The Wonderful Words for this Wednesday are, “Limit Yourself”

In this artistic and creative journey I’ve been on for some years now, I’ve met a lot of other creatives.  One thing I’ve found we seem to all have in common, is that we are addicted to being creative as it literally gives us a bit of a ‘high’.

The thing is, there are so many ways to feed this ‘high’ that most of us feel excited about too many things and secretly feel guilty that we’ve bought the supplies for so many different avenues of creativity!  Does this sound familiar?

I mean, if you’re into the visual arts, there’s watercolor, acrylics, oils, alcohol inks, mixed media, card making, print making, art journals to fill, classes to take on line and in person, and it goes on and on and on.

Then there’s all the subjects to study, paint, create, etc.  There’s florals, animals, people, portraits, abstract art, realism….and more!  All it takes is 5 minutes of perusing Instagram and you’ve loaded yourself up with 5 thousand ideas that you’d love to try.

What happens then is this paralysis of ‘what to do’ when you have time to create.  There are simply too many choices and supplies at your fingertips.  You spend all of your time trying to decide WHAT you will do that you then don’t have time to actually DO the thing.

Thus, the words for today: LIMIT YOURSELF.  There’s a surprising thing that happens when you do…..

LIMITING YOURSELF = PROLIFIC CREATIVITY

This is an age old artist trick.  Give yourself limits.  Perhaps just paint in blue (like Picasso did for awhile), or perhaps just hang with watercolors for a defined set of time, or only use a sketchbook and a pencil for week.

The ironic thing is that there are also MANY ways to limit yourself!  So don’t overthink this part, just pick the first thing that comes to mind and stick with that for a week.  It’s okay!  By saying “yes” to one of these choices, does NOT mean you are saying “no” to the others, instead you are saying, “just not right now”.

Here are just a few ways you can limit yourself:

• Pick one supply to use – find ALL the ways (even the weird ones) to use this supply.
• Pick one color and all of it’s variations for any artistic venture.
• Pick one style, like abstract landscapes, and wear it out!
• Pick one subject that you will draw, paint, collage, whatever!
• _______(fill in the blank)__________________________

Just do it, and watch the magic happen.

The Magic

Recently I’ve limited myself to the subject of butterflies.  Spring is coming and so are the butterflies.

Limiting myself in this way has surprisingly brought me endless inspiration!  I’ve watercolored them, stamped them, made backgrounds for them, drawn them, listed the things they represent to me, looked up plants they love (I’ll be spending some time learning to draw each one!), AND I’ve looked up the word ‘butterfly’ in other languages and then wrote them in calligraphy:

Just take a look and get a peek into my process.  It’s surprisingly difficult to share my messy sketches and my brainstorming notebook with you all, but I’m trying to get better and showing the process even if it’s not even pretty.

And the thing is, I have a million more ideas already!  I am going to stick with this theme for awhile and let the ideas keep flowing.  Learning to limit myself is kind of a breakthrough for me.

Another Benefit of Limiting Yourself

One of the things that is fantastic about this method is that one has to get out a lot of bad art to get to the good stuff.  By sticking with your limit (whatever that may be) and creating everyday, you will hone your skills in that particular area.

When we skip around and do a little of everything, we end up with a pile of art but it’s only the beginning of each thing, we are not spending enough time on one thing to hone our ideas and skills.

So, what do you think?  Do you struggle with squirreling around in too many genres of creativity?  Are you already thinking about the way you might limit yourself?  Tell me about it!  As I always say, I love a two way conversation.

So, go forth and LIMIT THYSELF my friends!  Go deep into ONE supply, subject, or ______, and see where your creativity will take you in that area.

Kimberly Snider, Virtuoso, Signing off

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