Its always fun to just shot your analytical design brain off and just create. I think that helps us as designers to stay creative. Sometimes constraints and boundaries help us be creative, but sometimes they just flat out suck. Creating for yourself, or just the act of creating with no rules can be truly freeing.

“Don’t ever stifle possible creativity or opportunity because you think it will make a negative impact on your person.”

One of the hardest challenges I face in creating art is my mind. By nature I have a very analytical mind that wants to figure things out ahead of time in order to understand them. But creativity doesn’t abide by any rules.

Creativity is like a dandelion that is moved by the wind, and has no other option of where to go than where nature intends it. It can’t force its own agenda upon the wind, telling it where it would like to go. It is just moved where it needs to go.

And that is key for all creative people and all creativity in general, we need to be moved by our natural instincts rather than formulas or rules.

Very insightful Patrick…
I haven’t painted much in recent months, but it was always a very refreshing experience to make things that I had pictured in my mind, with no specification ( like on a design project), and just enjoy the process.

I think it is very healthy to have a medium like this where we are just creating for ourselves free of boundaries. I think my daughter put it best the other day. She asked me to draw with her, and when I asked what she wanted to draw she said… “I don’t know… lets just make stuff and have fun.”

Once again another great read Patrick.

~ Aaron I

Very true, sir. I find that I am most pleased with my artistic endeavors when I start with absolutely no plan whatsoever (or very little premeditation). Some of my favorite “mistakes” came from this process and that is why I will always approach a personal project this way if I can.

If you’d like another outlet, try going through junk or a thrift store and just look at the objects in the room. If you go in without a plan, you allow the opportunity for an object to inspire you. I can see things on tables, guitar cases, broken wood, old books etc. and love being able to grab that initial response to create.

Another plus is that since there is no agony over requirement, or a client to please, you can allow yourself to be happy and surprised with the result. You are free to step back and feel as though you’ve “collaborated” with an inanimate object, which is for some reason very satisfying.

Enjoyed the post, catch ya on twitter!

-one love

Completely agree. I normally have an emotion in my mind or a feeling that I want to convey when I go about making a design, but other than I don’t have a clue of what I am going to design when I start putting something together. Sometimes I just open Photoshop and start playing with colors and brushes and somehow something magical happens. The problem with this is that it is often difficult for me to reproduce later!

@Eddeaux

“The problem with this is that it is often difficult for me to reproduce later!”

I think that’s really true for unique art. Sometimes you may have a style, but in that brink genius of creation, you made something completely unique. Think about The Monalisa, I bet it couldn’t be recreated again the same way it is.

Glad everyone is testing out the waters among many mediums. Shows we have some really great artists among us!