*AFRAID TO MAKE ART? OVERCOMING THE FEAR OF THE BLANK PAGE, GET OVER CREATIVE BLOCKS & INTO THE ZONE

[Music] [Music] do [Music] so welcome to my home studio this week for this week's video i haven't actually been into the red brick building yet this week and i'm really glad that i didn't go in yesterday because one of the girls messaged me to say that the heating had broken again so it was really really cold and and then when james got in he didn't have that message before before he went in and he said it was really really cold yesterday so i think the girls in the studio that it was 12 degrees um so that's really cold and i have to say the heating at the building has been breaking more regularly than usual shall we say so i'm not sure what's going on and whether it is what i said it was last week with them doing the renovations in the building next door anyway suffice to say i've been working at home i've been working on my part nouveau project and the idea for this week's video actually came about through my process of actually trying to get back into painting both last week and this week so this is a project i'm doing on the patreon and i haven't touched it basically since before christmas um and i think most if not all of you will understand what i mean when i say creativity takes courage which is a quote by henry matisse and i've named this video art takes courage because it's so so true and i think it's something that we don't talk about enough as part of our process because it comes up for me all the time um and i do create a lot um i create very regularly not every day but most days i am doing something either in my journals or painting um but yes some people are saying you know what do you do with the blank page and things like that so i thought i'd do a little video this week about some of the techniques i use and give you some tips of how i get into my creativity maybe it's it's fear of the blank page or maybe as very frequently happens to me it's the fear that happens when you're part way through something so you've done about 50 and you're scared to do any more layers on the top in case you ruin it so yeah that's what i'm going to be talking about this week and one of the things i really love about the um the quote by henry matisse is that it includes the word courage so rather than talking about the fear we talk about the opposite of that the remedy of that which is the word courage and it's a word that's really special to me and i remember quite a long time ago looking it up in the etymology dictionary and also learning that the french word for heart was and i won't say it right i'm not very good at pronouncing in french but it's cool cool cool something like that so if you're a french speaker i truly apologize for my terrible pronunciation but i did my best so the word developed from the word heart which i think is really like a beautiful route to a word and i'll read you a little bit of the eptomology as well because james looked it up for me again this morning to remind us in the 1300s heart as the seat of the emotions hence spirit temperament state or frame of mind from the old english word courage which meant heart innermost feelings and temper and also from the 12th century the modern french courage so i really love that and yeah the french word is c-o-e-u-r i believe cool something like that so yeah apologies again for that terrible pronunciation but i really really love the word courage and when i talk about things i always like to talk about the positive rather than the negative so in this case rather than talk about the fear i'd much rather talk about the courage which is the remedy of breaking down the fear so i hope that makes sense um mother teresa used to always say she would never go on an anti-war march she would always go on a peace rally because there's energy to words and language so it's really important how we talk to ourselves and how we talk to each other what words we use and things like that so that's why i've picked the word courage as well and used the wonderful quote by henry matisse so here's some of the things i do to get over this and to find my courage when it comes to creating whether it's painting or doing something else it can apply to anything creative really and i kind of call it getting into the zone or finding my courage so i made a little list um on monday actually because i've noticed last week when i was filming the video for last week i felt a lot of resistance and a lot of the fear basically of jumping back into a project i hadn't touched since before christmas and then also on monday i noticed it again so i thought it might make a good video to actually share on the things that i do so i made quite a comprehensive list and um yeah i'll share all my techniques and tips in this video so it's not in a particular chronological order if you like um it kind of is and then there's a couple of things thrown in that we need to remind ourselves so all should become clear as i go through it and hopefully some of the tips might be helpful to anyone out there who really needs to find their courage um and get their way back into their creativity so fingers crossed it's um helpful to somebody out there so the first thing i noticed that i made myself do was really push myself to do my morning yoga so i'm talking about monday here specifically most mornings if not all mornings i get up and i do my yoga and i do 20 minutes ish sometimes a little bit more sometimes a little bit less but i find if i stretch in the morning it makes me feel good so i really like to do that as part of my early morning routine before i'm even properly awake and definitely before