Transcripts
1. Peculiar Prompts for Confidence & Flow: Hi, Are you told to choose
and stick to one medium? Do you have drawers, shelves, boxes, cabinets,
and piles like these? Are you found embroidering
as often as you are using clay or Procreate
to express yourself? And do you, despite of
having all these mediums and techniques at your
disposal sometimes get stuck, then it's time for
my peculiar prompts. I think it's amazing, but it can also be
quite overwhelming to be good at or interested
in many things. Being a generalist
or multipotentialite myself, I know
overwhelm all too well. I'm Lucy Lambriex
from Amsterdam and after calling myself a portrait photographer
for many years, I'm finally out of the closet as an all-round creative maker. I still love photography, especially as a therapeutic tool, and to make money
on Getty Images, but I have always loved making all kinds of
things with my hands. I know how having too many ideas can completely freeze
us all-rounders. The same can happen when
we think we have no ideas. And that's why I'm sharing my peculiar exercises
with you here. These help both tame the mind and give it
permission to do its thing: create! Whatever your
mediums are as a maker these prompts can help
you back on track. This class is an
experiment for me and I will continue to
add more lessons to keep your and my
multi-creative mind in check and make it happier. You can make a request too, and I might come up with
a tailored video for you. This class is not about
the mediums themselves, but it's about your mind, so you can start creating
in your own flow again. In the next video, I'll tell
you about your project, which is the fun place to share your experience and
results for this class.
2. Your Project: No matter which
mediums you are using, this is where all
the fun will be shared with me and the
other participants. You can share pictures of
your process and results, upload a video or a link, or share your writing. The materials you will be using are the ones
you have at hand. The only things you may need to gather are three or four jars, a journal, pieces of
regular paper, and a pen. An important note
before we start: the prompts I'll be giving
are meant to get you going, but as soon as you notice
you don't need it anymore, continue in your own flow, which remains the main
goal of this class. Even if you decide to go in
a whole other direction, I would love to see where
you went with this. Your project is going to grow with each assignment
that I'll give you. It may be that you
are so inspired by an assignment
that you want to stick with it for a
while and perhaps even execute it with
different materials. Please do so. I suggest you try each prompt
before discarding it. They may feel too peculiar, but they are there for a reason. However, if after trying you find that an assignment
doesn't work for you, of course just skip it for now and continue with the next. Your project can look like this, with a cover image
that shows up in the project gallery and with all kinds of thoughts,
feelings, results. It's like a pinboard
that you can later come back to
if you get stuck. And it's a place where
you can inspire others. It's really great
to realize that we all-round creatives
are not alone. The first thing
you'll do is upload a project cover image that you can keep updating
all the time. This will make your project float to the top
of all projects. And I will see that you
have added something new. Adding a message in the
discussions section of your project or the class itself, will send
an email to me. Make sure to also paste the
picture inside of the project because it will get
written over when you do an update of
your cover image. Next, I want to share a most freeing lesson for anyone doing a creative project.
3. Creativity & Hopelessness: Before we dive into
creating based on the prompts, I want to share some
important stuff I learned about creativity. Looking back, I wish I
had discovered sooner what I will share with you now about the creative process. A long time ago when I was
still in the art academy, I was struggling with
anxiety and huge self-doubt. I couldn't see the quality of my own work until years later. With each assignment, when
I was about mid-creation, I was filled with self-doubt. I wanted to start all over
because I thought my idea was crap. Or I didn't even go to the meetings where we
would all share our results. I was just too afraid. Nonetheless, I made
it to the end and graduated only to appreciate all that I had made
many years later. What happened to me was twofold. One, I didn't realize
that what I was experiencing was a normal
part of each creative cycle. And two, my Inner Critic, Mrs. Scared, whom
you may have met in my Inner Critic Series, was
in full control of me. Then one day in 2006, in one of my early jobs at a publishing company, that
also involved creativity, I discovered this tiny book. It's only 48 pages
with large type, and it describes the process
of producing an idea. It is written by
James Webb Young in 1967 for people in advertising like himself
or in other creative jobs. It is all still
very useful today. Under Projects and Resources you can find a reading list
that includes this book. Every stage he describes
rang true to me. But one really hit home. After gathering information
and combining old things into
new combinations, and after digesting
this information, little ideas start to come. When you continue for a while, you will become more and
more tired and you keep pushing until the
hopeless stage comes. The Hopeless Stage.
