10 Ways to Practice Creativity

Watercolor sketch by Katie Turner

Making things, writing, crafting, collaging, and painting involves so much more than just the process.  There are so many things you can do to cultivate your creative thoughts beforehand that will help sustain you throughout the creative process.

Here are some ideas:

1. Challenge yourself to make something every week or every day.  Set up your workspace so you can breeze right in and start right away. 
2. New experiences are one way to stir your creativity. Try something new – take a class to learn French, or learn how to roller-skate, fly a kite, etc.  Anything that helps you to shake things up.  To see ordinary things in an unusual way gives you a unique view and stirs the imagination.
3. Bring nature into your space by collecting rocks or branches, dried flowers, pictures, etc.  Find the things in nature that inspire you and keep them around you while creating.
4. Find the “exciting” parts of your own work.  Make a copy of your own work and really zero in on the highlight.  Focusing on the parts that you really like about your work and let that be a springboard for the next work.
5. Surround yourself with books or sketchbooks that inspire you.  This is not to copy but for you to use as inspiration to begin your next piece of work.
6. Work in a series – some artists and writers participate in 30 day challenges, 365 challenges or do collaborations as a way to gain new aspects into their own art or writing.  Working like this will teach you how to reach a goal yet be flexible.
7. Make an art date with a friend.  Drawing, sewing, writing, creating together and with tea, coffee or something stronger, is a great way to spark your inspiration.  If you don’t have available friends, check out your local Urban Sketchers group or Open Figure Drawing Group or if you are snowbound or otherwise, remember zoom/Facetime is a great option.
8. Give yourself some time to play with some unusual tools.  Sometimes the freedom of play will give you new ideas or help you to release tensions and expectations.
9. Give up those projects.  There is nothing as discouraging as looking at a long list of projects that are overdue and not feeling an ounce of inspiration.  I know it can be sad but there comes a time when that project or great idea just won’t happen.  Maybe it’s time to move forward and let those old ideas fall to the back so you can free up your mental space. It’s not possible to do everything, so choose those that most excite you.
10. Go for a walk.  We’ve all heard this one before and I know the weather might not be great but you could take a short walk, a long drive in the car or visit some place that you haven’t been before.  Try to challenge yourself to a treasure hunt – for example, find all the shades of pink you saw on your walk and incorporate in your artwork or list all the pets you see on the walk and create different characters based off them for your next piece of writing.

Finally, document your journey in your sketchbook or journal.  Keep track of the things that inspire you, colors, images, words and be sure to use a combination of writing and art – it tends to play off of each other.

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Stamping in Watercolor

Jungle Birds, watercolor, Katie Turner 2024

A huge part of being an artist, for me, is experimenting.  Today I explored using some of my own carved rubber stamps with watercolor.

I am not the first to use stamps in fine art and won’t be the last.  Andy Warhol used handmade rubber stamps to create repeated patterns and symbols in his commercial work and paintings. Paul Klee combined stamping, glazing, impasto with watercolor, pen and ink for many of his works of art. 

Stamps allow me to explore repetition, pattern, texture and placement, design and the effect of positive and negative space.  Using stamps with watercolor allows me even more room to experiment with its unpredictability, texture and color mixing.  I hope you will give it a try and create some fun art using stamps.

I’ve carved a ton of stamps over the years and rubber is by far the easiest way to quickly create your own carved image.  You can carve a simple eraser to start or purchase speedball rubber supplies in any art store or online.  Carving your own design, motif, or symbol can be a lot of fun.

Here are some things to think about as you create your art:

1. Are you drawn to creating natural patterns, man-made patterns, abstract patterns, irregular, organic, structural, decorative, etc?
2. How many times do you have to repeat an image before it becomes a pattern?
3. What kinds of texture can you make using the flat image of the stamp?
4. Have you tried using unusual things for stamping imprints, such as shoes, vegetables, plants, cups, etc?
5. How does layering the stamped image change the art?

I’d love to hear from you, please share below.

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Short on Time? Make a Tiny Painting!

If time is hard to come by during this end of year rush, why not try some quick and tiny watercolor sketches?  Once you get started you’ll have a hard time stopping!  These little art pieces are such fun and there is no pressure to create a masterpiece.  These are great ways to experiment.

1. Cut out a mat board template 4”x3” to keep a consistent size.
2. Lightly draw a pencil line on your paper for the border
3. Paint whatever you like. Experiment with color, texture or composition.  Try inks, gesso or gouache as well.

It’s amazing how fast these little ones will pile up.  The best thing is when it’s a bad painting, you can just toss it, turn it over or collage with it and you haven’t wasted much time.

Have some fun with this little exercise and see how many you can get done in your spare time over the next month.  I’d love for you to share how this works for you.

