Tag: creativity

Project – Stained Glass Sea Creatures

Project – Stained Glass Sea Creatures

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This is the last project in the stained glass series from 2023. This one definitely gave me a run for my money. So many challenges with colour etc.

I did set this project up to be a challenge though, so I am glad that it rose the occasion. I wanted to show a watery, flowing scene, while using an imitation of a very rigid style. Stained glass water creatures were going to challenge me no matter what.

In the end we made it through and here we are… the Sea Creatures.

Read more: Project – Stained Glass Sea Creatures

To read more about the process and challenges, see my Behance page here.

Project – More colouring bookmarks…

Project – More colouring bookmarks…

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Today we have the final set of designs for my market being revealed!

Here we have 3 new “colour-your-own” bookmarks ready for you to take home. All three of these designs were inspired by follower and user suggestions and things that mean a lot to me.

Read a little more on that inspiration here.

All of these bookmarks can be purchased here.

Creativity – Go With What Feels Creatively Strong

Creativity – Go With What Feels Creatively Strong

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Don’t force your creativity. What is inspiring you right now? Go with what you want to do rather than what you “should” do when you can. The end!

OK, ok, I’ll give us a little more.

In my day to day I like to have a schedule so that I can get a little bit of everything fit into a day. Work, home, studio, dinner, knit, read. BUT this doesn’t always come across in a productive way. Some days I really want to be knitting, and most I want to only draw all the things. You see where I am going with this.

I know that if I have a set time, let’s say an hour, where I am going to sit and read, but I don’t feel like reading… then that will be a waste of time. Or if right after work I want to be in the studio, but the creative juices aren’t flowing, how productive will that stare at the wall be?

One thing that I do know about myself is that I am happiest with a variety of options on hand. That way, there should always be something to do. If I don’t want to knit, there’s a sketchbook and reading book on hand. None of those fit? Maybe some social media updates or dishes to do (just kidding, I almost never pick dishes over a hobby – that’s a cry for help if you see it happen lol).

Even in my day job I think I have a pretty good balance. I can illustrate, or do some testing, if those don’t work I can organize files or clear out the inbox. If I was always doing one thing all day with no options for variety that would be rough.

Having this variety allows me to go with what feels creatively strong to me in any moment. I am going to draw a lot more, and with more confidence if I have an idea I am excited about.
This happened at work for me recently. I was tasked with coming up with a topic for a lunch seminar this month. I had a list of some things, but they all felt generic or buzz word-y. They were topics that hold a personal interest to me, but ones that felt a little played out lately (burnout, work-life balance, etc). I knew I could come with good content, but I wasn’t exactly feeling on fire about the whole thing.
Then I thought of how I could bring my own personal skills to my topic. I thought of all the things I do with a pen/pencil and paper in a day/week to help take care of me. As soon as that came to mind I felt like I wanted to work on the presentation, I had a dozen different ideas of how I could present the concept, all because the content was exciting to me.

Now, we don’t want to let things go too far the other way either. Don’t force it but don’t wait too long either. Keep a skill/idea/activity on the surface so it’s still in your mind to get it done. If you leave something too long, you will run into more frustration when your skills aren’t up to your usual standards because they have been idle for so long. Then you might not get back to it at all.

Try to listen to what excites you and when. Personally, I find my “get up and go” for personal projects is 2:00 in the afternoon. I get all my good ideas for my arts just after my morning coffee (if it uses its powers for good that day). Are you too tired to paint a masterpiece? Maybe fuel the creative juices and turn on some music. Are you excited to get an idea down on paper? Why force yourself to do some other creative thing first?

So what is feeling strong creatively to you right now? Do you have a minute to explore it? Let’s go!

*Disclaimer. I am in no way suggesting that you sacrifice work, relationships or basic adulting in favour of this method. Please feed yourself and do your job. Don’t get fired because of me, I hold no responsibility. The message above is meant to encourage productivity and excitement in your personal time.

Creativity – Defining a Good Idea

Creativity – Defining a Good Idea

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I have attended quite a few different talks done by the wonderful Lauren Hom. In one of these talks she broke down what she thought defined a good idea.

This is a place where I think a lot of people can get stuck, whether we are talking creativity or not. I know I have had a lot of ideas come to mind, I ponder them and toss them, because I fall into the “No one will like that” categories and don’t pursue the idea.

I am also back and forth on having too many rules on things, especially when it comes to the creativity we all have. But I do think that a few guidelines do tend to help me, especially when I am a little unsure about what I have in front of me.

Here is what Lauren had to say for her guidelines:

EASE – Does it feel easy?
ENERGY – What is my capacity to make this now?
EXCITEMENT – Does it excite me?
ENGAGEMENT – Have people asked me about topics related to it before? (something that comes up in conversation regularly)
EXPERTISE – Do I have tangible proof of expertise related to my idea? (ex. I love movies, and research all I can on them, so I have movie knowledge in my back pocket that I can apply to a project)

These guidelines can always be used for brainstorming or getting out of a creative slump too. I always make sure to write down when someone says “I need a shirt that says that”, or make note of what really pulls the creative heart strings, anything that excites me etc.

If you use that “good idea” then maybe you can turn it into a great portfolio piece or series for you to use.

