tells a story and that’s something I want to increase too: add more text and content to my pages. Here I write about how as a small child I wanted to learn how to crochet. I thought it is a part of good parenting to teach the child to crochet as young as possible! As soon as I learned it I was crocheting like crazy: doll clothes, doilies, clothes, valence curtains … I was the crocheting queen until I started dating and my boyfriend took me to see his family’s summer cottage.
All the textiles in that log cabin were crocheted! Full-sized curtains, bed covers, cushions, table cloths, you name it! His grandmother had done all that. I was speachless. When I met her she told me that a doctor had told her not to crochet anymore as her hands hurt. But as she wanted to do something she had started to learn printing fabric.
The relationship with the boy did not last and the grandmother must have been passed away already but now I know that you do not need to hold the hook to crochet. You can use your pen!
Subconscious Art
I made this handdrawn collage yesterday when making background papers with my crafting friends. I started with black paper and added some gesso in the background for lighter areas.
I call it subconscious art when I sit with pens and paper and do not think too much of what I am doing. This time it was spring flowers, coming easter and celebrating the spring that has finally entered Finland.
I think I was already seeing these tulip sprouts blooming. We planted about 80 tulips in the autumn and I am so looking forward seeing them all in bloom!
Creating Wood by Doodling Layers
My husband is into woodworking, and he often shows me stuff that inspires me too. Like this box! After seeing it, I wanted to work with papers like they were wood. Carve with my pen and all!
Here’s my little piece of wood, only on paper!
Doodling on a Transparency
First, I only had an idea of how wood is constructed. It has lots of layers. I made the bottom layer with inks and chose deep orange shades. Then I took one of my illustrations, converted it black and white with a computer and printed it to a transparent film. It was pretty full of everything – as my work usually is – even in black and white, but of course it was not quite enough. I added some more doodling on it with a black marker. It already began to look like wood when setting the transparency over the orange background.
Doodling on a Print
I was not finished, though. The two layers were then scanned and manipulated digitally to make the black look like it’s gone deeper into the orange layer. The result was printed on paper. I added “the carving” using a white gel pen. Then back to the computer! I cut the piece in Photoshop and added the original scan as a background. Some fine tuning and there it was!
Doodling Layers – Creating Your Own Visual World
An American artist Georgia O’Keeffe said: “To create one’s own world, in any of the arts, takes courage.” I do not know about courage, but it surely is the best art can give to me: to create my own world. By process-oriented approach like by doodling layers, it’s both easy and fun!
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