And we can see how the winter weather has damaged the sidewalks, and have a little fun, too. Take pictures (with your phone–doesn’t have to be fancy), print them out, and draw into them with a pen to enhance what you see. This is a fun project to do with anyone–for yourself as a creative meditation, or with anyone from kids to elders.
In my book Make Your Mark: Explore Your Creativity and Discover Your Inner Artist (Chronicle Books, 2004) (http://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Mark-Creativity-Discover/dp/B0007ZNV1I/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416922505&sr=1-5&keywords=make+your+mark) there is a chapter on Invisible Ink. You can paint with lemon juice, milk, and other substances, even Champagne, allow the paper to dry, then bake it in an oven. The sugars in the juice or milk brown at a lower temperature than most papers, and your secret mark will be revealed. You may have done this as a child, writing with a q-tip on paper, and heating it over a lightbulb–sending messages back and forth to your friends this way.
To bake, heat your oven to 350 degrees, and slide a cookie sheet in the oven to preheat as well. When your lemon juice artwork is dry, you can slip it into the oven with tongs. The time it will take for your mark to “develop” in the oven will depend on the kind of paper you used, as well as how much lemon juice you used. Sometimes it will take forever for the marks to look a little bit golden, and then all of the sudden, it will get very dark, very quickly.
In addition to secret writing, you can make art-marks this way, painting with lemon juice with a brush, or spraying it across a stencil. Here, I put lemon juice in a Preval sprayer and sprayed juice across weeds:
You can put lemon juice in a blank stamp pad (you can buy a tray with a lid, that has a soft pad empty of ink at most art supply stores that sell to rubber stampers and scrapbookers, or you can pour a little lemon juice on a paper towel in a shallow dish and use that) and stamp with it, baking it:
You can even make an “inkblot” with lemon juice. Fold and unfold a piece of paper. Drip lemon juice on the folded piece of paper, fold and unfold. Allow to dry, and bake as above:
This is a fun project for kids, too, and useful for school projects where a page has to look aged. My son asked if there was any way to age his colonial recruitment handbill for social studies class recently. We didn’t have lemon juice, but had milk, and between tearing the edges and crumpling the paper a little, with milk sprayed through a plant atomiser, he made a pretty convincing document! Hope I am not raising a forger…
I have been reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things. It is a wonderful book, and has made me look at moss in a totally different way–the variety of it, the shapes, like tiny forests:
This has made me think of terrariums, fairy houses, dioramas for tiny living things..
My friend, the writer-illustrator Dana Sullivan (see his writing process blog tour post here: http://danastickylove.blogspot.com/) tagged me and another pal, writer-illustrator Kate Sullivan (her work here: http://onlindensquare.com/index.html) to be a part of a writer’s process blog tour. Dana has a wonderful sense of humor that is so perfectly wed with his writing and drawing. He is quite prolific, working on the Digger and Daisy series, Ozzie and the Art Contest, and his newest book, due out in August is Kay Kay’s Alphabet Safari which celebrates the Star of Hope Centre, a school and orphanage in Kenya. Kate Sullivan wrote and illustrated the wonderful book On Linden Square, which is somehow full of music, from its crazy-lyrical drawing style to the way the book is laid out. And the tales of all the quirky city dwellers makes me glad I am living with my family in the city of New York, which has enough quirks for everyone and more.
Thanks to Amanda Heyn and Ian Sands at the art education blog Art of Education for their kind words about The Successful Artist’s Career Guide. I am a huge fan of the Art of Ed blog–it is chock full of information and lesson plans and all kinds of encouraging ideas for teachers. So to have them review my book is extra neat:
“The Successful Artist’s Career Guide: Finding Your Way in the Business of Art might be the best gift you could give any graduating student who is even thinking about a career in art. This is more than a book about possible careers in art. As the description on the back cover states, “It will help map out a personalized route toward the creative life of your dreams.””- reviewer Ian Sands
For more, read on:
http://buff.ly/1lrAvi3
The post includes an exclusive interview, and photographs from the interior of the book.
Stay tuned tomorrow for information as regards the Art of Education giveaway of The Successful Artist’s Career Guide!
Aging the pages of a sketchbook, or ageing and distressing your art paper is a great way to sidestep creative obstructions…see tip 8, below.
Eight tips for getting past creative blocks: Four last week (http://bit.ly/1hVkO27) , and four this week.
