Be a Daily Creative

I started out this year with a goal. I was going to do something creative every day, but I was more specific than that. I was going to paint something or write something every day and not just in my journal. I wanted to write poems or short stories and then paint a picture to go with them. I figured if I didn't finish a painting, at least I could write a little something and then paint the next day or finish the painting the next day.

I also decided this year to be fearless. I have this above my bedroom door to remind myself.

I actually kept up with it for a couple weeks. And then I started going every other day, then every third day, then once a week. I've heard it takes 21 days to make or break a habit. I didn't quite make it to 21 days with the daily creative venture.

I only wrote one poem, and I consider myself even less of a poet than I consider myself a writer.

This is the painting to go with my one and only poem.

Soft colors washed across the sky;

In the quiet time 'tween day and night.

Stark trees stand watch over it all;

And shadowed snow, blue in the light.

Sounds fade as creatures settle down;

Color fades, snow blends into sky.

Nothing left now but a gentle breeze;

Blowing through the trees with a sigh.

A self-portrait. I had never done one in watercolors before.

I've not painted anything now since the end of January. The box of my supplies is still sitting on the floor, where I can pretty much trip over it if I'm not paying attention and it makes me feel guilty. Not guilty enough to set aside the things I have been working on, but guilty enough to remember that I bought a couple packs of watercolor paper specifically for the purpose of painting every day.

My miniatures.

I painted a few full sheet images, I was also painting miniatures. I divided an 11 by 15 inch sheet of watercolor paper into 20 equal sized spaces and each day I could sit down and paint for 20 to 30 minutes and have a cute little painting done for that day. I did 15 of those. This idea was inspired by a class being offered at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. I read the description for that class and decided to just try it. I didn't have to paint miniatures all day every day, just once a day and I could say I had painted that day.

I started out with a sewing theme: thread, button, scissors, flexible ruler.

My miniatures in order of painting are thread, button, scissors, feather, flexible ruler, dice, unlit votive candle, lit votive candle, half melted votive candle (I was trying to see if there was much difference in how I painted each stage), mug, a rock (my least successful object), marble, clothes pin, Rubik's cube, and a banana.

My mom has asked me to do a series like this of her summer flowers this year. I think that will be fun. Although with the warming weather I should at least divide a piece of paper so that as the spring flowers start to bloom I can begin painting.

Clothespin

I really would like to start this again. Or try to make it a part of my normal daily routine. The thing I discovered in the short time I did a painting each day was that I need to have it be a part of my morning routine when I write in my journal. You know, like, breakfast, email, journal, painting, and then the rest of my day. The problem with this schedule though is that if I want to paint the sunrise as it is happening I have to paint first then everything else. Or if I want to paint flowers out in the yard I can't do that while the sun is still down. I didn't know how to work it into my schedule.

Scissors, I really like the way this one turned out.

Is this something you would add to your own life? Just a little moment of being creative out of the whole day, but a little moment of feeling you've accomplished something.

For an idea of how small the miniatures are.