Being Creative #3 - Deciding the size of your work

Hello! Hello! Welcome Back! I am so glad you came. And thank you to everyone who participated last week. And feel free to grab the button from the sidebar.

And I can't resist giving you at least one link. If you are interested in taking beautiful photographs here's a cool project - Picture Inspiration. In this project Tracey Clark the founder of Shutter Sisters will send inspiration photo emails once a week for the next year. And you can take your photos and share them on the project class site. So you have the benefit of a community to share with, ask questions and to motivate. I am signed up for this. I had decided that this year I was going to learn more about photography.

 

Now today's topic is - Size ! Size matters :-).

 

For the longest time I worked hard at trying to make big pieces of work, whether it was knitting or painting. And I struggled. I lack patience and I am definitely not someone who can work on the same piece of work for months - I lose interest. It took a long time for the penny to drop - I like working on small projects. 

 

When I knitted I only ever made scarves, hats and baby booties. I bought yarn to make a quilt, knitted 4 out of the 9 squares and never finished it. I was afraid of the sewing at the end! And just once I bought yarn for a sweater and never, ever opened the bag and pulled the yarn out.

 

I have sketched all my life. A few years back I was taking lessons with an artist, at that time I was attempting different kinds of art pieces - figure drawing, botanical illustration. Those big sheets of paper were intimidating to fill! So, so scary. And after 3 or 4 sessions working on the same piece I came to dread or resent the piece or I just lost interest. 

I even remember the teacher asking me "how I would make a good artist when I didn't have patience?". Now I knew I was never going to attempt to paint the Sistine Chapel. But I worked on my patience and worked on pieces that took many weeks. And that took all the fun out of it! I was unhappy and I completely stopped creating. For a whole year I don't remember what I created because I didn't do much.

 

And then I discovered rubber stamping through a magazine, I went to a stamping store I found in the magazine. One thing led to another and I found that they offered 3 hour weekend classes. I went for some these classes and each time I ended up leaving with something that I made that I loved. That's when the penny dropped - I like working on small pieces! And that freed me up. I can't begin to tell you how much that freed me up.

I like working on canvases with sizes of 4"x5", 5"x7", 6"x8" and 8"x8". The biggest size I have worked with lately is 10"x10" - it is actually the work I am giving instructions to.

So at some level I knew what size I like working with but I never identified it! And that niggled away and kept me from creating.  Some day I might work on something bigger but for right now I know that this scale makes me happy.

So what's your size? What size are you happy to work with and what scale scares you?

Ingredients:

10"x10" wood board

Golden Black gesso

Matte medium

Scrapbook papers

Black dye ink

Rubber stamp

Thread

Removable tape

Paint brushes

 

Instructions:

1. Paint the wooden board with black gesso with a brush. Some people like to sand before gessoing, I don't.

2. Let the gesso dry.

3. Now stamp the scrapbook paper with your rubber stamp and black ink.

4. Cut the stamped paper into small squares.

5. Were you wondering what the thread is for? :-). It is a little trick I invented to line things up. I created a grid on the board with the threads. I taped the threads to the side of the board.

6. Then I glued the squares with matte medium, I used the brushes to apply matte medium.

7. When I finished gluing, I quickly but gently pulled off the threads.

8. That's it!

 

 

Next week's topic - Things that stop us from creating, things that bothered or inhibited you!

Please leave me a comment if you would like me to email you to remind you about this party. And I would be thrilled if you link back.

Keep Creating!

Amisha

Comments

[LaVoice]

You are doing very well on your new project. I will have to leave it for you to make. My eyes are not up to that anymore. I do enjoy seeing how creative others are tho.

[Lynn @thevintagenest]

Thank you Amisha for the invitation and I did join your linky today. You should have named today's post "Size Does Matter". LOL.....And you are so right it does. I don't care to work on little tiny things....it's very frustrating for me. And I guess I don't do great big things either. The biggest project I have done was this. I saw a beautiful hand painted wall paper once but it cost hundreds of dollars a roll, which I could not afford. But I did the next best thing. I copied it and hand painted the walls of my studio and you know what? I like it better! Hope you are having a wonderful weekend. ~ Lynn

[Cindy Adkins]

Oh Amisha,
This is a gorgeous piece...I LOVE it!!!
XO

[karenharveycox]

Amisha,

Another brilliant post about creating. Thank you for including me in your party. Amisha, I went to that link that you left for me. Wow, I spent so much time there. Thank you so much, this is exactly the inspiration I need. And she has a new book about patterns. You have once again inspired me.

Let's get together for an art date soon.
Karen

[Betty @ she's sew pretty]

What a pretty art project. You are so right about scale. The stamps you used may not have made a statement on a bigger piece but look really beautiful on that one. I tend to work small too. I like making things that I can do in a day or two.

[Amanda Bachelder]

Thank you for emailing me an invitation to join your fun new party! I defintely prefer the smaller projects...ones that can be whipped up in a day or two! Your stamp art is just beautiful!
Best Wishes and Blessings,
Amanda

[Phoenix Peacock]

usually I love working on large canvases or larger sculptures, but right now I am trying to scale down to journal size. If you are interested in joining, I've started a community art project

http://acommunityartproject.blogspot.com/2011/02/project.html

[Liane]

beautiful! At first I though it was a quilt and you had designed your own fabric.