A friend of mine called me in a panic last week–she couldn’t get into her studio. Not because it was blocked with debris from a natural disaster, but because it was blocked with debris from her own mind. She had done everything else she could think of to do to avoid working on the project at hand–a series of illustrations on spec for a writer friend. She cleaned the grout in the bathroom with a toothbrush, she disinfected all the door knobs in the house (it was the tail end of flu season after all), had sorted the books on her shelf according to size, and then resorted them according to color. Does this sound familiar? What was she afraid of? She was going into her studio to do the thing she loved, and yet, she couldn’t get there.
This is an example of major procrastination, sure, but she was also feeling stymied by the project, blocked. Last week I shared four steps to get past creative blocks:
1. Make inkblots
2. Move from your usual working spot or posture to another
3. Work on a schedule
4. Give a tea party for your critics
This week, I suggest:
5. Timer: If you don’t give yourself any time to dither and fret over what you are going to do next, sometimes that is enough to get past a block.
You will need:
Timer (the timer in your phone, for example)
A pad of notebook paper, lined or unlined computer printer paper
Pen or pencil
Scissors
Clear tape
How to:
-Set the timer for thirty seconds–Start!
-Write or scribble on a piece of paper–fill the whole paper, or as much as you can of it. Write anything–what a stupid exercise this is, how much you loathe grocery shopping, whatever. Draw anything–apples, circles, bunnies, anything. At the end of thirty seconds, stop and put your pencil down. Repeat, about eight times. Up the time to 60 seconds, and do that eight times.
-Look at the stack of things you have written or drawn. What do you have?
-With the scissors, cut something you like–a mark, a word–out of every page you have made. Tape those things to a new, clean piece of paper. What do you have? Probably at least ten things that you like, right?
6. Drawing from a Hat: Randomness is a great aid to overcoming creative blocks.
You will need:
Two hats (paper bags also work)
3×5 index cards
Pen or pencil
A book with pictures in it
Paper
How to:
-Flip through the book, writing down things you see in the pictures in the book onto the index card–one thing per card–use things like Horse, Apple, Heart, Chicken. Put about 15 of these index cards into the bag.
-Now write nouns that describe states of mind or more amorphous things–like Inexperience, Age, Angst, Altered States, Happiness, Youth. One per card. Put about 15 of these in the other bag.
-Draw one card from one bag and one card from the other bag. Place the pair on the table. Repeat this until all the cards are paired.
-Pick one pair that strikes your fancy (Inexperience and Chicken, say) and write one sentence about it on the paper. Can you write two sentences? Can you write a sentence about why it strikes you? Can you draw it?
7. Long Spoon: Do you know that quote, “If you sup with the devil, you must use a long spoon”? What if you used a long brush or pen? Sometimes using different muscle groups to make marks can loosen up your brain and get you thinking and making again. This is a technique that theatrical scenic artists use to lay in and paint backdrops that are often painted on the floor.
You will need:
Bamboo cane, dried–like what you can find at a florist–they use them for supports in larger arrangements
Soft lead pencil
Rubber bands
A small roll of brown kraft paper
Masking tape
How to:
-Stick the pencil (you can also use a brush and a bowl of watered ink or watercolor) into the end of the bamboo cane. Secure it with rubber bands, or tape.
-Tape a length of the kraft paper on the floor.
-Stand and draw on the paper taped to the floor.
To take this further, you can take a picture of the marks you have made and print them out smaller, and draw into them–the combination of large gesture on a tiny scale can be energizing.
8. Aging the Page: If it is a blank white page that makes you pack up your supplies and go clean the cat toys, then try aging the page. Having a sumptuously aged surface to draw into and paint over is a wonderful invitation to your mind to dive right in.
You will need:
Three sheets of Rives BFK paper
Ink, black and brown, and water
Large Brush
Paper towels
Natural sponges (optional)
How to:
-Paint all over the paper with water
-Drip the black and brown ink into the water–blobs will form and bleed out in the water. Either leave this and let it dry, or using the paper towel or natural sponge, rub the ink and water together, rubbing into the paper like you were moisturizing a saddle or polishing a table. While this is wet, you can drip water on it (from a height) and it will make interesting marks.
Bonus Tip–Last week I talked about inkblots– This is really my go-to technique…
For more information about making inkblots, drawing into them, and making things from inkblots, check out my book: Inkblot, Drip, Splat and Squish Your Way to Creativity (Boyds Mills) at Amazon http://amzn.to/1fZo9Cm, you can buy the book, and also “look inside.”
Eight Steps to Sidestep Artists Blocks, Part 1
(Four this week and four next week–it started to be the blog post that ate New York. So stay tuned!)
