The Creative Process

I've been struggling with creative block lately. I want to work on my own project, for a change, so bad that I just cannot seem to decide what to draw! Over the last couple of months I've had some commissions to do, so my time to work on 'whatever' has been limited. So now that I have some time to work on something else, I'm frustrated because I'm stumped as to what to do next. So when I read Cindy's blog about "The Creative Muse", it caught my attention. I spend a lot of time looking for new ideas for my students. My advanced students seem to have problems deciding for themselves also. Today I'm looking for ideas for lesson plans and came across some articles about the creative process and where Artists come up with ideas. I came across Nita Lelands blog about "Blockbusters for Artists". I think this is a good list, but I feel such a time crunch that I don't always take the time for these creative activities. I want to jump right in to 'my next great piece'! HA. But it doesn't work that way! I do have her book "The New Creative Artist" and use it at school with my students. I've even made some lessons from some of her projects. So I just need to take my own advice to my students, and play around with some of her ideas. I know what medium I want to use, Neocolors II and Prismacolors on pastelboard are my new favorites, because of their speed and painterly possibilities. Now for deciding what to paint/draw.
So Cindy suggests creating a list to get ideas. I'm still working on the main idea...The subject! I want to chose a subject that says its ME! Cindy often does Still Life, Nicole Caulfied often does Still Life. Paula does Yarn and other cute illustrations. I just seem to be all over the place! (Maybe a result of teaching art for 25 years.) I've got to focus more on 'my subject'! I've done many architectural pieces, but I'm not sure if that is 'my subject' or if I should pursue more still life or what? So what do you think? If you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment.

Artist Block Sketch Journal

Artist Block Journal

About 4 years ago I decided to make art a bigger priority in my 'spare' time. My children were in high school and did not require as much of my time...they were going out with friends, going to events without me more and more. Before high school, they were more dependent on me and my transportation, obviously. Anyway, in 2004 I wanted to start drawing more regularly, as time allowed. But taking an hour or two of my busy daily schedule is harder than it sounds, and even harder to have inspiration to draw on demand! So I decided to start a sketch journal. I call it my "Artist Block Journal", because I only sketched in it when I couldn't come up with an idea for a 'real' sketch or drawing. I decided I would use a simplified figure in all of the sketches. That figure would have characteristics similar, but not exactly, like me. So I came up with a very rough charachter with a round head, that I named 'Lizie'...short for Elizabeth.


While I am working on the portrait commission that I have to finish in another week, I will post some of these sketches from that journal. Fortunately, 2004 has the most posts. Since then I have gradually been able to spend more of my spare time on actual sketches, drawings, and some paintings. But I enjoy looking back at the evolution of 'Lizie' and some of the projects that I have illustrated in those sketches. I plan to continue this sketch journal as much as possible.

Here are the first few pages of my artist block journal:

Page #1 in my Artist Block Sketch Journal

Lizie 1/1/2004

Beth S. Macre
Notice the very round head. She has evolved a little since then.

Page #2 ~ Artist Block Sketch Journal
Lizie 1/1/2004

Beth S. Macre

Notice the Turtleneck?

Page #3 ~ Artist Block Sketch Journal

Lizie 1/10/2004

"Wanting to Draw"

Beth S. Macre