Finding freedom in creative constraints

27 Sept

Creative constraints can be surprisingly liberating.

When we can make absolutely anything, with any material, in any colour, all that possibility can sometimes make it harder to begin.

Giving ourselves a few limitations takes some decisions away, but it doesn't necessarily limit our creative freedom.

I was reminded of this rather forcibly this week when I hurt my back and ended up spending a lot of time lying in bed feeling constrained and sorry for myself. I wanted something creative to do that didn't require much space, energy or equipment, so I used a brown paper concertina sketchbook and a black brush pen.

Keeping things extremely simple. I had quite a lot of limitations before I'd even started. One sketchbook, one pen, no colour and the physical limitation of having to make something I could manage from bed.

But I decided I could draw anything I liked, the ambition was to create a nice time, that was the only outcome I desired. Just let whatever was inside come out.

I didn't have a subject in mind, and I wasn't trying to make a particular kind of drawing. I just started making marks and shapes and lines and seeing what happened. I repeated something if I enjoyed it, I changed direction when I felt like it, I just wanted to create something absorbing and distracting.

I gave myself a very simple set of parameters, and within them I could follow my instincts.

My guiding question became: what would I enjoy making right now?

And perhaps that's where the freedom was. I'd taken away lots of choices, which left me free to make the choice that actually interested me.

So if you're feeling a bit stuck with your own art-making, try taking a few choices away and seeing what freedom you can find inside the constraints.

Art supplies

In this video I used a Seawhite Kraft Paper Concertina Sketchbook with Case and a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen purchased from Ken Bromley Art Supplies.

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