New Painting – Sonata

// October 17th, 2010 // 8 Comments » // painting

So, after a week or so of almost zero painting time I got a few hours in the other day and finished off this painting for my Etsy Shop.

The hand holding the handkerchief nearly killed me. I spent more time repositioning, drawing practice sketches, and fussing around with that hand than I think I spent on the rest of the painting combined.

Anyway. Done, and done.

I like the way the colours look against the background of my blog, maybe I’ll just keep it, bang a nail in, and hang it here.

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The illustration for my last post, the penny farthing guy, got snapped up before I could put it in my shop.

Which is great!

This has happened a couple of times now, so I thought I might resurrect my abandoned newsletter by relaunching it as an advanced discount list.

(Except I hate the term advanced discount list. Might have to come up with another name for that–any suggestions welcome.)

I’d love to have a way to look after readers of this blog who might be interested in discounts on art and prints (coming soon), and even some giveaways (for buyers and non-buyers!)

I’m working out the details now, and will hopefully get it back up and running by the end of this week. Feel free to sign up now, though, if you’re interested–just fill in your details in the ‘Cup of Chai’ box on the right and you’ll hear from me very soon!

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Illustration Friday: Transportation

// October 8th, 2010 // 11 Comments » // illustration friday

Bit of a Steam-punk flavour for this week’s Illustration Friday offering.

6 Impossible Things: #4 A Penny-Farthing For Your Thoughts

// April 6th, 2010 // 4 Comments » // creativity, creativity theory, metaphor

Creativity is a non-linear process. We start out at Point A and end up at Point C, or Point Q, or any other point that happens to not be called Point B.

This is because, on the way from Point A to Point B , impossible things happen that steer us away from our original endpoint and onto fresher, shinier, more startling destinations.

This is not to say that there is anything wrong with Point B as a destination, just that the creative way to get there probably starts at Point W, or some other ‘non-A’ point.

Anyway the point is: a key feature of the creative life is that seemingly impossible things occur along the way that really kick things along, but only make sense in retrospect.

This is a series of posts presenting 6 impossible analogies for these ‘things’

6 Impossible Things: #4 A Penny-Farthing For Your Thoughts.

People often define creative thinking as the kind of thinking that needs to take place ‘outside the box’.

Why? What’s so wrong with the kind of thinking that occurs inside of a box?

Well, it’s cramped for one. ‘Inside the box’ thinking is limited in movement, and often forced to turn back in on itself as it bounces back against those walls. It’s scarcity based too–what with having so little room to move.

The kind of thinking that occurs outside the box is expansive thinking. It’s not cramped or squeezed or oxygen starved, and the ideas are able to move more freely.

So, how do we move from cramped, ‘inside the box’ thinking to expansive ‘outside the box’ thinking? Well, for that we need to find a new vehicle for our thoughts.

The Penny-farthing was invented in 1870. At the time it was considered a modern marvel enabling the rider to travel at up to 15.8 miles per hour. This was much faster than walking, which represented a huge improvement. The secret of the penny-farthing’s power lay in the large wheel’s relationship to the small wheel, which allowed  the rider to generate a huge amount of power for each turn of the pedals.

A metaphor is like a penny-farthing for your thoughts. Metaphors are expansive, they can be selected to fit our needs, they’re adjustable and provide exponential possibilities. Metaphors work in a similar way to the Penny-farthing, too. Instead of incremental step-by-step linear thinking, they allow us to take a larger whole and use it to leverage our thinking process exponentially. Of course, Penny-farthings can seem outdated now, but what if we strapped a jet-pack to the Penny-farthing rider to help things along?

There! Another huge boost in results. This is one of the great things about metaphors, we are allowed to play around and let them morph into something newer and more powerful, depending on our needs.

What metaphors can you (or do you) apply in your creative life? How can you shift these metaphors in order to boost their impact?