audience? who cares about them?

for most of us would be creators the question of 'the audience' is a moot one. we don't have an audience.
in some respects that makes us lucky (albeit poor and creatively unloved).
why?
simple because right now you can do anything you want. there is nothing to stop you from being as creative or as experimental as you want. if you dp abstracts and tomorrow you feel like doing landscapes then go for it. if you are a poet and the urge omes across you to do hard core erotica then don't stop.
you can do what you want.

if you are lucky you will beccome famous and successful with your endeavours and then you are going to find yourself having to stick to the grove you have made for yourself.
only when you become a real superstar can you plot a career path that can chop and change.

the other thing about not worrying about an audience, the audience, your audience is that you do this (whatever it is) for your own benefit. you paint, sing, dance, photograph, write, weave, sculpt for your own benefit, you own enjoyment.

for most of us this is the time when we are still learning what it is we are doing. finding our voice, our style. while we are doing that we may as well have fun at it.

because in the end if we don't like what we do there is little chance anyone else is going to.

remember this - the audience starts with you.

tick tock tick tock

time is your enemy. never forget that.
that thing you thought was only going to take an hour - it won't. you think it is only going to be a week long job - it'll be longer.
it'll always take longer.
so factor that into anything you are doing.

sometimes the reason it will take longer will be because you hit a block, you can't think any more, you just can't quite form the idea - it stays just out of reach, teasing and tempting you. even when that happens - you still have to plug away at it. you need to keep going.
other thimes the reason it will take longer is that the muse has struck and what was a simple idea has suddenly grown into a much larger piece. don't hold back go with the flow and enjoy that moment of creative pleasure.

while it seems counter intuitive being creative is all about planning and planning your time in order to create.

don't let time defeat you.
plan and be in a better position to beat the clock.

start

the time to start is now.
stop thinking about wanting to be a painter, sculptor, photographer, writer, poet whatever.
thinking gets you nowhere.
do it.
start now.
don't worry about the quality, don't worry about the quantity. just do something. get it started, feel good about being creative and let the rest worry about itself.
you'll have enough time to worry about whether or not it is any good once you have done it - and that is the time to start worrying about it - not before.

so get on with it.

failure is an option

not everything you do is going to work. it may not even come close to what you wanted it to be.
nothing wrong with that.
failure is good.
failure is where you learn the lessons that improves your work.
the fear of failure will stop you from taking risks.
embracing failure will allow you to take chances.

failure only works if you learn from it.
if you learn from it then there is no need to be despondent because it means the next time you do something you will be better.

you are the first judge as to whether or not a piece of work has succeeded in the way you wanted it to. if possible you need to find someone else you can show your work to in order to get some feedback.

failure is an option.
make failure work for you, it is just a pit stop on the road to success.

targets - take aim and hit the target

set yourself a target.
doesn't matter what it is - it might be the amount of time you spend being creative. it might be the amount of work you complete. it could even been when you are creative. your choice, it is your target.
make sure that it is doable.
there is no point in setting a target that you have no chnace in meeting - why set yourself up to fail.
maybe you want to devote an hour a night to whatever creative endeavour you on the go. good. then spend an hour doing it. pick a start time. stick to it. complete the hour. look at what you have done. be pleased and then walk away from it.
maybe you think you can write 1000 words - then let that be your target. write and write get to the 1000 word mark and then stop.
it doesn't matter what it is you want to do you will find it easier if you set yourself targets.
targets only work if you try to achieve them - so don't set them too high, but no good to set them too low either, as you want to push yourself.

why targets? why not just do it (as i have said previously). targets help you come back to do more. doing once is probably easy. doing it several times is harder, doing it consistently is the real goal.
the more you do the work. the easier it becomes.
the easier it becomes the more you can create.

as i have said before creation is just like being an athlete - you have to practice, you have to get better/stronger and the only way of doing it that is by having targets.

after awhile you find that your target has increased - and you might be working on it for longer, or aiming to do more in the same amount of time.

targets aren't for the days when the muse has kicked in and you are a creative juggernaunt and images and words flow like water. targets are for the 99% if the time when the muse is kicking back and enjoying a cold one.

tagets get you to apply yourself.
so think about your working method, think about how you might best apply a target to it and get on with creating.

remember be sensible with that target.

new year new challenge

we set great store by the new year. resolutions and all that. as if somehow the new year really is a clean slate and not just another day where the problems we had yesterday are still with us tomorrow.
however that is to dwell on the negative.
while it may not be a moment when the slate has been wiped clean the new year can be seen as an opportunity to turn a fresh page, open a new chapter and begin a new adventure.

so with the new year started - think about those creative ideas you have left lying around doing nothing for one reason or another. or that project you think you have finished but have not quite gotten around to doing those last minute revisions.
or you have that idea you haven't touched.
now is the time.
begin the year as you mean to go on.
put pen to paper.
brush to canvas.
tinkle the ivories.
look through the viewfinder.

we all have it in us to be creative in one way or another.
whatever form your creativity manifests itself - poetry or prose, oil or watercolour, dance or stand-up don't let it go to waste. do something with it.

this is an olympic year. take heart from that. think about those athletes who have pursued their dreams in order to compete at the highest level. most of them will fail.
there is nothing wrong with that.
when it comes down to it - if you don't try you will never know.

so as 2012 begins forget about all those barriers you have placed in front of yourself, brush aside all the questions you have about your creativity.
because the truth of the matter is you can do it.

what are you waiting for?
get creating.

look at it another way

so you have finished your masterwork. you are happy and satisfied. rightly so.
well sort of.
you should never be to happy with what you have created - you should always be critical of what you do because you want to learn from what you have done so the next time you improve.

i am not talking about editing here.
i am not talking about touching up an image or refining what you have done.

i am talking about looking at what you have done critically.
you are doing this for two reasons.
firstly you are looking at where you can improve - do you need to tighten it up, let it flow more? more colour? less colour? the lessons learnt here will always benefit you when you start your next piece of work.

secondly you need to look at your work and ask yourself could i have done this differently? would it have been better if i had..?
what do i mean?
if you have done a series of portraits where you have painted/ photographed your subject face on, would you have been better to approach the from the side in order to get a profile or a three quarter view? maybe you need to just have part of the face in the finished image - a close up on the eyes.

if you have painted a landscape - maybe you should have gone with acrylic rather than watercolour. maybe abstract instead of figurative.

it is all about viewpoint.
look at what you have created and think about how you might have approached it differently. it may be that the method you used was the right one - so it means that the next time you try to do the same sort of thing you'll know what you need to do. it might also be that in looking for a new way to do the job you are struck by inspiration and have something new to work on.

you improve by looking, critically, at what you have done.
you improve by looking for new ways of working.

be pleased with your finished work. every completed act of creation is something to be proud of.
but use that piece as a way to improve your next piece.

remember everything is a work in progress.