i've had coffee so i made sure i did the very basic self-care morning routine even though on monday i got up and i felt pretty down and pretty much not sure that i was going to be able to find the courage to make the video and paint because i'm not only painting just on my own the other thing to explain is i'm actually filming my process so other people are going to see how good or terrible my my painting is so there is a pressure on me for that um and a couple of weeks ago i did a really terrible um drawing painting quite a loose expressive one in the patreon for this project actually it was the art nouveau project and when james saw it he was like oh you know she looks a bit did it um and i and i said yeah you're absolutely right and i i put the video up even though it was a terrible drawing um because you know partly because it's really important to be authentic and you don't always create art that you like and it's not always correct and things like that and i think that's a really important part of the process to share um to be truthful um and the other reason i didn't really mind it was because i was able to say you know in the video in the patreon video oh well it's a terrible drawing um so and i know they don't mind so you know it does happen from time to time and sometimes it starts turning out really nice so that's good as well and often paintings go through like an ugly phase as well but anyway i just wanted to add that sort of extra element for me where i'm you know i'm not just painting for myself on my own and and this that and the other i am actually talking through my process and um sharing the bits that go wrong as well as the bits that go right so that that can put me off anyway i was feeling that a lot on the monday so i made sure i did my basic morning routine yeah i like to tend to my plant babies so make sure they're okay and got enough water and everything you know and maybe you have real babies or pet babies you know puppies and kittens and things like that that you need to tend to in the morning so yeah i did that and after i did that i got myself ready so i had a shower and did my hair and things like that so i actually felt good in myself i put comfy clothes on um you know a little bit how i have this morning even though i'm staying at home i mean i know i'm filming so i'm going to be on youtube but um at the same time i still wanted to be sat comfy talking to you so i've i've done all that this morning and so that i feel good in myself um and even if i wasn't filming i'd have done that as well rather than just sitting around you know slobbing i like to be comfortable but i also like to be a little bit put together if you like if that makes sense you know i mean the basics of taking care of yourself that's what i'm talking about and whatever that is to you so you know if you want to groom your beard or your eyebrows or whatever it is that you do um often before i'm making a video i do i do like a little manicure a little mini manicure you know if i'm doing um videoing on my desk because you know obviously people are going to see my hands um and i don't paint my nails anymore or anything like that but i just do a little um mini manicure if you like yeah to take care of my basic self-care stuff if you like the next thing i let myself do and i did note this down as well was to let my emotions flow so i was as i was having my morning tea i was noticing my emotions as they were passing through um you know when it was like hesitant a hesitancy and a resistance to creating and can i really get into the zone today to you know produce something worthy enough to put on on the video and all thoughts like that so i let all those swim through my mind and i noticed them but what i didn't do was let myself stay there i allowed them to flow through me and i listened but i didn't allow myself to stay there so i didn't allow myself to talk myself out of being creative that's what i'm trying to say on that one then i moved on to journaling and i did a little bit of journaling writing in my journal about the resistance i was feeling and just recognizing it and acknowledging it in my journal i did a little thing where i talk to myself in my journal if you like i have these little conversations so it's a little bit like having a conversation if you can imagine with with your inner parent and your inner child so your inner child is very um oh but i'm i'm not in the mood and i'm really scared and i'm really tired and what if it all goes wrong and all that so that could be the inner critic or the inner child and then the inner parent comes in and says you know do your best have a go you might really enjoy it and all that kind of talk so i kind of had conversations like that in my journal sometimes which is really helpful i find because it allows me to let the emotions flow and it allows me to be truthful with myself but at the same time like i said in the previous point i don't stay there so this is where i'm jumping into my list with a random point really but it's a really important one is to recognize and acknowledge whether you are a morning afternoon or evening person or whether any of that applies to you whether you have your energy that lasts you all day whether you come awake at 2 a.m um for me i'm a morning person so anything that's going to expend the most energy in my day i tend to try and do in the mornings so i like to have an art session in the mornings um painting drawing that and all my creativity in the mornings and then sometimes i'll create in the afternoons just for me but if i'm filming um and painting say for example i will always try to do that before midday or at least start