You asked for it, so it’s time to get this rusty wheel squeaking and talk about creativity.
I think I need to start simple. I’m feeling a lot of overwhelm with teaching right now due to a variety of factors out of my control. I want to talk about creative stuff though (my learnings, my pursuits, my art, my writing, my thoughts) and get it out there. But weekly around interviews and such feels like too much right now. SO I will start small.
Goal: once a month on the first Saturday of every month, I will share my process and thoughts on creativity.
And yes, I realize that today isn’t Saturday OR the beginning of the month, but I want to start somewhere (rather than blowing it off yet again). I don’t have a name yet (title up above pending) but I’m going to just jump in with both feet. Let’s start with last summer.
Last summer I read several books that really made me think about this whole creative process. I saw a reel from a creator I follow on Instagram and she recommended some books I tracked down. I’m SO far behind the band wagon on Austin Kleon’s books, but if you haven’t read them already, I highly recommend them! I read his first book (STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST) on a car trip. It was that quick of a read and I was quoting it to my husband the entire time I was reading it.
Then I came back home and read his second book (SHOW YOUR WORK). It too blew my mind. This one hit me in the feels. Neither book said anything startlingly new, but both of them said things in Kleon’s unique perspective with a TON of quotes from other creatives to back up his points. They were library books so I couldn’t highlight in them (which I admit I love to do; it helps me to remember) so I took pictures. I want to talk about one of his points in this second book that really helped me to start thinking about sharing here.
He had a chapter titled “BE AN AMATEUR.” Now, we’ve all talked about Imposter Syndrome, but have we talked about the fear of being an amateur? No. Imposter Syndrome comes from comparing ourselves (our work, our journey, our projects, etc.) to others. I’ve learned to stop doing that and just enjoy my own work and my own journey (though yes, it does pop up from time to time). But really, it’s that fear of being an amateur and looking foolish in front of others that stops me in my tracks sometimes. I HATE looking like a fool.
Yet Kleon argues that we should all be amateurs. They’re not afraid of being beginners and making mistakes. That doesn’t mean they don’t learn and grow. In fact, they’re lifelong learners. That right there is me. I love learning. And don’t we all love those passionately obsessed people who jump whole hog into something new? That enthusiasm is contagious!
I’ve learned that too. I get obsessed with something (a topic, a new art tool, etc.) and rave about it and then suddenly others are dying to try it. That’s what we do! We creatives are perpetual beginners. We have to be or we will get stuck and staid.
I laughed a little when I saw a Zoom conference full of illustrators I have long admired and looked up to sharing from their studio spaces and talking about the tools they use. Each one of them, already a multi-published professional illustrator in their own right, became fascinated with each other’s work space. They got closer to the camera and ohhed and ahhed over each other’s unique approaches to creativity.
To quote Kleon, “The world is changing at such a stupid rate that it’s turning us all into amateurs. Even for professionals, the best way to flourish is to retain an amateur’s spirit and embrace uncertainty and the unknown.” You get a bunch of creatives together talking shop, and inevitably someone is buying new tools! It’s what we do, but it’s also the best way to be.
We can all be beginners. I always tell newbies that we all have to start somewhere. Seriously. I remember my first physical portfolio and cringe. I remember my first critiqued picture book and put my hand over my face. BUT you don’t know what you don’t know until you do. And you won’t learn and grow if you don’t keep putting yourself out there (critiques, showcases, etc.). It’s all part of this journey.
Let’s talk shop. This last summer felt like a major creative coup for me. I set several major goals and I feel like I accomplished them. I’ve had some chapter book ideas for years and no idea what to do with them. So I started signing up for tons of webinars last spring and learning. One came with a submission opportunity that made me sit down and bang out an entire book in one day (after doing tons of work, outlining, and a book study on a specific publisher to figure out what market and word count I was aiming for, etc.). Then I revised it the next day (after getting feedback) and the next (after more feedback) before I finally submitted it. I wasn’t sure I’d hear anything, but I got a very nice champagne rejection several months later. I’m okay with that. I learned a lot from the process and I still have high hopes for that chapter book series. There were lots of other writing projects submitted for critiques, but let’s jump to the art work.
Since I started my serious illustration journey, I’ve always loved watercolor. And I’ve known I needed to figure out how to do it digitally to be easier to edit for book projects. Yet digital watercolor painting just didn’t have the same feel for me. I bought brush set after brush set and none of them worked for me the way I wanted them to. I wasn’t sure if it was me or the nature of the beast. One of the beauties of traditional watercolor is the lack of control that makes “happy accidents” happen. You can’t always plan the beauty that results. But last year, I finally found a digital watercolor brush set that works for me the way my brain does, the way I think traditional watercolor does. Perhaps what made the difference for me was all the tutorials and explanations the creator had with it (others just sold brush sets without much explanation). I could finally figure out what I wanted to do.
I started playing with it and experimenting with it. I spent a lot of time this summer just playing around with different creative prompts and loving what I was doing. I didn’t think of it as practice for a later project. I knew I had a deadline for an art show (my first ever art show) that I needed to create for but I kept goofing around with this in my spare time. Until it occurred to me that this could be what I did for my art show. I practiced traditional watercolor techniques with landscape as practice. Then incorporated that into illustrations. Finally I followed a wild hair and experimented on one piece and threw it in for the art show at the last minute. Wouldn’t you know that wild hair was my best selling print? (It was also my first time selling prints and I did better than I could have ever anticipated.)
I was too busy with my multitude of goals, pushing and pushing myself with new things, to stop and fret over what was working and what wasn’t. I kept pushing myself to create AND to play, both with words and with images. It was through this process that I think I saw several break throughs that kinda blew my mind. I did that. Wow.
SO I’m continuing to prioritize my creativity (OVER work!) and push myself to submit, create, and play. It’s a lot, but that’s why I think I need to start talking about it. I can’t keep all this creative growth to myself. I have to share it.