Transcripts
1. Into: The Power of Play: Hello. I'm Nikita Cajun. I'm a multi passionate artist seeking to take
the everyday from routine to ritual with practices and processes that call us back to
our highest work. Today, I want to
welcome you into the studio with me for
a creative play date. I'm going to invite you to peek over my shoulder as I cut, collage, sketch, journal,
explore and wander. I believe one of the
greatest gifts we can give ourselves is open ended
play and exploration. And I find the more I
spend time playing, the more intentional I can be with shaping my
creative journey, my creative style, and stay connected to what drew me to making art in the first place. And I want that for you, too. So join me in this lesson, where we're going to
collect materials for a creative play session. Now, before we begin, you should know
that this is simply a studio session with
no defined end result, and that is the
best part of play. We're not working
on a set project we're simply exploring
and creating. So, following along here with me is not about creating
what you see me do, but instead asking
what conversation you want to enter into with
your creative self. So it's time to grab
your favorite beverage, get cozy with your
favorite supplies, whatever medium you'd
like to create with, and let's get playing.
2. Class Project: Your project for this class is to simply document as you play, document your inspiration,
your sketchbook, what you paint or create, and share it with us in
the project section.
3. Gather Your Materials: Before we sit down to create, we need to gather up some
materials and inspiration. I've mostly painted
the butterfly image during a sketch session before, and I'm going to do something a little scary, and I'm
going to cut it up. And you can see, I'm just going in a four by
four inch grid. This is taking some of
the decision process out of it and can take away a little bit of
the intimidation if I'm doing something a
little bit formulaic, and it's going to remove a
bit of the fear as well. I've also wandered outside and collected some flowers
for my garden, and I love this little
wonky wilting one. It's something I'm drawn
to time and time and again because even my
subject matter, though, I'm inspired by nature, it's not about perfection, just about the curiosity
and the world around me. I also have this wall
in my studio where I put some favorite
sketches and studies, little clippings,
notes for my kids, and I keep this
collage box full of bits and bobs from art that I didn't love
as a whole piece, things from old books, colored papers,
whatever I can find. I encourage you to do that, too, because even if
you're not interested in collage as the final medium, it can be a really great
brainstorming tool. Okay. Welcome to my messy desk. I hope you're ready to play. Whether you have
your own studio, whether you're working in the
corner of your dining room, you can really set the stage for yourself. You can
light a candle. You can sip some tea like I am. You can surround yourself
with pretty things. Even if it's just a small
corner of the room. I really just like
to invite myself in that way by setting the
stage for my surroundings.
4. Set Your Intentions: And having all this
around me means I'm already in conversation
when I sit down at my desk, even if it's just
with my past self. You can see I worked from a
grid to remove the fear and the decision process around how I could tear into something
that I'd already created, let's take a look at what
else is on my desk here and maybe you can
set yours up to create if that's something
you're going to do. I have my favorite art
supplies. You can see. I have a pretty broad
color palette here, but it's one that I
use again and again. So consistency
builds up over time, even though I still have some
variety to work within it. These actually fell out
of my sketchbook earlier. I had pressed these
leaves in the past. I had even inked
on top of this one and they were really
sparking my curiosity. I pulled them out when I was
picking my flowers earlier, I have that set out
in front of me, even though you can't see it
here and some petals that came out when I was
arranging that bouquet and I can't get enough
of botanical form. These are going to likely
inform my work as well. I'm going to have
these surrounding me. I've got my notebook to brainstorm and take
notes along the way. I really like to
capture my thoughts because so much
comes to me when I'm just open and curious and
playing and I want to be able to record some
of that because I likely won't remember at all. I have this sketchbook that has some backgrounds
that I had done, a few more art supplies, and even though
the room is clean, I like having a little
bit of chaos and a little bit of mess so that
I'm ready to just dig in. I don't have to worry
about starting with a completely blank page because all of this
is already here, getting me excited
and pulling me in. I also have my collage box with some past work to draw on, and I think I'm
really going to start with my notebook and
setting my intentions. I've been reading a lot about
Georgia O'Keefe this year, so I'm going to just jot
down some things that struck me in this
book I'm reading from her called T
See Takes Time, and I'm going to just kind of set my intentions
here for a moment. I really like having something like this in my
mind to respond to, not something visual,
but something just to think over in my head. And what's really resonating, it says she drew and Drew
because she was having fun, and she kept going in order to find out what she was
drawing in the first place. And that's what I'm
feeling like today. When I go to play, I don't necessarily have an
outcome in mind. I want to find out. And so I'm going to think about
that with my intentions. So I'm going to journal
a little bit more. Okay, so it's to find out I'm interested in some
new compositions. I'm interested in just small
moments I can recreate. I want to create something new. This morning, I was
actually feeling like, Oh, I need to come up with some new subject matter because I just keep creating
these botanicals. I can't let them go, and maybe I need to do something else. But I've been given freedom
with Georgia O'Keef saying, I've been making it
over and over again. And so I think that's what I'm going to
give myself freedom to do. I'm going to surround myself
with some past compositions. I'm going to let myself
do a mix of these things. I want to collect
some creative clues. I want to create something new. I like to make a mess
and do it all at once, so we're just going to
see where this goes, and I'm going to
invite you along.
