5 reasons why creativity is important in my life

Creativity according to me is "doing the same thing differently" to break away from the daily mundaness and regularity and apply a fresh perspective. It helps me grow, see the bigger picture, express myself, and relieve stress.

“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.”

— Joseph Chilton Pearce

I apply creativity in my life every single day (I try to), in various things I do, create, and arrange around me. For example, quite often, I revisit my old work and illustrations and try doing them in a different way. I also tend to arrange, rearrange things around me including my workspace, every now and then. This keeps the newness going and is fun to do at the same time.

To sum it up in points

• Creativity helps me grow and be curious: It leads me to re-look at something in a different way. It helps me challenge myself inwardly and also leads me to push boundaries beyond my comfort zone. Like Paul Arden said ‘Don’t be afraid of silly ideas’. You just do not know what you may land up creating if you never experiment and create.

• Creativity helps me see the bigger picture: It helps me step back and see the complete picture, rather than focusing on just one aspect or corner of it. This is especially important when I am working on complex projects that require me to look at a single idea from multiple perspectives.

• I express myself with creativity: It allows me to express myself in places where words fall short. It’s a joyful activity for me to ‘say what I want to say with the help of shapes, colors and forms’. Storytelling is a huge aspect of things that I draw and that is where I find myself expressing freely and openly with the help of my skills and creativity.

• Creativity feeds the inner rebel: Unless you are working to a brief, you can go absolutely wild and free with your talent and put it to use un multiple ways. In my years of working as an illustrator I have have discovered the joys of creating sans boundaries and without the fear of going wrong.

• Creativity helps relieve stress: Creativity is a therapeutic outlet and help me relax and de-stress. Very often people ask what my hobbies are and almost always my reply is ‘to draw some more’. It remains a fact that I love what I do and therefore my drawing board is my happy space that I am naturally drawn towards. Be it at my desk or when I’m travelling, my iPad and pencil are my best friends!

Overall, creativity is an important part of my life because it helps me to grow, learn, and express myself. It helps me to find joy and fulfillment in my work and personal life. The best part of it being, creativity is a kind of superpower that never gets over and the more you charge it, the stronger it gets.

Your mind is a cup of infinite possibilities and the next best thing is waiting to be created!

Do we really fail in art?

I often hear my kid say ‘Oh but I am not a good artist, I cannot draw.’ And then it’s me saying ‘You don’t need to be an artist to draw. Everybody can draw!’. Though this doesn’t convince him a great deal, but sometimes he does get it. This reluctance to get his pencil on paper comes from a large extent from all the ‘perfect art’ we see around us. Be it on Instagram, YouTube and everywhere.

I am a self taught illustrator, when one fine day I discovered the joys of drawing digitally. I’ve been into graphic design and layout design for several years before that (I still continue to be). Illustrations is fairly new for me but I happen to love it more as the days are going by.

I find myself entering some really creative drawing challenges on Instagram every once in a while. Initially it did upset me that no work of mine was ever getting selected to be added onto popular stories but now I’ve learnt to look past that. My perspective - atleast it’s building my drawing portfolio and there are some works I’m fairly proud of!

So coming back to why I started this post - do we really fail in art? What happens when our ‘masterpiece’ does not get selected? Do we stop and rethink what went wrong? Do we pull ourselves down for not being ‘good enough’?

The answer is NO. We carry on with our art. We make it better. We try and understand it better. We proudly display it on our own pages. So what if it did not make it to MoMA (lol!) I’m still inspired and motivated to go ahead and draw some more.

There is a lot of ‘perfect art’ around us, but there are also a lot of artists who share their real journey stories and draw what’s closest to them. Some look like kiddy scribbles, yet so relatable! One of my favourites is Jemma Corell. She is ofcourse a celebrated and highly accomplished Illustrator but her simple, meaningful and highly relatable drawings are a joy to view.

Finally in the end it’s how you tell your story via any medium you choose. Staying authentic is the key.

Do you draw? Do you face self doubts? How do you overcome them? I hope you do :)

How we see ourselves Vs How we actually are

When you pass by a mirror, what are the things you generally notice first - ‘Ugh! bad hair’, ‘Gawd! my panda eyes’, ‘Eeks! Look at my muffin top’ and the list continues. How many of us I wonder actually stay back and exclaim ‘Hey beautiful’ How are you today'?’. Doing it in public may raise brows, but how many of us even do it when we are with ourselves?

I am not even sure how many of us feel positively about our own selves.

