free your creativity

Last summer, I had found a great article on the HOW Magazine web site about Freeing Your Creativity and did a little post about it, here's the post again with some additions and new thoughts!

Now that I think about it -- whenever I feel creatively flat I think it really can fall into one of the categories that is outlined in this article by Todd Henry. Once you identify how you are torturing yourself you can stop!

He talks about 3 sources of creativity killers:

1. Our Heroes - Comparing yourself or your work to another artist you admire is a sure way to to feel inferior. I agree! Sometimes if I spend too much time hopping around Etsy or various blogs, I start to feel down about my own work. Seeing all these juicy blogs makes me start to compare my work and then quickly leads down a dark road to feeling bad about my work.

2. Our Own Work - Another great point in this article is one I didn't even really think about. When you create a "pinnacle" work that you feel is above all your other works and then you compare everything else that you create to that one piece. I do this sometimes and now that I think about it, it is a creativity crusher. I am on the road to a creative block if I keep thinking to myself "if only I could make another piece as good as THAT one" oh boy!

3. Others Expectations - Imagining what others will say about a work that I am creating is a direct route to stopping the creative process. This can be a real challenge for me especially when I am making art for custom artwork orders. It's hard to push those thoughts of "will they like this?" aside and just go with the process while keeping the clients needs in mind at the same time.

The article also mentions this book - Free Play, which I did get and enjoyed although not as much as I thought I would when I first wrote about it. It was a good book. Just very cerebral. I would recommend Orbiting the Giant Hairball as a good book to feel a creative jumpstart. it's one of my favs. Also Bird by Bird. I have this one by my bed and read it again and again!

Anyone think of any other Creativity Killers to add to this list?