Transcripts
1. Introduction: Oh my gosh, I'm usually
behind the camera. A lot of people assume the opposite of
fearlessness is confidence, but I totally disagree. Fearlessness is when we accept that failure
is inevitable. And we worked
through doubt and we even use it to our
advantage because creativity and meets us where
we're at and sometimes that plays is challenging and
it's full of suffering. And so finding ways to use
creativity as a tool to get us through those
moments is definitely key for how we can
progress forward. I have severe obsessive
compulsive disorder, OCD, as well as severe
generalized anxiety disorder. I'm a suicide survivor. I understand that life can have rough patches and that's
oftentimes when we feel drained, when we feel incapable. But I want to teach you that
through those sufferings. So those memories through any
disability you're facing, whether mental or physical, you can still be a
creative person. You can use those experiences to speak to other people
and help other people. And that's what we want
to focus on today. As creatives, we have
a lot of barriers, emotional, resource, physical
that can hold us back. And this class is
going to teach you how to break free
from all of that. I want you to get uncomfortable. The definition of fearlessness
is a lack of fear, not the absence of fear. And this is when we get
really harden ourselves, we think to do
something that's hard, something that's new,
something that's challenging is when we have
no fear or doubt at all. But actually in the
creative process, fear and doubt or supernormal
expected and again, can be used to your advantage. My name is Sarah, I'm a Senior Art
Director in advertising. I'm a content creator,
I'm an illustrator, I'm a filmmaker, I'm a
professional photographer, but most importantly, I am your friend, your
creative friends, and I'm so excited to
work with you today and have a coffee chat
and make it casual, but dig deep and really
learn something new. Again, off scripts on purpose, I'm starting to get
it. It's a warm up.
2. What is Creative Fearlessness?: A lot of people assume the opposite of
fearlessness is confidence, but I totally disagree. Fearlessness is when we
accept that failure is inevitable and we worked through doubt and we even use
it to our advantage. Fearlessness is using our
most authentic selves. Going back to the core
of what inspires us, what brings us passion, what puts a fire within us? And we don't pay too
much attention to necessarily how
something's going to turn out the outcome
of a project. And it's amazing
that when you start identifying fearlessness
within yourself and the doubts that you face, actually how much
of it is already holding you back as a creative, I was totally blind to understanding how much
fearlessness was timed me down, how much it was preventing
me from opportunities and projects regardless of your age or where you're at in life, understanding fearlessness,
being creatively fearless is key to progressing forward with whatever your
creative endeavors are. And of course, we
have the goal of having fun and getting excited because at
the end of the day, fearlessness is to be encouraged and find joy in
the whole process, including the faults, including the failures,
including the triggers. Because creativity
oftentimes comes from a place of suffering, Of deep passion, of hard life
experiences and moments. And so falling in love
with that whole process, even when it's really hard, even when you have to
push through is key. It makes it more enjoyable. And we're going to also give you tools to progress that way
through this course and hopefully tools for you to take when you leave this course and you go onto whatever
creative project you have next. Nobody starts fearless and nobody is absent of
fear at any point. It is part of our nature as human beings with broken
minds and broken bodies. So truly fearlessness
is to use that to our advantage and leverage that through
our own process. The definition of fearlessness
is a lack of fear, not the absence of fear. And this is when we get
really hard on ourselves. We think to do something that's hard, something that's new, something that's
challenging is when we have no fear or doubt all but actually in the
creative process, fear and doubt or supernormal
expected and again, can be used to your advantage, to be put into your
passion and your projects. The act of failure is
not the failure itself, but how we respond to failure and the
choices we make after. What stops creativity, it's when we turn our
doubts into facts. Oftentimes is a creative
in that process. I will get so hung up on my doubts even as I progress
throughout a project. And they'll ultimately stopped me from completing the project, from sharing it with others, from even getting excited and celebrating the project
in that process, creativity is the act of
translating information, and that's why this is not just for creative, but
everyone involved. You don't have to be an artist. You don't have to be someone
with a creative title. We're constantly translating
and taking in and processing information
every single day. So this is intended for you and you can learn
something from this process. Creativity is honestly
embedded into pretty much everything that
we do, how we socialize, what we choose to eat, how we process our days and even how we celebrate sadness
and celebrate life. So understanding how
creativity functions, how creativity works, can not only serve you in your creative projects
and endeavors, but also serve you with
your everyday life and how you choose to
process your experiences. For example, as an art director, were given what's
called a brief. And a brief is basically condensed
information From a client. And as an art director, I have to take the goal
and the messaging of the client and I have to
translate it into a new medium, into a new commercial or
print ad or photoshoot. And I have to take one thing, make it another, but keep
the messaging the same. So I want to teach you how to be fearless by translating
your own information, translating your own life
and your own experiences, and really ultimately
exploring different mediums, not just with what
your tangibly doing, but within yourself as well. I'll just keep talking and
maybe we'll get somewhere.