It's a real thing! I was not strange or bad
at getting ideas. I was normal, at
least in this regard. Realize that the
hopeless stage is all part of the process! He writes: But after a while, you will
reach the hopeless stage. Everything is a jumble in your mind with no clear
insight anywhere. All you need to do when you
reach it, is put everything aside and do something that doesn't require thinking at all, like sit and have
a cup of coffee. I have discovered that this
keeps coming back in cycles. Even after having started
actually executing the idea. Because each step, each
decision is an idea as well, like the choice of a colour, or medium, or composition. Unless you are in a flow, you will find yourself in
hopelessness from time to time. Knowing that it is a
normal and healthy part of the creation process could give you some
confidence already. At least not to give up
a creative practice just yet. Trust the process
and you will be fine! After learning
that hopelessness is normal in the
creative process, let's get rough and crude
with your first prompt.
4. Shabby Tools : In this lesson, you'll learn how some shabby tools can save
your creative process. Having the exact right tools and circumstances can be a blessing
when you're in a flow, but when you're not, these can put too much pressure
on us to succeed. I remember when I mainly worked as a portrait
photographer, the moment I got a real studio. The first feeling was one of
happiness and possibilities. But then immediately
came real terror. I had no more
excuses for failure, plus I would have to get more
clients to pay the rent. It took me about a week to
relax into the new situation. Only when I told
myself years later, I was allowed to fail, I started really
enjoying the work. Your prompt for this
lesson, is to make a self-portrait with your
downgraded tool and location. Any creative expression can
be seen as a self-portrait. Since you are doing it, you
decide how you define this. But a suggestion is to have at least one actual body part of yourself in your portrait. I'll give a few
examples of how you can roughen up your
choice of tools. Do you paint? Make your own
brush from a stick and a rag. If you're used to embroidering
super neatly with silk, grab the biggest needle you have and use the
thickest wool or thread and stitch on an old blanket or even
a non-fabric material. If you work on your
iPad or your computer, this creates the luxury
problem that you can undo your mistakes.
Don't take me wrong. It can be amazing to
fix a little mistake, but it can also put us in a consistent loop of trying
to polish every move we make. And this causes stress and cuts us off of our inspiration. On the other hand,
taking risks and making irreversible
mistakes takes us on an exciting journey that we don't know its
exact course of. We will need to solve problems
and our brains love it. Put your pen or brush
to paper this time. If you have the perfect
studio or place to create, try going somewhere
else, like outdoors. Just somewhere with your
notebook on your lap. Make it a bit difficult and inconvenient, but not too much. Is your camera the
best of the best? And do you always try
to take perfect photos? Use a cheap camera or put something on or in
front of the lens. Play around. Are your ceramic
creations always polished? Use an ice scraper
or a saucer as a rib or plunder
your kitchen drawer to find modeling tools. Post a picture of your tool and your results in the project. Add a few words about
this experience. Did you enjoy doing
this? Why or why not? What happened to
your state of mind? What do you think about your
results in this exercise? You learned that having
the perfect tools and circumstances doesn't always
help the creative process. Sometimes it's best to make it all a bit more
shabby and awkward. In the next video, let's
experiment with adding some more shabbiness and challenging creative
block, a little extra.
