How do we get better at being creative?
There is a saying that I am sure that you have heard about at least once: practice makes perfect. And then I am sure you will agree that perfection is not attainable, so why should you bother?
If you think back to when you learned something for the first time, was it easy to do it? Of course not. You practised it over and over again, and with every practice session, you became more skilled and improved your understanding of it.
And creativity in any shape or form works exactly the same way. People often tell me that they can barely draw a stick figure, so they cannot draw. I have given up trying to explain to those people that anyone can learn to draw. Instead, I focus my energy on rather helping people who want to learn, because they inherently understand that the skill is developed with practice. Practice learning, practice to improve their skills, and practice to deepen their understanding of the nature of their own creativity.
In my art group, everyone likes to paint exciting subjects and we enjoy playing with new materials. As the teacher, I am more aware of continuing to learn to improve my own skills on top of the fun of new projects. I, therefore, make a point of it to always reiterate that practice improves our skills, and not the new materials or spending 15 minutes to paint the pretty flowers we see in a photograph.
Practice takes time like everything else we have to do in our daily lives. Next time I will share more about how I plan time to practice my artistic skills.
Stay safe, stay healthy, and live creatively until Monday!
︙ Linzé 🇿🇦💚
