Creative explorations: Vol #4
A bunch of fun Inktober spin-offs for painters and doodlers, an inspiring artist studio visit, and more creative awesomeness!
For this month’s edition of curated art and creativity resources, I’ve rounded up some interesting Inktober spin-offs that are perfect for painters, doodlers, and Zentanglers. You’ll also find some fun art classes, a bunch of interesting articles to spark your creativity, and an inspiring look at artist Jeannie Kinsler’s art studio and creative process. Enjoy!
Play: Art Challenges
October is the month of the wildly popular Inktober challenge, which you can find here. But there are plenty of fun spin-offs, and I’d like to share a few of them with you.
First up is Stilltober, an alternative to Inktober, with the prompts aimed at painters rather than illustrators.
Then, there’s Paint-tober, another set of great prompts geared more towards painters.
And finally, Inktober Tangles, which is great for anyone who loves — or wants to try their hand at — Zentangles. The best part? This PDF that gives you a list of all the prompts and their step-outs. That’s quite a nifty little resource!
Hot tip: Mix and match the prompts from these challenges to come up with your own unique prompt list!
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Learn: Inspiring art courses
Book of Days 2023 - Fall Session
Back when I was just starting on my art journey, one of the classes that really helped me was Book of Days — a year-long art journaling class hosted by my mentor and art journal artist Effy Wild. This is a class that I’ve taken multiple times over the years {and taught in last year!} and it’s back in a shorter, more pared down, yet still powerful seasonal format.
The course began earlier this month, but it’s lifetime access, which means you can join at any time and refer back to the lessons as often as you need to.
The Unbound Journal
Want to learn how to make a gorgeous, one-of-a-kind scrappy journal that is highly customizable and can be easily made with materials you are bound to have around the house?
Join me for The Unbound Journal — a highly customizable, easy, and fun to put together book structure. This gorgeous, highly tactile book structure starts with the humblest of materials — a carboard box, a pile of lace and some old earrings — and is inspired, in part, by my love for traveler’s notebooks.
This class is perfect for beginners and intermediate artists. If you’ve been intimidated by book binding, or drool over gorgeously bound messy looking junk journals and cannot figure out how to make your own handmade journals, my no-stress approach to book binding will have you creating along with me in no time!
Read: A round-up of interesting articles to fuel your creativity
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An excellent article on the role of journals in a writer’s life. I’d argue that this is the role that notebooks can play in any creative’s life.
Notebooks are the viscera and the DNA of art-making; they are proof of life and human frailty behind our dodgy attempts at perfection. - Elisa Altman
A way in: Taking cues from Old Masters
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Some very interesting insights on the different ways that an artist can "enter into a body of work”, with some excellent examples of how contemporary artists are basing their abstract art on classical paintings.
Writer’s block is trying to tell you something
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Most writers, and artists, have faced a creative block at some point in their lives. According to author Lauren Groff, writer’s block may be an “umbrella term for a series of very different pains.”
The ultimate planning system for creative rebels
There’s a lot of planning advice for Type A personalities. But when you find that, despite all your best intentions, you cannot stick to any planning or productivity system, you may be a creative rebel like me! Maybe my cobbled together “system” may help you devise a method that works for you!
Watch: Artist studio visit with Jeannie Kinsler
How does an artist’s space, their environment, inform their art?
Take a peek into the home life and creative inspirations of artist Jeannie Kinsler, whose work is drawn from and informed by the space she lives in and the things that surround her - a created, curated environment.
In her work, she seeks to capture the idea of life as an essentially transient, ephemeral thing — as something that is there and then gone. Her paintings are an attempt to make something permanent of those fleeting moments.
looking closely at the world,
looking again,
seeing things in a new light
being curious
an attempt to record the passing of time - Jeannie Kinsler
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This post is like a treasure chest for artists and creative souls. The Inktober spin-offs are such a fun way to challenge ourselves and explore different artistic styles. I'm particularly intrigued by Stilltober for painters and Inktober Tangles for Zentanglers.