Sunday Sketch : crayon drawing and play with paint

I'm spending this peaceful Sunday watching Alisa Burke's wonderful e-class videos. I was first introduced to this super creative and prolific artist through Creative Courage course, signed up for her classes (with 50% off you just couldn't resist it) and have been inspired by her works and classes ever since.

Redefine Creativity is my second class with her. Her lessons really got me excited and inspired me to get some paint and have fun. This drawing is done with Sea Green (I just love how they name each color) wax crayon first. I already loved how it looked and almost left it as is but decided to go ahead and play with it (I can always draw it again if I want to). I painted over all the drawing with different shades of watercolor. I didn't think much just put water and colors on. The wax lines worked as resistance that you can still see the original drawing, just with different look and feel.



Then I put pink marker on some parts, making it pop out a bit and some little drawings behind the scene. I just couldn't help it, playing hide-and-seek with my characters becomes part of my drawing passion :)



I have to say I love the very first crayon drawing best but I enjoyed the process of putting colors on and watching colors blended and be resisted by the wax. I think I'm going to experiment more with this technique :)

This is only the first lesson I learn from Alisa. Can't wait to learn more and be inspired in the next 4 weeks :D

Hot air balloon : my creative journey

I'm taking Creative Courage e-course again this year. This is the third session I took with Stephanie Levy. Last year I already talked about how much I gained from the class and I think I gain even more from this third session.  In this class, the core idea is still the same, to have courage to be yourself and brave enough to venture into your own creative track.  Stephanie has made it lighter with the addition of summer recipes and photo walks. What makes me think I gain even more is the participation of the fellow students. I have been following conversations in the class facebook group and just discovered that while learning about other people's experiences, I instinctively explore my own inner self too.

One of the interesting topics Stephanie talked in the class is the metaphor of hot air balloon. Being in a creative journey, we need a lot of energy and effort. Hope, love, determination and support from the ones we love are essential fuel to get the balloon fly. But the hot air balloon is not small. It's big, enormous and needs a lot of energy. We have to learn so much about what could get our balloon go up as well as what has held the balloon down. Doubt, fear, criticism are always what we can identify but cannot get rid of completely. They are sandbags that hold down the balloon. I think in this case, it's all about focus. We will be constantly held down with flashes of fear, doubt and inner critic/ people's opinions, no way to avoid that. The trick is how to get ourselves back from those distractions and focus on what we want to focus.

My practice is to check myself. Whenever I feel down, doubtful or hurt, I will ask myself if these feeling are going to get me to my goal. If it's not why do I have to waste my time? There are plenty of things to do in my life plan. Ditch it and get going!

Again, it's easier said than done :P Sometimes I just wonder why some people (like  the old me) love to dwell in sadness rather than try to be happy. No answer to that but when I cannot let bad feelings go immediately, my second method is to imagine the time when I felt joy while making art or even daydream of the day of my success like ; my Etsy sale number gets over 1,000 or my art gets featured on famous blogs or magazines or my name is on a picture book's cover, etc. This may sound silly but it definitely lifts up my spirit and the only way to make those dreams come true is to work hard. So, I work!

Yes, it's only the matter of using focus, persistence and joy of creating as fuel for your hot air balloon of creative journey. Thanks to Stephanie for teaching this valuable lesson.

I hope I can stick with my methods and hope it can be helpful for those who are in this same struggling path :) Thanks for coming. I hope you have a merry day.

How do you find inspiration each day?

How do you find inspiration each day?

I used to live my life as I like it. I mean if I woke up one morning and didn't feel like working or creating, I wouldn't do it thinking forcing myself to do things when I was not inspired was fruitless. I would never do good works anyway. But now I realized that that was a kind of giving up without even attempt to start. The key is that when you get uninspired, don't let such boredom bring you down. I could be bored and depressed for days or even week! That's not good for my creative work at all.  So, I try to adjust myself, to try to find something to inspire me whenever I begin to feel bored.

Generally, I would go to books, browsing through beautiful illustrations, reading lovely words. Or I would go through all the lovely blogs or go to coffee shop, sketching and watching people. Today I have realized that you can get inspired on a daily basis with some payment.

That doesn't sound good, right? To buy inspiration? But I have learnt that it's really worthwhile to pay some money to support those who work so hard with their words, their research and their inner selves to get people inspired.  This I mean some e-courses I have taken. One of them is Creative Courage, Not sure if I talked about this class on this blog yet. I have enrolled for this course twice already and both session give me so much.