5. Sketchbook Play - Part 1: I've spent some time
taking a few notes. I'm going to have this
out in front of me anytime I need to spark
a little conversation. And let's see. I think I'm going to be really wild and maybe work on
a couple of things at once. So I've pulled this
background piece here, and I've got my sketchbook. I'm going to open this
to a fresh spread. All right. For now, I'm not looking to glue
anything down just yet, so I'm just going to put
some of these little things here as I'm thinking through
where I want to head next. I'm really captivated by this
kind of star form already. I know I want to paint
that at some point. And I've got all
these little pieces. And originally, I
was looking just to see if it sparked
new positions. But really, the
first thing I want to do is start
cutting things out, and I may revisit my
collage box as well. But I've got a lot to
work with just with this. So I'm just going to I've
got my flowers here as well, so I'll use that
as inspiration for some shapes and
forms as well as Ds, and I just want to start
cutting a little bit. You could work from
memory, as well. I'm not trying to follow
anything faithfully. I just like to have some
forms available to me. Reference. And this is nice. This is just kind of a
little brain break. I'm not thinking too heavily about what's going
to come of this. We will try to stick this here so I can see
it a little better. See if I can do. You know what? I think I might draw that flower form and
then cut around it. This is one of my favorite
pencils right now. It's a Durant graph and tint, and it's meadow and
it's really cool. I'm going to waste
page, not waste page. I'm going to do some mark making and show you just how much. You can go lightly and you get the green that matches
what you have here. But you go darker
and you get this, and if you go really dark, it'll get almost black more of the graphite
comes through. So this has been just
something I work with a lot, and that's another one
of the through lines. This is what it looks like
when it's water activated. I'm going to use
this and I'm going to make my little form there. Looking through just to see if that is what I want
to draw it on. Yeah, I think I
like the pink here, so This is a play session, so there's no rhyme or
reason or absolute strategy. We're just in conversation
with ourselves, getting a little bit closer
to what intrigues us, what captivates us, and
what can come of that. Do a solid one, too. And, hey, we like the
royal thirds, don't we? Let's do just one more. I don't know if I've still even managed to capture what
it is I liked about this. That's okay. We'll play
with some paint later too. Okay, now we're going to go
ahead and cut these out. I start with just a
little wonky circle. I'm using that word a
lot today, but I do. I like things a little
wonky, a little imperfect. I'm not even going to worry
if I crop some of this off. I'm just going to keep cutting and tearing to my
heart's content. You can see even these little
scraps, I like to save. I have some right here and sometimes these
become something as well, so nothing is wasted. I like thinking about these negative shapes that come out, so you'll see me
cut some of those. But let's just keep playing and I'll meet you when I'm done. Uh From this little very abstract
formation of a vessel. I'm going to just make
a little mark there so I know that's where it could go. I have to be tied to that. I'm going to dip my brush
in and get started. Oh
6. Sketchbook Play - Part 2: Watercolor, especially seems to unlock the more intuitive
part of my mind. There's just not as
much you can control. Of course, there
are ways that you can master it and make it more refined and controlled. But I intentionally use this in a way where I'm not working to do
that quite so much. You can see, well, you
may not be able to see, but this brush isn't
even perfectly clean from last time
and it like that leaves me a little bit of a clue in terms of direction
of where to go. I want to bring. Purple
in that I really like. Let things flow a
little fluidly. This is not a high quality paper in terms of working
with mixed media and so I won't get the
subtle gradations that I would if I were working
on some watercolor paper, which I might move to next, but that also helps me just not worry so
much about the outcome. I know I'm just here to play because I really
can't do much else. It's not going to be this
fancy finished piece. It's just going to be for me and you and our play time
together to help us. Get the hands moving. Even though I'm not really
getting to collage yet, this also got my hands moving, helped me loosen up
whether I go back to collage or not today,
I got me somewhere. I got me to where I am with
this and helped me feel free. I can look at some
of the forms here and see if anything
strikes my fancy. Again, I'm still really
resonating with that funky shape. I think maybe painting is going to help me get closer
to it in some way. I'm gonna break out my
favorite secret weapon. It's Holbne acrylic wash. It's color. Makes me so happy. I lean a little bit
here and there. Mm. I hope you're feeling
encouraged to join in with me to paint or play along
with me if you'd like. Makes me so happy. It wakes
me up, gets me excited. But I do want to distribute
around the page. Don't want too much
in just one spot. I love working wet on wet, getting these different
interactions. You might make mud. It's
looking a little muddy there. It's all right. It's
all part of it. I really like this imperfect
mirroring. Doing this a lot. It's really meditative for me, only deciding on one side, I'm working against
the paint drying, I'm seeing where I can
get where it deviates. A really joyful process. Let's bring these babies
back, see what they're doing. Most of my creative play
is quietly by myself. But when I was in art school, my roommates and I made
art together all the time. There are certain things that are more suited to solitude, but working in your sketchbook, collaging, just
curiously sketching, painting, it can be fun
to bring someone along. I'm grateful to have your
company today as well. I got these little
puff balls here. I don't know if you can see it. I'm going to deviate from where I was and play
with those for a minute, which are also reminding
me of this little form. You can see it
doesn't really want to bleed a lot like you might expect watercolor too because of this paper,
and that's fine. Get my favorite little
pencil I showed you earlier. Start
playing with that. I'm not worried about making a final cohesive composition
here or anything like that. This is just living on the page. It may spark some ideas later. Thinking about this one
again. That little shape. This is definitely weirder than some things I've
been painting recently. More whimsical heading into
slightly new territory while still finding some through lines with what I've been
doing with color, composition. It's just an experiment.
