How She Creates: Ep 009 - Art Challenges with Crystal Moody and Torrie Gass
Today Lauren is interviewing Crystal from A Year of Creative Habits and Torrie from Fox and Hazel. We are talking about creative habits and challenges. They are sharing their wisdom about creative challenges, how you can start your own, where to find inspiration, how to push through when you don't feel like it and the benefits of daily creating.
Episode Takeaways and Artist Actions
- Getting an art degree isn't the end all, be all to becoming an artist: You can do it on your own!
- Challenges make you approach your projects and ideas in a new, different and intentional way
- Challenges can give you creative direction in themes, color pallets, medium, etc
- How to combat the fear of the blank page: tell yourself to get it done, make it easy and don't miss a day
- Create a challenge that will stretch your abilities
- Give yourself permission to break the rules, especially the rules you created for yourself
- Give yourself permission to fail, to screw up, to improve
- Eventually your habit will become about not letting yourself down
- The benefits of a creative challenge is growth in your skillset and abilities
- You have permission to throw away things
- You have to be willing to do the work to get through the bad stuff to get to the good stuff
- Artist Action: Create your challenge based on yourself, it can be monthly, weekly, daily or a numerical goal
- Artist Action: If you don't like your challenge or are bored: tweak it
- Artist Action: Be thoughtful in how you will complete your challenge
- Artist Action: When choosing a challenge ask: is this topic or challenge broad enough to hold my interest for a long time?
- Artist Action: If you are struggling: copy until you are comfortable creating your own, change mediums, experiment
- Artist Action: Create accountability by sharing online, keep a tracking sheet, groups, set a day of the week
- Artist Action: Make your challenge so simple and easy that you would feel dumb not doing it
- Artist Action: Fill your well of inspiration by reading, going to a gallery, doing research, going to book stores, go camping, take photos, study other artists, instagram
- Tips for starting your own challenge:
- Start at a time in your year that is best for you
- Make sure you have all your supplies before starting for at least a few weeks
- Take time to create a clear plan of what you are going to do
- Maintain your supplies consistently
- Remember, you can change and tweak!
- Don't be overly ambitious, know yourself and be realistic
- Give yourself 'sick days' or 'vacation days'
Resources and Tools
- Torrie's watercolour a day past challenges
- #foxandwatercolour
- Torrie's Tiny Art Journals
- Crystal's past challenges: 2014, 2015, 2016
- A Year of Creative Habits
- Get Messy Art Journal
- Crystal's newsletter
- A year of creative habits instagram
Guests
Crystal Moody
Crystal Moody is mama, nerd, and artist in Springfield, MO. She's challenges herself creatively with daily and weekly projects such as #yearofcreativehabits, #Fursday, and #MondayMourning.
Torrie Gass
Torrie is the artist behind Fox & Hazel. She is passionate about helping others find their creative voice, and chronicles her own art journaling journey on her blog. Through Instagram challenges and blogging, Torrie is keen to share her passion for sparking creativity in others. She loves watercolours, art journaling, punk music and would have a coffee IV if they existed. 