There are SO many different ways that you can define a good idea. I just loved what Lauren included here as her collection of basic criteria. I found it accessible, adaptable and relatable.

What are your good idea guidelines? Which ones are you working through right now?

First Live of 2023!

First Live of 2023!

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Happy New Year lovely readers!

We were back to the live streams this week, now on Tuesdays. We had a really great session to get the year started. I was working in Fresco again, but this time revisiting a style I haven’t worked in in a while, zentangle!

I did the sketch of a hairy coo ahead of time and so I could get started right away on the vector outlines once were signed on. I didn’t want to miss a chance to get started on the zentangle part of the illustration. I was able to complete a single section before we were done. Once I “stepped back” to see the whole picture I noticed that the detail I was drawing was pretty small and might not transfer as nicely if I did the whole illustration that way.

Before the next session I am going to do a few different tests with different line weights and designs to see how I can continue with what we have so far and come out with a pattern with a little more variety, coming out to more of the effect I was hoping for.

Next week I am going to continue working on this piece, so come and join in. I go live every Tuesday at 7PM EST on Facebook, Instagram and Behance. Bring your questions, your feedback and what you’re working on right now.

To catch up on this week’s stream, check out the video here.

Project – Inktober Masks

Project – Inktober Masks

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I’m back! I took a bit of a break here in October because there was so much going on. Thanks so much for your patience through that time.

One of the things that was going on was Inktober. This was my third year playing the game and I had a lot of fun again. I fell into a bit of a theme at the start, and it really helped to bring everything together.

Putting each of the words into this theme was sometimes great, it helped the idea along, or it was a challenge, “how does one make an ego mask?”

Here’s a few of the projects that I did for this year’s theme. To see all of them, head on over to my Instagram page. Most of the posts have some Timelapse videos for them too.

Creativity – Our Creative Voice

Creativity – Our Creative Voice

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I am going to circle back a little bit here to how all of this Creativity writing started. It comes down to the fact that we are all creative. Each and every one of us. We all start out colouring, playing dress up, pretending, and coming up with new games to play. Some of us feed that in certain ways, and others don’t, but that doesn’t mean it goes away. Everyone. Is. Creative.

Alice Lee said at MAX last year that,


“Your creative voice is like a six pack. We all have one, with the right workout you can bring it to the surface.”

It all comes with a little practice, in whatever way suits you best. The doctor practices new ways to treat their patients. The engineer practices different ways to build a stronger product. The designer comes up with a new approach on how to show their work. The parent comes up with a new way to tackle the school lunch challenge, or get the drop off schedule to work. The “non-creative” comes up with new and unique ways for how “uncreative” they are lol.

All of those things above come with practice too. No one got to where they are by accident. No one just knows how to do these things. These skills are fed and nurtured to get that person where they are today. So give yourself some credit, you’ve worked really hard to get to where you are at right now.

We all have our own way to approach creativity, and we all have that voice. Compliment yourself, say it with me, “I am creative!”.

Creativity – Try!

Creativity – Try!

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I’ve talked about it a lot here, how people, myself included, will not start something because they are stumped somehow. They don’t know the style, the process, the tool, so they will just wait for that to happen before they get started. Here’s another idea… give it a try!

I saw a video years ago, so I forget the name of the person being interviewed for a proper credit (sorry), where a woman said that at the dinner table at night, her father, rather than ask “what did you do today?”, would ask “what did you fail at today?”. Not in a “how did you mess things up today?” way, but a “what did you try today?” way. If you didn’t fail at something, then you weren’t trying anything, or at least weren’t trying anything that is a bit more of a challenge for you.

When trying something new, or starting a big project, it won’t go smooth right away. To be honest, if it does, it isn’t challenging you and you may be getting less out of it than you think. If you don’t fail, you aren’t learning. If you don’t try something new, you aren’t growing.

“Trying is more than others are doing.”

Jose Andres (chef)

Artistic people didn’t get where they are on natural born talent, they tried things, failed A LOT, learned, and tried again. Over and over and over, and are still doing it today. What can it hurt? At very least you are going to learn how to do it differently next time. But you will never know that if you don’t try.

What did you fail at recently?

Creativity – Trust Your Intuition

Creativity – Trust Your Intuition

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Lately I have struggled a little with the idea that I might not have a consistent style across all of my work. It has come to the point some days where I won’t work on a piece because I don’t think that the final result will match what I have created lately. As soon as I realized that I knew something had to change.

Surrender to who you are and accept it. I am who I am, that’s why I draw this way. Trust your intuition, and do your own thing.

Yuko Shimizu

This quote from Yuko Shimizu really helped me. Just let the art happen. Your art is your own no matter what it looks like. Let the work do its things and the style will come through naturally. I also find that trying new things can really evolve your style and make it better. Holding yourself back will only create limitations.

If you’re true to yourself and the work that you do, and you don’t fight it, it will all work out. When I was updating some portfolio information a couple of weeks ago I saw that pieces that I originally thought of as completely different, had a lot of similarities in them. They each had their own energies and their own elements, but there were some subtleties that really made them look like my art.

As with most of my activities, I find that the more natural you let things flow, the more amazing the final result. The more you fight it the harder you struggle. Just surrender to it, and it will all work out.