Tag Archives: Creativity

My Creative Process

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My mind races ahead of me at times, with ideas which at first seem easy and then leave me wondering how on Earth am I going to do that.

When I write my stories, the characters take centre stage and lead me down their own merry little paths, which I enjoy. They, the characters, put themselves in the midst of an array of weird and wonderful situations and then look at me, almost pleading, asking for help with moving them along. I try, but sometimes I simply have to leave them where they are as I cannot see a way forward for them as yet.

With my artistic creations I get an idea as to what I want to create, whether in paint, through the digital painting software, or even PowerPoint, and then start. And I then stop, looking at the blank space ahead of me.

It must be the same for both writing and art to get passed that initial block, although I’m not entirely sure whether it’s a case of just start and see what happens.

My initial idea’s there. The means to get that idea into some form of reality is there in front of me. And some kind of destination is there also, although said destination is an extremely fluid one.

But that first push is in a spongy grey area. It’s a soft stumbling block which lately has been holding me back with just a little more gusto than it used to. It absorbs the weakest of my ideas, and leaks out any feeble attempts of a start in a dribbling never-ending flow of self doubt. And this flow of self doubt gets in the way of my creative flow, bringing in turbulence, which further waters down the already fluid destination, splattering it into the mists of an increasingly murky future.

See what I mean? My mind – racing ahead again.

That future, as well as the blank canvas before it, isn’t set. It isn’t a solid unchangeable wall. It may appear murky or blank (depending on where one looks!) but it can be changed by the lick of a brush, the stroke of a pen or the click of a key on a keyboard. I just need to remind myself of that more often. It’s that sponge at the very beginning I need to focus on… to dissolve it away. It doesn’t matter if I create rubbish – the rubbish can be changed; amended; even re-done if needed. After all, that’s the creative process.

It’s a shame to be held back by a sponge, isn’t it? I think I should just dive in once again and see what happens.

Please Allow Me to Introduce Piclets!

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Yes, I’m launching yet another blog. < – Six words!

This is another outlet for my creativity, this time for the digital doodles that I create that don’t seem to fit here or on Splodge and Splatter, but still need to be broadcast around the world.

The reason for this new blog is very simple. I recently had a very cost-effective job done (NOT the Bathroom, by the way, but ANOTHER job!), and, as I’d sent a Cosmic Order out to the Universe for it to be cost-effective, and received the order very quickly, I wanted to give something back.

I asked the Universe for a prompt as to what I could give back, and in a split second the word ‘Piclets’ appeared in my mind. I knew it was for sharing pictures (a PICture outLET if you like!) for free for those folk who just so happened to want one of my images, but before I started with the blog I did a quick internet search to see if the word ‘Piclet’ was already in use… obviously, I didn’t want to step on anybody’s toes.

Variations of the word came back, but nothing for Piclets itself (unless the search engine I used was doing its usual trick of giving me what it thought I was searching for, rather than what I actually was searching for!), so I went with it. I created a new blog in WordPress, and piclets.wordpress.com was available, so I went with that as well. It’s a free site, so there will be adverts but you don’t need to bother with them if you don’t want to.

Over time, and when I can (and looking at my recent blog-posting record I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you!), I will post a selection of my created images that I will just give out to the world completely for free, to be used for anything. Just right-click on the desired image(s) and save to your computer.

You may find the candles I gave will be placed over there as well, plus seasonal goodies… and Hallowe’en is coming up, so I may get my Hallowe’en thinking cap on sooner than planned. We shall see.

All of the images are created solely by me, out of random shapes and/or textures, but I feel in doing this I am, in a small way, giving something back to the world for free.

It may take off; it may not, we shall see. But for now, Piclets is LIVE!

This is a post for Six Word Saturday. Yes, I am aware that I’m posting it on Friday, but it is good to be early for once! Who knows when the next post will appear here… soon, I hope!

Have a great weekend.

By the way, the images on the new blog are very sparse and created (with the exception of the candle!) just for the launch of the blog. The next post over there will feature more lovingly crafted images – but  a start is a start! And – Oh! Click the image at the top to get to the new blog. Hehehe!

The Good Old Days

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These Wednesday posts remind me of how it was when I first started blogging, back in the hazy sepia days of 2010. What should I write about today? was always the first question on my mind. Swiftly followed by numerous rewrites of a post that I hoped someone – anyone – just one – would read. I don’t worry about that now, however. Oh, I still worry about what to post, but nowadays I just go with the flow and have done with it.

I’m so comfortable with blogging nowadays I don’t worry too much. If a post works, great! If not, well, there’s always next time. For that not to work either. No… I jest! Some do work. They really do.

For me, now, blogging is less of an experiment, as it was when I first started back at the dawn of time, and more of a little test for my imagination. Where can I stretch it to this week? How far can I go with this train of thought? What can I do with that unsuspecting word?

I like how this place had evolved, and the fine folk who have joined me along the journey.

One thing that has stayed with me, during the millennia that this blog has been in existence, is my intention that it be a Feel Good place. Perhaps random at times, peculiar at others, and just what the? most of with the odd post or two, I hope that the Feel Good vibe seeps through (however subconsciously – and maybe unconsciously!). I imbue each post with the vibe, regardless of how it turns out in the end.

I saw one of those TV adverts earlier, where the woman is talking at the camera (I presume she’s meant to be talking to me, but I get the feeling that she’s looking at my left ear so I have to say she’s talking at the camera) and gushing about how great her laptop has been in helping to create her marvellous blog, which she created by writing about all the things that made her unique. She says she writes about fashion or walking around town with a bunch of balloons. And I think I’m random… I must be, for I use a desktop PC for my posts. Which has been a great help in creating my marvellous blog.

This month sees me starting my ninth year of blogging. Nine years of randomness. Nine years ago, I nervously hit ‘submit’ for the first time. Since then, I’ve flown. I literally really have! Words have flown out of me like nobody’s business. Yes, sometimes they fell just at the point after leaving my finger and before hitting the keyboard, but the words were there to begin with. Hidden, masked, but there. And not only words. Pictures… paintings… photography and (a few, not many) posts about nothing.

Creativity.

That’s what blogging is to me. Feel Good creativity. Good, old-fashioned creativity. Creativity in whatever form comes to the surface at the time.

Like walking around town with a bunch of balloons*.

  • Yes, I know I published a line drawing yesterday, but that was of the town I was walking around in. Today’s line drawing is a self-caricature of moi, doing the walking with the balloons. Notice the trendy sweater? Height of fashion, me. And notice the hair? Yes, I’ve had it cut. ‘Tis gone.

For another year.

Onwards and upwards!