Donna B Miller

Lost Mojo: What to Do About It

So what do you do when your creativity stalls? When you stare at a blank canvas, computer screen, or lump of clay, and you have no idea what to do about it? Here are some techniques I've picked up through books, seminars, and life.

Walk Away
Instead of sitting there feeling discouraged, take a walk. There's something about blue skies and green grass (or gray skies and brown branches, as is the case in Kentucky today) that frees the mind and spirit.

Talk It Out
Find a good ear and talk about what you'd like to accomplish with your art. This works particularly well for writers. I remember once sitting down with a co-worker to complain that I just couldn't get an article right. "What are you trying to say?" she asked. I told her. "Why don't you write it just like that?" she said. I felt so stupid, but this technique works so well that it became a regular activity for our creative team. This one works because we already know what we want to do, but sometimes we don't know that we know.

Try on a New Hat
Sometimes we're blocked creatively because we're stuck in a rut. We're tired of doing the same thing over and over again. So, be creative, but in a different way. Try a different art form: dance, write a poem, pull out your children's play-doh, or get out your camera and take pictures of your neighborhood.

Be Someone Else
One fun way to overcome creativity block is to pretend that you're someone else. If Bill Gates were an artist, how would he approach the project you're working on? What if you were Walt Disney? or Andy Warhol? or Spock?

Look for Inspiration
I'm often inspired by the work of others, so when I'm blocked I start hitting the galleries (on line and in real life) and pulling out books and magazines. In fact, it was the work of Nick Bantock that inspired me to try digital art. I was reading his wonderful book on collage, Urgent 2nd Class, when it occurred to me that I might be able to duplicate some of his effects in Photoshop. That was three years ago, and I've been creating ever since.

My first-ever piece of digital art, inspired by Bantock, and featuring my great grandfather.

Take a Break
Sometimes, nothing seems to break the block. That's when it's time to walk away and just do something else, anything else. Bake some bread, read a book, write in your journal, go out to lunch with friends. Give yourself permission to take some time off. The muse will return, and when it does your mind will be rested and you'll be ready to create.

What are your tips for breaking creativity block? I'd love to hear them.

Walking in this World

Every now and then, we come across a movie, a quote, a person who changes our lives. It's as if we've discovered a truth that we've always known in our hearts, but had never acknowledged in our heads.

For many creative people, Julia Cameron's book, The Artist's Way, causes just such an ephiphany. It was that way for me. As I worked my way through her 12-week course, one chapter at a time, I learned to think of myself as an artist. I acknowledged the bad habits that were holding me back. I learned to dream big.

That's why I was so excited to discover that Cameron had a follow-up book, Walking in this World, described as "Further Steps Along the Artist's Way." I'm now on week three, Discovering a Sense of Perspective. It's all about the healing aspects of art.

This is a very personal chapter for me. Sidelined from my career in corporate communications due to chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, I know first-hand how art can heal the mind and spirit. I found myself nodding my head in agreement as I read, "Creativity is medicine. It is not dangerous or egotistical. It is life-affirming and essential. The more we use it, the more steadily and readily and easily we use it. The more we ground in and regularly access it, the better off we are. The 'healthier' we are."

One of the tasks this week was to build a collage about a situation that we would like to understand more fully. I chose to tackle the fact that I'm basically a country girl living in the suburbs. I long for days spent lying on blankets underneath the sassafras trees with nothing but a book to keep me company. I pine for the smell of freshly turned earth and the sound of the river lapping at the shore.

All of the photos I used are from stock.xchng.

I Interrupt this Blog...

...to let those of you who are interested in food and cooking know that I've just started a new blog, Kentucky Cooks.  I'll be using it to share recipes, cookbook reviews, and hints on where to find the best food when you visit the Bluegrass. There's only one post now, but check back soon for lots more info.

Tone On Tone Challenge

Working with a limited color palette can produce interesting results. Check out the work in this week's Quirkle Gallery at Digital Art Quirks to see what I mean. This week's challenge, put together by DAQ regular Indybev, is to create a piece of art that is tone on tone, offers a piece of wisdom, and uses an overlay.

As soon as I saw the challenge, I knew I wanted to use the mini kit being given away this week by Nancie Rowe Janitz at ScrapArtist as part of her Art Therapy Challenge. You can find the kit here.

My "Don't Throw Out the Baby" piece uses lots of blending to maintain the tone-on-tone effect.

Background papers (blended) and hearts from Nancie Rowe Janitz's Art Therapy kit (a freebie on the ScrapArtist blog); baby from SherrieJD's ATC Babies; overlay from Lie Fhung's Lumoz Whimsy; and garland from Lorie Davison's Brownies and Bunnies kit. Font is Brother Bear.

Ten Text Effect Tutorials

I admit it. I am addicted to Photoshop tutorials. And nothing makes me happier than finding a new tutorial on ways to handle text. Here are ten of my favorites.

Going Green

Shining Neon

Refractive Glass

Grungy Stamp

Stitched Text

Liquid Text

All is Golden

Shiny Chrome

Text Within Text

Iron Man

Let's Get Challenged

So, you're feeling artistic, but you need a little motivation. Check out these awesome weekly challenges.

Illustration Friday is a weekly creative outlet/participatory art exhibit for illustrators and artists of all skill levels. Each week, you're given a new theme that has been suggested by participants. This week's theme is "late". I have the Illustration Friday blog on my RSS feed. It's a great way to learn about new artists and illustrators.

