In The Works... (or Life is Full)

So. Many. Exciting things in the works...

• painting, painting, painting, stretching out of my comfort zone, trying new things

 

a step outside of my creative comfort zone that's leaving

me both perplexed and exhilarated

• working on new items to put in the shop
• 100 iPad Faces project (54 and counting!)
• agreeing to be the subject of a mini-documentary/artist profile for a local film student's class assignment
• a new Website, learning how to build it using Wordpress
• "springifying" my home, tidying up the studio, renewing my physical spaces
• exploring poetry and reporting back via Weekend Poetry Dates here, in honour of National Poetry Month
• spring hikes with D., playing with my camera

baby pine cones, all in a row - Mud Lake, Ottawa

• working with a consultation client to help her fulfill her calling, witnessing how her eyes light up with inspiration when the a-ha moment hits
• new juicy service offerings to help YOU fulfill your calling

Oh my, such goodness and such creative energy! It must be spring.

100 iPad Faces Project

sketching faces on the iPad - quick and fun!

Remember the iPad hubby gifted me for my birthday and my wanting to stretch out of technological complacency?

Am I ever having fun with it!

I thought I'd be experimenting with this new-to-me technology by playing with electronic notebooks and I am, but oh I found something much more fun: an electronic painting & drawing application.

The app is called Art Set. It turns your iPad screen into an electronic canvas or sketchbook, offering you choices of paper (colour & texture), drawing/painting tools (oil paint, pastel, pen, crayon, marker, etc.), and colours. It even includes a few blending tools.

It is so. much. fun.

I got hooked on its convenience and started using it to do sketching blitzes of faces, quickly drawn caricature-looking faces. Each day I try to spend 15-30 minutes doing these quick sketches using the app and my fancy schmancy stylus pen.

It's great fun, great practice and it's already served me in my "real" painting.

Of course I could have done the same thing with a paper sketchbook, but I didn't. The iPad was apparently the chosen prompt.

Sooooo, given how much I like destinations I have given myself a goal: 100 of these iPad faces to present in a final product, most likely here in the form of a slide show. I'm secretly targeting the end of April to complete them, but shhhhhhh... I'm not ready to commit to that quite yet.

After nine days I have 65 sketches, 35 of them I like enough to include in the final product.

This is not about perfection; this is all about practice, play and the satisfaction that comes out of meeting a goal. It's also about learning how new technology can serve me instead of me resisting it.

All that for a pen with a rubber tip and a 99-cent app.

Stay tuned...

Stretching Out of Technological Complacency

I'm a paper lover, but this journal/notes app for the iPad may have won me over

A LOVE FOR PAPER AND COLOUR

I love paper. I have five different notebooks on my desk as I type plus a stack of old school index cards I use for everyday planning.

I love coloured pens and have an elaborate system of changing up the colour I use to write my to-do's for the day, cross them off and jot down any other to-do's for the following day. I usually rotate three or four colours through the system, following a specific order that's not to be broken.

I seem to process information better when I write it down by hand vs. capturing it through a keyboard. I haven't been in any rush to adopt any new fandangled technology, smartphones or tablets to help me improve productivity, I haven't seen the need to.

ENTER THE iPAD

Enter the iPad. Hubby surprised me with one for my birthday and thanks to an insightful conversation with a kindred scribbler who's already made the switch, I'm ready to give it a try.

I just need to set myself up for success by:

1. choosing only a few aspects of my current system to experiment with (brainstorming and note-taking, though I may dabble in daily planning) vs. trying to overhaul everything at once,
2. getting the right tools (a fancy schmancy stylus pen and a flexible writing recognition app*), and
3. committing to using them for a given period of time so I can say I've given it an honest try (the next four weeks).

I tried out the tools yesterday for the first time and it was love at first write. I think I actually squealed with delight at the first scribble.

I usually abide by "if it ain't broke then don't fix it", but sometimes experimenting with different ways of doing things can be fun. Sometimes lightly stretching for stretching's sake can be just what we need to shake us out of complacency.

In my case, technological complacency.

* I'm not getting any money by linking to this specific app or stylus pen. They just happened to be the first tools I experimented with and I like them!

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

Are there any new tools you'd like to try in your work, but hesitate because it's a stretch out of your normal working habits? What if you experimented with it for a week, two weeks or a month just to see if it fits? Are there any complementary tools or resources that would help make it easier?