Creative Progress: Stitchalong

by | Jun 30, 2012 | my creative journal

Years ago, I started a embroidery stitch sampler, but never completed it. I got stuck on a square and the project was soon abandoned. But my love for embroidery still lives on. I think of stitching as drawing with thread… it’s just so darn cute! At least, that’s the style I gravitate towards.

This past week, I’ve finally gotten around to dusting off my incomplete sampler after signing up for a class with Amy Powers at Big Picture Classes – Happy Go Lucky Stitchalong!

I was able to get past the square of my puppy’s face, then added a few more squares. It’ll still be a slow going project since I’m a slow stitcher, but I’m happy to have started up again. Suddenly, I have all these ideas for stitching my drawings on things.

Do you like to embroider and stitch in your creative endeavors?

Creative Progress: Art Journaling and Painting

by | Jun 25, 2012 | my creative journal

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted, but I’m still here and creating behind the scenes. I’ve simply taken a lot of time off from the online digital world. Living and experiencing… without the thought of posting and sharing about it. Everyone should take a break, once in a while. But I’m feeling the urge to share, so for now, let me show you a little peek of what’s going on in my art studio.

I’ve been playing with paint and bits and bobs of materials I have lying around. Art journaling is a fun and relaxing activity, and I’m trying to loosen up and explore more, going through a new book – Brave Intuitive Painting-Let Go, Be Bold, Unfold!: Techniques for Uncovering Your Own Unique Painting Style (find it on Amazon). I love Flora Bowley’s work and since I’m too far away for an in-person workshop, I thought the book would be a low-cost alternative.

Creative Progress and Play

by | May 4, 2011 | my creative journal

Although I’m definitely making progress with my creative business 101 journey, secretly setting up some things in the background related to marketing this week…I’ve also been a bit disappointed in myself at the same time. There’s so much more I could do – connections to be made, barriers to break and work to be created in the end. Does one ever feel satisfied of oneself? Okay, maybe that’s a silly question because we must in some sense… but I’m always plagued with this idea of not having enough time and wanting to get more done…and done NOW! I suppose these thoughts stem from looking at my pile of random works…

For some reason, these works are on loose papers, not doodlings or ideas written in my art journals. Just pieces floating around from experiments and random musings. Maybe I had a flash of inspiration or wanted to try something out. I haven’t thrown them away, but don’t know what to do with them at the same time. So it’s all stuffed in a file folder, stacked here or there. What a mess!

Do you have work that is just lying around? I’ve pondered throwing it all away, because perhaps it’s just a burden…I should be moving on to the next thing. But then I wonder if I should bind it as an art journal…for inspiration at a later time or just for keeping like other journals. I’m not one that often flips through my old journals, so I’m not sure if it is worth it. I’m just not sure…still growing and changing all the time as an artist. But it started bothering me for some reason…seeing the stack of unfinished work. Things that could have been something…but now are just nothing. Does this even make sense?

I suppose if your work is creative, but you have fun with creative work at the same time, it can be challenging to create with no end in purpose. With no product in mind, you are just playing…but then it also seems like you are not working and that just doesn’t sit right. Again, plagued by the thought that I should be working more because I’m so far from my goals perhaps. Sure we have to play a little, but seeing a huge of stack of play versus no stack of work…well, I guess it got to me. I let myself play because that is part of the freedom of working at home and building your own business. So I ended up just played more…taking my old watercolor girl cut-outs and collaged them into pieces.

I don’t know why I can’t shake this negative feeling of having unfinished stuff. Not being able to move on as I want to. I want results darnit! Even though in creative work people always say you shouldn’t think about that. But if it’s your job, it’s sort of necessary. There’s got to be a balance between creative floofy lovey dovey stuff and the business practical I need to eat thing. 🙂

Balance…that’s what I need. It still plagues me…or perhaps that is too strong of a word. But to this day I still remember one of professors writing in my final critique that I need to find balance. Jeepers…I am I so apparently imbalanced?

Even thought I allowed myself to play it all out, after collaging madly, the girls still don’t seem finished to me. More unfinished work play whatever…

It was definitely fun and I still like looking at them. It’s cute, they are cute…oo…ahh… but in the end, yet again, random floating pieces just lying on my desk.

