Commit Publicly to a Creative Project – Creativity Tip #15

May 27, 2017 | About Creativity

Bright objects, Overcast day, Copyright Elaine Luther 2017

Once you’ve decided to allow more creativity in your life, it can still be a challenge to set aside time for it, as you create the new habit, build that muscle.

One way to make yourself do your creative work is to commit publicly to a creative project! Not only will you have buddies to hold you accountable, you’ll also have inspiration and community!

I’m doing do such projects right now, the 365 Project, for photos, and #the100dayproject which can be anything, I’m doing Gelli Prints, mostly mandalas. One is plenty to start!

How to choose a challenge to participate in? Look for an active, supportive community. The folks in #the100dayproject are pretty lively and encouraging, I recommend you put it on your list for next year (every April). Participating is super easy (you know, once you make the art), just photograph what you made, post it to Instagram and hashtag it with #the100dayproject.

One of the great things about the 365 Project is that you can start any time! It’s also very forgiving, if you miss a day (or two, or three), you can still upload the pictures and back date them! That’s a nice feature for a year-long project.

These are my first online challenges in a long time. The last one complete was Ring-a-Week, which was a lot of fun. There must still be a flickr album out there with those pictures in them. I once tried a 30 day make-a-day challenge, and at that time I discovered that I needed more time to complete something and I abandoned the project.

If you want to peak at my projects, here are a couple of images and the links:

Field of Sunflowers, Copyright Elaine Luther 2015

Elaine Luther’s 365 Project

Here’s a pile of painty stencils (Silhouette machine cut) and a Gelli Plate Print.

Paint Covered Stencils, photo copyright Elaine Luther 2017

Mandala group, copyright Elaine Luther 2017

You can find all of my mandalas and me over on Instagram, where I’m Elaine_Luther. https://www.instagram.com/elaine_luther

I also post the occasional horrifying thrift store find.

How about you? Have you ever done an online challenge? Did you love it? Hate it? Make it to the end, or realize you’d made a horrible mistake? Let me know in the comments!