Is it really all right to say negative things about ourselves in public ‘Nice? Didn’t you notice I’ve gained extra pounds. I’m hitting the gym tomorrow!’ This is such a typical comment I hear when I’m out socializing (a rare activity for me, but I do).

An online video from Dove, shows a forensic sketch artist who is asked to draw a series of women based only on their descriptions.

As a child, growing up in a small town in India, I was often subjected to ‘but girl, you got wheatish skin’. Though it was mentioned around me in casual, passing remarks, I actually began believing that my worth lay in the color of my skin. I recall shying from people, staying off gatherings, trying to hide in my world. All that unnecessary jabber ate away my self-confidence. How little the ‘grown ups’ around me realised what damage they were causing to a child in her formative years!

As time went by and the world opened up for me, I gradually stepped out of my cocoon - there was no other option than to do that. And thank god for that! Today I realise how a negative body image impacted and drained me off from realising my true worth. I am much more than the color of my skin. Certainly a lot more. And I’m mighty proud of the person I’ve become today.

I love the puzzled look on the salon lady’s face when she offers to ‘brighten my skin’ and I smile and refuse - ‘Oh but I love my color’.

“I saw that worrying had come to nothing. And I gave it up. And took my old body and went out into the morning and sang.”

— Mary Oliver

I love my greying hair (I’ve promised never to dye), the fine lines around my eyes when I smile and the small wrinkles on my forehead - they’re like a map of my life. These ‘ flaws and imperfections’ kind of summarize every high and low, good and bad, easy and challenging days I’ve lived and continue to do so! Ofcourse I can do with one less tire around my tummy, but that’s coz I’m too lazy to excercise. Lol!

Love yourself for who you are. And what you’re about to become. Surprise yourself.

Have you experienced such negativity regarding your body in your life? How did you overcome it, I hope you have. Do share it with me - there is so much in us to inspire each other, isn’t it.

Love,
Suchi

A glorious mess - Why I love water colors

The digital medium for creating art is my first love! So is watercolor (we are allowed two first loves, right?!) Sometimes during a busy work day, I find myself taking little breaks and heading towards brushes and colors. The feel of the textured watercolor paper makes me so happy!

Here are a couple of reasons why these easy-flowing colors bring me so much joy and hit the refresh key in my mind.

For their vibrancy and playfulness - Pans, tubes, liquids - I try my hand with all of these. Check out Pebeos' Colorex range, they happens to be my favourite!

Unpredictability - I love to watch colors blend into each other. Sometimes they take their own shape and something absolutely new shows up on paper than what I originally planned. Wild and free, that’s what I like to call them.

“Learn to let go. Not everyone in your life is meant to stay.”

— Unknown

Transparency - I secretly envy those who achieve it! So dreamy and a pleasure to watch. Instagram is full of talented artists who show you how they do it. Go check them out.

“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”

— A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

More than one way to do it - Dry on wet, wet on wet, wet on dry - the possibilities are endless. I like to try the salt sprinkle technique and dab with tissue for a rough texture.

Here, patience is a virtue. Thanks to going digital all the way (and loving it too!) I completely turn impatient when I draw on paper. Also the inability to instantly 'undo' drives me nuts. Lol! But I have learnt a great deal on how to wait (for the paint to dry) before I add another layer. I therefore sit with a large mug of coffee when I do watercolors.

“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end…
”

— Gilda Radner

If you like these colors, share it with me too. I’d love to know how you interact with various colors and mediums.

Love,
Suchi

Why inclusive art is so important for me

To me, representation in art is very important. The most common artworks I saw and learnt as I was growing up was very uni-dimensional. They only represented a certain side of life and society. Infant I do not remember seeing any art that featured a differently abled person. Neither did I see varying skin tones and people of different race, ethnicities being represented in school textbooks, or even storybooks.

But thankfully we have moved on from there and now the world is opening up to greater representation coz #RepresentationMatters. The patterns and motifs in the fabric of society is never complete till we show the real picture.

“1 in 20 children have a disability.
That gives 19 kids a daily opportunity to learn about diversity, collaboration, inclusion and friendship.”

— Unknown

Simone Biles

I’d like to believe that art imitates life and vice versa. And in my effort to create art, I also endeavour to include what I actually see around me.

Here’s something I doodled a while ago where I was so inspired by the words I’d read. I almost instantly jumped onto my drawing board and created a free poster art for anybody who would like to have this at home or in class.

How important is inclusivity in art for you? How do you view things around you and do you think it’s important to write about it / daw them / speak about it and show them in every other creative form.

To me it is. It’s important that I keep my stories real. And I try to do it via the stuff I draw. I hope you like it too.

Love,
Suchi