Becoming more creative, day 6

For the last day of this series, we're going to cover another 'D" word, design. This is where everything else comes together, and you have to start making decisions about what you are going to do with your project. It can be a little overwhelming to narrow down the millions of possibilities! In the book, Nita Leland calls the design the 'road map' for your project. You can change your mind along the way, but it helps to have some direction to the process. This book has lots of great information on design elements and principles. I'd recommend it or another book, I'm not going to go into them all here. I'm more of a cheerleader, since I'm still learning this stuff too:-) But I do have a few suggestions to get started.
1. start with something simple. I've done quite a few silhouettes, because they are very easy to do. You can have fun with the background, or keep that simple too. It helps build confidence if you don't try to do too much too fast.... 
2. limit your options by choosing a theme or color scheme, and remember you can change your mind :-)
3. think about your goal for the project...are you trying to say something, or just make something nice to look at? (Which is a valid reason to make art :-))
4. don't let the idea of design intimidate you...
5. if you are not happy with your drawing, you can use copyright free images also, or trace your own photos...I'm really lucky to have a great photographer friend, Mark "Sparky" Stensaas, who lets me use his photos in my quilts. That's where the image for this crane quilt came from.
Here is another great excerpt from the book: (The New Creative Artist: a Guide to Developing Your Creative Spirit)
  

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     "Design turns nature into art. What you see in the world around you may be interesting, beautiful, challenging or frightening, but it isn't art until you shape it into art. Flowers. Baskets. Sunsets. Snakes. Anger. Joy. As an artist,
you mold these raw materials into art using design, simplifying the complex, organizing the cluttered world into a coherent, meaningful image that expresses your concept
     Art is a visual language: Drawing is the vocabulary and design principles are the rules of grammar. Once you have a firm grasp on these fundamentals, using them becomes second nature, just like writing and speaking." Nita Leland

I hope this little series has given you some motivation to try being more creative, in all areas of your life, not just creating artwork. It makes our lives better, and the lives of people around us. Here's a review of the concepts we covered:
1. be willing to take risks and put in time
2. learn to observe
3. change/do things differently
4. experiment and play, try things!
5. practice drawing
6. design is putting it all together and making a plan, it doesn't have to be carved in stone...


Most importantly, have fun! And here is the reindeer quilt, I can tell I'm going to have lots of fun with my new Pigma pens and Prismacolor pencils!

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