Creative Wisdom from Pixar's John Lasseter 2 of 7

John Lasseter’s 7 Points (by way of Scribble Junkies)

2. Remember the first laugh.

“A big problem in the creative process is related to the enhancement of your ideas. Revising, retouching, refining is very important, but it carries a danger. If you have a story, a joke, a thought, which you write down, it loses its effect over time. It wears itself out. When you hear a joke for the second time you still laugh heartily, on the third or fourth occasion already less so, and when you hear it the hundredth time, you hate it.”

“I say to my authors: ‘Take notice of the first laugh, write it down if necessary. This may at times be bothersome, but it is important. Many times, good things got lost because people could not remember anymore how it felt when they heard the idea for the first time.”

To me this means keep your ideas fresh. 

How? It's probably different for every artist.

I keep a sketchbook.

• Write down all of your thoughts and ideas and inspirations.
• Journal a bit to capture your thought processes.
• Include test samples for when you are trying out new techniques.

When you get too close to a piece you're working on, gain some distance.

• Put it away for a day or two - there is an art fairy that visits at night an makes things look good again.
• Put it on the wall, walk as far away as you can before turning to view it.
• Turn the piece upside down or look at in in a mirror.
• Go back to your sketchbook and remember what it was you loved about it at the beginning.

How do you keep your ideas fresh?

How do you stay in love with your work?

Here is the rest of the series:

1. Never come up with just one idea

2. Remember the first laugh

3. Quality is a great business plan. Period

4. It's the team, stupid

5. Fun invokes creativity, not competition

6. Creative output always reflects the person on top

7. Surround yourself with creative people whom you trust

Up Close and Personal

The Sketchbook Challenge theme for this month is Close-Up.

RIGHT UP CLOSE is the way I really like to see things.

I focus in so close on the details that sometimes we'll be traveling and my husband will take the camera away just to take one picture of where we are.

I'll take a tiny thing and blow it up huge in a work of art. When one of nature's tiny gems fills your entire frame of vision it gains a grandeur and beauty that can be shared.

Dream by Lyric Kinard

The ocean is gorgeous - but so are the ripples right under your feet.

Leftovers by Lyric Kinard

UP CLOSE is one of the reasons I love hand work. The slowness, the concentration on detail, feeling the thread and the cloth in your hands.... it's all about the details.

Family Ties III by Lyric Kinard


Now - pick up your sketchbook and look around. I'm sure there is something RIGHT  THERE that is worth drawing.
There is inspiration everywhere if you look CLOSELY! 

I Love ... Teaching!

Last week I had the great good fortune to meet a fabulous group called Fiber Frenzy in Athens, GA. The Lyndon House Arts Center is a beautiful venue with galleries and classrooms. We had two days of serious fun - a stretched out Surface Design Sampler Platter. 

Usually I teach it in one day and it can feel like drinking from a fire hose because we do SO MANY THINGS all in one day.

In a two day class we had time to play a little longer. Here we're trying out some instantly gratifying citrasolv photo transfer - (tutorial here)

We played with foil - letting the magpie shiny sparkly things lovers come out in us all!

We were having fun - honest. Ignore all the wrinkled brows of serious concentration. 

 We carved stamps and screen printed - and LOVED every minute of it!

 Did I mention how great the facility was? Room for everyone to PLAY!

I had a teacher in high school that I loved because she would let me perch on my desk or the counter by the window. I found out years later that she was always telling me to get down. I never heard her. Not once. I must have been seriously off in La La Land. 

I still love to perch.

Larry Forte came in and put together a mini-video of the day at the Lindon House Art Center.

You can find all of these techniques - and a few more on my Quilting Arts DVD Workshop called Surface Design Sampler Platter. You can purchase it from the link up there on the right side of this blog. ;-)

Doodles, Screens, and Art

I'm still doodling away even after last months Sketchbook Challenge theme has come and gone. As with many of us, it's simply a way of life. I thought I'd show you what I do with some of my doodles. I always have my little sketchbook with me and often will just play around with a shape or an idea or an image.

In this case I was playing with circles. Big circles, little circles, circles in a grid, circles in random places.