Need to get some of this. I don't know if I don't know
if you'd call it chartreuse. It's like a yellow, but
it's a little bit of green. It's pretty electric. Oh,
yeah. I'm liking that. I already feel I'm feeling just a little bit confined by my
little sketchbook page today. I'm probably going to move to some bigger paper
here in a minute. But this is another
tip for play. If you're intimidated by
creating one piece beyond just creating for a shorter period of time or limiting yourself
by a certain size, you can also go the
other way and say, I'm going to make three
things at a time here and we're going to
just keep going. I think I actually do want
to glue some of these down and probably come through here to write some notes
for my creative clues. I don't know. You know
what? I don't think I will. I'm going to take a
little mental snapshot of that and slowly
pair things away. Sometimes even with
something like this, I might not glue it
if I'm still partial to these pieces and feel
like there's something more. Maybe I'm going
to put those over here for now and continue this. Maybe this needs, maybe this just is wanting something more. That form from this little wilty
thing is still calling me. It's coming out there. It's not letting me go. Another thing I like to do is just write myself
a little note.
7. Flow On Paper: Alright. This little buddy
is still keeping me company. I don't know today
if it's going to be just that a creative clue
for something in the future, setting the vibe a little bit, or if I will end up feeling called to
put something there. But right now, I
pulled some paper out, and I got my glue stick out, and I'm gonna see
what calls us here. I'm gonna glue a
couple things down. I love collage and
I love watercolor, but I don't often combine them. And so this play session will be good just to explore
how that might go, knowing this doesn't have
to be a final piece. You also notice we're
completely analog today. I do work digitally, but when I'm feeling rusty or I just want to
work more intuitively, analog is my preferred method. Cutting and pasting,
working with watercolor, just these things
that help you get you out of your own way.
We might use this too. I'm starting to go back
to some watercolor here. And this paper is a
bit higher quality, a lot higher quality than
what I had in my sketchbook. And so I can have a little
fun with the fluidity. Even I got this little
watercolor sprayer I can do to get some
sort of texture there. It really doesn't
matter what medium you choose to play with. These are just two of mine that help get things
flowing a little bit more intuitively for me to
unlock that sense of play and stop my inner critic, the sensor, the
judgment a little bit because there's
already that lack of control and intention. I can just be free to explore. That is what
I'm going to do. I'm really glad that I already spent some time in my
sketchbook because now I can feel myself getting to that more intuitive
self trusting place. I'm not thinking so much. I've gone quieter and feeling just those
happy play endorphins. And analysis can come
later, and it should. It'll be good to look at
this and see what sparked. But I'm going to go quiet and just keep
playing for a little bit, and I hope you're playing too. Well, I have filled my page. I don't know that it's something
that I'll keep forever. It may be something
I end up cutting up again and
continuing to iterate, making it over and over again, as George O'Keef said. But it's giving me some clues. This one is still something I'm going to take with
me and think about. It has energized me,
captured my curiosity, and given me some clues
to carry forward for my next play session or
something more finalized. I'm always getting
a little closer to what is really true to me, what comes out when I've
moved in that space beyond words or worry and
just paint and play.
8. Keep Creating: I had such a wonderful time
digging into my sketchbook, getting out my paints and playing today, and I
hope you did, too. Thank you so much
for joining me. And I hope you can see the joy of discovery that
can come with creative play. For me, it's the fastest
way to unlocking the flow state that
can be so elusive, and it helps me find connections of where I want to
go as an artist, my own tastes and curiosities and things that are most
unique to me and my style. And that comes from really
looking, taking notes, capturing those creative
clues, as I like to call them. Regularly creating will call you back to the true
art of what you do. More nourishing
creative practices, you can join me on
Substack to get my routine ritual newsletter for more sketchbook
peeks and tips, studio visits with fellow
artists, and more. You can also find
me on Skillshare, where I share my sacred
sketchbook practice with collage and Mixed Media. I can't wait to see what
play opens up for you.
Nikkita Cohoon, Sketchbooking, collage, + intuitive art
