Having Fun

Letting go of creative fear.

Hello friends!

You and I are embarking on a journey with one another. It is a broadening of our relationship and a disembarking of the “not-so-social” social media.

On the subject, I’m sure you’ve felt as well as I the siren song of comparison. Judging ourselves on how well we stack up to the work of others is a nasty habit. I won’t beat a dead horse with how social media contributes to this, but I do want to talk about how it relates to the subject of this first newsletter.

Having Fun

It somewhat feels that I have had a dearth of fun lately. Particularly when it comes to making art. Which has really made me sour because making art is my favorite thing in the world! so what’s the problem? It’s that darn old comparison. Comparing myself to others, and comparing myself to myself. It makes me feel I have to do everything right the first time, and I put an awful lot of pressure on myself. Where’s the room for fun in that? It’s nowhere to be found.

So I have been setting out to get over it.

                       "If you are an artist and making art is what you like to do, 
                        then it shouldn't matter that you have to do it over again. 
                        You should like to do it because you like making art"
                                                    -A poorly paraphrased quote from 
                                                      a recent webinar 
                                                      I took with E.B. Lewis

Embracing Mistakes

Despite having a lot of art supplies, I get very nervous about wasting them. I try to use as little paint as possible and save even tiny scraps of paper on the chance they might be used later. This has inevitably lead to anxieties over messing up. The further along in a painting I got, the more anxious I’d become. It would reach a breaking point where I either push through, or give in and never touch it again!

The irony to all this is that I know I can fix it. Whatever it is it can be fixed. Many times, the mistakes I make help transform the piece into something better! I have more than once had an idea to do something that I really enjoyed only because there was some mistake I needed to resolve.

Trying Something New

Sometimes getting out of my comfort zone is a liberating experience. If I don’t have an expectation of what something will look like then I can’t really mess it up. Introducing new tools or techniques into my art helps loosen me up and lowers expectation.

I’ve also been throwing myself into new experiences. I recently became a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and signed up for Ella Beech’s EllaMorella Plus group. We discussed our goals this past week and plans for an ongoing project. I’ll share mine with you:

• Create three illustrations for a short story or parable.

• Create one illustration for a children’s editorial article.

• Create one spread for an activity in a children’s editorial.

I’m hoping to have it done by the end of the month so wish me luck!

Playing Around

Another thing I have been letting myself do more is play. Playing with new materials, learning to play in new ways with familiar materials, playing around with form and how I communicate things.

I’ve been really enjoying unlearning how to make art. I’ll admit, learning anatomy and rendering and all the things that come with being a “successful” artist were very useful, but I find myself limited by those things and I want to scrap them. For me, this has meant asking myself often, “How might a child draw this?” Answering that question has resulted in some pretty interesting results! I’ve been greatly enjoying drawing forms with no torsos, just a head with limbs sticking out of it.

                                                      Look how precious this is!

Inevitably this means that proportions are sometimes off, things don’t look realistic, and I’m fine with that! More than fine even! It makes things much more fun and tender. When the emotions are there, then I think the rest can (mostly) be forgiven.

Saying Goodbye for Now

We’ve reached the end of our time together for now friends! Please feel welcome to write me back if you have any thoughts. Are you playing with your art? Have you been trying anything new? Are you embarking on new challenges? I’d love to hear about it!

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this communiqué and that you’ll join me for the next one in March.

Until then!

Love,

Bailey