5. New Lesson: Shabby Situation: Let's see if we can challenge your creative block by
downgrading some more. Let's not only
downgrade our tools, but also downgrade
our situation. It's raining, and I'm trying to draw on this portable
board that I created, just cardboard with some
strings around my neck. I'm going to draw a
plant when I'm walking. I try and I don't have
very high expectations, which is good. And it's
raining a little bit. So even though it's raining, or maybe thanks to the
fact that it's raining, there is no pressure to
make anything perfect or even recognizable or beautiful. Give it a go and share your
results in your project. And I would love to see
your contraption as well. And if you feel
like using clay or crocheting or anything
else while walking, you will understand
that I must see it. In this video, you experimented
with creating in motion. And if you were
able to surrender, I bet your creative block
dissolved instantly. The next time you're
creating for real, try adding some motion
if you feel stuck. Even just moving your
feet under the table or doing a little dance sitting
down could do the trick. In the next video, you'll learn to deal with having an
abundance of ideas. This exercise will help tame the mind and
organize your process.
6. The Jars : There you are. Surrounded
by your materials or walking from stash to stash and you can't
decide what to do today. You are flushed with ideas and can't decide
which one to go with. So you do nothing. Recognizable? I found a solution for myself
that often works well. Not always? No, of course not. In this video, I'll
show you how you can create a wonderful
stock of ideas that will serve you for a long time and will
create space in your mind. If you find yourself without
any ideas at the moment, go back to this lesson
and do that first. Now, get three empty jars, tins or bowls like this type, just a regular type. Label them Ideas, Idea waiting room and Idea
Incubator. Get paper and a pen, make smaller pieces
of paper like so, sit somewhere quiet for 15 minutes and on
each piece of paper, write down an idea that
is floating in your mind. Describe it in a
few words and add the medium and tool
you intend to use. Fold it and put it in jar one. Don't think too hard. Don't worry if the idea
is still premature. Keep writing until
15 or so minutes are over or until you are empty. After this, do something else for about the
same amount of time. Something that doesn't require thinking like a short walk, a small cleaning job, like doing dishes. Or
listening to music, or dancing, taking
out the trash. Then pick an idea at random. This is the idea
you will work with now. Gather your materials and do it. If you don't really feel like doing
anything with it just now, but it's a great idea, put it in jar two. If the idea is too
big or not ripe yet, put it in jar three. The good thing about writing
the ideas down and putting them away is that you can be assured that
you won't forget them. Most importantly, you
can clear your mind. Keep adding new ideas
every now and then. Look at all of them
and rearrange them. Throw out ideas that you
don't remember or understand. If you worry that you're
tossing out potential gold, perhaps add a fourth jar
that you keep somewhere else to open later and you
label it Misunderstood Ideas. Now post a picture of your jars, and if you feel like it, add a picture of your
idea in progress as well. In this lesson, you
learned a way to empty your mind without
losing its contents. Plus you experimented with the joy of making
a random choice. In the next lesson, I'm sharing a magic trick to get rid of an annoying
voice in your head.
7. A New Voice in Your Head: Are you done with people
telling you to choose and stick to one medium? As if that's
the best for everyone? As if that's the only way
to happiness and success. Do you listen to these people
more often than you want? And do you struggle to be confident in your multi-
creative practice? It's time to put another
voice in your head now. I wrote this for myself and I invite you to tweak
it so it fits for you. I, and only I, decide what I make, how I make it, what it is
made of and what it means. It is not my problem if other
people don't like what I do or are uncomfortable with me enjoying and being
good at many things. The next time I set out
to do an art project, I allow myself to
feel free completely. I allow myself to make
mistakes so I can learn. I realize those are probably no mistakes and are just
necessary for my process. I trust the process! Under
Projects and resources, you can download these words. Rewrite it if you like, and turn this into a nice
card with your own layout. Read it right before
you're falling asleep and right before
you are waking up. (haha) Right after you're waking up. As soon as you wake up. Those are the times
your brain is most susceptible, as it's not
busy with other stuff. If you do this for a few weeks, you will experience a change. Now, upload your rendering of
this text to your project. And after a few weeks, if you've been practicing, upload a few words
about how this is impacting you. After putting a more fitting
voice into your head, in the next video, you will challenge a widely
held conviction, probably by you and many others.
