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Overview
• 110+ activities that inspire creativity
• Artists of all skill levels and mediums can tap into their creativity through exciting techniques and exercises
• Inspirational tips and advice for taking creative risks to make more meaningful artistic statements
• Inspiring art from 100 contributing fine artists and crafters in every medium coaching readers to creative success
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781440353949 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 12/18/2018 |
| Edition description: | Reprint |
| Pages: | 176 |
| Sales rank: | 671,257 |
| Product dimensions: | 8.50(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.50(d) |
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
CREATIVITY: A Joyride
You probably take for granted the many creative things you do every day. Planning a party, organizing a business event, designing a newsletter, decorating a room, even choosing the clothes you wear are all endeavors that reward you with feelings of accomplishment. When you feel really good about something you've done, it's because you've done it creatively. You have always been creative. The creative process is universal, regardless of product or result. Expanding your creativity in any area will improve your creative thinking in all.
Thinking you have no talent can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. "Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they're yours," says author Richard Bach in Illusions. So true! A positive attitude accelerates your development as a creative person. Believe in yourself. Release and regulate the flow of your inborn creative energy to reach your artistic potential.
You Can Get There From Here
Creative adventure is both exhilarating and demanding. Creativity doesn't just happen — you make it happen. Changing daily routines is one way to access creativity. When was the last time you used a new ingredient in an old recipe? Walked through a nearby garden? Sketched at a park? Designed a quilt? Ate dinner by candlelight? Get started by taking a class, reading a book or visiting a craft workshop or artist's studio. Pace your creative growth by taking a few short steps, then a big creative leap.
Creativity also requires flexibility and a willingness to change. It takes courage and positive thinking. Make up your mind to go for it. Choose to give your creative art priority over other things. You can do it. You can do collage or weaving or woodcarving, or paint with watercolor and pastels. You can learn drawing and design. You can become a master gardener. You owe it to yourself to make your creative development a top priority.
STEERING YOUR CREATIVE GROWTH
Here's what you need to do to spark your creative fire:
Emphasize the joy of creating, rather than the achievement of results. Artist/teacher Robert Henri said, "What we need is more sense of the wonder of life and less of the business of making a picture."
Develop your skills. Skills build confidence, so work to improve your drawing or refine your painting or craft techniques. As Edgar Whitney said, "The discipline endured is the mastery achieved." You will improve with practice. While you're working, notice the good things you've done. Don't dwell on your mistakes. Set achievable goals: a confident line, effective use of values, interesting shapes, exciting texture.
Expand your horizons. Gather knowledge to help you get started and to break creative blocks. Visit galleries, museums, art and craft fairs and hobby shows. Read books and magazines. Take workshops. Use your senses. Experience stimulates your memory and imagination.
Trust your intuition. Pay attention to the inner voice that tells you when something feels right. Much of your creative problem-solving occurs at an unconscious level. If you persist in ignoring your intuition, you may find yourself stuck in a permanent holding pattern instead of taking the risks that lead to creative growth.
Make creative thinking a part of your daily life. Ask questions. Vary routines. Do the unexpected. Creativity becomes more accessible when you learn to act more impulsively in your everyday life. Change starts your creative juices flowing and makes you more observant of what's going on around you.
Smash creative blocks. Change the problem or sneak up on it from a different direction. Try something fresh — a new way with an old theme, a different point of view, an unusual tool.
Give Yourself License to Create
Children don't need permission to be creative, but sometimes adults feel creative behavior isn't dignified or acceptable for them. "Act your age" puts a damper on any attempt to loosen up and have some creative fun. Put that out of your mind right now and place your feet firmly on a creative path. Age has nothing to do with it. One of my most successful students began painting at age 72. She was still painting nearly every day and selling most of her paintings when she died at 94. It's never too late to create.
BECOME LIKE A CHILD AGAIN
Children quickly notice anything new and unusual; they explore it, then rush off to another adventure. Children have few doubts about themselves as inventors, storytellers and image-makers. To a small child anything seems possible. Do you remember the creative things you did when you were small? You made a clubhouse out of a box, cut paper dolls from cardboard, invented games and stories. The world was your playground. And it still is.
To tap into that natural creative spirit, recapture your childlike enthusiasm for everything around you. Work with the reckless delight of a child. Researchers note that the childlike and playful attitude of many creative people is accompanied by an amazing flow of enthusiasm and energy.