Make a Moo or Two is devoted to those little 2.8 x 7 centimeter cards produced by Moo, a British-based company that became famous for printing these awesome little mini cards. Make a Moo or Two issues a new challenge every Friday. This week's theme is "arrows;" next week's will be "tone on tone." Working at such a small size is challenging indeed. Here's one I did for a recent Make a Moo or Two challenge with a dance theme.

The digital scrapbooking store ScrapArtist offeres a weekly Altered/Collage Challenge every Tuesday. Last week, participants were challenged to design magazine covers. This week, they're challenged to do self-portraits using sunglasses and reflections. What fun.

If you're wanting to polish your Photoshop skills, particularly in the area of digital manipulation, you'll want to check out Worth1000.  This site offers dozens of contests each month, at all skill levels. Some of the current contests include "Glorifying Chocolate," "Manipulating a Homestead Photo," and "Elvis Sightings."  I must warn you, this site can be addicting and you can lose hours at a time just wandering through past contest entries.

Do you just love the look of gothic arches? Then check out the weekly challenges at Gothic Arches. This week's theme is "Patchwork Paper."

And don't forget my favorite challenges, the Quirkle and Photo Challenges at Digital Art Quirks, and the Frameworthy Challenge at Scrapbookgraphics.

Finding the Muse:

I love discovering new artists, by which I mean artists that are new to me. So I was excited when Kim posted this week's new Scrapbookgraphics Frameworthy challenge featuring Anthony Frederick Sandys. Sandys (1829-1904) was a British Pre-Raphaelite painter and illustrator whose works featured the most beautiful gold and red tones.

In my effort to master Photoshop, I love trying to duplicate the work of pen and paint artists. As I went through Sandy's gallery, I was completely entranced by his coloured chalk piece, Love's Shadows.

I started playing with filters and brushes, and it was going in the right direction, but then it all went awry and the piece became more about me and less about Sandys. Oh well, I guess that's why it's an inspirational challenge instead of a copying challenge. Here's my Love's Bouquet.

Photo from Art E-Zine.

Playing with Actions

My nephew sent me a link to Smashing Magazine's Ultimate Collection of Photoshop Actions, so I I spent the morning downloading new actions, and then I started following links, adding new actions and textures and fonts. My poor computer is going to explode.

My favorite action set on Smashing Magazine's list is Aly's Vintage, a set that I've been using for years. The Very Vintage Action is perfect for heritage and collage work.

Another action that I've been playing with lately is Chip Springer's Paint with Light action, available from ATN Central.  I used it to develop an artist trading card for this week's Quirkle challenge at Digital Art Quirks. My buddy Kim Gabriel challenged us to illustrate joy, using flowers and light. Using a photo of daisies from stock.xchng, I ran the action and then used the dodge tool to paint in the bright spots and the burn tool to burn in the darker spots. I think the effect is pretty cool; it's definitely an action I'll be using again.

 
Daisy photo from toutouke, stock.xchng; Genevieve Sass ATC Basics; and Lie Fhung Lumoz Whimsy overlay. Font is Fluoxetine.

For more great actions, check out my blog post from last year, Fun Friday Freebies: Actions.

Epson Masters the Art of Printing

So I went out to buy ink cartridges for my ancient HP All-in-One, and came home with a new printer instead. The practical side of me thinks I'll end up saving money because of reduced ink costs. But the artist and the nerd in me are excited about having a new toy to play with.

The Epson Artisan 800 is amazingly fast (10 seconds for a 4x6-inch print) and the quality is superb. My test photos, printed on Epson's own photo paper, were of a quality equivalent to my local Wal-Mart's and were actually better than my recent Shutterfly prints.

It uses six individual ink cartridges which should save me money. No more replacing a whole color cartridge because I've used too much yellow.

But it's all the bells and whistles that have me excited.

First of all, it's wireless, so I can sit in my living room and crank out photos from my laptop. No more climbing the stairs to the office, plugging in the computer, and waiting for a job to print. There are two paper trays so I can keep it loaded with both regular and photo papers for ease of printing.

It's an all-in-one, so I can use it to send faxes and make copies.

It has CD/DVD-printing capability. Upload your favorite photo, add some text, and send the job to your printer. A tray pops out; you insert your disc; and a few minutes later, you have a custom-designed CD. How cool is that?

It even has the built-in capability to make coloring sheets and graph paper.  For a coloring page, you simply place your photo on the scanner, hit the coloring page button on the touch pad, and wait for the printed project. My grandson is going to love coloring pictures of his dog and new kitten.

And, as if that's not enough, it's design is sleek and ultra modern. Isn't it cool?

Fun Stuff at DAQ

Lots of cool things are going on at Digital Art Quirks this month.

This week, I'm hosting the Quirkle challenge. The host gets to choose three things that participants must include in their art. This week, it's 1) the definition of a word, 2) the color gold, and 3) a crown.  For some reason, I seem to always have trouble with my own challenges, but I finally came up with this.

If you'd like to play along, be sure to check out the challenge here .

I'm really excited about our Halloween Gothic Arches swap. If you're not familiar with Gothic Arches, you might want to check out these websites.

Gothic Arch Book Project

Karen's Muse and Musings

Paper Whimsy (these were all Halloween related)

flickr

Because it's October, we're focusing on Halloween for this month's challenge. The swap is closed, but if you'd like to give arches a try, you can download free templates here.

Digital Art Quirks is also hosting an art journaling challenge, and a series of weekly photo challenges. For the current photo challenge, we were asked to incorporate this stock.xchng photo by Lola Rodriguez.

As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to tell the story about a dream I had as a small child.