The Color You Hate

Recently I finished reading an old interview of Tomie dePaola by Will Hillenbrand.  Both men are/were artists, writers and illustrators.  Tomie dePaola created more than 260 children’s books before he passed in 2020.  He described learning how to paint at Pratt, mentioning how lucky he was to have the instructors he did.  Many of them were refugees – modern artists, such as Richard Lindner – that the Nazis wanted to get rid of.  The Fascist regime wanted to get rid of all modern art and many of the artist fled to the US.  These artists ended up teaching at various schools, including Pratt, Rhode Island School of Design, Cooper Union, etc.

Pratt’s first year classes included study of the Bauhaus.  (Bauhaus was an influential art and design movement that began in Germany between 1919 through 1933)  One class called Creative Expression, Lindner had his students research a subject matter, write a paragraph of impressions, then illustrate the paragraph creating multiple observation drawings, then 15 minute line drawings to train your eye to see.  His color theory class with Josef Albers had similar exercises to train the eye in color.  Tomie dePaola explained that Bauhaus training helped him to understand the power of shapes which Pratt called “the abstract equivalent of a picture.”

Later in the interview they discussed how to encourage children who show interest in art.  Tomie dePaola mentioned giving the child their own private space to create.  When he worked with children he would give every student a new box of crayons and have them take out their favorite color.  Once they had all their favorite colors out, he would next ask them to take out the color you really hate.  Then he would have them draw with that color and by the end of the session they had fallen in love with the color they hated because they had gotten to know the color.  The children didn’t hate the color anymore and realized maybe the favorite color didn’t have all the answers either.

What a great exercise for any age artist – to select the favorite colors and the colors you hate – then work with the colors you hate to see how you can get to know the color.  It’s a fun experiment to try and see if it makes a difference in how you relate to your colors.

I’d love to hear if you try this and see the results.  Be sure to comment below.

Read more on Bauhaus here: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bauh/hd_bauh.htm

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Black and White Exercise

Here’s a fun little art exercise.  It helps train you for better design. It involves working in black and white only.  It’s a great way of noticing differences.  While doing this exercise, you will have to pay attention to what’s light, what’s dark, what’s small and what’s textured or smooth.  Of course your art will always be uniquely your own because you have created it but why not make it even more powerful with a better design?  If you can create good pieces in black and white, adding color will then make it even stronger.  Give it a try and share your results with me.  I’d love to see what you come up with.

Interesting links:

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/489060

https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/collection-areas/curatorial-studies/appearance-of-clarity

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/483878

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/482993

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Will The Real Creative Please Stand Up?

Many creatives have felt the effects of “Imposter Syndrome” at one time or another, but it affects many people, not just artists, writers or musicians.  “Imposter Syndrome” is the persistent inability to believe that your success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of your efforts or skills.  It’s where you feel like a fraud.  Unfortunately, letting these thoughts take over can increase depression, anxiety and will pull you back into less risk-taking in your career and eventually career burnout (see the link for the National Library of Medicine article below).

Some things that contribute to imposter syndrome include:

1. Feeling like you don’t belong
2. Working in an overly competitive, hostile or discriminatory environment
3. Feeling like you are not enough
4. Being predisposed to depression

After researching the subject, I realize that there are many things that institutions can do to improve the culture and environment to embrace all types of people.  That would include special training of leadership, hiring and promoting with greater diversity, holding institutions and people accountable for micro-aggressions and discriminatory dynamics. There are things each of us as individuals can do to help others feel more valued and appreciated.  There are also things individuals can do to ease imposter syndrome.

1. Recognize that you are not the only one who experiences imposter syndrome.  Knowing that there are others out there that deal with a similar struggle can really help.
2. Take a step back and look at the bigger picture.  Look at your overall goals and qualifications.  Recognizing that you have spent a lot of years in training will help you validate that you are in the appropriate role, job, or career.
3. Be careful not to isolate.  Make more friends.  Share your feelings – carefully.  It can help you to talk with others about these feelings.  Be careful to vent to trusted individuals only!  Remember, if the feelings are overwhelming, seek professional therapy.  Sometimes sharing your perceived failures will cause others to open up about their struggles.  We tend to see only successes reported on social media but there are usually many failures going on behind the scenes.
4. Pat yourself on the back.  If someone congratulates you for a job well done – own it.  It’s easy to brush off your successes but take the time to applaud yourself and feel good about it.  Try to be careful to speak positively about yourself and your work, even when it feels uncomfortable.
5. Kick the perfectionist out.  Some folks set a very high standard for themselves and deem themselves as a “failure” when they don’t reach it.  Setting reasonable goals is the key here.  When there is a failure, which will eventually happen, view it as a learning opportunity and grow from it.
6. Develop compassion for yourself.  Even when you have tried all these things and you think you have slayed the imposter syndrome dragon, it will pop up again.  Don’t beat yourself up about it but have compassion.  Remember that some things are out of your control and that your accomplishments are not tied to your value.  You are valuable just as you are.

