More Than Meets The Eye

Some days are spent in creative action, others in creative thought.   Most days, there's a little of both, and today was one of those days.  

The first thing I did was go shopping.  I spent 30¢ at the library discard sale and bought the two books you see in the photo for 10¢ each.  I love the covers of these books and I'll remove the text blocks and fill them with great papers for journals or sketchbooks.  I spent another dime on a book with trashed boards, but some great images inside.  Then I spent the rest of the day cutting things up.  Some of them will find their way into the books and pages I'll make for J.O.Y., and my FTB books, and a lot of others will end up in SoulCollage® cards.  Here's the pile:    

There's a lot of value to cutting things out with scissors.  It's good cross-training for drawing.  When you make intricate cuts with scissors, your eye follows contours exactly the same way it does when you draw.  Except that when you draw, unless you've trained your eye with lots of practice, it wants to move ahead of the pencil, and put things in that aren't there, and take things out that are.  That's why scissors are such good practice for people who draw.  Your brain tells your eyes to slow down and pay attention.  You're holding a sharp object.  So you look more intently, and your eye gets practice in carefully following contours while the object in your hand follows your eye.  

If you cut out intricate shapes often, your brain will translate following those contours to your drawing as well.  And vice-versa.  If you draw often, you will become better at cutting out intricate shapes.  It's about patience, persistence, and learning to look at what's really there, not what the filters in your brain want you to see and think is there.  

So that's how I spent day 21 of Traci Bunkers 30 Days Of Get Your Art On.  And since it's prep work for art journaling, it's also part of AJED.  I practiced drawing with my scissors, and let my mind wander.  It's amazing how many ideas the images can inspire while you're slowly and methodically cutting them out.  It's almost meditative.  It isn't something I do in front of the TV or while I'm listening to conversations or audio books.  I concentrate.  It's wonderful.  Really focusing on the task at hand brings so many creative ideas forward.  

Comments

[Rosie]

You are such a wonderful teacher! I learn so many useful (and technical) things from you - little snippets (pardon the play on words!!) of information that I treasure!
I hope you continue to blog regularly because I shall miss it so much if you don't! xoxo

[shawn]

Good idea doing prep work- I'm feeling a little blah lately, especially since I finished a journal and am trying to start another. Think I'll take a break too and just do some prep work- thanks for the idea :)