3. Class Project: The Creative Compass : This is going to be
our project together. The creative compass,
something for you That's only for you that
you can lean back on, but you use whenever you have any creative endeavors,
creative projects. A lot of creatives get caught up in specific things
when taking courses, like skills or learning new
ways to achieve something, whether that's through using tangible objects or
painting or drawing. But again, this is a different type of creativity
that we're going after. We're going after you, your core, your foundation, using your story and
bring meaning into everything you do and really understanding the why behind it. To do this, honestly,
you just need yourself. But there are some
optional tools and materials that you can use, some drawing tools, some paper. But really ultimately
this can be achieved through
writing and journaling. But I want to make
this so that there's no excuse to not
participate in this class. You don't need a
specific resource. You don't need a
specific artistic skill. You don't even have to
consider yourself an artist. All you need is yourself and your willingness
to participate, and I promise you will
learn something today. I want us to find your why. I want you to understand how amazing You've
already are and you've so much to
bring to the table as someone with mental health, it's really easy to forget. I get hard on myself. I let the doubts and uncertainties control my
narrative and my life. But you are full of so many
gifts, so much potential, and we want to bring
that all the table regardless of how hard
that is so that you can have a plethora of new creative endeavors
and ideas and just things to keep you
inspired and things to keep that fire
burning under you. As an art director, were commonly tasked to
pitch ideas and try to find clients or narratives that were super passionate about. And the truth is, when we
have motivation and passion, that is where our
fire can come from, where our creativity
can come from. So we're going to make sure we understand where your
passions are and we're gonna do that through this multi-part creative
Compass Project. Introducing the
creative compass, this is broken up
into multiple parts. Every part is important, so you want to take
it at your own pace. But ultimately this can
be done in a journal, bullet journal,
whatever you see fit, or you can participate in
our optional sections, which essentially
just allows you to dive a little bit deeper, get a little bit more invested. And if you can have
the resources, I would definitely
recommend it because you're gonna get way more
out of this project, way more out of this experience. But at the end of the day, if all you can do is journal and write down your responses in the provided packet
that we have for you in the class
materials section, then you should be all
set, please God, please. Apparently.
4. The Five The Senses of Childhood (Part 1): I used to be a person
filled with a lot of fear as someone with obsessive compulsive disorder
specifically harm OCD, fear is something that
takes over my life and is a part of my
day-to-day routine. And in that fear, honestly, it's not something
I've necessarily gotten used to are grown out of. Rather, I'm learning how to co-exist and live within fear. And a lot of that fear
was placed in me, not just from my specific
mental condition, but really my past
and my childhood. That's why I wanted to
take some time with you today to go back into what your child he was honestly
and transparently like what that felt like those experiences and how they drive you today. For me, I had OCD but I wasn't professionally diagnosed
until I was 21. And that's a really
long time to go with a debilitating condition
and not know what's going on with your head and
not know what's going on with your thoughts and why
you do the things you do. I am dealing with lots of disability on
a day-to-day basis, not just with my
OCD and my anxiety, but I also have
physical conditions that I had to work
through as a child. I am partially paralyzed
on my left side. I have performance
issues with breathing. I was in special education, so I have learning
comprehension. I had reading
disability and they say In share these
things with you, not to bring in my own story and so what
needs to be your own, but to really give you an understanding that regardless
of where you come from, achieving what you
want creatively as possible today, it's
possible tomorrow. And you deserve to take time to figure out
what that looks like. And it does start
with going back to our childhood and childhood, I had a lot of panic attacks. I had a lot of hardship
with bullying. I moved around a
lot geographically. And in that time, despite it being full of a
lot of suffering, a lot of doctors visits, a lot of times in the hospital and really being bedridden, I still kinda have indulged
and took my experiences from my life and I still breathed in whatever life could offer. But I also worked really hard. And this is one of the parts
of childhood that I really needed to learn that impacted
my creative process. And that was, I thought my self-worth and my ability
to be worth anything, let alone successful,
let alone fearless, let alone confidence had everything to do with
how hard and how fast I worked by being someone that was cognitively behind, who was deemed as stupid, Who is called crippled
on a day-to-day basis. I had to wake up really
early before school. I had to work
during every lunch. I had to work after
school every day just to catch up and be
considered average. And I know there's a
lot of people and maybe you're watching this and you
can relate to some of that. We're not meeting
societal average standard in our creative
spaces sometimes. And that can really
cause us to create a toxic relationship with what work ethic is versus
what creates videos. So we're gonna go into your childhood through
