Clare Davis Etheridge

Do you create and make for no apparent reason?  Is that ok?  Ok to draw or paint or sew for no reason other than to do it, to practice?

Maybe this is a good life lesson, get the equipment and a little guidance and get going.  Try and create as if no-one is watching and no-one cares how it turns out.  Don’t you always feel the pressure to do everything well or wonder why you are bothering?  If I get asked to do or make a specific thing, I get all nervous and jittery and worried that it won’t be good enough.  Will it break, be the right colour, will it be in focus?  If I just grab a handful of beads and tell myself that I will keep it if it does not turn out, or if I pick up my phone and snap a few practice shots, guess what, it often turns out and I feel great about my project. If it doesn’t turn out so well, at least I know I need to research and onwards and upwards.  Still I have little panics and put the pressure on.

Are you good at being confident when you are asked to do something?  I am no good at all.  Even if I absolutely know I can do the job, I am always self doubting and getting on my own nerves frankly.  On the positive side, it does mean that I prepare and practice as much as I can to get it right.

I have been taking a few classes and there have been lots of ‘why on earth did I not think of this before’ moments.  Aren’t they the best?  That realisation that you can do something, you just need to pick up the idea, shake it about, turn it upside down and look at it from a different angle.  It is amazing the new things you see and then realise what you can do.

I struggle with the whole practice thing, I mean really practice, not just get an idea and do it once.  I mean follow the whole thing through, what else can it be, what else can I use, does it need to be upside down?  I tend to do something and once I can do it, move on to the next thing without fully exploring the first technique or idea.  Often the best thing I can do is give myself a time or a page amount and not allow myself to stop until the time is up or the pages are filled.  No matter what nonsense I have created, there is often something of use in there.  Do you have a ‘get it done’ technique or are you way more disciplined than me?!

I feel like I need to do something and do it right pretty soon, or else don’t bother, move on.  This may also have something to do with my terrible patience level/ability to practice.

This I think is why I like to take on projects/challenges which tell me to do this that or the other, every day.  I have been taking a photo a day for years now using Fat Mum Slim‘s prompts and I enjoyed the Stickmen project last year hosted by Lilian at It’s A Dome Life.  Tinkerlab host a great sketchbook challenge too which starts in February.  I am even thinking, for one month, drawing the Fat Mum Slim prompts and seeing how I do, this might be a bit of a stretch at the minute, but it is in the back of my mind for future reference.

Talking of reference, how fabulous are these images from my childhood book – The Joe Annual 1969.  I must have owned this second hand (how I still like to own things!) as I was only just born in 1969 and not quite up to colouring and completing puzzles!  I clearly had a good go at colouring the ‘pop group’ though.

Don’t forget to share your creative tips and how you keep momentum.