I got a lot of great comments and questions on a recent post at margaretpeot.com (https://www.margaretpeot.com/1016/free-book-giveaway-the-successful-artists-career-guide/) (check out the comments section), when artists wrote in to ask questions about making a living as an artist. While the preponderance of questions were about practical steps to take, I got a few comments about artists blocks–how being blocked artistically was keeping these artists from making a move anywhere–in their studio (or in to their studio), much less taking a first step towards a dream career in the arts.
Artists blocks can be caused by different things. Sometimes it is because the inner drama in our busy minds is too loud to squeeze an artistic thought in edgewise. Or because we can’t get into the studio (or our creative space) because we keep putting it off til tomorrow (see Ten Steps to Combat Procrastination https://www.margaretpeot.com/1066/ten-tips-to-combat-procrastination/). Sometimes we have been so long getting into our creative spaces (literal and figurative) that in order to work in them, we have to get a bulldozer and clear out first. Or, there are a parade of inner critics that come and sit around our studios like vultures, waiting for that creative thought, so they can pounce on it and eat it. Do any of these things sound familiar? Or is it something else for you?
Here are the first four (of eight, ultimately!) tips for mitigating or sidestepping creative blocks:
1. Inkblots: One of the best techniques for getting past creative blocks is making inkblots and drawing into them.
You will need:
India ink (black ink is always best to start, but color is fine, optional)
a squeeze bottle with water
paper (a light to medium weight drawing paper works), enough to make about twenty inkblots–so if you have large sized paper, you might want to tear it into smaller pieces.
a black, preferable acid free, gel pen
colored pencils
How to:
-Prefold a piece of paper. Put a couple drops of ink and a couple drops of water on a half. Fold and press down with the flat of your hand. Unfold and look–what do you see? Repeat this so that you have at least twenty inkblots. (You might not be able to stop making inkblots, and that would be success all by itself, so keep going!)
-Wait for the inkblots to dry, and then look through them. You might start to see images in the inkblots–creatures, landscapes, flowers, trees, monsters, beetles.
-If you find an inkblot in which you see something, draw around what you see with the gel pen, and then color that with colored pencils. Do you see a bird? Outline it and color it in. Do you see an abstract design? Color that. Turn the inkblots upside-down and look. Look in the negative space.
**If you don’t see anything at first, be patient with yourself. Look through the inkblots before you go to bed, and when you get up in the morning, look through them again. Your subconscious will have worked on it in the night, and you will see something in the morning!**
2. Move: Where do you usually work? At an easel? Then take your materials to a table, and work flat one day. Do you usually sit while working? Then stand one day, if possible. Try taking your art materials with you to the floor and sit like a kid with them spread around you. Or take a sketchbook (or some small paper) and a pencil on an outing–to a park, on the subway, to the zoo. Sit in a busy cafe and draw or write.
3. Work on a Schedule: When you show up at a specific time every day to make something (or try to make something), your mind starts to relax– “Oh, yeah–this is the time I get to do something creative!”. So even if you don’t have a thought in your head about what to do or how to proceed, get into your studio at a specific time every day–even if it is just an hour. Look through art books and bookmark things that you like. Cut paper to size. Make inkblots, do automatic drawing, stretch a canvas and gesso it. Do something for an hour every day.
4. Tea Party for Critics: Do you have a cadre of inner critics that come with you into the studio, sitting around smoking, moaning with despair or exasperation over your every move while you try to think of ideas? Identify them. Who are they? An art teacher–alive or long-dead? An unsupportive family member or acquaintance? An as-yet-unidentified “Art Dealer?”
Invite the inner critics to tea–not the real people, but the inner critics that come into your mind when you are ready to work. I’m serious. This is a ritual which is very powerful if you take it seriously. Put teacups on a table (outside of your studio) for as many inner critics as you have identified, and a plate of cookies. Put a stack of interesting magazines, the newspaper, some books. Make tea–real tea. Pour it into the cups. Say to the table of cups, cookies and interesting things to look at, “Thank you so much for all your help all of these years. I have something to do at the moment, but will be back in an hour or so. Please enjoy the tea and cookies!”
And off you go to your studio. Without them. You may only have to do this once. Sometimes those voices (and they are, of course, YOU) just want to be acknowledged. They have worked so hard to protect you from disappointment all of these years and will be happy to take a break from it.
For more information about making inkblots, drawing into them, and making things from inkblots, check out my book: Inkblot, Drip, Splat and Squish Your Way to Creativity (Boyds Mills) at Amazon http://amzn.to/1fZo9Cm, you can buy the book, and also “look inside.” And, please go to my dedicated Inkblot website: http://www.theinkblotbook.com/
“Procrastinate” has its root in the Latin word crastinus, which means “belonging to tomorrow.” We all procrastinate–put off what we could or should do today. Procrastination is easiest when a task has no foreseeable structure or outcome; when there isn’t a particular order nor length of time in which tasks must be completed. What can we do to combat procrastination so that we can get back into the studio? And how can these tips help us take the first steps towards the art career we know we can have?
