Discover Your Creativity [Part 2]: Perceived Plenty
Mon, August 8, 2011 at 04:22PM 
Teach Yourself to be Creative, Idea #2: Perceived Plenty
In Discover Your Creativity [Part 1] we talked about carrying a camera as an incentive to look for things to inspire. Your creativity is inside you. Maybe it's been years since you painted freely, without any rules or constraints, even self-imposed. If you have ever come up with an interesting way to solve a problem, changed the way you do something, found a way to distract a two-year-old without tears, you are creative.
Being creative is like riding a bicycle - it doesn't take long to remember how to ride.
One thing many of us learned from the index-card-a-day project is that when we perceive our supplies to be plentiful, we are more open to trying new things and taking artistic risks. Check out the flickr group to see the art created in the past two months.
So here's the plan. Gather inexpensive art materials that you perceive to be plentiful. If you have a lot of something, even if it wasn't cheap, you might perceive that it is plentiful. If I have 24 china dishes and I drop one, it will upset me less than if I had just 4.
What art materials do you have a bunch of? What could you repurpose?
Here are some combinations of art supplies that you can set up and start experimenting. I added a little cost info to drill the point home. These are not expensive, and some you already have.
- Doodle. Index cards and magic markers.
- Make art journal backgrounds. Craft acrylics ($1/bottle), an old toothbrush, plastic gift card and a composition journal ($1).
- Draw a grid of squares with cross-hatched lines in each box (drawing practice). Copy paper (used in laser printers/copy machines) and ball-point pen.
- Carve eraser stamps and stamp an art journal background or a birthday card. Erasers (2/$1), sharp knife, stamping ink ($3).
- Sew an embroidery stitch sampler. Embroidery hoop, 1/2 yard white cotton fabric, 5 colors of embroidery floss, needle ($12 total).
- Weave paper artist trading cards. Scrapbook paper, scissors, tape.
Experimenting leads to ideas. Ideas launch a spark in your mind. The spark leads to a new idea, or builds on the first idea. And finally, new ideas for creating art.
Please let others know how this worked for you and what supplies you felt were plentiful.
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Reader Comments (4)
Good point! It's hard to let loose with creativity (especially if you're feeling a little rusty) on thick watercolor paper that cost $7 a piece! A composition book from the dollar store--now, that's asking for some creative experimentation! I'll buy the cheap stuff--like the inexpensive erasers for carving stamps--and then they'll sit on my desk for MONTHS. Then I think, what on earth are you waiting for? If you mess them up, you either get more to try again or try something else. I am definitely guilty of making things too big of a deal! It can really lead to some heavy-duty procrastination.
I've always preferred using inexpensive materials in my creative endeavors - it frees you up. I have loads of fancy scrap paper that I bought on sale at Michael's, so I immediately got busy weaving myself an index card-sized mat. I also have a couple of those erasers waiting to made into stamps.
love this! so true, tammy - materials are everywhere. and art and inspiration are, too!
tammy, i love your index card challenge -- i'm going to stock up today when i go to target for school supplies!