THE CREATIVE ADULT
As an adult, you have many personal resources to draw upon in addition to a child's playful attitude. Your hopes and dreams, as well as your perceptions of the world around you, come through in your work and make it unique. Creative expression is not just a means of getting attention, although some have approached art that way. Think of art as a way of connecting, of sharing your insights with others.
Activity
Rediscover Yourself With Collage
On illustration or poster board, start an autobiographical collage. Include memories of yourself as a child, your perception of yourself now, and your hopes for the future. Include things you like and things you hate. Adhere photos and magazine pictures with white glue or acrylic soft gel. Draw or paint on your collage, and include real objects if they're not too big. Use crayons, colored pencils, watercolors, ink — whatever you like. There is no right or wrong way to place the pieces. When you fill up one sheet, begin another. Use your collages as reference files for creative imagery.
Activity
Revisit the Kid Inside
Recover some of the creative energy you enjoyed when you were young. Work and play with the delight of a child. Call up the youngster inside you by using materials you've long since abandoned — crayons, finger paints, chalk, construction paper — or by drawing while lying on the floor. Go ahead; it'll feel good to act like a kid again! Draw with markers or crayons, using your non-dominant hand. Draw a cartoon showing what you want to be when you grow up.
Creativity Can Be Learned
At one time the consensus was that creativity is an inborn characteristic of a few lucky people. If you weren't born with it, forget it. In the twentieth century, theories of creativity recognized the creative potential of every human being. What's more, they asserted that you can increase your level of creativity with a little effort.
THE FIVE LEVELS OF CREATIVITY
I.A. Taylor defined five levels of creativity in "The Nature of Creative Process." (P. Smith, ed. Creativity. New York: Hastings House, 1959.) With motivation, anyone can attain the first four levels of creativity.
1 The first level incorporates the primitive and intuitive expression found in children and in adults who have not been trained in art. There is an innocent quality to primitive art, but also directness and sensitivity. The naive artist creates for the joy of it.
2 The second level of creativity is the academic and technical level. At this level the artist learns skills and techniques, developing a proficiency that allows creative expression in myriad ways. The academic artist adds power to expression through mastery of craft.
3 Heralding the level of invention, many artists experiment with their craft and explore different ways of using familiar tools and media. Breaking rules is the order of the day, challenging the boundaries of academic tradition and becoming increasingly adventurous and experimental. Inventors use academic tradition and skills as a stepping-stone into new frontiers.
4 At the level of innovation the artist becomes highly original. Out-of-the-ordinary materials and methods are introduced. The innovative artist breaks boundaries. Academic foundation remains the substructure of unconscious thought guiding these creative efforts.
5 The fifth level of creativity is characterized as genius. Certain individuals' ideas and accomplishments in art and science defy explanation. Genius is arguably the one unexplainable, and perhaps unattainable, level, something that an individual may be born with. Some experts nevertheless contend that genius is a combination of exceptional genetics and environment.
The Mechanics of Creativity
Psychologists who study creativity have concluded that creative thinking involves a process that an individual can consciously set in motion. Understanding this process is key to creative problem-solving.
THE FIVE STEPS OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS
There are definite steps in the creative process. Sometimes you work systematically through a creative project over a long period of time and other times you get instantaneous results, but, regardless of the timing, the process is virtually the same.
Let's examine the five stages of the creative process — identification of the problem, preparation, incubation, breakthrough and resolution — to see how they work:
1 The creative process begins with identification of the problem to be solved: planning a quilt, designing a landscape or learning a new painting medium. Nothing creative will happen until you identify what you want to do.
2 A preparation phase follows, during which you evaluate possible solutions. At this stage you research possibilities, considering what you've done previously with similar problems or what others have done. You make sketches, plan color schemes, and establish boundaries for your creative activity. This is the thinking stage of the project.
3 In the incubation stage, you put the project on the shelf for a while. Your unconscious mind sorts and assimilates the information you accumulated in the preparation phase, much like a computer sorts a database. This stage may take only minutes, while you set up to work or take a coffee break. Then again, it may take a much longer time for a fully realized solution to surface.
4 Breakthrough is the fourth stage in the creative process, when the solution becomes immediately apparent. This is not inspiration, but the result of your earlier thinking — although it sometimes seems amazing when the insight suddenly comes through.
5 Once the breakthrough has occurred, a resolution step completes the process. You're ready to try your solution and see how it works. The creative process has helped solve your problem.
Think about a recent problem-solving event you experienced and examine closely the way you solved the problem. You will discover that each step in the creative process contributed to your solution.
