I don’t know about you but I seem to let failure stop me from creating sometimes. I look and look at pinterest or other sites for inspiration. I have a massive collection of books and saves on my computer! But that seems like all I do sometimes is look!
Why do I just look? I think it is because I am a perfectionist when it comes to my art work. I want it perfect the first time 🙂 When it doesn’t come out like I envisioned I usually drop that project and never go back to it. However, all the accomplished artists talk about samples.
In knitting, make a sample swatch…WHAT???…you want me to waste time making a swatch when I could just dive into the project! Painters draw ideas in their sketch book and make many samples using watercolors or colored pencils and markers.
I spoke in my last post about receiving my newest book, The Art of Moy Mackay She is a painter turned felter. She makes absolutely beautiful wool painted landscapes. In this book she goes deeper into her process.
Her process starts with using that sketchbook and making notes and drawings. She also talks about making mini samples in various colors of the picture you want to make before committing to the bigger version.
Making minis! Making samples! Oh My….this will be a hard concept for me to follow but I am going to give it a shot 🙂 After all she is a famous artist and she might know a thing or two about process…LOL
Speaking of process….I recently came across a website written by two brothers Joe and Sam Pitcher They just had a free series of videos about process and their mom Sue Stone
She talks about the power of 5 basic stitches. It is amazing what her art looks like with just a few basic stitches!
You can see more of her work on Facebook
So….I have decided to go small and samples before creating a big project. Those felted pieces I talked about finishing last time, well, I am just going for it. Many of them require free motion stitching before the hand stitching. I am good with hand stitching but not free motion. I am not going to worry (well almost…lol) about what I am doing. I am just going to get myself into the Flow 🙂
If you are stuck and afraid, I say, “no more!” as Nike tells us…..JUST DO IT!
Happy creating!
Anita 🙂