All posts filed under: Creative Close-Up

Creative Close-Up: Creating Art On My Terms

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9.24.18 “You can draw…ohhh. Can you do a painting for me?” That’s probably what you get when you mention that you can draw, paint, sketch, you know what I mean. Then when you put a little bit of your work out there, they start to ask if you can do a portrait for them. I can draw, sketch, and paint. I love it because I’m such a creative person and while I’m flattered for people to ask, I just don’t too much like it.  Why? Well, I ask, how big do want the portrait or drawing to be? What do you want it to look like? All these kinds of questions, the ones I hate to ask because I don’t want to step on any toes to hurt feelings. I did accept one from a lady at my church, but this will be the last one for a very long while.   I want to create art on my own terms, without the person asking me about the progress, you know, without nosing in on my …

Creative Close-Up: Finding & Using Resources

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6. 25. 18   When your an artist, a singer, songwriter, musician, or photographer you think that you’re at the pinnacle of your craft right? In other words, your at the top of your game and feel that you don’t need to further your craft. Not so. We all need fine tuning…kind of like going to the doctor and making sure our bodies are in great condition. Many creative people like to keep going with perfecting their craft. How in the world find and have the time to do it? There many resources, workshops, classes, conferences, you can even go online and find so many videos on painting, playing an instrument, taking photos, and on and on. For an artist like myself, I always try to keep my skills ongoing. I love learning new things and be creative you find ways of styling your artwork. You soon discover new techniques and ways of sketching, painting, watercolor. Same goes for musicians. Even photographers find techniques to create that perfect photo. I’m always on the lookout for …

Creative Close-Up: Kick Your Fears & Have Faith

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May 30 / 18 FEAR noun 1. an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. Fear. What can we say about the word fear? We have fear in a lot of things and for us in the field of creativity its pretty much the same. I don’t know about you or anyone else, but for me, it’s a whole other thing. For years I let fear take over a lot of things in my life. There were times when I let fear hold me back on a few things. For example, I always wanted to try modeling and I did get that chance, but I was too scared. When I think about it now, if I tried it, I wouldn’t be in the most boring job ever. There were reasons I let fear take precedence over my life. I wasn’t good, special, or pretty enough. I would just think I didn’t have what it takes to try even the simplest things. As an …

Creative Close-Up: Taking Time Away From Creativity

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April 24 / 18 Hello! We’re winding down out of April and into May. This is just a short and to the point close-up. There comes a time when you really are not at your creative best. Let’s face it, we are so swamped with our day to day activities, parenting duties, extracurricular activities, and other things, that our mind and body get clogged and run down. We don’t take the time to listen, really listen to our bodies. Then there is social media. Our lives are dictated by what we Tweet, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Even that takes a toll on our lives. What I’m saying is that there comes a time when we need to just take a step back from our busy lives and take a break. Even an artist, musician, any person in the creative field needs a time to themselves. Let’s recharge ourselves by stepping back from our busy lives, put the phone away for awhile and enjoy some time away from everything, from everyone. You deserve it. We all need to …

Creative Close-Up: Why I Love DC & Marvel….

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November 30 / 17 With the third installment of Thor: Ragnarok and Justice League, Marvel, and DC are busy whipping up superhero films left and right….well, Marvel is. DC is just catching up. You have people who love DC, like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and then there are those who love Marvel, such as Captain America, Iron Man, Spiderman, and the Hulk. Me? I simply love both Marvel and DC. Yeah, I said it. Why? Well…. Both Have Created Complex Heroes DC has their god-like superheroes with their fair share of problems. Let’s look at Superman. For at least the past several decades this Kryptonian has become the fixture your typical boy scout hero, with the power to destroy Earth, but he chooses to not to. Even though he’s forbidden to get involved with Earth’s affairs, he chooses to do the opposite. He wants to be the solution instead of the problem. While people embraced him, some have not. Even though he has his adoptive mother, Martha Kent and the love of his life, Lois Lane, …

Creative Close-Up: Creative Writing

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October 30 / 17 Hey everyone! Hope you guys enjoyed your weekend. I wanted to share with you a few videos about Creative Writing. That’s what this month’s Creative Close-Up is about. I’m sure some of you have always wanted to write, but are not quite sure how to go about it. I can only hope this can help you along your creative writing journey. Some of these videos are a few years old, but they’re still effective. Enjoy your Monday, be creative, be blessed!     Image source: unknown  

Creative Close-Up: There Is Good Music….You Just Have to Look For It

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June 26 / 17 I’m sure most of you are guilty of asking this question, is there any good music out there? Any great music groups, singers, rappers, etc.? Is there any good music at all? I’m guilty of this myself. Each decade, music has evolved. At times music was good and sometimes it can be bad. We’ve nodded our heads to singers and groups we agreed with and covered our ears in disdain to those we don’t agree with.  I’ve always been one of those people who gave each genre of music a chance. So, what I’m trying to say is that there is good music out there. All you have to do is look for it. Looking to the Past I used to have my old records from my youth, but I don’t have them anymore. I do wish I could’ve saved them though because vinyl has slowly made its way back. I grew up during the 80s and do I miss those days. That’s when music was really interesting. I can list …

Creative Close-Up: Reviving Your Creativity

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May 30 / 17 There comes a time for every creative person…artist, writer, musician, or photographer, when our creative train makes an unexpected stop. For a writer, people call it writer’s block, an artist, I guess it’s artist’s block. Whatever it’s called, you reach a point where you’re just plain stuck. This is where it’s time to do a creative revival. How do you do that? Well, there are many things you can do. I can tell you how I managed to revive mine. Take a trip to a museum, a concert, art or music festival. This helps your brain to take in all the creativity that other people put out. You get inspired by how that artist created that piece of work, the story behind it, and why they created it. Musicians get inspired to write that great song. Going to a movie also revs up some creative juices. It takes a creative village to put a great film out there. A good trilogy always gives inspiration to some great ideas, right? A weekend …