Have you ever felt like an imposter?  Do you have a technique or tip that worked well for you?  Please share with me below.

NLM article:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7174434/

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Emerging Style

Trees, watercolor sketch by Katie Turner

Creatives get into it because they have good taste.  We’ve been inspired and want to recreate that amazing thing we saw, read or heard or dreamt up.  But your own work leaves you disappointed.  Many creatives quit at this point but you didn’t.  You still are plugging along trying to figure out what your piece is missing.  That’s great!  We all go through this and if you are still in this phase, you’ve got to know it’s normal.  The most important thing you can do right now is to do a LOT of work.

Sometimes you will find it helpful to ask a few questions along the way.  This is one way to help give yourself some direction.  Ask yourself what you like about the creative piece you just made.  Then ask yourself more questions:  What colors do you like, what shapes do you like, what form, line, texture, or values to you like?  These questions give you clues to your own personal style which no one, even AI, can duplicate.  You are an original creation yourself, so your tastes and interests will be completely unique.  Paying attention to your interests can help you identify your own style along the way.

Have you identified your unique interests? Have you found your own unique style?  Are you having fun on your creative journey?  I’d love to hear from others.  Be sure to comment below!

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Teasing Out the Unconscious

Frida Kahlo’s diary is a window into her intimate thoughts.  If you like art journals and want to peek into this artist’s journal then you should read The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait 1995 Introduction by Carlos Fuentes, Essay and commentaries by Sarah M. Lowe published by Harry N. Abrams Inc.

Kahlo’s diary is a way to see how she negotiates her relationship with herself.  She never intended for anyone to see her writings or art from these pages.  She journaled her state of mind – flamboyant, irreverent and personal within these pages and it is here she has the freedom to explore.

Page from Frida Kahlo’s diary.

She began her diary journal in the mid-1940s when she was around age 36 or 37.  It wasn’t long after her father had passed and she went through divorcing Diego Rivera (a year later remarried him).  She was plagued by inadequacy, knowing she would never bear a child she longed to have and had undergone numerous surgeries and medical treatments for her spinal problems and miscarriages.  Her health was deteriorating and through her art she processed much of the trauma.

Page from Frida Kahlo’s diary.

Almost all of the drawings in Kahlo’s journal are unplanned and spontaneous.  They were idea springboards for her paintings.  The journal is the place to explore and tease out the unconscious and elaborate on visions.  Kahlo used spilled and splattered ink spots – turning them into figures.  She played with colored pencils, ink washes, crayons, conte crayons, and gouache.  She created images and wrote love letters, lists, phrases and words.  For 10 years she kept the journal, adding to it sporadically until her death.

Page from Frida Kahlo’s diary.

Looking over Kahlo’s private journal gave me ideas how I can make use of my own artistic journal practice with poetry, lists, exploration and more. 

Page from my own art journal.

Page from my own art journal.

Do you have a journal or diary you keep? How do you make use of your journal space? I would love to hear from readers, be sure to share below.

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Page from my own art journal.

Life Drawing

I came across this wonderful book COMPLETE LIFE DRAWING COURSE by Diana Constance (2001 Quantum Publishing) in the local library and thought you should know about it. I loved the large size format and how it is loaded with pictures, examples and instructions.  It won’t take long for you to know the body’s structure and convincingly draw the shape.  It has great ideas on how to respond to the essential mood and focus on rapid drawing rather than stifling accuracy.  You are encouraged to explore materials, try working dark to light instead of the usual and visualize alternatives to enhance your drawing.  The best part is the last few chapters on recycling your huge pile of drawings with monoprinting, wax resist, papercuts and collage.  This might be just the book you were looking for!

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Great Ambition

It really doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or an expert – or any stage in between.  Your ambitions will be greater than your abilities and that’s just part of the creative process.  Pay close attention to what you like and just keep going.  You have to care deeply about your own work and be determined to enjoy the process.

I was thinking about the times I’ve frozen myself by concentrating on flaws.  I realize this happens to a lot of creatives – yes, the beginner as well as anyone who is at a point of transition or adding in a new process or approach to their work.  I suppose it’s all in the mindset.  It’s time to stop focusing on the flaws.

We do still need the critical voice but not until later.  The critical eye will be important for improvement but give yourself some play time, some creative time first.  I wonder if we invite the critic back too soon? 

Are you struggling with great ambitions right now?  Have you temporarily banished your inner critic?  I’d love if you share with me below.

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