Creativity Challenge 2019 - Week 2

Blog 2

How are you faring in the new year? Last week, it was easy to be creative due to the fact that I was still on vacation. This week, however, it got harder because my German courses started again, and I had less time to my disposal. I also worked hard to finish my new website. I have to admit that I did not leave any time for art on Monday; I was so focused on my website that I completely lost track of time. I just wanted to upload all the new content and when I finally stopped, I was exhausted, and it was long past my bedtime. I was frustrated with myself but during the next days I spent some extra time on my creative projects. There will always be events that will disturb your planned day. It is up to you whether you will make the time to take care of yourself and set your priorities. Here are some suggestions to carve out some minutes to be creative:

• Have a paper pad next to your phone and start doodling while you are on the phone. Later, you can take some coloured pencils and markers to colour some of the shapes.
• If you watch TV, use a pencil or black marker and doodle a while without looking onto the paper. Take a coloured pencil or marker to bring some out of the shapes later.
• Leave a sketch pad in a convenient location and start sketching simple things that you find in your home such as utensils, cups, fruits, and vegetables.
• Put a sketch pad into your purse and start sketching whenever you wait for someone. It does not have to be realistic and can simply be a sketch of pleasing shapes or a naive image of your surroundings. For example, in our dentist’s waiting room there is a big fish tank that has inspired me to sketches many times.
• Start a collage with things you find in your house such single buttons to pages from old cards and magazines.

Do you have any suggestions you would like to share? What helps you to get your creative juices flowing?

Here are my creative projects of the past week:

Day 4: I did not have much time but continued felting my cardinal by adding black in the front of the head.

 

Day 5: I spent three hours perfecting my vision board and also created a quick doodle of an upwards arrow to show where things in my life will be going this year. I blurred the photo of my vision board as it is very personal and I do not want to share it openly.

Day 6: Even though it was almost totally dark during the performance of the musical “Beautiful” at the National Arts Centre, I managed to make some quick sketches.

Day 7: -

Day 8: It was time to continue my cardinal. I spent 1.5 hours on the feet, and the body.

Day 9: I spend a fun morning with my friends Janis and Hélène creating a still life of a flower and a napkin on a plate. Janis felt like drawing, Helene used watercolours, and I created the 8” x 10” acrylic painting “Yellow Flower Served on a Platter”.

Day 10: It was another busy day. I only had time to sketch the image for tomorrow’s August Macke workshop.

I would love to see or hear what you have been working on. It does not have to be a new project every day. You could also decide to work steadily on a single project and might not be able to show a progress every day, as some projects are very time-consuming. Remember, the main purpose is to have fun. As I would like to show you a picture for every day of my Creativity Challenge, I still have to remind me of this purpose, as I get sometimes so absorbed in a piece; I would like to continue working on it but feel that I should be able to have something to show for my blog. See you back next week.