So my day off has been a little treat: a stop at Utrecht, big inky swashes in my illustration, scanning color reference, listening to dirty calypso songs like this one, and finishing The Creative Habit. While not all of it seems easy for me to implement, I really liked some of the strange little exercises Tharp put in the book. 

On the way to the art supply store, my brain got a little idea of its own. I’ll explain the exercise— it’s pretty fun, and the only thing you really need are a pair of eyes. It’s kind of fun when you’re moving, because you can get new stimuli very quick.

 Okay, open your eyes. Latch onto something that catches your fancy. Now take note of what color it is— and start looking for another color that you would pair with it, and another, and another. For instance, that yellow from that traffic sign looks great with ____ but even better with _____ and ______. We have established ideas of what colors look awesome with what, but mentally start placing odd combinations together and you may find something you hadn’t ever considered.

The beauty is, you can do this any time you’re bored— it filters away the extraneous details of the world and just lets your brain play with a puzzle. I found after doing that I felt pretty energized to work. Probably because it pushed another set of mental muscles I don’t stretch much, and as a result my brain felt energized and free of nagging thought.

All this thinking about habit and creativity has got me thinking about my own habits. Such as things like Twitter— taking note of how much a hold it’s had on my life in the past year or two I’ve used it. A lot of it is mindless chatter I read and partake in; and I noticed yesterday just how often I scroll past the things I’m not interested in (certain pop-culture releases, links to weird stuff, joke memes)— so much time spent saying things that slip away. So much time that could be better spent drawing, writing, talking to real live people. After all, my heroes made thousands of images in their lifetime— spending so many minutes of a day reading tweets seems so much like a creative shot in the foot.

 The initial draw of Twitter (a watercooler for my peers!) has sort of diluted. Or else maybe I’m just slowly losing interest. The people I want to talk to, I want to do more than just chatter to them. So following another idea of Tharp’s, I’m going to start placing limits and see where that takes me. Thinking before I tweet, and spending less time daily reading/writing on it. Throwing away less thoughts and time must be good, I think. 

My, so much words lately. I promise some more pictures soon.