Please Skip the Three Marker Challenge

Creative minds need to stay occupied

That whole "idle hands/devil's workshop" thing is pretty true when it comes to gifted people. Especially when creative adults congregate in small groups.

Back in art school, when we were young and convinced that we were the most talented geniuses to ever squat on this planet... well, we got bored pretty easily. Given that in one of our classes, we drew a single toaster for an entire semester (not kidding), you can understand why we started dumb challenges.

I'll bet you can't draw sixteen different dog breeds on this napkin in 4 minutes or less!

I'll bet you can't draw an accurate likeness of Jane using just this sticky fragment of vine charcoal that I found in the trash!

I'll bet you can't recreate Vitruvian Man using only spaghetti noodles!

Yep, that's what art nerds do when they run out of real stuff to do.

So I smiled when the whole Three Marker Challenge thing on YouTube started trending. It's been a long time since anyone dared me to MacGyver a masterpiece using two rubberbands and a wad of C-4. It's fun to watch other artists have fun.

Stand-on-your-head, color blindfolded, use-your-feet, and here's a scribble, make something out of it challenges are the way artists bond with each other. Look what I can do. Hey, try this. Wouldn't it be funny if Mark had to...

The only thing that has changed about the art-challenge culture is that now the youngin's are publishing the antics on YouTube. That stuff used to happen in dorm hall dining rooms, not out in public.

Let me state for the record: I don't mind people posting hi-jinks online. I think it's great that artists can show off their talents, develop a fan base, AND supplement their income while having fun with their peers.

But I've started noticing a downside to the well mannered frivolity

When you follow an artist over a period of time on YouTube, by watching their process in slow-motion detail, a lot of people begin to think "Hey, what they do is sooooooo easy! I can do it too!"

Which can indeed be true. Maybe you really can color/draw/paint just like your favorite internet star.

But for the vast majority of viewers...

....how do I say this gently?

You can't.

You haven't spent long semesters drawing toasters. You haven't spent years in life drawing sessions sketching really homely naked people. You haven't trained and sweated and drawn until 4 in the morning and then still got a D on the project because the perspective was off just a smidge. You haven't worked for a jack-ass clients and demanding art directors.

Keep this in mind when you watch an artist make magic out of 3 highlighters on a piece of birch bark

You are watching a well trained and practiced person take their talents, skills, and vast knowledge base and make the most out of a crappy set of circumstances.

You're also watching an inside joke; one that you are not a part of. Just like weight lifters and surgeons, artists like to show off their skills by challenging established limitations. The lifter who presses the most weight, the surgeon who perfects the first head transplant, and the artist who figures out how to make Y99 plus RV02 look attractive- they all take victory laps in front of their peers.

I did it! Look at me! You didn't think it could be done but I showed you!

Beginning colorers should skip the crazy coloring challenges

Unless it's one of those color-every-day-for-a- month, week, or fortnight kind of challenges, please don't do it.

It is not for you.

I've seen two cases this month and I suspect this will be cropping up more and more.

Hey Facebook friends! I took the three marker challenge but I can't seem to get these markers to blend. Any tips?

Hello artists- I saw this online thing and tried it myself. What went wrong?

It takes 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill

Now I do not know about you, but I don't have a lot of free time to sit down and practice my Latin vocabulary or my blindfolded steeple chasing technique.

Time is precious. We have to ignore the dishes that need doing, put on kid-cancelling headphones, and hang a "YOU DISTURB, YOU DIE!!!" sign on the craft room door before we can log in any coloring practice time.

Productive Copic coloring time is a rare treat, so why would you waste it trying to color a seascape using E59, Y38, and YR000?

You learn what you practice

If the plan is to become famous for coloring with your feet, then by all means, take the challenge. Have at it.

But if you're still learning to color in the lines, to form basic blends, to color smoothly... you've got no business trying to do any of that stuff while standing on your head.

I know your coloring hero can do it, I've seen the video too. When you've practiced as much as she has, you'll be able to do it also.

But not right now.

You're not ready for it yet.

Would you ever strap rollerskates on toddler?

