Well, I think this week’s blog may take on two different themes because I just don’t think my brain has been thinking in a solid frame of mind all week. I am feeling the pressure of the semester and just trying to keep my head on straight throughout this online semester. Also, I am trying to allocate the time for myself to open up and feel creative without the pressure of needing to post something about it.
Life is moving so fast that in one moment I may feel like I am rocking productivity and the next I am literally lying on the ground crying because I don’t think I’ll have enough time to read everything.
I am the type of person who is always looking ahead, trying to plan and strategize for any future inconvenience while still trying to put out all of the current fires in life. In some respects, I think this has helped me throughout life because I am hardly ever surprised, but when I am surprised it sends me off my rocker.
I think as I grow older the number of things that can be planned out and strategized for continues to dwindle because with age comes the wisdom that nothing is predictable. So, my ability to constantly look to the future may help me with school projects but for the majority of life that isn’t schedulable, I think it makes it harder for me.
Breaking my energy up into weeklong segments allows me to focus my time on the tasks at hand because if I try to think of all the projects I have to turn in by the end of the semester I just end up stressing myself out. Each week all I need to worry about is doing the reading for each of my five classes, completing two to three quizzes, posting to discussion boards, completing two to three weekly projects, and of course attending my classes.
I cannot explain how much this way of thinking has changed my life. So, maybe a week is too short for you, or too long but either way I truly believe that at least consciously knowing every task you need to complete and when is a game changer to productivity.
The problem is, that I usually end up leaving my painting or creative time for the weekends or in the evenings or early mornings when I can convince myself I have caught up on homework. There have been a few days that I chose to focus my mental energy on something for my little business rather than homework and I quickly regretted it when I came out of the creative trance.
Needless to say, creativity sometimes takes a backseat when I feel like I have a million other responsibilities and I couldn’t tell you why it makes it harder when I feel the pressure to post on my social media outlets.
I don’t want to see myself fall out of practice, or worse just stop altogether, so I have been channeling my inner silly and trying to have more fun this week. I painted a typical scene I find easy, some clouds and a mountain top, but the dried product was so bland I decided to add some sparkle. Metallic Sharpies are always fun to write with, so I picked some up and went to town on my boring painting, trying to create something new and exciting.
The first stroke was the scariest because I knew that I couldn’t paint over it unless I wanted to completely restart my painting. Once I placed that shimmering gold Sharpie tip on the canvas I just hoped for the best and glided it across the slightly defined mountain tops.
By the time I got to decorating the clouds I was just playing around with different shapes and patterns but eventually decided on a simple dot effect, this meant I had to fill in quite a bit of my mistakes.
In the end, I was left with a simple sparkling design (if you catch it in the right light). It may seem silly and I’m not sure exactly when else I could use this technique, but I did enjoy getting to do something brand new to me. I think it freshens up creativity and now I’ve got a new multi-medium art piece.
Updates on New Paintings, Content, and Product Releases!
Member Exclusive Special Sale Events throughout the Year!
15% Discount on your first order after signing up!
