Have trouble being creative and productive? I'm pretty sure that at least one of my valued readers has a good handle on that, but for the rest of you...
One thing I've found works for me is using a timer. If you have an egg timer or something like that, that's cool. If not, there are online resources. I use Online Timer, but there are a bunch of options.
Time constraints reduce stress, paradoxically enough. Having an hour or two to do something general and amorphous can be a crushing amount of pressure. Giving yourself fifteen minutes to do something very specific gives you some comfortable grounding.
Neat thing: I'll run out of time and then reset for another period of about fifteen minutes. Then after that I might have so much momentum that I don't need the timer. But it helped get me started.
3 comments:
I can see how that would work pretty well depending on what you were trying to accomplish. Forcing yourself to focus in limited time amounts almost necessitates building a coherent structure of thoughts.
Getting started can definitely be a problem. The most daunting task for me was looking at a pristine piece of paper and trying to decide what marks to make. Of course that all gets forgotten when you have to produce something quickly. When I set myself the task of writing a story with four illustrations every week (adventure's ink) it was amazing just how relaxing the process became. Some of the drawings turned out even better than I'd imagined they would.
btw: You might enjoy this - sent this evening by Geraldine.
Another thing is that perfectionism is fine for getting end results, but in the beginning stages what you really need is something. Once you have something you can work on getting something better. Time constraints get you moving on that something, and can even be kind of helpful for revisions.
Blank page anxiety is pretty common. Some artists just make a random mark in the middle of the canvas and see what they can shape around it. Although you work mostly in pencil/pen and watercolor, so it's different that way. The important thing is to find a method that works for you.
That was certainly something I hadn't seen before. Probably the hardest thing to fathom is how long the geese just sit still. They know they can fly, right?
I looked it up :)
Flight: Due to their large size and upright posture, domestic geese can't really fly, although when alarmed - and with a good tail wind, they can get off the ground several feet and can remain in the air for up to a quarter a mile - particularly when moving downhill.
hahaha - However, Canada Geese can fly and I often wish they'd use that ability to go somewhere else (they leave great piles of poop all over the park).
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