I should note that the photos are all perspective distorted because I snapped photos of them at an angle on my desk. They look wonky, eh? Well, besides confirming the fact that I get glue just about everywhere when breaking out that bottle, I also learned that my watercolor girls started bleeding when the gel medium got brushed on top. I also noticed that the dried glue I smeared all over gives an interesting resist texture. Finally, I realized this uber heavy painting paper by Fabriano is lovely to paint on. I suppose this week, I just learned some new things…so it’s not all play after all. Sigh. Well, I hope everyone is having a great week and progressing in one way or another! Until next time…ciao ciao.

Creative Success In Just 10 Minutes A Day

by | Apr 20, 2015 | my creative journal

LTieu-creativesuccess

In talking to many creatives online, I’ve realized that so many of us are blocked and stuck in paralysis. We have dreams and goals, but feel that it’s too far fetched, too difficult or too late to start working towards them.

I want to help us break through the false impression that success only happens with massive action and investment (whether it’s time and/or money).

I’m certainly not against the times in our lives when a major change certainly can kick us into action… but on a day-to-day basis, experience tells me that just 10 minutes a day can lead to success.

We often underestimate the power of incremental change and progress. Consider that 10 minutes a day is over 60 hours of time in a year. That’s like spending more than a month of business work hours – straight – on one project… and that is a substantial amount of time for many types of projects.

When I became a mom, I had to learn the hard way to make use of all the little bits of in-between time I had available to me. The luxury of giant blocks of free time are rare! And if you think about it, the availability of little chunks of time is much greater in our lives today. Waiting in lines, the transition times between errands and tasks, the few minutes before your day starts or day ends… lots of little pockets of time. It makes so much sense to learn to make use of them, rather than just letting them pass you by.

To give you some examples of how 10 minutes a day can lead to success for various projects and goals, consider this:

  • Daily doodle/drawing/pattern/collage projects even with a quick 10 minutes means you will have 365 entries at the end of a year. Even if you skip days you would have still accomplished a lot. That is why I love 100 day challenges or daily routines of that sort. It’s a great way to develop a creative practice routine.
  • Daily exercise like a set of crunches, lunges or stretching poses. It always seems like nothing, but if you actually take action for 10 minutes a day, you’ll be surprised how much more fit you’ll be after a year of practice. Again, even if you skip a few days, the results are still better than doing nothing. This kind of practice can be as simple as a 10 minute walk around your work building at lunchtime!
  • Meditation for 10 minutes a day. It’s a great way to give yourself that calming, centering time. You’ll be surprised how this simple practice might change the way you feel the rest of the day! Not to mention, it helps when you are going through a difficult situation – deep breaths, right?

You might agree with the fact that daily routines are great, but perhaps have trouble keeping up. So how do you set yourself up for success when it comes to nurturing a daily routine?

  • First you have to set up the goal or activity you are wanting to accomplish. Keep it simple and realistically possible for a short period of time.
  • Then you have to simply make it easy for you to jump in and spend those 10 minutes of time when it comes along. Like having your sketchbook always ready and available. Or memorizing those exercises you want to do, so you can break them out anytime anywhere.
  • The point is to set yourself up for success and just keep moving forward day by day, chipping away at it.
  • Finally, don’t let a missed day trip you up. Think of every single day as a new start. Doing something sometimes, is better than nothing all the time.

Daily routines work for so many creatives and if you ask anyone who has achieved any kind of success, they will inevitably tell you it’s the slow and steady work of chipping away at the task.

If you need a bit of motivation, think of declaring your intentions in public or getting a partner or buddy who wants to do this routine with you. Accountability works and community motivates! Generally you can also keep your eye on the prize and visualize all that you will accomplish by the end of the year.

LTieu-sketchbook012

I’ve embarked on the #100DayProject, posting my simple pencil sketches on Instagram daily. It’s a small creative exercise, but it’s about keeping my drawing muscles flexed and turns out to be a fountain for inspiration. A simple creative play exercise can turn into a full-fledged idea and project!

Are you ready for creative success?