Frustrated. Angry. Feeling like I am never going to draw again. Empty of inspiration and drawing like a person who has never held a pencil...yup, that was me on The Gluten Challenge.
It is not merely hard, it is often impossible to be creative when: a) you feel ill and have little energy, and b) you are stuck in the house/bed, away from other people/exhibitions and the great outdoors - all good sources of creative mojo.
I felt hungry for new ways to be creative so decided to repeat a project I and my then partner did to keep the creative juices flowing during the Summer vacation from college.
The original idea was to make a piece of Art every ( well, ok, MOST ) days. The bar for good quality was set very low and we both found it freed us up to play with new materials, and ideas, and not get stressed about the results. Nowadays,I have bigger obstacles than my ego...so could it work now?
This June I hacked up some pages from my large sketchbook into postcard size (as small as possible beats large every time when you are lying down), and placed a stack handily near my felt tips, and promised myself to do one a day ( again..MOST days is good enough), and not to stress about the results.
The only other rule was to display them on my noticeboard and not to throw any away ( thereby respecting that my voice may be badly drawn or ugly at times, but actually that IS a big part of who I am a lot of the time, hey,I'm in pain, so cut me some slack viz being a grumpy heffer).
It was very hard to begin with, and my inner critic was working overtime:
" THAT'S not very good!"
"What a piece of ****!"
"You're not very good are you?!"
You get the general idea: that witch is not my friend!
Results were mixed, some days I enjoyed the discipline of the project, on other days the darkness of my images made me not want to display them. One day I was pig-sick of life and I just glued on my empty Tramadol packet! Other days I played around with a mix of materials and ended up doing 2 postcards, or drawing in my sketchbook.
The tiny pieces that you create join together as a sort of visual diary,and you have a string linking all the days- the good and the bad. Give it a go!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING TH E CHRONIC ELEPHANT
Please SHARE on your favourite Social Media
It is not merely hard, it is often impossible to be creative when: a) you feel ill and have little energy, and b) you are stuck in the house/bed, away from other people/exhibitions and the great outdoors - all good sources of creative mojo.
I felt hungry for new ways to be creative so decided to repeat a project I and my then partner did to keep the creative juices flowing during the Summer vacation from college.
The original idea was to make a piece of Art every ( well, ok, MOST ) days. The bar for good quality was set very low and we both found it freed us up to play with new materials, and ideas, and not get stressed about the results. Nowadays,I have bigger obstacles than my ego...so could it work now?
This June I hacked up some pages from my large sketchbook into postcard size (as small as possible beats large every time when you are lying down), and placed a stack handily near my felt tips, and promised myself to do one a day ( again..MOST days is good enough), and not to stress about the results.
The only other rule was to display them on my noticeboard and not to throw any away ( thereby respecting that my voice may be badly drawn or ugly at times, but actually that IS a big part of who I am a lot of the time, hey,I'm in pain, so cut me some slack viz being a grumpy heffer).
It was very hard to begin with, and my inner critic was working overtime:
" THAT'S not very good!"
"What a piece of ****!"
"You're not very good are you?!"
You get the general idea: that witch is not my friend!
Results were mixed, some days I enjoyed the discipline of the project, on other days the darkness of my images made me not want to display them. One day I was pig-sick of life and I just glued on my empty Tramadol packet! Other days I played around with a mix of materials and ended up doing 2 postcards, or drawing in my sketchbook.
- Little and often means nothing is too large and overwhelming to do.
- If a postcard is too big you could halve the size, or do postage stamp size.
- Use cheap paper rather than expensive- remember- you are just playing.
- You could also use a notebook.
- If colouring uses too much brain power, colour with 2 or 3 colours only.
- Use a pen rather than a pencil which needs to be sharpened...or write a word a day.
- You could collage something from a magazine, a photo or something you made previously.
- Don't be shy about using anything that gives you JOY. Play around with pasta shapes, glitter, ribbon, elastic bands, paper clips...and see what happens.
The tiny pieces that you create join together as a sort of visual diary,and you have a string linking all the days- the good and the bad. Give it a go!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING TH E CHRONIC ELEPHANT
Please SHARE on your favourite Social Media
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