In this episode, I’ll talk about how to find your creative fix. I’m also going to give you a creative prompt, something you can do easily and in a short amount of time, to get some creative play into your day.

A small caution might be in order. If you’re sensitive to language, I must warn you that the occasional swear word might slip through the cracks when I edit. That might happen if I’m talking about something I’m particularly passionate about.

Show Notes

What am I working on?

• I’m working on 3 new watercolour symbol paintings, I did the backgrounds for all three yesterday and you can see the photo on Instagram.
• I’m doing the SEO on my blog posts because I switched plugins and there’s no import/export. This is taking a long time, mostly because I have 1800 posts, and it’s boring so I only do a little each time I do it.
• I’m working on some tutorials (videos), and I’d love to hear which ones do you’d like me to make. So far I’ve heard mixed media, but I bet there are others. Suggest any kind of art or craft you want. You can leave a comment below the show notes, or send me an email or pm.
• I’m starting another local landscape painting of mountains. I’m going to make it in watercolour this time. I found it was way too easy to get caught up in the details with acrylics. If I use watercolour, I can’t correct as much, and finish faster.
• I’m preparing new material for the October Creativity Challenge. You can give me suggestions here too. I always include a couple of new projects every time I run the challenge.
• I’m making plans to use the lathe to make a croquet set, some amulets, and a couple of other things. I have some apple wood I’d love to try and use.
• I’ll be starting to plan to make some of my daughter’s birthday gifts for her birthday on the 23rd of October. I just have to tease out of her what she wants first. She always gets at least one handmade thing from me in addition to the other gifts.

How to find your creative fix

As you’ve probably noticed, I keep myself busy. That, combined with other people’s demands on my time and my health, sometimes creates the need for a quick creative fix, some creative first aid. Especially when I lack both the time and the energy to work on a bigger project. Since I imagine you might need it to, I’ll tell you what I do.

I always have several projects in the works, both large and small, and on those days I pick one of the smaller ones or start a new quick one. One that is quick, easy for me to do, and doesn’t require a lot of preparation or stages.

What I do is one of the following quick and easy things:

• Snap some photos of something I like to look at
• Manipulate one of my photos to make some digital art
• Make a quick watercolour experiment to use as the background for one of my symbol paintings
• Make a quick drawing of a bird or animal
• Write a blog post or another short piece I can use

Sometimes I do a smaller version of the creative project I had intended to do on that day.

Over to you

Finding your creative fix is easy when you know what you love to do. You just pick a small project from your list of favorite things to do. If you don’t really know what you love to do, then write up a list of things you’d like to try, so you can have it handy when you need it. Make sure to pick something you can do without too much preparation.

It’s a good idea to keep a couple of smaller things for days like those, or a list of possible things to do.

I’m considering starting a list of ideas for creative fixes on the website, in case you need some to choose from. Is that something you’d find useful?

Today’s inspirational words are by Frida Kahlo, and she said “The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration”.

That’s it for me for today. Thanks for listening to the Creative Explorer Podcast. The next episode will, among other things, be about How to prevent life from smothering your creativity. If you have any questions, just reach out to me at linda@lindaursin.net Remember to rate and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

Links

Creative Explorers group
October Creativity Challenge
My creative Instagram