Equipping Your Creativity Toolbox
Awareness is a major key to creativity. Notice your surroundings; pay attention to changes in your environment; consciously acknowledge your intuitive urges or gut feelings about choices you're making. The gift of creativity is yours, but you must grasp it fiercely and affirm, "I am a creative artist" over and over again. You have the right to be creative.
Think positively about your creative self at all times. Start with creative goals that are doable. You're freer to create when you're not bound to unrealistic expectations. You have a great deal in common with other creative souls, and creativity tools abound to help you on your journey.
THINKING TOOLS FOR CREATIVE PEOPLE
In Sparks of Genius Robert and Michèle Root-Bernstein assert, "At the level of creative imagination everyone thinks alike." Everything begins with feeling, followed by understanding. When you see a problem, you intuit a solution, and then prove it. Intuition is the still, small voice that says, "Try this" In analyzing the work of creative people, the Root-Bernsteins describe thirteen important ways to look at a problem to prompt your creative voice to chime in:
1 Paying attention to your senses
2 Seeing in your mind's eye
3 Reducing to essentials
4 Seeing natural patterns and structure
5 Combining simple elements in new patterns
6 Seeing similarities in different things
7 Feeling a preverbal sensation in your body
8 Feeling a part of the process
9 Visualizing in dimensions of space or time
10 Using tools 1–9 above to create something
11 Pushing boundaries to see what happens
12 Changing a thing into something that works
13 Integrating several of these thinking tools
Many activities throughout this book address one or more of these problem-solving strategies. Each tool makes an important contribution to the complex experience of creativity. You may be more evolved in some areas than others. Open your eyes to possibilities and work on the tools you think need development.
Activity
Test Your Ability to Observe and Recall
Study a single object closely, taking time to look at it carefully Feel its shape and texture, notice its edges, and smell it. Tap it with your finger; does it ring, dink or thud? Now put away the object and take out your sketchbook journal. Write your observations or draw the object with as much detail as possible.
Repeat this exercise with the same object every day for a week, making each record on a new page. Don't be tempted to look at previous pages once they're done. On the last day, draw or describe the object without first observing it. Then compare your pages. What differences do you find between the entries? Does your daily experience of the object result in improved observation in the final drawing or writing?
Imagine That!
When you look out at the snow and wish you were walking on the beach, you're imagining. Everybody has imagination. And, as Albert Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
Imagination is the picture in your mind of something that isn't there. The creative artist takes those pictures out of the mind and makes them visible — sometimes literally, sometimes symbolically. Poet Wallace Stevens describes imagination as "the power of the mind over the possibilities of things." You have the power to free your imagination.
Do you see figures in the shapes of moving clouds? When I was a little girl, I used to imagine a pair of Spanish dancers in an old oak tree near my bedroom window; when the wind blew, they danced for me. Look for people and animals in old stone walls; find images among shells washed up on the beach; see what the patterns on fences and weather-beaten boards suggest to you. Ordinary objects have extraordinary patterns and textures that excite your imagination.
Some people have difficulty seeing pictures in their mind's eye. Don't expect to see complete images. If you have trouble seeing pictures, play word games and make marks that stimulate imagery. Many words suggest symbolic images easily represented by marks rather than pictures.
Let yourself daydream sometimes. Empty your mind of thoughts that rush through at every waking moment. When distracting clutter surfaces, let it go. Allow spontaneous images to come and go. Capture one in a quick sketch. These images express connections with your inner self. That's what creativity is about.
Take Imagination Breaks
Take fifteen minutes every day to work on freeing your imagination. You won't be wasting your time. Relaxed attention is one of the most important states of mind for creativity, and sometimes it has to be learned.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The New Creative Artist"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Nita Leland.
Excerpted by permission of F+W Media, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
About the Author, Acknowledgments, 6,
Foreword, 7,
Activity Guide, 8,
Introduction: Choose to Be Creative, 10,
1 Creativity: A Joyride, 16,
2 Art and Craft: Highways and Byways, 38,
3 Drawing: Don't Leave Home Without It, 52,
4 Design: Mapping Your Route, 78,
5 Realism: Taking the Scenic Route, 102,
6 Abstraction: Off the Beaten Path, 120,
7 Experimentation: Exploring New Territory, 138,
8 Adventure: Developing Your Creative Spirit, 156,
Selected Bibliography, 170,
Contributing Artists, 172,
Index, 174,