Creativity manifests in as many different forms as there are people on the earth. But often we don’t recognise when we are being creative. Cooking, gardening, decorating our house, building a delicate house of cards, making a cushion-fort with our kids, restoring a motorbike are all exercising our creative brain.
In spite of the fact that we exercise our creativity constantly throughout our daily life many of us long to create art but are not sure where to start.
Here are three simple art projects to get your creative juices flowing.
1. Draw In The Dark
If you’re struggling to create art it could be because you are stressed about the quality of your work. Often we generate huge amounts of stress about making art before we even begin by getting caught up in judgement and self criticism. It can become such a huge wall that blocks our creative expression that we come to believe it to be a necessary part of the creative process.
To overcome this obstacle, try drawing in total darkness and free yourself from that critical judge inside your head. Suddenly you’ll find you’re freed up to create everything you imagine in your mind’s eye simply because the power of the critic has been shut down.
You’ll probably be quite surprised by what you have created when you turn the lights back on again.
2. Create Your Own Unique Art Tool
Part of what holds us back from starting to paint or draw is our expectations and beliefs about what makes something good art or not. This is rooted in our need to stay in control so we don’t make mistakes.
One way to break that need for control is to create personal painting tools that don’t fall within the boundaries of what constitutes normal equipment. Crafting an alternative ‘paintbrush’ or paint-tool is a great way to free yourself.
You can make your paint-tool out of almost anything you can lay hands on whether that is a bundle of toothpicks taped together, a pom-pom made from yarn, an old fork, a hair scrunchie or anything else at all. When they are dipped in paint and applied to the surface they open the way for you to relinquish some of your artistic control to your medium, as you create a distinct work in your own unique style.
3. Create a Colour Mood Collage
If you are having trouble deciding what to paint or draw, depicting your current mood is an easier way to get started.
Colour affects our mood, and often the colour we feel at any time can reflect our state of mind at that time. Sometimes investigating the colour we are experiencing or feeling drawn to can be extremely helpful. Working with your current emotional state can identify why you are feeling like this at this moment and help you to move through it faster.
Take a few moments to centre yourself and feel into how you feel at the moment.
Start with noticing any sensations you may feel in your body. Try to identify words, shapes, thoughts and colours that resonate with the sensation you notice. For example, the sensation you identify may hold thoughts of hot temper or heightened energy or identify with the colour red. Or it may feel lonely or sad, or as if you had a chill in that part of your body, or else really calm and peaceful. Blue would be the colour identified here.
Now comes the fun part where you create your Mood Collage. Cut and paste images that fit with the emotion or colour you identify and arrange them to create your artwork. You can create this online, but doing it the old-fashioned way with a pair of scissors, some old magazines and a sheet of paper engages all levels of mind – subconscious, conscious and superconscious, to help you work through and release any emotions you may be holding.
