Know Your Creative Motivations

Through the flower © CherryJeffs 2013
Sketch for the Grow Wings and Fly series, Pencil on Canson sketching paper

Learning what makes you tick in your creative practice is essential to keeping your motivation level high, right?

But it’s crucial to differentiate between the idealised version in your head and what you really do on a day to day basis.

​I’ve been beavering away on my ideas for my ‘Grow Wings and Fly’ series.

Aside from the sketches shown here, and trying to work out how to use a drawing medium (pencil, charcoal, Conté) on canvas, I was planning to paint papers to include in the pieces.

I had the idea that I would prepare lots of papers in readiness and then just dip into them for each collage.

It’s been a rude shock to my self-image to realise that this kind of process is just not going to work for me.

Or, rather, only if I prepare those papers in a period when I don’t have a clue about the collages I want to make!

It turns out that since I already have the ideas in place for the pieces, I’m far too impatient to start working on the canvas to enjoy the process of preparing collage papers now.

Bee Wings © CherryJeffs 2013
Sketch for the Grow Wings and Fly series, Pencil on Canson sketching paper

Increased self-knowledge is always a good thing, so armed with mine, I’ve decided to jump right in and paint the different collaged areas once they are adhered to the surface.

This might lead you to ask why I’m collaging at all, but the answer again comes down to knowing how I like to work: I just love to cut and stick; it really motivates me to get going on a piece. It doesn’t matter to me if I use white pieces of paper. It’s the shapes that are important to me at this stage.

With that in mind, I’m off to continue making an enlarged drawing of the first figure I’ll be using.

Sketches for the Grow Wings and Fly series © CherryJeffs 2013
Pencil on Canson sketching paper

What aspect of your creative process is crucial to getting you motivated?

Share in the comments how you use the idiosyncrasies of your own process to kick-start your motivation.

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