drawing

30-minute creativity

I have a hard time working on a big creative project during the summer. Maybe it’s because I’ve spent more of my life in school than out of it, and summer whispers vacation to me. Or maybe because summer is such a short season where I live and we’re eager to cram in as much pool, park and yard time as we can. Summer fills up with camps and cookouts, gardening and berry-picking and hiking. It’s time for play, not for marathons.

I doubt I’ll get a novel written in the next two months, but I do have some creative projects planned. I want writing to be fun again, so I’ll be experimenting with new ideas and new forms. Sir I. and I will (hopefully) start taking piano lessons. The kids and I will draw, color and paint. Then there’s that easy-to-make skirt I want to sew for Miss M.

So I put together a list of low-prep creative ideas for the busy person, things to do in thirty minutes or less:

Play a musical instrument. Our piano lives in the hub of the house, it’s always available (no taking it out of its case), with my lesson book open on the music rack.
Doodle, either using a book of drawing prompts or a pen and a sheet of paper.
Freewrite. I do ten-minute sessions on a theme of my choice.
Journal.
Do an art or craft project with a kid. Don’t have a kid available? Do it on your own. Kid projects are unintimidating and simple, perfect for beginners and those with little time or few supplies. Check here and here and here for ideas.
Journal in visual images for a change. Draw or make a collage. Here are some tips to get you started.
Go on a walk with camera in hand and take pictures that interest you. You get to be creative and exercise.
Sit out in your yard, the woods, or a park and sketch. I like to draw leaves. My kids like to bring me leaves to draw. Win-win.
Do some mind-mapping.
Write flash fiction.

Any other suggestions?

linkatopia

The Art Projects Edition:

daisy yellow has a three-part series on organizing summer art projects for you and your kids. I believe my kids have every intention of running wild in our yard and at the park this summer, but I prefer more sedate activities. My planned projects are: making jam, sewing a skirt or two for Miss M., sketching outside (I’ve been eyeing my purple phlox as a potential model), playing the piano. And writing. There is always writing.

As if I really needed more arts & crafts ideas to do with the kids: Deep Space Sparkle and The Crafty Crow.

I’m drooling over these Prismacolor double-ended markers. I just want to spread them out rainbow-like on the table and gloat over them.

baby steps

Light blogging this week and I’m off to my sister’s wedding, so no posts this weekend.

There have been no major happenings on the writing front. I’m still chugging along on that not-so-short story (probably 7K when done). I had wanted to complete it before leaving, but I’ve been too distracted this week (packing, mentally preparing for the long drive, explaining patiently to the littles for the thousandth and one time why we cannot just leave for our trip right this second, etc etc).

OTOH, I have dabbled in some non-writing creative endeavors. I finished a sketch of a Chinese actress I think is just gorgeous*. Sir I. and I sat down to a lesson out of Drawing with Children, and goodness! I am just so impressed with the bird he drew. It looks like a real bird. With a beak and feathers and everything. The kids and I drew and painted Russian-esque buildings. Sir I. made a Baba Yaga-inspired house collage, complete with antlers and eggs for a tail and a random head.

And we finally got someone over to tune our piano today. Of course I couldn’t resist pulling out my Fool’s Guide to the Piano for Complete and Total Musically-Inept Dummy Beginners (Yeah, That’s You) book and spent twenty or so minutes doing right hand and left hand warmups (ie: training my fingers to respond to serial numbers instead of Twinky or Pinky or whatever cutesy names they call themselves). Oh, piano. Where have you been all my life? Plunking out Ode to Joy sends me into such raptures.

(And now since I am clearly getting very silly, I must end quickly and retire to my sleeping couch. All of these ramblings where just to say that simple projects, fun with my kids and even the most basic musical exercises can be so satisfying to my creative urges, For once, I am content to not be perfect.)

* I mean the actress is gorgeous. My sketch of her–meh.

the big bad blank page

Hello. *raises hand* I’m a writer, and, um… I’m afraid of a blank page.

For several months now, I’ve talked/dreamed/blogged about taking up drawing as my secondary hobby (which means that in terms of priorities it has to fall way below things like “putting away laundry” and “cleaning the oven”). I’ve bought and borrowed how-to books. I got myself fancy pencils and a fancy sketchbook. I hunted around for local drawing classes for when I am no longer continuously attached to my little nursing buddy here.

But I never got around to actually putting my fancy pencil on my fancy paper and so much as drawing a line.

And I finally figured out why. It wasn’t that I had no time (if I have time to follow Internet rabbit trails, I have time to draw!). It was quite simply, a fear of the blank page.

You may laugh. As a writer, I have no problem filling up the (metaphorical) paper with lots and lots of words. Even if those words are just “blah, blah, blah”, heh. If I don’t have the mental energy to work on a story, I journal or do a writing exercise. Blank pages are meant to be written on.

But not drawn on, apparently.

So, the other week, I got out this book of drawing prompts and sat down one evening to doodle, scribble and color like a little kid. I got through four pages and was hit by a complete short story idea while drawing bricks. This is my kind of drawing course.