these prompts and exercises to really get you to understand what's driving you. I want you to detach any toxic negativity that
you have with productivity and that work ethic
does not equate the value of you
or your outcome. And that is to me, the first
barrier that people have when exploring their creativity and learning what fuels them. So I want you guys to grab
your first worksheet. We're gonna get started
in this first exercise. The reason childhood
is so important, the sides of the things
I've mentioned is child has this really great
ability of finding our creativity at its
core, at dislike, purest form that's really exciting and oftentimes
buried in a lot of other circumstances as
we go into adulthood and as we formulate who we
are and our identities. So in this first exercise, we're going completely
down to the basics. And that is our first
five senses of childhood. And as you guys know, hopefully by now
the five senses, It's a very pure state. It's super simplistic. And you're probably thinking, why are we spending time here? And this is the reason it is so rare as adults that we peel back the layers and we just go into the most present
state that we have. As children. Being present is like this
organic natural ability. We don't have the
responsibilities and the stressors and the
societal pressures that we get as adults now. So I want you guys to go back, use that first worksheet and essentially write down
each of the five senses that are really strong in
your memory that come to mind when you think of a
poignant part of your childhood. This can be really any
part of childhood. Some of us are able to remember
more, some of us less. For me because of my harsher
experiences in childhood. It's really hard to go
back there sometimes. I also want to encourage
you that if going back to your childhood and
thinking of five moments, different types of moments that you can outline the five senses. If that doesn't feel organic
to you, do not give up. It was really hard for me. I had to sit within myself
and get comfortable. So take your time. Do this at your own pace. And then as we progress forward, it's going to have you
kind of get more in depth as to why those
five moments are, those five senses are
really important to you. Make me not look like a
pill goes to love that. No, it's not, it's
not even close. It's almost like ideal is here but were here
and this is like impossible slash right on
the edge of impossible.
5. The Five The Senses of Childhood (Part 2): Okay, so now that you have your five
sentence written down, we're going to break
those down even more. And I'm going to share just one of my own so you
can get an idea. And this full
written out form of my own example is
available for you in class resources
and don't panic. You can do this along with me or you can
reference my example. But if you get further inspired, feel free to keep going. Also, you can use
any medium you want. If you're a doodle person, if you like to sketch things down and get things on paper, feel free if you're visual, if your audio driven, you can totally just tap into those senses
in a tangible way. So if you remember your
mom's like homemade cookies, like feel free to go. Have them. Like you don't have to
strictly go into memory. You can also prompt herself, but things of this dahlia, and that's really where we
can get comfortable and find that core part of
creativity for yourself. So for me, I'm going to read my sent one that I
wrote down and then I'm going to just give you the first example of
what I wrote down that caused it to
break up a little bit more for us to really dive
deeper into what this means. So for sense, I wrote down the sweet scent
of hunting cycles. My friends and I would
find on the side of the road on our bikes in
my childhood neighborhood. You're thinking, how
is this important? Why does this matter? This just really stuck with me. And so my first example is this. My neighborhood friends
and I spent a lot of time together,
probably too much. We lived in a safe neighborhood that was connected by
the adults commitment to allow us kids to play a lot and have dinners
and sleepovers together. When I wrote down the
extension of my answer, I realized that that was the only time in childhood
that I felt truly safe. And I felt like I could just explore whether it was my
neighbor's backyard or my own. And that is really
important for me today. And what it prompts
me to realize is that I wish today more kids can have that experience
that they could be free and live in
safe environments even for short or long amount of time and a privilege that
I had there growing up. And so by breaking
up that experience, which you'll see again
in the provided example, it allows me to get passionate
about certain things. So maybe the future projects
I want to create are about children and letting
them have creativity, whether that's going
into certain spaces and landscapes and giving them a space of creativity
through a project. Whether that's encouraging
my younger sibling or someone next door to be more creative and have that exploration that
maybe I had as a child. So just that $0.01 can catapult 50 different
ideas for future projects. And those ideas can be tailored specifically to what you're comfortable with,
what you're good at. Again, you don't have
to be a sketch artist. You don't have to
be a storyboard or it can be as simple as like, I really like cooking. I'm a great cook. I cook for my kids all the time. And so instead of thinking
you're not creative, you can use those
experiences and say, I'm going to cook
a meal for like all do their kids
in my neighborhood and encourage them to share meals at their
neighbors houses. And that's just one way of tapping into a whole
plethora of creative ideas. We've got to love the
music club and the song. Saw him, I come from
thundered hertz. Okay.
