Boost Your Creativity

I don't know about you, but during my creative journey, I've had some experiences with 'artistic blocks' - and if you've had the unfortunate experience yourself, you know it really sucks. Recently, in my quest to overcome this horrible experience, I found artist Mary Gatling's web site. Mary not only creates wonderful art, she has also put together a workbook designed to help boost your creativity that I highly recommend.
Here is what Mary has to say .....
I am an artist with a background in advertising design and publishing. I love painting but also enjoy design, graphics and I am fascinated with the topic of “creativity”. This is why I have developed a workbook titled “Boost Your Creativity - A Four Week Workbook To Enhance Your Creativity”.
The purpose of this Workbook is to train you to think more creatively and get you in the habit of “doing”.
Creativity is broader than artistic expression. It is essential and required in many areas of life. Creativity is about problem solving. We are all creative and we all have ideas, but not everyone shares and executes their ideas. My hope is that you will get in the habit of bringing forth your ideas and executing them.
More information about Mary's workbook can be found on her web site http://www.marygatling.com.

Bookmark Art

I thought I would share an idea that was passed along to me by a fellow artist.
As a way of marketing my art, I've created bookmarks that I give out at shows, to my students, to friends and family members, or anyone who shows an interest in my art. I think that it's a better way to advertise than business cards since most everyone reads books and, let's face it, business cards usually get lost or end up in the trash.
People seem to like the idea, and it's a little different from what they would usually expect. Since I'm scaling down the size, and not using the entire image, the viewer gets a small sampling of the whole piece - just a little bit of a tease.
I take a scanned image of my artwork and crop it down to bookmark size in my photo manipulation program. I use Roxio Creator and Corel Draw, but any photo program would work for a simple project like this.
After I make any adjustments to color or exposure, I copy the image several times to fill a standard size paper. I then make prints onto heavy, cardstock paper and cut out each bookmark with an x-acto knife.
On the back of the bookmark, I put one of those sticky back return labels with the kind of information that you would normally see on a business card - my name, email address, and other contact information.
If you decide to try this, I suggest you use several different images of your artwork. I've found that people like to pick out a favorite.

Update - Can You Ever Have Too Many Pencils?

My last blog on pencils has raised a question from a few of you - what do I use to store my pencils?
Most of my pencils are in these very cool ice cube trays that I found at either Bed, Bath & Beyond or Linens & Things - I'm not sure since I've had them for years. They're actually used to make ice cubes for long, plastic drinking bottles and cost about $3. I have about 10 of them and you can see in the photo how I use them to group colors together.

I made my other storage container out of PVC pipe from Home Depot. I cut the pipe to the sizes I wanted (about 30 pieces cut to a variety of heights to accommodate both long and short pencils) and hot glued them to a round piece of wood. All this is attached to a lazy susan.

I hope the photos help to clarify things, but let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks!

Can You Ever Have Too Many Pencils?

I confess, I’m a pencil junkie - in my opinion, you can never have too many pencils. I just love them! I even have a collection of antique pencils, mechanical pencils, and several sets of old drafting tools. My collection comes from years of experimentation with the medium. There's never been a question about what to get me for my birthday!
For my colored pencil work, I mostly use Prismacolors, which are a wax-based pencil. Recently, I’ve been using Faber-Castell’s Polychromos, which are oil-based. Other pencil brands I use include Derwent, Cretacolor, Koh-I-Noor, Lyra, and Bruynzeel. I also use a variety of different graphite as well as pastel pencils. I don’t use water-soluble colored pencils very much, but they can save you a lot of time with putting down a layer of color. When I teach, I give my students several different brands of pencils, and if you’re new to colored pencils, I suggest you try a few to find one that feels comfortable to you.
Leave me a comment and let me know what brand of pencils you use and share what you like about them.