8. Your Little Nephew: Is that art? My little nephew, daughter, neighbour's
kid can do the same. How many of us haven't heard a similar sentence upon showing our art. From others or more likely from our
own Inner Critic. Let's put this
claim to the test. This prompt is threefold. First, you will do
your best to depict or capture a rose or a
car in your style. Second, when you are done, you ask the child you had
in mind to do the same. Finally, you will make another rose or car that includes
the lessons you learned. Remember, you can use
any medium you like. Don't you know a child
that can help you? You can of course, use the
examples from this lesson too. You can download the drawings under Projects and Resources, Upload both results and
share your findings. How is your piece comparing
to the child's piece? How is it better? What can you learn from this
child's artwork? What is the most
interesting difference between the two pieces? Now depict or capture it again with the lessons
learned in mind. Post it in your project and include a few lines
about this experience. Would you try this again
with other topics? If you do, please
post the lessons and results and
inspire others. And me. In this video, you
set out to challenge an idea you might have about
the quality of your work. You discovered that
putting that idea to the test probably brought you
some interesting insights. In the next video, you and your materials will
have an affair.
9. Have an Affair: This prompt will
probably bring joy, but it can be a bit much. Are you a serial,
monogamist, art wise, or do you also like to
mix? I usually don't mix my materials because
one will be able to overwhelm me quite
well on its own. But sometimes I do and I
love what it brings me. The results are not always prettty, but my creativity always
gets very active and awake. Are you ready to have an affair? Be warned, this may bring
up way too many ideas, but you can always add
some to your jars. Now let's choose and combine two mediums you have never
or seldom combined before. You can just pick by
using fate and pick one blindly. Put the two
mediums or materials in front of you that you would
normally use separately, like crochet and sculpture,
food and collage, or be inspired by Caroline Harrius'
embroidered ceramic vases. Now let's have an
affair and make these two substances or ingredients compatible for
a bit. Make two pieces. Can you paint on the
rhythm of music? Can you make music to
the colours burnt ombre, pink and gray or
whatever you pick of course. How can you
incorporate thread in your photo or photography in your embroidery?
You catch my meaning. Have fun and share your experience and
results in your project. And remember to respond to other people's
projects as well. Letting your mediums
have an affair helps open up the mind because
unexpected things will happen. Next up is the final
video for now. As I told you, this class
will continue to grow. In the next video, I'll
ask you for your input.
10. Recap, Encouragement & a Request: You have reached the final
video of this class, but not to worry, I will be adding more. Let's have a look at
what I've shared so far. You learned how
every creative cycle knows a hopeless
stage. It's normal. You learned that downgrading
your tools can help you get going. When everything is
all too perfect and high-end we can freeze up completely because we are afraid to fail. I've shared a way to deal
with having too many ideas. Clearing your mind and
storing the ideas for later. You experimented with combining mediums and letting them
have an affair together. You discovered that it's
probably not true that your little nephew or a little neighbour's
kid can do what you can. Make sure to follow
me and keep an eye out for the notifications. I will post about new lessons in
the discussions section. There are still a number of
ideas that I will turn into new prompts and you can
request videos too. If you are struggling
with something particular in your multi
creative practice, let me know. I can add a prompt or perhaps add a more
theoretical video. Let's make this class together! I would love for you
to let me know in a short review how you've
experienced this class so far. Did the exercises do
something to get you going? Did your mind become more open? What did you discover
about yourself? This will help new
students know why to take this class.
Thank you in advance. I want to encourage you to set up your project if
you haven't done so, and to respond to other
people's projects as well. This will help you
all realize that generalists are not
strange and not alone. We’re actually a powerful bunch of
people and our qualities of connecting materials and ideas are very valuable in society. We just need constant
awareness of where we're at and
keep ourselves from getting overwhelmed
too often. If you have a negative voice in your head that comments on
your every project, my series of short classes on the Inner Critic might
be helpful for you. Slightly scary but highly valued by thousands
of students so far. See you in the future lessons
and in my other classes. Bye!
Lucy Lambriex, Creative Confidence & Camera Courage
