Profile for missmeat - Creative Juices (Not the Caffeinated Kind)

missmeat aka Michelle Lopes is a 29.9 year old girl, has been a member since July 19, 2007, has scored 1,792 submissions, giving an average score of 2.70, helping 25 designs get printed.

URL: http://spasticsnap.blogspot.com

Jul 25 '07 by missmeat
19 Comments
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Creative Juices (Not the Caffeinated Kind)

O.K., so mjoo's post kind of forced me to write this out. It's advice on how to overcome any sort of creative block from my life drawing teacher and ex Disney man, the great Glen Vilppu. To paraphrase, he said:

1. "Draw something. Anything. You can always draw something."

2. "Now draw the opposite of that."

3. "Now, (referring to drawing 2) draw the opposite of that."

The idea being that after about half an hour you'll have at least one idea - but probably more than that - that are pretty good if not fantastic. And you won't be stuck in an endless loop of the same two opposite drawings if you regard each new drawing differently and try to extrapolate a new "opposite" from there. I find this works well in all creative situations - art, writing, trying to unstick a zipper, whatever.

The high caffeine content in tea also helps.

mj00 on Jul 25 '07 at 7:27pm

Wow, that's a very cool strategy. I might have to try that this weekend.

d3d on Jul 25 '07 at 7:29pm

don't steps two and three negate each other? you could save a lot of time by not bothering.

sonmi on Jul 25 '07 at 7:30pm

hmm yes, wouldn't the results of 3 look oddly similar to 1?

hellofromthemoon on Jul 25 '07 at 7:33pm

well, what if you took, say, just the right hand corner of drawing 2, and drew the opposite of that?

mj00 on Jul 25 '07 at 7:35pm

The steps only negate each other if you draw things that are opposite in the same way. The opposite of the sun could be the moon, but it could also be a droplet of water or a square. Or something else entirely.

missmeat on Jul 26 '07 at 12:12am

Mjoo is right! You need to read the sentences in the last paragraph, kids: you extrapolate a new "opposite" from each drawing.

Tyr on Jul 26 '07 at 12:15am

This plan is definitely interesting, maybe worth looking in to. Why do you call yourself MISSMEAT???

missmeat on Jul 26 '07 at 12:30am

I like meat! A lot! I like the texture, I like the colors, I like the taste. I use it in my artwork, and have a whole philosophy about it...I'll post my philosophy if anyone's really interested, but it's weird.

Tyr on Jul 26 '07 at 12:31am

I qualify for weird. PLEASE explain. I am so bored and it actually sounds intrigring.

tobasco on Jul 26 '07 at 12:34am

Heck! That's pretty cool.

Thanks!

missmeat on Jul 26 '07 at 12:37am

Ok, so meat to me is a lot like people...it's in a transitive state, waiting to be formed into something else. It also inherently comes from something that was alive previously - just like us. Meat could also be seen as "raw" creativity - organic potential waiting to be formed. When we cook the meat, or when it decays, it is mutable - transforming into something new and beautiful (and yeah, I like the aesthetics of decay, too). So meat is this ultimately mutable, transforming, shifting thing - full of energy and potential and waiting to be made anew...

that's it.

missmeat on Jul 26 '07 at 12:38am

Did I scare you? :)

Tyr on Jul 26 '07 at 12:40am

you are awfully stange but it a way that fascinates me. That is so insightful and deep while being intirely true to the creative mind! If you have any other philosophies please share!

Tyr on Jul 26 '07 at 12:41am

Darling you would be hard pressed to scare me. If you don't believe check out my profile. I am way past the norm and loving every minute of it

tobasco on Jul 26 '07 at 12:46am

That's an interesting outlook on meat.

I agree about the decay part though, it's an interesting stage where everything happens in a defined order, I watched one of those vidoes once where it takes a bowl of fruit and films it until it's nothing but mush, really amazing colours come and go on the fruit.

missmeat on Jul 26 '07 at 1:01am

Yeah, I've seen a bunch of vids like that...um, that didn't sound creepy...

And my strangeness will creep out in it's own fun little way as I think about it. And you're not weird, Tyr, you're fun...unless you wanna be weird. Then you're SOOO weird!

Now I'm sleepy. Night night. :)

Tyr on Jul 26 '07 at 1:06am

you should not judge a book let alone a person by a snipit of them. That is actually hypocritical of my earlier comment. Oh well!

missmeat on Jul 26 '07 at 11:52am

I totally agree with you tyr - I try not to judge anybody until I get to know them. Hopefully, people will do the same for me. :)