6. Your First Fire (Part 1): Hey guys, we're calling
this your first fire. And it's for a reason, I want you to get uncomfortable, which is probably not something you hear very often
when you take a course that's supposed
to be like super inspiring and get you pumps. But progress oftentimes only occurs in the uncomfortable,
in a discomfort. So we're gonna make you uncomfortable today
and you're like, how are you going to manage
that? Well, let me tell you. So you wrote down your five
senses and that's all good. You're tapping into your memory. You have your five senses down. Maybe you have a whole bunch of new ideas and
you're just like, I don't need this course
anymore, which is cool. We'd love that,
we love progress. But here's the next step. Have you thought about
exploring physically and tangibly what those childhood memories
and spaces are. We're going to talk about
your first creative moments. Now, notice, when I
say creative moment, I'm not necessarily encouraging the first artistic moment
or your first art class. Rather, I want you to
try to reach as far back as you can and
try to think of a time or you were
super creative as a kid that could be helping
your mom in the garden. That can be at art camp. It can be when you watched like your first favorite
film and got super inspired and started
writing scripts. The back of your math notebook because that was who I was. And tapping into those
first creative moments and memories to get you
fired up and excited. But here's the part
that's important. We're going to have you
remember the creative moment, write it down again and you're provided workbook that we're
working through together. But then we're going to
have you execute it. And the significance
of that is this. As adults, it's super
easy to get formulaic and to get like rigid and not let our inner
child come out. Not only do we forget our inner
child is like even there, but we ignore it. And then we put it in this little box and we
separate it from our lives. But again, taught it is when
things are free and pure and untouched and almost like
perfection doesn't matter. And tapping back into
that whole notion of fearlessness to not necessarily
be completely void, an absence of fear, but
just not caring about it. And when you're a child having those first
creative moments, whether that's again, helping your grandmother
like bake a cake. You don't care about like what is going to happen
with the outcome. You don't care if it's gonna be the best cake you've ever made. Just want to have
the experience. So what I want you to do
and only if you're able, I know sometimes
resources can be tough. I want you to take some time thinking about
that first creative moment and then I want you to do it for me just to give you my example. One of my earliest
creative moments was my childhood friends and
I were still friends today. We would go and play in the backyard and we
thought we were explorers like fully thought
we were like on the Discovery Channel and work super cool and capable kids. And we would collect insects
and capture literal turtles. And I think we even
caught a snake at 1, which I'm pretty sure my
parents did not like. And we were just changing a backyard space into a whole world and we
let that be our world. And so for me, what I did in the creation of this class
is I actually bought butterfly caterpillars and I watched them bloom again then the same way
that I did as a kid. And it just totally
brought me back to that excitement and the beauty
that the world can offer. Ultimately, this
exercise encourages us, but also trains us to focus and enjoy the
smallest details of life. As you've gotten older and as you've endured
suffering and doubt, it can really take away from the magic of the small details. So I hope you take some
time to explore this. If you want to do
it multiple times, you don't have to just
do one creative moment, but I'd like to invite
friends in the process. I know that sometimes
my creativity is stifled if I isolate
myself too much. So feel free to invite friends and invite family and as much as possible to just enjoy this experience and
really indulge in who you have some time with your inner child because we're not quite done with
the inner child yet. We're going to be
revisiting this in the next segment. We do. Thank you for the queue.
