Creative Kickstart Week 1 |
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Your sketchbook can be anything you want it to be. A home for finished or unfinished pieces, for brainstorming, for playing around and trying new things. A collection of imperfect marks, things you might not like, pages you love, and work to revisit later. It's where the process of creating unfolds and your ideas, expression, and vision come to life! I love the energy and power behind the word “vision” and it jumped out when I was deciding which prompt to start with--I can't wait to see what you do with it! |
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In this section I'll be sharing inspiration to help spark ideas for interpreting the prompt. I try to include 10-12 items from a variety of subjects and formats. Notice what you gravitate towards and expand on it. (If you have lots of ideas, pick 1 or 2 to focus on and jot down the rest for later!) I hope they help stir your imagination to form the beginnings of your page! |
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- A vision for food and pushing its boundaries. Watch this 2:35 clip of Chef Grant Achatz preparing dessert at his restaurant, Alinea (at 2:15, my favorite moment happens :)) Try using some of the techniques shown (a stencil, sprinkling, dripping, spooning, smashing) or use the finished dessert as inspiration--maybe for an abstract piece? If you'd like to learn more, there's a Chef's Table episode Volume/Season 2, Ep 1) featuring Chef Achatz, and here's a short clip of him talking about his food.
- Pick a word for your year and use that as inspiration for a piece. (My word is “focus” and I'm considering creating something technical that requires a good amount of concentration to execute.)
- Create a vision board. They're traditionally done for goals and dreams but I like the idea of making one for other things too: your garden, your home/space, hobbies, etc. There are many ways to put this together--click here for a variety of examples using different mediums and styles.
- Make a mood board - while vision boards focus on more specific things, mood boards are more abstract and help to convey a feeling or tone. You can use shapes, colors, fabric and paint swatches, patterns, and more.
- "At first I was somewhat embarrassed by drawing what was considered awkward people who weren’t anatomically correct and people who floated in the air for no reason, but as time wore on and I gained more confidence in my own visioning all this added up to what seemed to make my work unique and give it personality." - Katherine Bradford
- Take it literally: What's in your line of vision? You can also try plein air painting--painting outdoors.
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- The vision of a choreographer includes tying together movement, musicality, emotion, costume, make up, color, lighting, props, individuals and the group as a whole--it's amazing what they bring to life! This is one of my favorite routines by Japanese dance crew Fabulous Sisters choreographed by Ruu
- What are the synonyms and antonyms for this prompt? Do any of those words resonate with you?
- 1 song, 3 different visions for it: Dancing In The Dark sung by Bruce Springsteen, Mat Kearney, and Cannons. What's your vision for a favorite song of yours? Or is there a subject/topic you have different visions for? Try splitting one page into different sections, one for each vision.
- What do you imagine for your sketchbook? Textures? Bright colors? Muted tones? Mixed media collages? Fill a page with the element(s) you are imagining. For example, a page on texture can feature paint applied with a sponge, a brush, your fingers, a piece of cardboard, paint squeezed directly from the tube, etc. Keep adding until the page is full.
- “I have a flood of ideas in my mind. I just follow my vision.” - Yayoi Kusama. Here's a great animated bio on Yayoi: Who Is Yayoi Kusama?
- The Vision is an android from the Marvel Comics who turned on his creator and joined the Avengers to fight for the forces of good. What inspiration can you find from this character, his background, his costume, or comic books in general? (Have you seen Avengers: Age of Ultron? This is the first film Vision appears in. Consider checking it out, even/especially if it's not what you typically watch.)
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A FEW FINAL NOTES There really are no rules! If you want to try something, do it! If you catch yourself thinking you're doing something “wrong” or you “have to” approach something a certain way, ask yourself why and who made someone else the boss of your creative practice? :) See where each prompt takes you, wherever that may lead. Fill in as many or as few sketchbook pages as you'd like. Consider dating your work/jotting down notes about it. Besides writing it on the front or back of your page, a date stamp (via Austin Kleon) might be fun while keeping a consistent look or try using transparent sticky notes to attach to the top of each page (an idea from Tyra, a summer sketchbook un-slump participant!) |
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The next email you'll receive will be the check-in email on Tuesday. I'd love to hear and see what you're creating and feature it in our community section! Feel free to reply to this email and share about your workspace, what you're planning for this prompt, process pics, or your finished sketchbook page. If you decide to post on Instagram please tag me @atiliay and use #creativesparkNL so I don't miss it! OK--now let's get started! :) Have fun and enjoy the process! Talk to you soon, |
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PS: An oldie but a goodie I came across while going through inspiration ideas: Vision of Love--I remember loving Mariah's curly hair :) PPS: The Resource Library is up! See the link below. I'll be adding more to it so there will be more content by the time you get the check-in email! |
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