before midday where my energy's at its peak um and and that kind of thing so it's recognizing what what's your power time of the day if you like where you're really at your best at your ultimate and that you're going to get the best results and yeah and then you you create something that you can be proud of yourself about if that makes sense so the next point on my list is something that i do at the beginning and also throughout my creative process which is to breathe ground and center so whatever that means for you and i think that we forget to breathe when we're sort of feeling in the fear and feeling anxious and that kind of thing we tense up so to just breathe and ground and center put yourself back on the planet if you like that can be really helpful and if you notice yourself um getting anxious you know while you're painting while you're drawing while you're creating just to remind yourself to keep doing that you can't just do it once and then it's done you know keep doing it and the more that you do it the less you need to do it so it's a really useful thing to remember the next point is something i've talked about quite a lot in previous videos actually is spending some time getting inspired so before you jump into your painting for example hop on the internet grab some of your books whatever it is that inspires you listen to some music a podcast that inspires you and that kind of thing to get yourself inspired um to remind yourself of why you want to create look at some paul chagall books look at some matisse look at artists that you love klimt and all the art nouveau um artists for me is really inspiring pre-raphaelites i love pre-raphaelite art and a lot of artists who are in that movement so yeah for me that's a really really important part of my creative process and i think that sometimes we forget to give ourselves a good half hour or longer an hour of inspiration time and then it really gets our juices flowing um and we get excited to create rather than anxious if you know what i mean so we get in the right state of mind of joy to create so this brings me back to the point of the blank page the good old blank page and i think we've all experienced that whether we are writing or whether we are drawing or painting or even a little scruffy journal that we have where we just want to do some little doodles there's that fear of the blank page and i think it's even more enhanced if it's a new notebook for example we talked about that before haven't we where we've got a pile a stash of notebooks and journals and sketchbooks and things like that and we haven't dared put anything in them yet in case we ruined them so this is the part of my process where i remind myself that i'm not perfect that it's not going to be perfect it's just another layer so you can always layer over the top you can collage over it you can do white paint over it you can stick the pages together if it's really terrible you can rip them out even if you want and burn them if it's got something in there you just want to get rid of so there are ways to get rid of that but um yeah the way i think about it and it puts me back into calm is it's wendy it's just another layer so yeah i remind myself of that at this point as well so another thing i like to do as well is prepare my space and i have a whole video on this which i'll link up there somewhere which is called creative rituals and in that i talk about that in a little bit more detail but i wanted to bring that as a point in here because it's really important that i'm in a in a nice light um that things are kind of neat especially in my home studio because i have a lot less space and my desk is a lot smaller here um and i don't want to be knocking you know jars of water over on my laptop and things like that and i keep my coffee out the way and my crystals to hand and obviously have some greenery around me and things like that so yeah i think it's really important to set the scene and you know have a candle if you want or burn some incense anything that helps signal to you that it's time to create that's going to flick you into the zone if you like and often just the thing of lighting a candle or lighting some incense can kind of give your brain that signal especially if it's something that you do every single time that you create it creates that that pattern that neural pathway in your brain that then connects that action with a creative activity so that can really help um and it can be a really really simple thing like um having a specific cup of tea so a specific flavor of tea for example i really like to have a little bit of coffee or a little bit of green juice or something like that that's what i usually have when i'm creating so it completely depends on on the individual and we all have different little ways of getting into that but just to recognize that a teeny tiny action of just say lighting a candle or straightening up your desk and um putting a little object that inspires you on your desk that you can see it um you know or having your crystals around you that kind of thing can be so so helpful you know i like my creativity to be a multi-sensory experience if you like and that starts with me feeling comfortable in you know soft clothing and that kind of thing and then to all the all the multi-sensory things like smell and taste and that kind of thing so the next thing i did which i did do on monday and you've seen some vlogs where i'm doing this as well um which is you know not something i thought i would be putting on youtube to be honest me dancing around but it is something i do when i'm creating so i like to move my body dancing to music and loosening up