From a large series of circle scribbles I chose three that relate to each other in some way but have different scales and different visual textures. One scribbled and bold, one orderly, and one delicate.

Next I cut them out of my sketchbook, scan them and print them out in different sizes, then create a thermofax screen with each one. Now the fun really starts!

I gather up fabric that catches my fancy and use the screens to print or discharge those doodles onto the cloth. The cloth above was discharged with Cascade Dishwashing Gel. (You can find a tutorial here.)

Circles by Lyric Montgomery Kinard

Eventually this particular batch of fabric is put together into a lovely little abstract piece of art.

What ways can you think of to make use of your doodling?

I Love ... My Students!

A new session of my on-line course

The Artists' Toolbox

opens on February 17th.

I'd love to spotlight some of the work done by my fabulous students.

 Mariet's color wheel

 Teresita's shape exercise

 Terry's texture/shape sketch

Sheila's balance excercise 

Tricia's rhythm exercise 

I LOVE my students! The work hard and play hard and LEARN!

Sign up now and join us for four lessons. You'll have a full six weeks of access to the forum where I'll be happy to guide and cajole and tease and play right along with you.

www.quiltuniversity.com

Creative Wisdom from Pixar's John Lasseter 1 of 7

John Lasseter

We recently watched a documentary called "The Pixar Story." Lots of great information about John Lasseter and Steve Jobs and all of the creative people who work at that studio. I have to admit that I truly LOVE pretty much every picture they've created and would watch them all even without kids. my favorite is definitely "The Incredibles."

I recently ran across some creative wisdom from Mr. Lasseter here and thought I'd share it with you a bit at a time over the next few weeks.

John Lasseter’s 7 Points (by way of Scribble Junkies)

1.  Never come up with just one idea

“Regardless of whether you want to write a book, design a piece of furniture or make an animated movie: At the beginning, don’t start with just one idea – it should be three. The reason is simple. If a producer comes to me with a proposal for a new project, then usually he has mulled over this particular idea for a very long time. That limits him.

“My answer always reads: ‘Come again when you have three ideas, and I don’t mean one good and two bad. I want three really good ideas, of which you cannot decide the best. You must be able to defend all three before me. Then we’ll decide which one you’ll realise.”

“The problem with creative people is that they often focus their whole attention on one idea. So, right at the beginning of a project, you unnecessarily limit your options. Every creative person should try that out. You will be surprised how this requirement suddenly forces you to think about things you hadn’t even considered before. Through this detachment, you suddenly gain new perspectives. And believe me, there are always three good ideas. At least."

I love this. Don't get so close and focussed on the one piece you are working on now - or don't get obsessed with one little part that you loose sight of the whole. 

What other ways can you think of to apply the "more than one idea" to your work as an artist.

Here is the rest of the series:

1. Never come up with just one idea

2. Remember the first laugh

3. Quality is a great business plan. Period

4. It's the team, stupid

5. Fun invokes creativity, not competition

6. Creative output always reflects the person on top

7. Surround yourself with creative people whom you trust

I Love ... My Little Ones!

My Little Ones!

They are funny and bright and creative.

They came home from school last week all excited about a jump rope event - a fundraiser for the American Heart Association

JUMPROPE FOR HEART

raising funds to help other kids with heart disease.

Instead of just sending an email to friends and family I thought of Virginia Spiegel’s wildly successful efforts for the American Cancer Society and had an idea. I’m constantly flooded with the art the kids produce. If I kept it all we’d be buried to our necks in it. (I take a picture of them holding it then quietly put it in the recycling while they are at school. If they miss it we can pull it out of the bag.)

So, dear friends. My kidlets have are willing to work for a cause. If you donate $5 they will draw a valentine picture just for you. 

(You’ll need to send me a quick note at lyric (at) pobox.com with your address so we can mail it off.)

I asked them to draw something with a heart on it. 

Kidlet #4 drew several.

That’s her operating a robot.

Kidlet #5 works a little more intently and drew this.

That’s him going over a jump on a motorcycle

So - want to encourage my little artists in their altruistic endeavor?

Would you like to help my kids help kids have healthy hearts?
Leave a comment here - it will come to my email and I'll send you an email from their donation page.

(and thanks - from the bottom of my heart!)