I realize I am super-crazy-lucky to be able to have this job and I am grateful every single day that they let me draw pictures for a living, but the only downside is that I rarely create just for the fun of it. My brain has become so conditioned to create on schedule and per the needs of my clients, that it can be a real challenge to step outside that box and do what comes naturally to my creative soul.
The last few years I have tried to more dilligently keep a just for fun sketchbook (one that doesn't focus on trends or what my clients will need next) and on rare occasions I play along with Illustration Friday, but too often I only create for fun when I'm officially "on vacation".
Since I usually create mostly in watercolor and colored pencil, it helps with the reminding-me-this-is-for-fun-and-not-work thing to try something different. Those paying super-close attention might remember that last year I had a blast playing with Paperclay and acrylic paints on vacation.
This year I had all those amazing beads, and tried my hand at making my own jewelry for the first time in decades. I sort of had no idea what I was doing; there was an awful lot of un-and-re-stringing and wire-breaking explosions of beads flying in every direction and enough swearing that at one point Husband Guy asked me if I was actually having fun. I was. I totally was.
I call this one my Guarded by Monkeys necklace, the little monkey-charms hang around the whole thing.
I pulled out the acrylics and this time, painted a few pieces on paper. Somehow, in all these years of making art, I've never put acrylics on paper before. Don't ask, I have no idea why. It was fun, too; the paper got real canvassy and soft - I liked it a lot. An Elton John song came on while I was painting this one, and it naturally became part of the piece.
Where do you get your inspiration?
