Saturday, March 07, 2009

Secret #9 of 12: Transcending Rejection and Roadblocks



Its week 9 of the 12 Secrets book.

I thought that as an antidote to rejection slips I'd make suggestion cards.

Because I'm currently focusing on art most of these are simple art suggestions... but not all of them... sometimes what's needed is a change of focus. None of them require me to feel that I'm "good at drawing" or any of those things which can get in the way of actually making something.

If you would like to print these out for yourself here are the images I printed:

These four are uploaded to blogger - if you click on them you'll get a large version of the image.

I printed them out on white card and then sliced them up.

If by any chance you do want to use them you may wonder what some of the terms mean.

For instance:

blind contour drawing - there are several ways you might choose to do this:

* look at an object, let a pen or pencil draw on a sheet of paper as your eyes trace around the contours of the object
* close your eyes - imagine a drawing and let your hands simply draw
* look at an object - attempt to draw it without looking at your drawing but occasionally allow yourself sneak peaks!

Another term you may not know is what I call doing a "feelie". Put a pen or pencil in your drawing hand and let it draw whilst with the other hand you trace the outline of the image of which you are doing a feelie. You might like to also try this with the pen or pencil in your non-dominant hand.

You can also do a feelie of a 3 dimensional object though that isn't on these cards... it can help with something tactile to put it out of sight whilst you feel it so that you aren't tempted to draw what you see, just what you feel.

Jim has been feeling creative too - go to his blog to hear his song - Dog Park.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

There are some wonderful ideas here! I like the concept of them being on cards that you could draw out at random. One of the blind countour 'feelie' games I used to do with students, was having items in a bag (such as plastic toy figurines and household objects like spoons, etc) that they reached into and felt with one hand whilst drawing with the other - that way there isn't the temptation to peek at the item, and there's something of a fun surprise factor too, when you don't know for certain what the item might be...
p.s. Is 'concertina' the same or similar to 'accordion'?

Caroline said...

tinker - glad you liked them - and I love the idea of a bag of objects to feel.

By concertina - in this context I just meant joining them up so that they are all in a line and would stand as a zig-zag if you choose to stand them up.

Emily said...

drawing out a suggestion card when feeling stuck - what an awesome idea!
(or I could just take my puppy to the dog park - loved that song, too, by the way!)

Kathryn Costa said...

What a great idea. I love the idea of turning rejection slips into suggestions. Brilliant!

Anonymous said...

Hi Caroline, what great ideas the cards are - I like this suggestion card idea a lot.
I love journalling also and can't get over the precision with which you create your journal. So funny about the paper clip to crete your round on your tab - I had just been dealing with the same issue, ie how to make rounded corners, for the mini file folders I am making. thanks for stopping by my blog ;)

D said...

What an amazing response to rejection and roadblocks. I love this idea. Such a positive and productive way to approach it.

I've always felt that the best way through a block of any kind is to just work right through it.

Genie Sea said...

What fun! Thank you so much for sharing this wonderfully innovative idea! It made me clap my hands! :)

LissaL said...

What a great idea. Thanks for sharing:)

Anonymous said...

What a fun and fantastic approach to rejection/roadblocks! Not only is it a creative approach, but your cards are a work of art themselves. Very cool-- thank you for sharing this tool.

Jamie said...

What an absolutely brilliant idea! And how generous of you to share them - thank you!

hugs,
Jamie

Lisa PN said...

Such a great idea and executed so wonderfully! I love the bright colours that you use as opposed to the world of the bland rejection slips!

Thank you so much for this, what a gift!

Anonymous said...

thanks for the comment:) I like to draw the one eyed faces when I don't feel like fooling with trying to get both eyes look the same, and actually it's starting to grow on me more!
great post here too, thanks!!

Camilla La Mer-Soul Art Dolls said...

I am so happy to meet you, Caroline! I love your blog and your owl with talons!!! Yes, synchronicities...I believe that we share many!

You even have the nature Mandala book! I bought three of them on clearance so that I could cut out each Mandala. I mounted them on black foam core and placed them all the way around my hospital room along with many of my dolls, etc...The staff members started coming by regularly for Art Tours of my room! Now I have them placed throughout my house and on each step of my stairway...

I look forward to reading more about you and talking further! I am not feeling well this week so it is taking me a while to respond properly...

Talk to you very soon! Thanks for all of your wonderful comments...

Much love, Camilla

PS I will tell my daughter, Caroline, about the other Caroline in England!

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

I'm going pass your blog link on to art teachers here, there's so much they can learn here.

I tried listening to the dog song, it's taking it's time with my slow server, I think the cricket crowd here is slowing down the net or something. I'll try again, later.

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

As for rejection...how I deal with it? I allow myself to feel down for a day, then I start planning, working, improving, all over again. I like your plan too, making cards. I do craft things also.

DS Borror said...

this is a great idea. i got lost w/ the book myself...it was geared or so it seemed to me, more towards artists that are in the state where they sell their wares...i'm definitely not in that realm and only really begun exploring this thing called creativity...thanks for visiting my blog. i am enjoying yours and will visit again. I particularly like the mandalas...