7. Your First Fire (Part 2 & 3): So if you're feeling stuck and you feel like you need a
little bit of a matchstick, look no further than your current turmoil and
things that are upsetting you, things that aren't confusing, you were gonna go
there unfortunately, but trust me, it's worth it. It's worth the process. Now, I don't want you to put your inner
child that we just worked so hard to pull out
and put her or him in a box. I want you to bring the
inner child with you. You're gonna need
a little bit of a buddy system
because when we talk about things that are causing us that inner
fire, that discomfort, it can cause us to
really lean closer into the voices and the
whispers of doubt that is without comes to attack us. It is the one we're
most vulnerable. You can't finish that project or you're not worthy
of pursuing blank, so keep the inner child close. The person who used to
not care about fear, who used to not listen to doubt. So what does it or
turmoil look like? That is going to be done in a simple exercise that you
guys have in your workbook. And essentially it is this, I want you to reflect and write down on a recent
defining moments. So what is a recent
defining moment? It is something that
I like to kinda give the spectrum of the last couple of years or very recent as an, IT could even have
been yesterday. Now I want to challenge you that whatever this
defining moment is, it is something that is
probably a little bit closer to your present
day self because you're going to have a little
bit more familiarity with the details and the emotions
of that experience. So the fighting moment, what does that mean? A defining moment
is something that causes us to make a decision on a fundamental
level that might challenge our current
state, our current beliefs. And we have to usually pivot or change something pretty drastic about what we think
and who we are. So if you're wondering,
why does this matter? Creativity is a living
and breathing organism. It exists very much in the now, but it also exists very
much in who we were and wherever trying to go
by acknowledging it. Recent defining
moment, a moment or you had to change who you were. That's going to help
you pinpoint where as some of your inspiration
coming from. Where should some of your
inspiration come from? When we're stumped
on creative ideas. It usually means
we're struggling and lacking a little
bit of passion. Or we don't know
what we want to say. We don't know the why of whatever we're trying
to get down on paper. We don't know the why of the
dinner we're trying to make. So what I want you to do it take some time, take some space. Try to not let this exercise be influenced
by other people, if you can, or other
people's opinions. Keep this isolated to just you. And whatever defining moment is, it doesn't need to be massive. It doesn't need to be explosive. It doesn't need to
be groundbreaking. It can be super small and I'll
even share an example with you so you can see what one of my reasons defining moments was. A recent defining moment for
me was not an artistic one. It wasn't even an experience
I had with other people. Rather, it was a moment
when I had an OCD attack. And personally I was
able to sit with it, coexists with it and navigate. And the reason that even though that was such
a small moment, but the reason it was
a big deal for me, honestly, it's so
rare for me to see the progress that
I'm making with my mental illness personally. And so just sit and say like, Hey, you did that,
you got through that, the therapy, the creative
projects you're working on, all kinds of Bill you up
to this moment and so on. I took time to reflect
not defining moment. It reminded me of the passion of mental health and
why I do what I do, what I want to talk about. So whatever you're defining
moment is whether it's an emotional one and mental want a physical one, a
real experience. I want you to reflect on that. Look at how you were
fearless in that process. And then really figure out like, is this something you
want to talk about? Is this something you
want to say? For me? It's totally sparked like all of my current writing projects,
my drawing projects. It's giving me inspiration
to bring to my workplace. So take that time. It really is important. It's okay if it's uncomfortable, it's okay if it fills out
of your comfort zone, It's okay, That's painful. Creativity again meets
us where we're at. Fearlessness is not one,
we're void of fear. You can be scared to do this and you're still going
to make progress. So you've recorded a defining moment, which
is pretty awesome. But there is a part B to
this exercise and it is two, write down all the things that sparked during that
reflection process. So writing down in
any way you see fit, whether it's doodling or journaling or creating
a bullet list. But you guys have the
workbook to guide you. So do not skip this step
is super-important. Just write down
all the bullets of things that sparked
an inspired you. And I promise you
it's going to pay off and it's going to mean
something in the end. One of the key things about this exercise is by
reflecting on our reason defining moment
that was probably pretty hard and finding sparks in that process ultimately were able to see
how awesome we are, that we matter, that
we are capable. So even in that one
singular moment, just like the moments
of childhood, you can see that you're made of so many moments and experiences and memories and skills and you can bring that to
the creative flora. So again, whether that's a mundane task or your
next oil painting, your creative
fearlessness matters. You are already fearless. Remember nobody is
absent of fear, even in your most
defining moments, the harshest moments of life, you still can find whole sections of sparks and
things that inspire you and things you want to
talk about just through like even
something as short as a minute of your life can be
a reservoir of creativity. I'm ready to move
on to the next one. Just keep it going.