and you know obviously you're going to relax your muscles and stretch out your body and it just feels good because you know your emotions and your energy any pent-up stress or anything like that can move through your body through the movement and it just feels good and it puts you in a state of joy and happiness uh it can lift your mood lift your spirits um and yeah i think you've seen it i do often do that myself and i do recommend it so if you've never tried it have a little boogie in between um your creativity when you're about to have a rest or when you're feeling um anxious or stressed yeah have a little boogie around and see how it makes you feel you know let me know in the comments below if it works for you i bet it does and even bad dancing is really good because it will make you giggle so even if your dancing is terrible you can just laugh at yourself which again puts you in a state of joy which is a good thing when we're creating so now it's time to begin the actual creative process um i'm at that point where i'm about to put my paintbrush in the paint and put it on the paper or the canvas so that's the time where i say to myself just begin and i start off really lightly and delicately and softly i don't go in with you know hard layers at this point i do i do something quite subtle and soft and just sort of gently get myself in and then i've begun so the hard part is now done i've picked up my brush and i've put it on there so that to me is you know fantastic so i think another thing that can help at this point when you're at the point of you know creating is to set a timer um maybe 15 minutes or half an hour or whatever feels good to you uh maybe even five minutes and set that timer and um allow yourself to take a break after that timer goes off and i found that little tip on the internet um a long time ago like probably about 15 years ago now so i don't know if she's still on the internet um some of you might have heard of her anyway so it was flylady.net and the fly stood for finally love yourself and she basically was the queen of decluttering and sorting out your space and sorting out your house and your routines and she was absolutely brilliant and she really helped me when i was going through the process of selling our house before we ran away in our van and i and i had this big house to sort out and it was full of stuff we had so much stuff oh my goodness um and we didn't know where to start and so i used her 15-minute strategy and i remember the first thing i did in the house and i had been procrastinating it because it wasn't a very nice job that i was looking forward to but it was to wash the walls in the kitchen i needed to get a special soap to do that um so that was the first thing on my list and she's like you know you got to get prepared so what's stopping you doing something anyway i don't want to go off on a wendy waffle tangent here but suffice to say it helped me so much just by using this 15 minute putting the timer on and using that as a strategy and then often i'd set the timer straight away afterwards for another 15 minutes and um yeah sort of keep going until i felt like it was time to have a break so yeah thoroughly recommend that tip so also at this point it's a really important part of the process to remember and remind yourself there's no judgment no self-judgment no pressure to be perfect at all and the way i like to think about it is that we should treat ourselves at this point like you would a small child so you would be soft and kind and gentle and encouraging you wouldn't come down with a heavy judgment and negative comment about what they were doing so remind yourself to do that for yourself as well so if you go wrong you've gone wrong fair enough i mean it's not the same as digital art where you can just undo this is this is scary stuff this is the real deal um so anyone who's doing digital art i'm not criticizing you at all i love digital art i've dipped in there myself there is a place for that so please don't think i'm having a go at anybody if they're a digital artist but they are luckier in the sense that they have an undo tool um or an apple zed and here in this situation you know there's no undo if it's a watery layer then you can you know wet it and wipe it with a kitchen towel or something like that i mean i painted over her hand and and made it into hair um but i just wiped it off so i mean there's always a little something you can do if you get in there quickly but oftentimes when you've made a mistake you've made a mistake so you're either going to work over it or work with it or you know maybe sometimes you will just start again begin again which is you know fine as well where you just say well i learnt that from this piece and on the next piece i'm going to do it differently so i've got a few tips left to share about what to do throughout the process so while you're actually painting or drawing and the first one of those is to keep an awareness of how you're feeling so if you feel tense or anxious reset and relax and repeat so just keep doing that that i do that every single time and it's really really helpful take regular breaks so depending on when you need a break some people can sit and draw for hours i need a break after 45 minutes so i tend to break after about 45 minutes sometimes it's a little bit more sometimes it's a little bit less it depends on the flow of the day really but i like to move my body when i have a break um so i might do a little dance um i might do a bit of yoga i'll rehydrate maybe have a snack maybe have i've been having some chocolate some dark chocolate um so yeah that kind of thing and then just reset yourself