Back into my creative mood

I bet that you, as an artist, know the feeling when there is a blank canvas or a blank document from any software you use sitting in front of you, and you are incapable of moving your hands – the famous paralysis mode. Consequently, you, or at least me, start thinking of why this is happening. Is this thinking mode helpful or does it overwhelm you, me, even further?

Well, it depends. If you open your soul to your conscious mind and allow the truth to come out, it is helpful. And this is exactly what I’ve gone through in these last few months.

How have I come out from my paralysis mode?

First of all, how did I get into it?! I would say that the main trigger was keeping myself very busy with other obligations without managing my time and prioritising my needs. Making art has a major impact on my mood. I feel peace, joy and I automatically smile. I become a happy person. Art is part of my inner soul that I can’t leave without it.

How come then, I can reach a paralysis mode? A good question, and I think the simple answer is getting excited with other things and not paying attention what is happening with myself. Was I in this period feeling free, light and happy? Not as much as I do with my art for sure.

Another factor that descended upon my mind during this paralysis was the marvellous big arrival of Artificial Intelligence. I started thinking if art was still worthwhile. However, this might have come as an excuse not to blame myself as the main culprit for my paralysis. I knew well in the back of my mind that for us artists, AI is a tool. I just needed to remember that!

From that point, I started to reference a lot. It was during this referencing stage that I engaged in a short illustration course. My muse started to get very well fed and here I am, back to my normal me!

Therefore, if you are suffering from a paralysis mode, have a deep conversation with yourself and with your peers that you trust. It was a friend, mentor and a big source of inspiration to me, that made sure I remembered that we, artists, are the ones that play with AI the way WE like!!

The project I started when I resurfaced from the paralysis mode.

Before I got into the paralysis mode, I was working in a project where I would produce only monochromatic images. The main aim was to stress the feelings the image could incur, no matter if the feelings were different from my ones and from the viewers. I decided to continue with it and I entitled the project as The world in black and white illustrations. In bullet points I committed myself to it:

• Aim: Express my feelings towards this world ( a scene I see or a situation I experience at the moment or experienced in the past) in black and white.
• Reason: practice my illustration skills and challenge my creativity stressing fundamentally in feelings.
• Plan: Have nine illustrations using pencil brushes only!!
• Deadline: 27th of October 2023
• How: Using Photoshop or Fresco. For each illustration, I will start off with 3 thumbnails that will have different point of views. I will choose one to proceed my work on and I will explain why.

Starting off: Memories of my childhood

I consider myself a very lucky person. I had a marvellous childhood and we always used to go to the beach for holidays. Our house was quite in front of the beach, 3 steps away (yes, not spoiled at all! 😉). I can remember so much of what we used to do there and for this illustration I will be depicting my longing for being there again, on the same rocks where I used to jump from to swim in the sea.