When my girls were younger, we would regularly play the game “I Spy.” It was a great way to pass the time when we needed to fill time while waiting somewhere because it was something we could always play. All you need is one person to spy something and one person to guess. (As a mom I’m super grateful for simple ways to distract my kids when we are out and about.)
Inevitably, there would be times when my daughter would spy something that I hadn’t really noticed. The game forced me to really look around my environment and caused me to see things I hadn’t expected.
I’m noticing a similar dynamic with creating daily artwork. There are things I am spying with my little eye throughout my day that probably would have gone unnoticed before.
Being immersed in a topic causes you to see things differently.
For example, this past week when making a routine stop at the grocery store I came across some tissue packaging that utilized handlettering. Immediately, I thought of a fun twist that I could take on it. And, Voila! — new artwork is created for a post.
I’m not saying that I wouldn’t have noticed the tissues before, but since I am in the habit of creating every day my mind is more intentional about scanning my environment and open to trying new ideas.
Plus, when I do find something that inspires or catches my eye, my commitment to create every day has removed the hurdles, objections, or apathy that may have been there before.
Whatever you want to get better at, increase the time you commit to it.
It doesn’t have to be a daily commitment, if that feels overwhelming or if circumstances would prevent you from being able to juggle that right now.
Even if all you do is decide that once a week you are going to set aside an hour toward a goal, that’s great. The more intentional you are about making time for your craft, the more you will change how you see things around you.
That shift in “seeing” could result in inspiration from your environment or a renewed priority in how you spend your time.
Marking the Milestones
This week marks the first time that I tried lettering on top of a photograph and also recorded video of creating artwork.
I’m very excited about the potential I’m finding in pairing my handlettering with photography. The look I’ve developed is based on layering, with each letterform created by placing abstract shapes on top of each other.
Therefore, layering on photographs seems a natural extension of that look. With it comes new challenges regarding color and selecting images whose composition works with my artwork. However, it feels like I’m taking my work to another level and I’m excited about that.
As far as recording video of creating artwork, I am proud that I’ve made taken that step, but definitely see that I have a lot to learn.
For one, the format of the video frequently gets cropped in Instagram, so there is a portion of the work I am doing you can’t even see. Here’s a link to view the video.
What I’ve learned is that the preview Instagram shows when you are uploading does not accurately reflect what the framing will look like. Therefore, if it doesn’t look right when you are previewing it, don’t upload.
Plus, I also learned that all video for Instagram needs to be a minute or less. Of course, I do enjoy speeding up the playback in iMovie because then I’m not so worried about how long it takes me to do something; plus, it makes it look like I’m REALLY efficient!
In terms of stretching myself, it’s been a good week. There was a time when I would have said “No way” in reference to recording video of me creating artwork.
Coming full circle to the beginning of this post, my hope is the more that I do things that stretch me, the more that I will see things differently and embrace how they help me reach my goals.
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