Nope. That's cruel. A baby deserves the chance to learn to walk on solid ground before you add wheels to the mix.

But it's okay for a nine year old to try roller skates. In fact, they might learn something from it. How to brace oneself for a fall, the importance of equilibrium. When you're a pro at walking, you can benefit from skating.

By the same token, Michael Phelps might gain something from swimming laps dragging a grand piano along side. That's because he has the muscle and the training and the know how to make the best of this seemingly impossible challenge.

When you watch someone really good try to color with three crazy markers, you can watch them go through the Michael Phelps piano process. At first, they struggle with the materials, then they get to know the colors and how they interact. Then they start thinking about what techniques they know to adjust the value, saturation, and interaction between the three inks. And sometimes their training or talent totally takes over and they conquer the marker combination. It's fun to watch that magic happen.

But that doesn't mean you can do the same thing with only a few months of marker experience.

Yes, I want Beans!

As I said, there's something weird about the YouTube art experience...

You watch someone color twice and suddenly you feel like best friends. And best friends can do everything together, right?

And yet I doubt you will watch this video and suddenly start doing back flips off the side of parking structures.

And I'll bet you were able to watch a few episodes of The Apprentice without deciding to run for president.

Save the crazy coloring challenges for when you're fully grown

It's okay to be a coloring toddler. There's no shame in having beginner level skills.

In fact, I greatly admire the accountants, human resource managers, and engineers who take a look at Copic markers and say "I want to learn to do that".

Cradle yourself during this time of early learning. Don't be so quick to take on more than you can manage.

Don't strap a grand piano on your back when you barely know how to swim. Instead of impressing Michael Phelps, he'll be dragging you out of the pool with an ambulance crew watching.

Creativity: Change the Way You Think About Thinking

“How do you come up with so many cool ideas?”

I get this question a lot.

Well, that and “Is this credit or debit?”  I hear that one a lot too.

But back to the creativity question, a lot of people are curious where ideas come from.

And I used to respond, “I don’t know, things just kinda come to me.”

Which helps absolutely no one.

A better answer is needed. A lot of people want to be more creative, inventive, and interesting. It’s an earnest question, a noble goal, and it deserves an authentic answer.

So, I’ve had about 44 years to think about where creativity comes from. Here’s my conclusion:

Everyone can be creative — Even YOU!

Now we’ve all heard generic encouragement like this before.

Every single one of us grew up hearing that we could be an astronaut or the President of the United States. And even though we all believed it, very few of us are sporting a NASA jacket or have a cool Secret Service code name like “Big Tuna”.

But here’s what I’ve noticed about the self-described “uncreative” people in my life. They are pretty darned creative at things other than art.

That’s what sets humans apart from animals. Humans have this wild and boundless capacity to find clever solutions to problems. You were born to be creative the same way that a fish knows how to swim and that a spider knows how to freak the livin’ beejeebus out of me.

If you’re human and you’re breathing, you’re doing something creative. Right this very instant. The trick is to channel your natural creativity into something productive.

What are you using your creativity on?

My husband is an engineer and a lab manager. He spends his day looking through an electron microscope. When he’s not doing that, he’s telling his employees to get back to looking through their electron microscopes.

It’s not a terribly creative job unless you look below the surface.

No, he doesn’t get to paint or make wonderful messes with paper and string. But he’s not totally uncreative. He designed a better lab setup. He teaches interns and new employees how to run very technical machines. And most of all, he manages to get 30 somewhat anti-social lab geeks working in the same room without anyone killing anyone else with readily available radioactive materials.

That takes creativity.

Each of us is creative in our daily lives. It may not be the Leonardo Da Vinci type creativity, but it is creative. Maybe you’re an accountant who is able to calm stressed-out clients. Maybe you’re a real estate agent with never fail presentation skills or you’re a kindergarten teacher who has gone 40 days without a Play-Doh up-the-nose emergency. Almost everything you do in your daily life involves some sort of creativity.

So stop beating yourself up about not being creative like the artists on your favorite blogs. You have it in you, the trick is to tap into it for more than just work.

