25 WAYS TO FIT
ART AND CREATIVITY INTO YOUR LIFE
AMANDA
TROUGHT
-
REALITYARTS
25
to ys a W
fit
ART AND CREATIVITY
Into your life
WRITTEN BY AMANDA TROUGHT
I use to moan about it to my friend Barbara – a fellow artist about all the time I wish I had to paint or do something creative. ‘One day’ we would say 'we will have more time to sit down and paint without interruption'. This illusive time didn't come but what I learnt was that I needed to use the time that I did have more effectively however small it seemed. I began to look at how I could fit creativity into my day to day and all the things that tried to get in the way. I realized If I took each and every moment as being precious I Introduction 'FORM DAILY CREATIVE HABITS'
If you cannot find ways in which you can
would treat it differently and if it then meant that I had only 10 minutes or 5 hours to create I would spend that time wisely.
fit creativity into your everyday life, then you are in the right place. One of the
I also had to remember that I needed to
first things that you need to do is alter
show up for myself, if I had decided to do
your perspective, and look at the time
something, then I would show up and be
that you do have slightly different.
disciplined not letting myself down. When
Think about the time that you have that
we don’t show up for ourselves it sends
is wasted, by simple things like waiting
signals to the brain that we do not value
on someone else, waiting in line at the
ourselves and then demonstrate
bank or other appointment.
unconsciously that what we want to do isn’t important.
When we look at exactly what is happening in those moments you can
That being said I wanted to share with you
find pockets of that special time waiting
25 Ways that I have found you can fit
to be utilized and the more we look for
creativity into your routine, if you have
those moment we can use some of
longer you can take more time, but for
these ideas in other areas of your life to
some fitting in this time. I recommend no
generate more time.
shorter than 15 minutes (you deserve that at least). This list is not exhaustive and there may be some other ideas that you can add.
“When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.” ~Alexander Graham Bell
25 WAYS TO FIT CREATIVITY INTO YOUR LIFE
1. There are 24 hours in the day. If you planned what you were going to do and gave yourself a schedule you could make more time for yourself. Do you really need to check your emails every hour? Can you skip that time in front of the TV and make time for something you would enjoy more? 2. Look at why you have been avoiding the creative things you say you want to do. What are you afraid will happen if you actually gave yourself permission to create? Try it for 15 minutes and see how you feel. Start off this week giving yourself 15 minutes each day to do something creative, or just different, go and sit in a different space and see how you feel doing something creative there. After a week of taking yourself into a different space you will begin to see some of your fears in a different light and then you can work on them. 3. Remember to have fun, being creative is fun and spend some time each day putting the play back into your day, and your approach to
5. Listen to that still small encouraging voice.
your creative activity. Don’t take yourself too
Don’t try and paint or draw like someone else,
serious, and don’t criticize your efforts.
use what they do to help you learn different techniques, but your style will eventually come, it
4. Not everyone is going to understand why
takes practice and patience.
you create and can often say things to discourage you. Try and avoid people who
6. Take your time. The more your practice the
always have a negative spin on things and
better you will get. Focus on what technique
surround yourself with people who are
you want to learn and discipline yourself, you can
encouraging and who see the value in
do it. After all, think of something you learn to
creating.
do that you now take for granted.
.
25 WAYS TO FIT CREATIVITY INTO
12. How can you make the most of the time you
YOUR LIFE
spend when waiting on others. This is a great time to think about creating things to do when
7. Are you waiting for permission to create or for the ‘one more thing’ you need to learn? Get on with it, unless you start there will always be a reason to wait, but at the end of the day time will have passed anyway. 8. Breaking your creative time into a 15 or 20 minute slot helps you get creatively into any time of the day. Start to think of the different creative things that you can do in just 15 minutes that would help with your creative process, make a list of things that you can do, and these will help in those moments when you need some inspiration. 9. Don’t go to bed without doing something creative. There is always something you can do to get those creative juices flowing, even if it is to flip through your favorite creative magazine, do a 5 minute sketch, draw with your left hand, and don’t judge, go to bed with your creative juices stirred. 10. Don’t be too rigid. There are so many different art materials, supplies and techniques. If you’re not having fun doing one thing, try another, many supplies come in single purchases or mini packs so you can try out techniques without having to spend vast sums of money. There are also an abundance of free courses that will show you techniques and things you can try, especially if you are on a budget. 11. Think about places you can go for inspiration. There are many sources that are available that you can access from magazines, online, exhibitions, other artists, even in nature. Be open to finding your inspiration in a variety of places. .
