It’s been a while since the last installment of my Painting 101 series. Not sure if anyone read the other two, but, after rereading them myself, I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. Someone, someday, might find the information helpful, so I will try my best to keep it up despite the large gaps of time that may appear between posts. The idea of this series is to provide some basics of the painting process for beginners. If this subject interests you, you might want to start with the first post of the series.

This time, at the risk of being repetitive, I just wanted to re-emphasize the importance of not shooting for perfection, especially during the early stages of the painting process. (more…)

Canvas ready? Brushes? Paint? Here we go. First we should select our subject matter [nothing worse than staring at a stark white canvas without anything to paint]. My suggestion would be a still life arrangement - you know, fruit, bottles, vases, drapery, whatever - or maybe a landscape. Anything would work for a first painting, but I would suggest against starting with a portrait (people, pet, or otherwise) unless you have some skill at drawing already. The only problem with starting with people is that we all think we know what people look like - I mean, you draw a circle for the head, two small circles for the eyes, nose, mouth, maybe some hair on top, viola! Right? Problem is, when you paint something that is familiar to you, such as faces, you tend not to really study the thing you are painting, and without studying, you will end up with little more than a lifeless stick-figure face. It is very hard to break this tendency - even for myself. (more…)

So, you want to try your hand at painting but have never tried it before? Perhaps I can help. Painting is not hard. It just takes some practice and an afternoon.

Prerequisites
There are a few skills that are nice to have at your disposal (though not at all necessary to begin). A steady hand is a good thing - some level of drawing ability is even better. Basic knowledge of color theory would be another plus. And, along with rudimentary eyesight, observation would also a very useful tool to have at the ready. (more…)

Recap:

• started out unmotivated
• continued unmotivated
• water in gasline, had to excavate new gasline [$]
• have hot water again
• creativity week ended

As you can see, Creativity Week was mostly a dud for me. Now, I could blame life, or the gorgeous weather or DiGiorno pizza. But truth is, we are all to blame [that's right, I'm spreading the blame around].

Listen. Let us not bicker about who did what to whom; the point is, there are no winners or losers when it comes to Creativity Week: there are only winners. Here is the important point: Creativity Week is not dead, it lives within each of us. We have only to call upon Creativity Week and it will be there, hat in hand, apologetic and triumphant.

Anyway, it is now the week after Creativity Week, and I’m preparing for Spring for Art [this Saturday, March 11th]. I have been busy, as evident by the photo to the right. I should have over 24 paintings to adorn the walls of Coffee Rani in Covington [I hope to sell them all, but I'd settle for a couple]. More later.

Creativity Week is almost here — three days away, in fact. I’m excited. So excited I find myself thinking of creative things and having to reign in that creative spark, saving it for next week [can a person bottle-up creativity? is it safe to do so?]. But can I overcome my tendencies toward procrastination and pull off a full, action-packed week of creativity? Stay tuned . . .

Motivation is admittedly elusive in my day to day life. I tend to have many hobbies — many, many things I love to do [and so little time]. More often than not, I end up getting nothing done. So, I am a little concerned about Creativity Week.

However. The show must go on. Creativity Week will be a success.

Motivation. One of my main goals for Creativity Week is to get an insight into the processes involved in motivation. That’s really my main reason for establishing this whole creativity week thing: self analysis. If I were more motivated, I would be unstoppable in whatever I wanted to do with my life. That is a fact. [luckily, I would only use my powers for good]

There is a point, however, when motivation, creativity, and procrastination are just empty words — what counts is action. Get up and do something.

“Do or do not . . . there is no try.” -Yoda

Creativity Week: Feb. 26th - Mar. 4th — what are you planning to do?

It’s not a very . . . creative title, I’ll give you that, and the only references I found with Google were elementary school projects [you know, paper-mache masks, sculptures, et cetera]. But this is what I had in mind: a week of creativity overload, multiple instances of creative projects throughout each day of one particular week, documented on this blog as the week progresses. Original? Maybe not [those elementary schools beat me to it, for one], but it sure sounded like a good idea.

Now, I know many when confronted with a creative task throw up their hands in defeat before giving it a try — forgive the mockery, “…ooooh, I’m not a creative person…” — I just thought I’d invite you to join me in giving this creativity-week-thing a try. What can you do, you ask? I’ll tell you:

• post a comment below: I need ideas [you know, creative ideas -- lots!]
• prepare yourself for creativity week — get any supplies you might need ahead of time
• have some way of documenting your creative projects during the week — this can be a simple log of events on paper
• if you’d like to share, email me a brief run-through and any photos you took — I’ll post them here along with my own report

That’s it. Oh, and I need to decide on a week . . . next week — there! So, February 26th through March 4th [my birthday] will be my Creativity Week. Okay, I’ve got a week to prepare for this so I’ll really need your help. Please post a comment below, giving me ideas on some creative things I could do and, of course, encouragement — it’s gonna be a long week.