Getting back in the flow

Thoughts and ideas

Hi Everyone,

I haven’t been that regular with my newsletter recently because I’ve been a bit sick. Being a mother, that means that I caught the cold after my two kids had already had it, so it just seems to be going on forever!!

It is my dream to have a consistent creative practise, but life is life and sometimes that’s just not possible. However, I do have a sort of emergency protocol for when my creative flow is derailed, so that I can get back into it as quickly as possible.

This is my protocol, more or less:

I always start from drawing. I’ve recently started drawing with coloured pencils instead of pen and ink. I have a tendency to make very tight drawings, so this is a way for me to loosen up a bit.

Keep it small and keep it simple.

The smallness is a very personal decision, I like small things a lot, so this suits me. The keeping it simple is about looking for basic shapes and simplifying the shapes, this makes it easier to make effective stamps. Also a small stamp can be repeated lots of times to make something so much bigger, so all we need is something little to start with. This is a quick way to get back in the flow and start creating.

Be playful. I personally feel I’m making my art (my drawings, my prints, whatever) for the delight of it. To be delighted: delighted in the shapes and colours, delighted in the process, delighted in nature. So it makes no sense at all to be hard on myself (that’s a definite delight killer). I know that’s easier said than done, but it’s so important. In play there is no right or wrong, there’s just the playing.