Week 4

This week I made my first attempt to deliver a creative Product related to the Subject I’ve selected for Exploring the Creative Process – Birds!

Last week I decided that I would choose a different Medium for each species of Bird that appears in our yard. In short, it is time to go for it!

Where I landed, was with an attempt to render a Junco from the Dogwood outside our apartment using Acrylic Paint.

“You can’t look at the Creative Process without acknowledging and investigating all Aspects of Creativity“

Realizing the Focus of this Blog is Broader than I Expected

👨🏼‍🎨 🎨 🖼

Creative Product

I’ve dedicated this blog to Exploring the Creative Process, but you can’t look at the Creative Process without acknowledging and investigating all Aspects of Creativity.

Product is considered a core Aspect of Creativity, along with Process, Person, and Place (the “Four P’s”). It’s what you actually Create.

Product is from ‘Middle English’ (finally a term not from straight-up latin), derived from the latin ‘Productum’ meaning a thing or person that is the result of an action or process. It is also considered to be an article or substance that is manufactured or refined for sale“.

I don’t particularly like the term ‘Product’ because of this connotation. Instead, I will choose to word ‘Creation‘.. or other options to describe the Output from the Creative Process.

Aspects of Creativity

This week I also found that being the Person trying to create something is a Constraint unto itself, because your abilities determine how you can express a Subject through a Medium.

I also have been finding that the Place (or as I prefer to think of it, the Context) for Creation is hugely impactful on your ability to produce a meaningful Creative Product.

It goes back to what I wrote about in Week 1 – Kindling & Inspiration. It’s easy to find yourself in a position where you are waiting…

Waiting to find that Kindling for Inspiration, for something unique, something truly new.

I’m learning that sometimes, there may be a way forward right in front of you, and other times you have to forge the way forward despite what’s in front of you.

This Week’s Creative Product

This week I chose a photograph of a Junco in the Dogwood Tree at our apartment that seemed particularly painterly in it’s capture and attempted to render it in paint.

Overall, I’m pleased with the Creation. I was surprised to learn that the palette required limited colors to render (burnt umber, black, white, & parchment).

I was also happy to learn how colors blend on the brush, and interact with water.

Overall, the exploration of the medium seemed to have limited connections with my Subject (Birds!), and I actually found greater curiosity with the rendering of the Tree. It’s likely that the complexity of rendering the Junco was inhibited by my lack of experience with the Medium (Acrylic Paint).

What next?

Next week I will explore a new Medium to express my understanding of my subject (Birds!).

Please comment below on any thoughts you have about the Subject (Birds!), Aspects of Creativity, or where we are in my first Exploration of the Creative Process.