8. What is Your Color Palette?: When we think of fear, when we think of doubt, when we think of joy, we think of a lot of
different emotions, a lot of different experiences, but I bet you don't
think about color. So color, I guess
as an art director, I might be a little biased, but color is super,
super important. It is the fabric of not
just creative endeavors, but I'm going to convince
you today in the fabric of our experiences and how
we process information. So just to be clear, at least for this class,
your color palette, this exercise we're doing
together in your workbook is not necessarily figuring out your style and your branding. Rather, it's using color as a very powerful tool to link to your current emotional state and your experiences that you
can use to spark creativity, to inspire you regardless
of the project. So even if you are setting
your dinner table, even if you are making a
new outfit for your kids, like whatever your creative
project is, color matters. And it's really
training our minds to see the intention in everything, including what we
call our colors and what we label
our emotions as. We're going to be identifying
your emotions today, I want you to get comfortable with being
a little uncomfortable. So we're gonna be pulling up current and active emotions that are both negative
and positive. And then pairing colors
with them to really get to the core of your current
creative color palette, your current created space. So you can start identifying
your creativity as like this landscape ultimately. So you can feel a little
bit fearless into always jumping back
into that space, feeling inspired,
feeling, invigorated. So we're gonna do
that in part one, but please follow along
with the workbook. You can do the
exercises that are optional or you can
just write them down, but I promise you'll
get something out of this section if you
participate fully. Honestly is in participation
and wow, hello. There you go.
9. Creating Your Color Palette (Part 1): Hey guys, so I want you
to take some space. And by space, it doesn't
have to be literal space, but space that's just for you, time where you can
really sit with yourself with no distractions. That means put your
cell phone away. It means don't check
your work e-mail. It means take 15 minutes
away from your family, whatever it takes to just have a silent space where you can
go and really ask yourself, what are the emotions that
I'm feeling right now? And it doesn't have to
necessarily be in this moment, but just in the encompassed
most of your recent life. So in the last couple of days, in the last couple of weeks, the challenge is, and you can use the workbook as a guide. Write down three
negative emotions and three positive
emotions and I'm going to even share my
current ones with you. These are live as of yesterday, so I am being a 100%
honest with my responses. And whatever those three are for each negative and
positive, I want you, if you're able to
write down maybe a sentence or two next to each, just referencing what that is or something more in
depth or an experience. Just so you're really
clear on maybe why. We're starting to figure out the why as to what that
emotion means. Again, this exercise is
to figure out intention. We want to have intention. We're doing our
creative projects and we're trying to
be creative people. So what better
place to start than the discomforts of
our negative emotions and our positive emotions. So I'm gonna read your
mind a little bit nervous, but just going to do
the negatives first. So lately I've been
feeling pretty impatient. I'm struggling to accept
the transitional phases of my life in my life buckets. So you know, career
and it's like where I'm at with my relationship
and all those things. So that's my first emotion. The others are ashamed, and the third one is jealousy. And those kinda can
go hand in hand, but they're super important. I wrote a sentence
next to each of them, so I'm super clear and I want
you guys do the same thing. So just as reference, these are available on the
example category as well. For positives, I have elevated,
grateful and invigorated. So those are just
to get you started, but take some time, pull up a word, definition or dictionary if
you need to get inspired, find something that
really matches for you. And then we're gonna get
into the color part, which is my favorite part. I'm getting so excited,
This is great.