say you are in a waiting room or doing one of those jobs around the hope that are repetitious, you could have inspiring talk or music on while you work. Coupling mundane tasks with creative activity helps your outlook on these potential pockets of time. 13. Keep a notebook of your achievements – There is always going to be someone who is further along in their journey. Don’t look at someone’s 5 year journey and imagine that you are not good enough because your art does not look like theirs. We all have to start somewhere, so focus on putting one foot in front of the other and before you know it you will be able to look back and see just how far you have come. 14. Where do you enjoy working? Looking around your space it is a good idea to see how you can make a space you spend a lot of time in work for you. Think about the things that you need to make it accessible, and practical if it is a space shared by the rest of the household. 15. Break the tasks down. There is always something creative that you can do. Making a list of things that are longer tasks that can be broken down into bite sized chunks can really impact on your creativity. These little bite sized chunks really add up over time and this regular activity can help you complete projects that you may feel you don’t have time for and make your time more manageable. 16. Connecting with others – sometimes creativity can be isolating, depending on what you are doing. Make a point of connecting with other creative people, whether physically in a local group or online and join some forums or groups of like-minded people.
17. Give yourself permission. I will say it again. As you get used to taking blocks of 15 or 20 minutes you will find ways of spending more time to create. Enjoy it, do not try and make yourself feel guilty about the time you spend, congratulate yourself. 18. When I used to work on my kitchen table I had to put things away at the end of my time, but I found some clear under bed storage boxes that I was able to put my work in and remind myself what I was working on.. 19. Write down your ideas, and projects on index cards and place them where you can see them, this will help remind you of your progress. 20. When working on your creativity there are many things that can take less than the 15 minutes you have allotted yourself so make these times work for you as well. Be in the moment and remember to enjoy your time spent. 21. Write down a list of activities that can be done in 5 or 10 minute slots. These are especially useful if you only have a shorter time available and help you incorporate more creative activity into your day. 22. Always be on the lookout for creative things you can do. You might spend time adding an inspiration board. If it is online you might add some pins to a Pinterest board that you find inspiring. If you are not online you might get yourself a folder with pockets and add anything that you find inspiring during your day. – This could be a 5 or 10 minute project seeing what inspires you. 23. We can sometimes think we are too tired to pull out a painting to create or do any other creative activity. At these times I might just open up one of my supplies and sort out the materials or I might just look through supplies I haven’t used in a while, inevitably I begin to try out the material and end up spending some time. This can energize you and at the end of the day is filling up the creative well. 24. Family time – think of activities that you can do while spending time with the family, they can sometimes express that they feel as if they are competing with your creative space. This is where the small activities that you can find that are part of a project but that can still be done while you watch the TV with the family, or why not find things that they can get involved with as well. 25. Identify those activities that can be completed in a short space of time, you may not be able to crochet a scarf but you can crochet a simple flower, or rather than try and complete a painting, prepare one layer of the background. Look at the other things that you like to do creatively and make a list
“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt
ART AND CREATIVITY WHERE DOES YOUR JOURNEY BEGIN?
Bonus Ideas 26. Don’t go out and purchase too many supplies. It is easy in the beginning to purchase a lot of things that you end up not using. Join with a group of people where you can swap tools or try out a tool before you go and buy it yourself. If you want to try different techniques it can be tempting to buy all the tools, but if you end of not wanting to take it further then you have supplies that are just sitting there. 27. Think about what supplies may have multiple uses, and what materials you are going to need for your creative activity. Chances are you already have tools around the home that you can use in your creative activity. 28. Go to charity, thrift, pound or dollar stores and see if you can find some of the tools you might need for a creative activity, you can even try out your local hardware store, they often sell some art supply tools that you will get for a better price. 29. Some supplies/tools you can make, check to see if there are things that you can use that double as a tool. You can make your own palette knife using an old credit card or piece of card board, you can create your own stencils, stamps or canvas paper using recycled materials. If you want to try out techniques there are a vast amount of alternatives that you can use that are free that will free up some money to get some of the other supplies that you would like to purchase. 30. Stop right now, don’t make any more excuses or reasons why you can’t make art, or be creative. You’ve already seen how you can break down your time so that you are making the most of each minute, now you just have to go for it. Don’t look back, but arm yourself with the other points already given, have fun and just take one minute at a time.
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“When I dare to be powerful – to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” ~Audre Lorde
