Here is a simple quick tip for helping extend or bolster your everyday creativity.

If you’re ever needing to sketch the reflection of an object from scratch, here’s a quick tip to keep things looking right. Sketch a “reflection guide” copy of the object on a scrap piece of tracing paper and darken the lines. Now, just flip the reflection guide and position it over the desired location. Rub your eraser on the back of the guide copy to leaving faint lines on the artwork. Then, remove the reflection guide and sketch in the details on the art.

There is a lot more that goes into creating a realistic reflection (resource for drawing reflection angles correctly), but this little tip will help you avoid blunders like the image below (as seen in “The Incredible Hulk: Season 1 – Innocent Blood) and ease the reversed drawing process.

Here is a simple quick tip for helping extend or bolster your everyday creativity.

Eating properly keeps your brain healthy and your reaction time high, both key elements in responding to your own creative bursts. There’s a great list of “Brain Foods” found at Brain Ready, but also consider looking into Chia seeds as an additive to your normal morning routine. Chia seeds have all the fun stuff like protien and omega-3, but are also super cheap and can be added to all your current food favorites without affecting the taste, though they do affect the color.

Here is a simple quick tip for helping extend or bolster your everyday creativity.

Despite my best creative efforts, exercise is still one of the top ways to encourage creativity. Physical activity exercises the mind’s adaptability and increases hand-eye coordination; it also improves your mood. One of the quickest ways to exercise both your body and your creativity is through participating in a regularly changing obstacle course. The physical activity strengthens your muscles and the varying landscape or “obstacles” help expand your brain’s ability to solve puzzles quickly and efficiently, as well as boosting your creativity. A common trial method for exercising your creativity is switching your dominant side for a day. Try tossing and catching a tennis ball with your non-dominant hand for a while. Exercising your body and mind in this way will increase neural pathways used for adaptability and creativity. Go try it.

Yes, it feels odd, but stick with it until you can catch the ball or run the course efficiently, then switch activities. Keep your mind and your body on it’s “toes” and you’ll find yourself more ready to make quick decisions or come up with new ways to do things.

I just posted a couple shots taken from Owl’s Head Park in Brooklyn, looking west over the bay, near sunset. It was a very peaceful time and location with dragonflies buzzing around snatching up insects and children and dogs playing on the nearby hill. The ships in the bay were busy finishing up the day’s work and I watched them until the pre-rain fog finally rolled in fully blanketing their indistinct outlines in the distance.

 

 

Go check them out on PurePhoto: Ships in the West, Anchored in the Fog, and Fog Rolling in the West. Prints will be available within two days.

My wife just asked why Grasping @ Creativity doesn’t have a lot of photos “like it used to.”

I’m keeping two blogs updated and one is dedicated to photos only, so if you’re ever missing the photography side of things here on Grasping @ Creativity, just head on over to Jon Decker Photo and browse the constantly expanding selection. I’ll post more images here soon too, just to appease Jean.