The Ultimate Guide to Creating Freely with Art
As creators, we often have this bubbling energy to create something, but as soon as we plonk our bottoms down to do it, we draw a blank!
I’ve been drawing since I was a wee little thing, and I still have moments of creative inertia.
The excitement that’s sometimes hard to contain, evaporates as soon as I look down at the page.
I pick up my pencil and tap it on the side of my head. “What to draw… What to draw…”
I glance around the room at my house plant, which I’ve drawn a thousand times. “No… not that.” Although it’s begging to be appreciated, I turn away and jump onto Pinterest for a prompt.
I scan and scan some more, falling into a black hole of ‘wish I’d done that’.
I land on something cool and start copying someone else’s idea, but it’s not going down the same.
“Ugh! Why do I suck?”
I compare my sketch with the well-crafted one on the screen, lay my pencil down, and pick up my phone for a brainless scroll.
Sound familiar?
When I’m working with creatives of any kind, we all face one consistent barrier: where the heck do we start?
With an endless sea of content to dive into, it can be hard not to drink the water. We need to unlock our own sources of inspiration to unleash our inner artist.
Lucky for you, I’ve distilled my process to help give you a starting point.
Follow these 5 simple steps to reignite your creative spark.
Look.
Take those big, beautiful eyes out for a spin. Slow down and take a stroll.
Being inspired results from a curious mind and sparkly eyes of wonder. Look at your familiar neighbourhood like a tourist would. “Wow, a bin!”
I love going for slow walks and looking at all the little details—the lines of the bark on the trees and the ants that hurry up and down the trunks; the patterns shadows make on the sidewalk; the little bits of moss that grow between concrete cracks; the two Nonna’s having an argument in the middle of a roundabout.
What are you drawn to? Lean into what you find interesting.
Capture.
Collect, write, sketch, snap! Take note of all those beautiful things and organise them ahead of creating.
I take photos and videos of anything I’m drawn to on my walks. I collect rocks, shells, bark, and leaves as inspiration or tools.
Your bank of goodies will be the only prompt you need to get going, trust me.
Distill.
Now, let’s go through your inspo library.
If you took photos, zoom in to sections of the image and focus on smaller details. Notice what the light is doing, how the textures form and connect, and what colours jump out to you.
If you collected physical things, examine them in the same ways.
Before we get making, let’s set up your space.
Designate an area to create and select the tools you want to use. Make everything easily accessible. Lay out your paper, pens, pencils, paints, water, and anything you want to play with right next to your page.
Display or lay out your collections nearby so you can reference them in your creation process.
Get the lighting right and put on some relaxing tunes.
Create!
“A drawing is simply a line going for a walk.” – Paul Klee
To all the perfectionists out there, start getting comfortable creating ugly art. Remember that artists find their style by messing around. So, take the pressure off and relinquish the idea that we’re creating the final result in the first go. Use your curious mind and explore with your tools. See where it goes. Heck, dare to have some fun!
Here are a few prompts to get you going:
Pressure play. Try holding your marker loosely, in the middle or up the top, somewhere you wouldn't usually hold it. Make wide circles around the edges of the page. Get a feel for the angles your hand and wrist are forming around each stroke. Tighten your grip and scribble as hard as you can into the paper. Play with different pressures and notice how your medium feels. See where it goes.
Create a gallery. Break your page up into rectangles and fill each of them with abstract artwork. Once you’re done, draw frames around them and voila—you’ve got your own little gallery.
Make your mark. Take a line for a walk around every corner of your page, looping it up, over, and under until you’ve got loads of blank pockets. Fill them with all kinds of things—colour, cross-hatching, shading, stars, hearts, smiley faces—whatever comes to mind. Be bold.
A game of memory. Draw Astro Boy, Pikachu, Asterix, your parents, and your first grade teacher from memory. Then draw little speech bubbles around them with stuff they’d say.
Don’t stop there! Keep playing.
Share.
Well, pat yourself on the back—you’ve just made art!
It’s common to feel a sense of peace, clarity, and excitement after making art. The positive impacts on your brain are HUGE.
“Just twenty minutes of doodling or humming can provide immediate support for your physical and mental state.”
Well, damn, Susan! That’s pretty neat.
As we gain confidence in our practice, we can also be filled with a desire to share it with others. Whether sharing on social media, showing a friend, or hand-making a card for a loved one.
My niece and I were playing around with paint and crayons one afternoon. I watched as she scanned the tools before her, splashing paint around, mixing it in water, and having an absolute ball.
She was so experimental; becoming more and more captivated by her process. Once she was done, she looked at her masterpieces, smiling, and then looked up at me. She picked up her favourite piece and extended it to me—a gift. It was a play experiment a moment ago, and now it was a present.
It didn’t just belong to me; it was for me. I felt her love, and when I accepted it, she was overjoyed. That same painting and many others of hers are on our fridge, where we see them daily.
Don’t underestimate the value of your creation—spread the love!
Go forth and create freely!
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How did you go? What are your thoughts?
Let me know in the comments!
