You had the Power All Along, My Dear.
Glinda the Good Witch said it best...
I'm going to tell you a long story about this week. It's a little "woo-woo, hippy dippy, touchy feely" of story. I learned a lot, and maybe someone reading can relate if I share.
Like I mentioned in my last post, I'm taking a class called Make Art That Sells.
In this class there is a mini-assignment and a full assignment each week. This week we were asked to draw motifs for the mini assignment. We were given parameters, Berries and Casseroles. For the assignment we turned in we had to make a full print for bolt fabric. Not a subject unfamiliar to me, as you know.
However, I've been struggling a fair bit getting to the good stuff in my designs, and realized something... I've been working backwards. I've been deciding what a print "should" be before I even start drawing, then I build/draw motifs to fit what I "think" the end result needs to be.
I was deeply engrossed drawing motifs and having a BLAST with my drawings, and had a real light bulb moment.
The exercise of drawing is not just playtime. It's what brings creativity to the front. I'd been drawing my little berry and casserole icons and really enjoying myself. And then I drew a little oven and a few more items, when this lady popped into my head. I started doodling this woman with this crazy hair and flowers framing her face, and I'm thinking, "Who are YOU and why are you on my paper?". I don't draw faces. They scare me. But then suddenly there she was. I thought, "Well, this must be her kitchen I'm drawing". And then... I remember earlier I drew Sadie (my parent's spoiled Pug), sitting on a plate... suddenly, I had a whole story. Sadie became the woman's naughty kitchen companion. And before long, I had a print. It doesn't matter that it's not my usual "thing". It appeared, and I created it and went with it.
Part two of the equation... After drawing my little lady, I texted my friend Carrie, who is a brilliant artist, with the pic what I'd drawn, and this exclamation: "I drew a PERSON!". Carrie, amused with me, texted back and before long we'd come up with a plan for me to stop at her house the next day for a gesture drawing tutorial. Basically, drawings of the human body. We did a few exercises in charcoal and then Carrie had me draw her. Carrie was wearing her yoga clothes, and I could really get the movements and lines of her body in the charcoal. I was SO excited. I've always found drawing to be work, but after a couple days of doodling like mad, and then learning this very basic technique... I was ON. I've been drawing. For years in many forms. But it wasn't until this moment that I believed I could draw. Not only that, but that really, I'm an "Artist" though I had never before labeled myself as such.
But now there it was, my inner voice finally allowed me to call myself "Artist". Do you do that to yourself? I refused for years to use anything but the term, "designer" (also accurate). And I'm thinking, "What else am I not 'allowing' myself to be?".
Later I got home and it's going through my head like a never ending ear worm...
"You had the power all along, my dear". That phrase we've all heard a zillion times and is deeply linked to childhood (at least for me), pops into my head.
Ahhhh.... there it is... (I love a good conclusion) Sweet Carrie was my Glinda this week. And so was Lilla Rogers and the Make Art that Sells class...
And so was the little lady who appeared on my paper... and thus, she was named... Glinda, the Good Cook.
The result of all of this is that after I turned in my Make Art That Sells assignment, I was able to draw a lot more for my fabric line and it's finally coming together after a really long journey. It's jusssst about there.
"I had the power all along."
It was a very very good week.
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