10. Creating Your Color Palette (Part 2): So now you should have your negative and positive
emotions written down. You should have six total. If you feel more inspired, if you feel able to
totally go beyond this. But let's break into the
next part because this is the key part of creating your color palette and that
is selecting your colors. Now, as an art director,
I'm a little biased. Literally the word
art is in my title. So obviously I'm going to think colors matter
and they're important. And even more than that, colors have personalities,
colors have names. I would be doing a
disservice to you if I just said pick a color
for each emotion and then didn't encourage
you that there's a zillion colors the universe and it's super
exciting and awesome. So we're going to
take you there. What I mean by that is
colors have names and colors actually can be identified with
digits and numbers, what we call this
as art directors. And if you're a designer, you might be familiar. It's the hex code. It is a six digit number
that helps us identify an exact blending of our core colors to
create a new color. The reason I tell you that is
I don't want you to saying, Hey, I'm feeling happy, so I'm going to give
it the color yellow. No, no, no. I want you to dig
deeper than that. And here's how. So take your six colors and I'm going to explain why this all blends together and matters. And what you're going to
do is find any references. So going online,
going on Pinterest, I know you spend
time on Instagram, go into magazines, go into whatever place has lots
of colors for you, and start finding
things really specific. You can use a application, of course, that can help
you identify a color. There's lots of free
apps that I'm going to link for you guys below that helps identify color but capture it in whatever
way you're able. So once you get some ideas on where to collect inspiration, take that time for me. I'm like super biased. As an art director,
I obviously have pan tone swatches at the ready. I have different chalk
pastels and stuff. I even have different
magazines and books. So definitely don't
limit yourself. You don't need designer
and color books to make art happen
to get inspiration. Again, going on
Pinterest and Instagram, just walking outside in
nature and taking photos. And optional part of this is to get your phone and take
pictures of things that are inspiring you or
things that match that emotional state and that should get you
across the line. So it takes some time
and go have some fun. Do not rush this process
and I promise you, it's all going to
come together and it's all going to make
sense in the end. We're so close, we're so close. So now. Okay.
11. Creating Your Color Palette (Part 3): Okay guys, so now that you have your colors and you
have your emotions, this next part seems pretty
minor, but it's important. So every emotion at
this point should have a color correlated to
it, which is awesome. And now I want you to start pairing different
emotions together. So you can take one emotion or one color and pair it with another color, and
it doesn't matter. They don't all need
to be negative or all needs to be positive.
Two parents together. The point of this exercise
is to learn this. Coexisting with
all your emotions, all of your doubts, all of your fears is
absolutely possible. You can have a positive emotion
and a negative emotion. And it's still create
something beautiful. It's still create something with contrast that's
complimentary. So whatever project
you're trying to do, whatever state
you're in mentally, you still can create
something amazing. You still can have doubt. You still can have fear. You still can be scared
and doubtful and confused, and still have the
positive sides of things. Whether that is
breakthrough moments or you learn a new skill, or you have a new idea, or you get new words on paper. Part of this course
is learning to coexist with all
sides of yourself, from your past self
to your present self, to all the emotions in-between. So I hope this exercise taught you that you can blend
those things together. And again, feel free to
go beyond this push past. If you wanna do this exercise more often or with more words, it's totally open
and available to you to figure out
what I'm saying.