1. Leave the studio (or your designated creative space) with one obvious task undone–final brushstroke on a piece, a stack of prints to title and sign, a coat of varnish to put on a finished work. That way, when you enter your studio, there is a task to complete, and you won’t spend time dithering about What to Do Next.
2. Hemingway tried to leave his writing when things were going well. This is a good idea for any kind of artist–leave your work when great ideas are still flowing, so you can’t WAIT to get back to your creative work.
3. Have more than one thing going at once in your studio, so that when you get to a waiting place–like waiting for glue or a glaze to dry–you have another thing you are working on or thinking about. This extra thing can be cutting paper to size, preparing a canvas, or can even be a wonderful art book that you have put aside for just this purpose–something to look at and be inspired and rejuvenated by.
4. Set time limits and take breaks. Work for a set periods of time, then allow yourself 15 minutes to have a cup of tea, read, walk out to get the mail and paper. Breaks refresh the mind and give you extra juice to keep going.
5. Do your creative work on a regular schedule. That way, when you get into your studio every day, your mind and body are accustomed to the routine, and ideas will flow more readily.
6. Build in days off. Days spent puttering, wandering through Chinatown or a museum, snoozing in the sun, walking, idly staring out the window–these idle times are essential for nurturing the creative spirit. Brenda Euland says in her book, If You Want to Write, “…the imagination needs idling,–long, inefficient, happy dawdling and puttering. These people who are always briskly doing something and are as busy as waltzing mice, have no slow, big ideas.”
7. Write your studio time and your art business time into your calendar. Many artists can spend almost half of their work time with their business hat on–making calls to clients, answering emails, preparing applications, sending invoices, exploring opportunities to exhibit. Some split the day, working in the morning in the studio, and the afternoon on art business. Some set aside a day a week to do their art business. You will find your own balance.
8. You should spend your most creative time creating, of course. Don’t get caught in the trap of “I have to get all of this done before I can work in my studio.” Make your work a priority, and let your art business activities buoy up your art making.
9. Make sure the tasks that you set for yourself in your studio are manageable. If you have not gotten into your studio all week, don’t let your urgency to get something done make your brain and hands freeze. Be realistic.
10. “Saved by the bell?”–or not! When you are in your studio working, you don’t have to answer the phone, check your emails, or look at your texts. All of these things can wait until your studio time is over for the day.
Read more about combatting procrastination, and finding time to get into the studio in The Successful Artist’s Career Guide. You will also find worksheets, advice and ideas about how to make a life as an artist. Bigmouthlocal.com says: “Flying in the face of the struggling artist stereotype, Margaret Peot delivers The Successful Artist’s Career Guide: Finding Your Way in the Business of Art…even during challenging economic times, Peot provides welcome proof that living the creative life remains possible.” Read a free excerpt of The Successful Artist’s Career Guide on Amazon.
to buy the book:
Albrecht Dürer, Soldier on Horseback, 1498. Albertina Museum Wien, Vienna
Freelancing as an Artist: Pros and Cons
The word “freelance” was devised in the Middle Ages, to describe a soldier of fortune–a mercenary who hired out his fighting skills to the highest bidder–a “free lance.”
For artists, freelancing means doing your art or artisan work for a variety of employees without any salaried commitment to any of them. If you are providing an art related service, you are probably working as a freelancer. Many artists have decided to be freelancers as there are few jobs that provide the kind of creative and time freedom they need to focus on their own studio work. There are some times when the freelance work aligns exactly with the work one does in ones studio, and that is great.
The benefits of a freelancer are many: You can set your own hours, work from your home studio or a studio outside your home, have multiple clients, and therefore a larger income base. You are not bound to an hourly wage, nor a salary, and can work at your own pace, which is often more satisfying and profitable.
The downsides to freelancing are that you have no real job security, no built in benefits (health insurance, disability, vacation pay, sick leave), and no pension. You must make your own contacts, and pay your own operating costs. You will probably have to hire someone to help with your taxes, as income from various employers, and keeping track of deductions can get complicated. And, as soon as possible, you will have to set up a retirement fund to draw from later in life. However, if you can see these “downsides” as the price to pay for having some freedom from a 9-5 job, they are not so onerous, and eventually they become routine.