Another class is Treasure Hunt photo prompts from Andrea Scher's Superhero life. This is a self-paced class where I get photo prompts in my mailbox everyday. The thing is that Andrea doesn't send me just topics and tell me to shoot this or that. But she sends her little stories along with the topics too. It's just like reading mini inspiring posts everyday. The topics get me curious and want to go out take some photos, her voice gets me inspired and want to do more of creative things. She makes me think, that is.

These two classes made me write the word 'each day' How do you find inspiration each day? These classes give me inspiration each day and I think it's very important to wake up each morning and ask myself what will inspire me today. Don't wait for inspiration, sometimes you have to find one for yourself to keep your creative life on track.

The picture above is what I'm working on, to build up my work for my shop and my portfolio. Yes. I'm still working and I think this is the reason I wake up and try to find inspiration so that I can keep this work going :)

How about you? How do you find inspiration each day?

80% art, 20% business / learn to stop, learn to start

My two online classes have finally ended and I still keep thinking about them.

I took some other online classes before. They were good classes to some level but as I didn't manage my time for the classes well enough, I didn't benefit from them as I should have. But for these 2 courses, Creative Courage and Blogging Your Way, I devoted my time to really read, collect materials and participate as much as possible. I think I gain a lot from these classes, both in knowledge and spiritual support :)

Now I am kind of addicted to starting each day reading the classes' posts. Stephanie, from Creative Courage, incorporated artist's interviews into her class so well. Each one was very informative and inspiring and I felt like I needed more. I searched and read. But suddenly, it struck me that I was beginning to get lost again, in the sea of information.  I still need more info in marketing and Etsy tips. But that information will be only information if I don't create my art enough.

Lisa Sonora Beam from Creative Entrepreneur, one of the artists in the class interviews, says that if you want to be in creative career, you have to do your best in handling two jobs at the same time. One is to create, the other is to sell. The best blend should be 80% art and 20% business.

I think I'm doing on the art part only 10% right now. It's time to switch my focus...

Just like doing digital illustration, with easy clicks, we tend to keep on changing colors, adjusting things with no end. I guess learning to stop and learning to start are very important in designing (and also in life).

Let's see what I will show you next post :)

****
I forgot that I'm supposed to have one idea each day for the PiBoIdMo. So, here we go :

day 5 : A village where each villager has flower or plant on his or her head.

day 6 :  Little Leaf (from day 3 post) makes friend with other kinds of leaf in the woods.

day 7 : Something about cloud?

day 8 : A girl who is never sad.

day 9 : A pessimistic girl vs. an optimistic boy

back to creative track

So...I have neglected my blog again. Same old reason, busy with my work and my time management inability :(

But writing something is always on my mind. I like the time when I get back to my old posts, read and wonder how this or that events happened to me. I don't have good memory, always forget things. So reading old things is like living my life again.

My life has changed a bit this year. I got married and moved to a small but cozy apartment in the city. It's not so much a life-changing stage, part of it is that I had been going out with my boyfriend for 10 years before marriage. It's a long relationship and I don't feel the need of adjustment much. I still work as a freelance graphic designer and I still have the same dream as I did last year.

October and November is like the season of learning for those creative minds. There are so many workshops and art challenges at this time of year. I was in the process of wrapping up some of my work projects when I came across Stephanie's post of her e-course, Creative Courage and I thought that I must take this course! And it is a good decision really. With the class started a couple of weeks ago, I have been able to focus my mind on what I have always wanted to succeed for so many years. In my mind, I can visualize my goal but it seems that the path to that goal is so blurry and I don't know where to start or I know where but it's very hard to keep going from there.

Not sure if I make myself clear. This post is more like rambling thoughts rather than well-thought writing. Forgive me...

Anyway, I enjoy Creative Courage very much and start to look for more. I remember my participation in Sketchbook Project 2011 and then Creative Every Day challenge. I miss waking up each day feeling energized and inspired to create something. Staying constantly focused in creative track is what I really need now. That's why I feel it's the right thing to enroll in another creative e-course, Blogging Your Way. As people always say being surrounded with creative people will help you stay inspired and I feel that already :)

 There are 2 more blogs I plan to follow and learn if not participating. Picture Book Idea Month (PiBoldMo) and Pugly Pixel's css workshop. Too many things? I'm starting to feel overwhelmed already but if I don't put too much stress on myself, it could be a fabulous time :D

Let's see how far I can go in this creative journey :)...

Wondering about my picture above? It's my inspiration board with quotes I love. I just did it this morning and found that taking some time before work to create something for myself really helps boosting my energy and I can focus more on my work after that.  And I'm looking forward to the next morning to do something fun like this again. :)

Thanks for stopping by. This post is way too long, I hope you don't get bored :)