12. Needles in Your Haystack Part 1: So we've done a lot
together so far. You've gone into your
childhood a few times, you've talked to
your present self, and now it's time to figure out what drives you right now. There is no better way if you already haven't been
uncomfortable and invigorated by the
past exercises is to ask herself point-blank, what's making you
upset right now with the current world
that we're in with the current society or the politic landscape or your
personal social landscape, whatever it is, this is called the needles in your
haystack for a reason. Note that needles or plural, there should be a lot of
things in your life that are kinda poking at you and
making you uncomfortable. And that is the bread and butter of a creative
and you're like, Wait, shouldn't
creativity just me when I'm positive
and comfortable? Absolutely not. Creativity
happens in those spaces. But a lot of times we feel passion and weren't invigorated. One were upset when we're angry, when we're confused or we're
trying to solve a problem. Creativity is problem-solving
your tasks today, just like my task as
an art director is to translate different
messages and mediums. But in order to be translators, we have to know what
we're trying to say. And to know what
we're trying to say. That means we have to find
the why of what we're going after and what is currently important
to us in this world, in this present world. So politics, social
examples, whatever it is, whatever kind of gets
you invigorated and sparks you and speaks
to that inner child, speaks to your past self, speaks to your
current predicament. That's what we're going
to go after today. So check out your workbook, read those prompts,
they're important. Don't skip over them even
if you're uncomfortable. And what I want you
to do is just write down as much as possible
things that are inspiring you, things that are confusing you, whatever works or better. I'm a visual learner. You can draw them. You can mood board that. You can take screenshots of them and create this mood board, whether that's digital,
whether that's printed out, whether you're
cutting things out of newspapers, whatever works. I'm going to link to some
resources for you below to get you started
on some free spaces, you can collect information, collect inspiration, or even
built a digital mood board. Visuals are really
great because you can start to pair the visuals with any memories you have as a person and your
childhood, whatever works. So find the needles
in your haystack. They'll probably
be more than one. And I'm sorry, I do
this out of love. And then once you
pair that down, we're going to break
up and why it matters and kind of get to the
root of your wives. So exciting. I can see the light
works for you. Can you give me 15 seconds?
13. Needles in Your Haystack Part 2: So now that you have the
elements from the last section, whether that was a mood board or you sketch some things down, or you have some
random screenshots on your phone, whatever works. I want you to take some
time using our workbook and look at the writing
prompt and basically explore why that
particular event or situation or political thing or social thing means a
lot to you right now, it's really important we
take some time to reflect, to figure out what works for us, what speaks to us. If you're a painter,
for example, and you want to paint this giant awesome, super cool mural. That's great. But how are
you going to know what to paint for the mural and where to put the
mural geographically. If you don't know the why. If you don't know the why, you're not going to have
necessarily the best outcome. You're not going to
grow creatively. The why is really the
foundation that is the firm rock you and I
are trying to build today. So by figuring out what
speaks to you today, by having a little meeting
with that inner child, it really grounds like
what matters to us. And always ask
yourself why first, that's gonna be
the key element to all your creativity
moving forward, both the good and the
bad moments in life can really drive and change the intentions
behind the project. But I want to remind you, not only are you
super cool, awesome, and capable, but whether you're going through a season
that's really hard, or you've gone through
a lot of suffering, or you really recognize
that you're dealing with some broken pieces and
you're trying to pick them up and put them into
something meaningful. Like you can do that. You can take what's
making you upset. You can take what's
making new super happy and both can
create something beautiful and even more
so when you combine those two things together can create something
extraordinary. So fearlessness again, you
can go through this process. You can do the hard work, you can write and reflect the
hard things and still feel inspired and still
get to the core of your idea and find your
wide and you can get there. And so I really hope that
these last couple of lessons have driven you
to this final points. Oh my God.
14. Making Your Creative Compass: So guys, we're on
the last section. Congratulations
seriously on making it. This was not easy if you took the time you
did all the prompts, you've reached this point, it is your creative compass. So you guys have the workbook. This is super important,
please, please, please reference this
part of the workbook. It has a literal compass outlined for you to fill
out whatever works for you. But I'm going to take you
through real quick and kind of guide you through what
the states to look like. So I have mine in front of me, which you guys will see in the classroom
examples section. But your creative compass
is kind of a thing that can lead and guide you at whatever point you
are at in your life. So all of the things
we just exercise with, which is really hard stuff, really exciting
stuff can honestly guide you in whatever creative endeavor that you
want to get through. And most importantly, get
you through a state of fear. Oh, sure. Okay. I mean, sorry, God. That's on camera. Much better. I think.
15. Final Thoughts: Thank you guys so much for joining me on this
course, on this journey. I hope you learned
something about yourself, something new about
your creation process. I'm so excited to
see what you create. Remember, you do not have
to be absent if fear, to be fearless and take
whatever you learn today, reuse the tools,
reuse the exercises, whatever gets to
inspired, motivated. I'm so glad you joined me today. I will see you around.
My name is Sarah. You can follow me
on Instagram at somewhat Sundays and all
the other social channels. So I'll see you soon and
I can't wait to see.
Sarah Edwards, Art Director & Creative Success Coach