When you work for someone else, they provide the workspace, and the the cost of materials, as well as providing an interface to interact with the world that brings jobs to you. All you have to do is show up and do a good job.
Sometimes people work for years as a freelancer, and then get snapped up for an “offer they couldn’t refuse” later in life to work for a company full time. Some people choose to freelance until they have a family, and then work for one of their contacts full time to have access to better health insurance and steadier pay. Sometimes people work full time, and then find a niche that they can thrive in, and break away from their full time job to become a freelancer.
Some people thrive on being a freelancer, while others prefer someone else do the business part and they can concentrate fully on their creative work. There is no right way to proceed with your life. You will have to decide what works best for you.
Bruce Walsh for Metro news says: “The Successful Artist’s Career Guide: Finding Your Way in the Business of Art…(is) teeming with worksheets and writing assignments intended to aid readers in divining their true calling, and they include scores of interviews with a variety of successful, working artists. Artist’s Career Guide is adamant that visual artists can lead healthy, financially stable lives. But, unlike other careers, it is a journey that requires personal tailoring — and introspection.” Read a free excerpt of The Successful Artist’s Career Guide on Amazon.
An excerpt from Successful Artists Career Guide Finding Your Way in the Business of Art, “What is Your Art Worth?” appears in the 2014 Artist’s & Graphic Designer’s Market, a reference guide for artists who want to establish or expand a career in fine art, illustration or graphic design, with up-to-date, individually verified market contacts, as well as info on grants, residencies, and interviews with artists and others associated in the business of art.
If you have chosen to be an artist, there are essentially three ways to go about living a productive life and making your art at the same time. All three ways are completely valid.
If you are an art major looking forward to graduation, you might have a great plan in place for what you will do when you graduate, or you might be wondering how in the world you will support yourself outside of the relative haven of school. Look at the following 100 art careers: Some you can begin now, without additional training, some might require some classes or additional continuing education, others will require an advanced degree. But all of them use the skills of artists.
If anything from this list interests you, set some time aside to spend researching it, and make a three step plan of beginning: What do you imagine would be the first three steps towards being a children’s book illustrator, for example? You will find the perfect fit for you. Good luck!
In my book, The Successful Artist’s Career Guide, you will find worksheets, advice and ideas about how to make a life as an artist. Bigmouthlocal.com says: “Flying in the face of the struggling artist stereotype, Margaret Peot delivers The Successful Artist’s Career Guide: Finding Your Way in the Business of Art…even during challenging economic times, Peot provides welcome proof that living the creative life remains possible.” Read a free excerpt of The Successful Artist’s Career Guide on Amazon.
Animal Portrait Artist
Animation Artist
Architectural Modelmaker
Art App Designer
Art Appraiser
Art Consultant
Art Critic
Art Director
Art Historian
Artist-in-Residence (healthcare)
Artist Blacksmith
Art Quilter
Art Restorer
Art Teacher
Art Therapist
Author, Drawing or Art Instructional Books
Book Artist
Bookbinder
Book Illustrator
Book Jacket Designer
Botanical Illustrator
Calligrapher
Car Design
Caricaturist
Cartoonist
Ceramicist
Charge Painter, Theater
Children’s Book Illustrator
Clothing Designer
Color Consultant
Costume Designer
Costume Painter
Courtroom Sketch Artist
Craftsperson
Craftsperson, Theater
Creativity Coach
Dinnerware Design
Dyer
Embroiderer
Exhibit Designer
Exhibition Designer
Fiber Artist
Forensic Artist
Furniture Designer
Furniture Painter
Glass Artist
Graphic Artist
Graphic Designer
Graphic Novelist
Greeting Card Designer
Icon Painter
Industrial Designer
Interior Designer
Jeweler
Leatherworker
Letterpress Printmaker
Luthier
Makeup Artist
Mask Maker
Medical Illustrator
Metalsmith
Milliner
Model Maker
Mosaic Artist
Muralist
Museum Curator
Package Design
Package Designer
Parade Artisan/Designer
Photographer
Photojournalist
Photo Retouch Artist
Police Sketch Artist
Potter
Printmaker
Props Maker
Puppet maker
Rug Designer
Scenic Artist
Sculptor
Sign Painter
Stained Glass Artist
Stamp Designer
Stationery Designer
Stencil Designer
Stone Carver
T-shirt Designer
T-shirt Printer
Tapestry Artist
Tattoo Artist
Technical Drawing
Textile Designer
Theme Park Artisan
Toy Designer
Tromp L’ Oeil Painter
Wallpaper Silkscreener
Weaver
Window Display Designer
Woodcarver
Zoological Illustrator
