Creative work often has a healing effect.
It’s that simple for me.
When I’m working on something, just for myself and for fun (you know, something that has nothing to do with a commission or a client’s deadline), I often feel something shift deep inside of me. It’s as if a switch is flipped, and poof: a different kind of creativity takes over.
A sort of survival mode, but in this case, for a drawing
At moments like these, I just create something without knowing how it will turn out. What I create isn’t necessarily beautiful or perfect or even 'by the book' (if you can state it like that), and it doesn’t have to be.
In fact, sometimes it’s even better to create something that doesn’t go smoothly at all, or doesn’t look like anything. Because that’s when you trigger that “other” kind of creativity: a wilder, free-form approach that seems to shift into some kind of solution-oriented survival mode. When I’m in a phase like that, questions pop into my head like: “How can I still salvage this piece? At what point can I improve it? What color should I add, or what should I remove? Can I try a different direction? What happens if I mix this material with that? And so on...”
Mistakes are fun!
And then the experimentation begins, and I start making attempts to improve the work. I remove things (as far as the materials and pigments allow it) and try different colors and different mediums. Sometimes I simply grab some cheap tape or printer paper, paint it, and stick it over the 'flaw' like a collage. Sometimes I grab some opaque paint and use it like Tipp-Ex, looking to find other ways out. Sometimes it results in the piece going completely to hell because there are simply already too many layers on the paper.
Just create something ugly
But none of that matters. In a strange way, it’s rewarding when you suddenly discover something new, like amazing textures or some beautiful 'effect' you hadn’t noticed before. And that’s how you keep building. You’re actually letting go of your limits and creating your own challenges, knowing that you’re doing it for yourself and that the rest of the world doesn’t have to see any of it. It's so nice when no one is looking over your shoulder, and that feeling can be both soothing and liberating, especially in these busy and turbulent times we're in.
I feel that moments like these (even though they’re unfortunately a bit too sporadic) are like a gift to myself. And it helps me when I feel stuck in my head and in my work. So: just making something ugly, and seeing if I can get my creativity back on track, often works wonders. It’s even possible that the stuff you made ultimately ends up in the trash after all. And that’s okay, too. 'Success' isn’t really a must. (Though of course it can be really cool if you made it look nice after all).
Some kind of laziness
It’s actually quite interesting how the creative mind develops itself during this kind of creative process. Especially in an age when we’re letting Artificial Intelligence (or A.I.) make us a bit more mindless of things. And I deliberately emphasize “letting,” because I believe we’re allowing it to happen.
All around me, I see more and more people I care about (people I consider intelligent) who carelessly allow themselves to use A.I. for even the silliest things. It's like they're allowing themselves a certain laziness, even when it comes to their creative goals, and I find it such a shame, and also pointless in a way. I've read how A.I. can make people dumber because they're letting it do a lot of their cognitive tasks. I find it worrisome. But whenever I speak up about it to my friends and family, I’m met with silences, or I’m told “You can’t stop progress.”
Maybe not. But we can still try and think for ourselves.
And gosh, of course I understand time constraints in our busy world, and of course I see the convenience of it and some of its benefits. I tried it a while back for my English translations to get some help with my grammar. But when it comes to creative work, I refuse to use it. And you know what? … Those translations may have been slick, but they lacked my little quirks and mistakes, so there. 😜
A certain aversion
Unfortunately… My aversion to using AI in our everyday lives is growing by the day, especially considering its impact on our planet and our communities (for instance, its heavy use of electricity and water, and the Big Tech's general abuse of our environment by building data centers). And that’s not even mentioning the impact it has on our lives and our own brains.
I’ve never ever used A.I. for visual inspiration or in my own illustration work, and I absolutely never will.
What others do is, of course, their own business, but if I'm very honest, I don’t think it’s a smart move to make.
Back to my original message
So I guess, what's most important to me is that I keep pushing myself to make everything on my own, to write stuff on my own, to keep thinking my own thoughts, and to keep coming up with ideas that are from my own mind, without artificial help that takes everything out of my hands.
I want to be able to make creative mistakes and keep my mind sharp so I can keep learning. Because my mind is my everything, and it’s simply who I am. I don't want to lose that.
So if you ever find yourself stuck? Then try it out. Turn to something creative (not Google or AI). Grab a pen and write something wild. Or grab a pencil or a crayon and draw something ugly and figure out if you can save it. It doesn’t matter. Just challenge yourself. That’s how your mind will stay in shape.
With love,
