Create instructions for something that shouldn’t need instructions:
lighting a candle!
Eh…too much fun stuff this weekend to sketch. Probably not the way this challenge is intended, but I did days 6-8 all at once.
Day six was looking at life from an ant’s perspective; what would you build? I decided an ant sized hot air balloon.
Day seven was creating something that references microscopic organisms. Sort of my take on fast food.
Day eight was creating something then creating it ten times smaller or larger, then again ten times smaller or larger. I don’t know how this could even work on this small page, so I know my scale isn’t right. I think the point is the larger the item is, the more detail you can include. I’ll be honest. I’m tired and dinner is almost ready so there isn’t a whole lot of detail going on here tonight. Tomorrow is another day.
Make something from the contents of your pocket, wallet or purse. I dedicate this to Shelly Grinnell. 
What can you create from your clothing or something else that you regularly wear on your body?
Now spend some time looking very closely at a small natural object and use that as your inspiration.
Just got this great book: “Creative Sprint” by Noah Scalin & Mica Scalin. It contains six 30-day challenges to jumpstart your creativity. The idea is to create an environment for yourself when you need to be creative, so when you need to change hats from doing more analytical stuff to more creative stuff, you have a process. Today was all about drawing tiny things.
When I travel, I take pictures of things up close. This is an example. A pile of bowling shoes! It helps that I love to bowl but even random things will grab my attention…the roots on an old tree, stones and shells on the beach, moss growing on a rock. I always think when I look at these pictures, they’ll take me back to the place where I found them. It helps, but nothing replaces the real deal.
I started a “Sketch of the Week” post last week, and it was a sketch of hearts (for Valentine’s Day).
This week, it’s painting. I did a watercolor wash background and a watercolor painting of a tree, scanned them in and combined them, reversing the tree white out of the wash. Parts of the tree are translucent, allowing some of the wash to show through.
This project rekindled my desire to paint.
This morning, I took some advice. Instead of jumping right into work, I played for about ten minutes. I opened up my illustration program and found some filters I didn’t know existed. The results were varied: some subtle, some wild. And even though none of the stuff I created is going to show up in my next project, I now know those filters are there to use. Right now, I don’t even know what I’d use them for, but I could imagine creating an interesting background or pattern.
I have a couple subscriptions to online skill sites. You can learn how to build a website, sew a pillowcase, hand-letter a headline. It’s amazing what’s out there. These skill sites come in handy when you need to know how to do something in quick order. Some of the tutorials are better than others; you can tell the folks who took time to practice and have the presentation packaged neatly. I wish I took more time to do these things, but it’s like anything else. You have paying work that has to get done. You have last-minute requests from clients, bills to pay, a house to clean, etc. Play gets put on the back burner. It’s just very refreshing to learn something new.
Take time to play. It’s fun, and it doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s only ten minutes.