Creativity Challenge #14

Posted on April 7, 2016 by prairiemoonquilts in Creativity Challenges

Did you have fun coloring last week?

I didn’t get much time, but I colored for a few minutes. Here’s the evolution of my crayon doodle that I started in Creativity Challenge #6:

Crayons1

Crayondoodle

crayondoodle3

Still not done, but getting closer. Time really gets away from me!

I noticed something this past couple weeks that made me realize how I’m holding myself back from my own creative efforts: I don’t have a dedicated space for doing art — even just doodling, drawing, or coloring.

And that leads me to this week’s challenge:

Set yourself up for being more creative

If you can carve out a little area where you can sit down and have everything at the ready, like you do for your sewing (if you do), then it will be much easier to BE creative when the urge strikes you, rather than losing an idea because you had to go looking for your supplies or couldn’t find what you wanted to use.

I know I end up getting frustrated because of my own disorganization.

Do you know why my drawing above is only 7 colors?

Because a tiny box of 8 crayons is all I can find in my mess! I know I have a huge box of 64 crayons somewhere, but I can’t find it.

So that’s our task for this week. I think it’s a necessary thing to aid us in being more creative in the future, and since I intend to keep at this, I figure I should set myself up to be successful at it.

If you don’t have the space for a dedicated area, at least gather all your supplies in one handy place. Use a caddy for all your pencils, markers, brushes — plastic totes for tape dispensers, scissors, findings — a shelf for all your notebooks, sketchbooks, paper. Baskets, bowls, boxes, and canisters can all be handy storage for your art supplies while still looking neat and tidy.

I’m going to spend some time this week trying to gather everything up, and find a space to keep it all handy so that when I DO want to be creative, I don’t lose my good ideas to my own mess. And maybe I’ll find my crayons!

How about you? Do you already have your supplies all neatly organized and stored for use at a moment’s notice? Do you have a dedicated space to do art? I’d love to hear about it, or hear your ideas about how you’re going to do this going forward. Please share your tips for organizing your art supplies, and how you set up your creative space.

Have a good creative weekend!

2 responses to “Creativity Challenge #14”

  1. Betty K says:

    Such a great idea!!

  2. Carrie says:

    For me, it is not the space; I have a space to create. It is the time. I finally decided in February (right about the time I found your blog) that I have to treat being creative as a job. It might seem counter intuitive, but I tend to put my paying job, household chores, and everything else in front of taking time to create. This year I am bound and determined to change that. Even if it is only 15 minutes a week, I will take time to create. You blog is a big part of that. Thank you.

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