by centering so like we talked about before you know you reset your center and you rebalance yourself and make sure that you're feeling you know relaxed in your body before you start again often when i'm having a tea break that will be the time where i sit with my painting and commune with it and chat with it and have a little review if you like just me and my painting and yeah maybe put it over there at a distance and yeah think about some decisions i need to make for the next part of the process it's a really good time as well to encourage yourself and uh give yourself a little pat on the back and and even if it's not going to plan and and you're not loving what it's looking like right now just you know give yourself a congratulations for actually starting and having a go so that's a really good time for that as well and it might feel a bit weird at first but do it anyway because yeah the way we talk to ourselves it really really matters it really makes a difference to how we feel and i'm probably not telling you anything new here but i think it's really helpful to remind ourselves for the things that we know already but that we often forget to do and they're often really simple things aren't they that we just forget to do so i'm reminding myself as much which is why i made the list in the first place and then the idea for that for doing it as the video for this week came about i wrote a few things down in my journal as well here well done wendy for beginning well done wendy these colors are so vivid well done for drawing that hand it was a challenge but you pushed through i've got a thing about drawing hands as quite a lot of artists do so i pushed through that and there's actually two hands on this one as well so i don't know if you can see that but yeah i pushed through the hands well done wendy and of course if the inner critic creeps back in send her him on their way they're not welcome today thanks anyway but no thanks off you go get rid of them so obviously when you are in the creative side of your brain you are going to feel relaxed in flow joyful and and it won't feel stressful so it shouldn't feel stressful so you know that you're in the right flow and the right frame of mind if you're feeling more the joy side than the anxious side and don't get me wrong there are parts of a painting of the process of it that do get quite i get quite anxious anyway where i'm making final decisions on a piece so say when i get to the point where it's about 70 there and then i've got to make those final decisions um and finish it off so when you relax into the creative side of the brain so it's the left side of the brain that's logic isn't it and then the right side which is the creative um yeah so when you once you relax into that that's what i call being in the flow and in the zone if you like and it's not where stress and anxiety lives it's where joy and creative juices are flowing so you'll know you're there because you will notice that you're much more relaxed and you're actually having fun and you're playing and you're trying things out without being scared to so i hope those tips were helpful and if you need to you can go back over this video and use some of the tips in your own process you know anytime you notice yourself getting stressed you can try some of these things out let me know if they're working for you and also what kind of things do you do to get into the zone and the creative flow and find your courage to create you can let me know and everyone else know in the comments below i'd love to read your ideas as well and we can share ideas so as a final point before i leave you in peace i just want to remind us all that anything that you create any art or creation he's always going to reflect what's going on in your life as well obviously so my little tip for that is to honor it and if stuff comes out that needs to come out and it's not pretty on the page that's fine just honor honour how you're feeling because i personally believe that art is a therapy it's a process um and it doesn't have to be a formal art therapy to be healing so um yeah don't judge yourself harshly if something comes out that's not as pretty as you'd hoped so thanks for watching this video i hope it's not too long i'm not sure how long i've been talking for so i hope it's i hope it's not been too much wendy waffle and maybe you've been managing to have some tea with me and be creating with me as i've been on in the background and um yeah i haven't been able to vlog this week and i don't think i'll be able to vlog next week because well i can't tell you yet but it will come out in the next couple of weeks but suffice to say that something really exciting has happened and i'm a really lucky girl and i look forward to being able to share that with you over the next few weeks as well so as always thanks so much for watching and being here and keeping me company i'm sending so much love big virtual hugs and i'll see you really soon in the next one bye for now [Music] you

Channel: The Unexpected Gypsy

Views: 142,568

Rating: 4.9597445 out of 5

Keywords: mixed media art, art for mental health, art for self care, how to art journal, mixedmediapainting, art journaling, mixed media art journaling, sketchbook journals, art journal ideas, art journaling for beginners, art rituals, patreon, artist studio, self care, drawing, artist vlogs, journaling, grey hair, grey hair transition, how to get over artist blocks, fear of the blank page, art for depression, afreaid to paint, creative block, creative block how to overcome it

Id: 4enwawnvME4

Length: 27min 48sec (1668 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 29 2021