THREE WAYS TO NURTURE CREATIVITY

1. TAKE AN ART CLASS. 
Right now I am taking a class at our community art center. “Expression in Abstraction,” meets from 10 AM to 1 PM each Monday for ten weeks.

The instructor Soo Hong is a highly trained graphic and abstract artist who provides introductory lecture on art basics, then critiques and give suggestions for the 9 students who each work on independent projects.

Being forced to work for 3 hours straight at the art center with helpful suggestions at every turn is spurring me onto new levels of competence and creativity.

So far I work on three paintings at once so I can switch from one to another if I get bogged down. 

2. BUILD PINTEREST BOARDS 
Artists who lived before the Internet spent a lot of time at museums studying and copying the masters.

I do this on the image sharing platform Pinterest by collecting both famous and contemporary art on several boards.

Some of my boards are titled “Eye Catching Art,” “Abstract Figures,” “Art Muted Colors,” “Collage Art,” as well as boards for my own art and sketches.

With nearly 94,000 monthly viewers others are able to share what I find. When I see a painting that I especially like I copy the piece or loosely base a new composition on it.

Art students have used copying for centuries to improve. As Picasso said, “Good artists borrow, great artists steal.”
See Pinterest here. 

3. SKETCH WHAT YOU SEE. 
I enjoy carrying my medium A5 Leda sketchbook to coffee shops, art museums or around town and sketch people or sites.

I use a simple ballpoint pen, then add colored pencil or a light watercolor wash later. I don’t worry about trying to make perfect renderings. Instead the images are impressions of shapes and values.

These quick sketches are fun to make and create a record of an experience that brings back vivid memories when I look at the books later.

Sometimes I take photos with my iPhone and post them on my blog and Pinterest board. I know I’m not the best out there.

But, surprisingly some of the sketches gain hundreds of views on Pinterest. So my work just might be inspiring others to get creative as well.