Everyone needs to do something they love, even if it’s just a hobby. If you’re not reading a few books or taking a few classes to explore things you enjoy, you are doing yourself an injustice. Tap into the creative spark that is waiting within you. It was there when they told you that you could be an astronaut and it’s still there today. Use it.

Creativity is like water, it goes where you channel it.

If you look at my lifetime portfolio, there’s a big gap of absolutely no activity from about the year 2004 to 2007. I wasn’t in my studio very much, except maybe to mourn the fact that I wasn’t in my studio very much.

I was pregnant and spent 3 months on mandatory bedrest. Meanwhile, my five year old daughter discovered the power of “NO!” and used it on everything from Cheerios to debates about why we should always wear underwear. Then my son’s 2nd grade class deteriorated into chaos when a student began using the other kids as punching bags. And when I finally had the baby, he had a mild condition which required numerous visits to a clinic about 2 hours from our home.

So yeah, so I was pretty busy doing other stuff.

I quit all but one teaching job. And I didn’t do much arting.

But here’s the weird thing. I did other stuff creatively. I taught myself to knit and made about 18 sweaters. I started writing quirky newsletters for a few area businesses. And I became known as the cookie mom. Because hey, if I’m going to bake cookies, I’m damned well going to make some freakishly artistic cookies.

I also convinced my daughter that the only way the Fairy King will ever make you a Butterfly Princess is if you’re wearing underwear when he visits. 10 years later and she’s still wearing underwear.

Creativity will find it’s way out.

But not if you’ve set up a mental or physical dam to prevent the flow.

If you fill your life with marathon television programing, if you do housework every night of the week or spend your weekends doing menial errands, if you fill your life up to the rim with constant chatter and activity and mindless busy-ness, artistic creativity has no place in your life to make an appearance.

The Art Muse needs a bit of quiet to germinate in your brain. You have to give her the time and space to peek out and say hello. And you have to give her some tools to play with.

Yes, I want Beans!

 And here’s something else to chew on:

Maybe now is not your ideal time to be creative

Perhaps it’s not an appropriate time in your life to be channeling the Art Muse.

I’m a studio artist and I teach art classes, that’s me. It’s what I do best and it’s what I love to do. But when I had three very young and needy kids, plus a ton of absolute crap going on in my life, it would have been highly inappropriate for me to lock myself in my studio and devote my life to art.

Maybe today isn’t the day when you can tell your boss to shove it, move to the beach, and begin a new life assembling sea shells into frog sculptures. You might not be there now but what about a few years from now?

We all have creative and less creative points in our lives. Be smart and admit that this may not the right time to be totally immersed in a creative life.

Be patient but do not hesitate to seize the moment when it finally comes.

But just because you’re in a slow season doesn’t mean you should stagnate.

Do what you can, when you can.

This may require a bit of sacrifice. Maybe you forgo watching Project Runway this week. That’s an hour in which you could be card making or playing with clay or doing whatever it is that makes your Muse happy.

Maybe you say no to organizing the church picnic and use that time to attend open studio hours at the ceramics shop.

Or you buy a book on enameling techniques rather than a bodice ripper.

Or you actually use the new set of watercolor pencils that’s been collecting dust under your bed.

Your creative life will be reflected in the choices of how you spend your free time. Even just 5 minutes this week will improve your spirits. One step, no matter how small will get you a little bit closer to living a creative lifestyle.

Ultimately, please understand this:

Creativity doesn’t strike lucky people out of the blue like lightning bolts.

It’s pretty easy to sit back and say “Well, I could make stuff like that if I was creative.”

Nope. You are creative WHEN you make stuff like that.

Creativity is a practice.

I get my best ideas as I’m working on a previous idea. Thinking triggers more thoughts and making art gives birth to more art. It’s a groove that you get into.

Creativity is the product, not the source.

So if you’re sitting around waiting for the light bulb to appear over your head, you might just want to get comfy because you’re going to be stuck in the dark for a while.

In the coming weeks, we’ll talk more about creativity, talent, inspiration, and living more artistic lives.

In the meantime, let's talk. Are you in a slump right now or are you in a creative period? If you’re coming off a low point, what was it that pulled you out?