Rock It!

Dot painting warm ups Sooo.....

It's day 2 of NaMoPaiMo and you're watching everyone sharing their first layers of paint on their ponies, but you're still staring at your prepped pony. You're physically ready, but mentally something has it's grip on you. You just can't seem to start. How do you combat this mental struggle? 

 
Rock it....or craft it....or just doodle it out!

 
Sounds silly at first, but if you were a musician, even a beginner, the routine of warming up with playing simple scales would be the very first thing you would do with your instrument.  If you were competing in a sporting event the very first thing you would do before the competition would be to stretch so your muscles would warm up and be fit and ready for the sport. 

Creating art is no different in that you need to warm up your mind and hands so they are working together for you. Some days, they just don't want to work together and they need a little push.  The simplest way to give your instruments of art the push they need is to just doodle with paint or a pen.  The act of pushing around paint on a surface that has no emotional value to you, gets juices flowing without any expectations.  

Simple paint lines on paper.  Warm ups

Now, you may find that after 15 minutes of pushing paint about on paper hasn't done a thing for you.  That's ok.  Some creative blocks take patience and consistency to undo sometimes.  Come back the following day and create your lines on paper with no expectations.  Start adding paint to inanimate objects like found rocks.  The paint lines or dots are a commitment, but the object isn't pulling at your heart strings.  

For me, the dots on rocks helps a great deal and I find I get lost in the joy of the process.  This act of "doing" usually results in wanting to do more as the creative juices fire up in the brain.  The moment you feel your brain "fire up"  is when you should jump in and begin your horse.  

Ultimately, it's about enjoying the process and we have to warm up first and remind our brains that the process will be fun.

Cheers to a great month of NaMoPaiMo fun and discovery! Go forward and rock it!