Colour, Composition and Creativity - About Creativity

About Creativity

Ever had the moment when you are looking at a blank page and things just won't happen? This short text is about ways of triggering your creativity.

An Internet news group, alt.binaries.comp-graphics, runs a weekly WET, a Week End Theme. One member posts a picture of some kind, anybody else can take the picture and modify it in any way they see fit. Personally, I find it daunting knowing my work is going to be compared with others, some of whose talent I really respect.

Worse, once I'd started seeing other people's ideas I couldn't think of any of my own at all!

So, I worked out a strategy for enjoying the WET fun, but also an excuse for documenting some approaches to creativity I have used. And these are presented for you below:

1) About creativity
2) What to do with a blank page
3) How to kick start yourself
4) Keep Moving
5) Analysis
6) Re-creating

ABOUT CREATIVITY:

To them I say "Rubbish!"

Without getting into some pedantic definitions of creativity, I figure if you are making something new, then you are being creative.

Furthermore, the mood or mind-set you need to get into to be creative can be triggered by your own actions - you don't have to wait for the "muse to descend".

And finally, by practicing those creative triggers you can start to turn your creativity on at will.

Now there are so many things to do, make, paint, write, photograph, play, draw, compose, sculpt, talk about, cast, forge, hammer etc... I'm going to talk about graphic art, particular computerised graphic art here, but frankly you can turn these techniques to almost any media.

Many of the things I'm going to talk about here are for FAST creative techniques, things to get you kick started, but some are more slow are leisurely.

WHAT TO DO WITH A BLANK PAGE

I reckon the vital part is to get started, doesn't matter if you are going to throw it away, you just have to start.

So, if we are talking graphics here, take that brush, pen, mouse. Get some nice bright colour and start spreading...

If it is a typewriter, just write the first few words that come into your head, and then make something out of them...

If it is a piano, then fix a handshape and play it...

Or use one of the assorted techniques I'm going to list below, either singly or in combination.

HOW TO KICK START YOURSELF

So, here are some ways to make some boundaries:

- Start with a pre-determined picture
- Re-create or re-interpret a famous picture
- Select a theme, idea or purpose
- If painting, choose some important words
- If writing, choose an important picture
- Paint a scene from a movie or book

or

- Select only three colours to work in
- Use only one (big) brush size
- Only use one single tool, a pallete knife say
- Work left-handed (or vice-versa)
- Only draw in rectangles
- Only draw in diagonal lines
- Only work in black and white, or another monochrome

or

- Draw three lines and then make something from it
- Take a golden rule and make something from it
- Blur an image and make something from it
- Filter or distort or damage an image, start from there
- Take two things (chair   tree) and make them work together

or

- If you could see instead of hear, paint your vision
- Musicians do it the other way and play your sight
- Paint your touch, your taste, your smell
- Paint from the eyes of a cat, a fly, a bird
- How about painting from the ears of bat?

or

- Focus in tight on a really small piece of your work
- Or pull back, put the work into a large context
- Reverse it, play the melody backwards,
- Or narrate the story in reverse,
- Or paint sad paintings happy
- What happened just before, or just after?
- Do it cool where it was hot, hot where cool
- Do it soft where harsh, loud where quiet

Now, if you've just sat there and looked at all those and a blank piece of paper, you are probably ready for a cup of coffee and a trip to the shops!

Without looking, just pick one at random, then do it, don't think about it!

KEEP MOVING

The thing is, when you are kick-starting yourself, not everything you do will be good, and certainly not everything will be worth keeping.

Also, we are practising creativity here, which is all about starting. When you are ready to practise finishing then that is another stage.

So, to boost creativity I think you need to keep starting.

So as I sit blasting out computer graphics, then its save the file move on, save the file, restart, open a different file and move on.

I know some folks sit with an egg-timer. At the end of 5 minutes they have to stop and move on. Its a good discipline. Now if you are wood-carving or novel writing you might need more than 5 minutes but...

Also, I would recommend not analysing what you've done, don't critique (or criticise) now, this is ideas stuff. Instead you need to look for the element that catches, the strokes that fix the eye, the words that hit the heart. If you can't find any, don't worry, move on.

Remember two things: (1) we are trying to be creative here, not be outstanding, not create a finished work, not instantly make a masterpiece, so we need to keep moving on. (2) there are no rules - if you've started something you want to see through - then do it, finish it now!

ANALYSIS

Go back over your sketches, don't look at the thing as whole, remember its unfinished, rough edges, all that stuff.

Don't critic-i-s-e. You are looking for the good, not the bad, you don't need to judge what you've done negatively.

What you are looking for is the pearl, the gem of an idea, an image, a sequence, a set of strokes, a colour match, a melody fragment, a tone poem, a phrase, a line, a rhyme, you are looking for the heart and soul of a really great piece of work.

For this you need to look two ways, you need to look very closely, examine each part, each fragment, is it there? Could I make this go further? What does it say to me? Why do I like it? How could this small bit, fit into a larger whole?

You need to stand back, squint even! Is there a feel, a colour? Is there a flow or sequence? Is there an idea to concentrate on?

RE-CREATING

There are tricks you can use though:

- Record what you are doing, if you are painting talk to a tape recorder as you go.

- If you are playing music, try midi to capture it and work from there.

- If sketching, just a couple of words may be sufficient.

- When working on the computer, saving the steps may help you.

- Have someone else watch while you work, get them to note it down. (They can also encourage you as go too).

Finally, patience and practise. Your ability to recreate is to a great extent a reflection of your practised skill (rather than your inherent vision). It's what musicians call their "chops". You practise doing something until (a) you do it well every time, (b) you can apply it without thinking.

Just look at any famous painter, they will have done numerous sketches, paint-outs, re-paints, trial runs, repeated themes, until finally their masterpiece is complete.

Re-creating can often be a rehearsal, a job or task. If you feel like you are getting into that mode, turn your back on the feeling and turn towards the feelings you will have about the finished item.

As the old proverb has it - "The first 90% of the job takes 90% of the time, the last 10% takes the other 90% of the time!"

Finally, if you wander off-track while re-creating, don't worry about it, there is always another day... Heck if you do this often enough, you'll end up with a themed set of works!

IN CONCLUSION

You can work at it, practice and build it up like a muscle.

Every time you are creative, no matter how small, you are adding something to the world.

• Introduction
• Contrasts
• Space and Frames
• Design and Position
• Colour Theory