Howdy!
So, here I am at my desk, battery full, and ready to work! Full speed ahead…right?
…hmmm…..but where do I start?
I still have summer swimming in my head.
If you’ve ever taken a short break from your daily duties, a vacation, a long weekend, maternity leave, or any type of pause for personal reasons then you know that returning to work is sometimes daunting. So, for this 6 part email series, I am focusing on the “comeback story”. The moment break is over and you return to your desk, your office, or studio. Let’s talk about how we can make the transition easier. This is the portion of the journey when you’re finding your way back to a normal day of work. It can take a few days or even weeks to adjust.
In my last Substack, I gave you the best advice I have to approach a comeback which is to treat it like a road trip. 3,2,1….let’s go!
In STEP ONE, we made sure our batteries were FULL :
Step TWO : Fill the inspiration fuel tank!
Inspiration comes from everywhere. However, I find vacations or any kind of break from work to be magically filling. Your brain is consuming a lot of visuals and information without even knowing it. If you’re like me, you’re walking around taking pictures of tree bark texture and sunsets all summer long. It’s a wonderful opportunity for your mind to dream, scheme, record memories, textures, and secretly scavenge inspiration.
Take a moment to brain dump your recent experiences. Unload ideas that popped up. Draw a special memory from vacation. Look through your photos. Write a list of your favorite moments, lessons learned, or reasons to be thankful. Make a messy mood board. Doesn’t have to be pretty, just let your thoughts and antidotes spill out. Maybe you discovered a new color palette. Perhaps you discovered a few classes you want to take or podcasts you’d like to listen to. Make a list. Maybe you’ve been mentally collecting specific ideas for a particular project or maybe all that comes out is an urgent grocery list. That’s good too. You might need that.
Take up space. Maybe you need more than one page for this. Maybe you need a whole sketchbook. Maybe you paint a few canvases. Perhaps you fill a wall with sticky notes. Whether your brain dump is a beautiful illustration of your life goals or just a scribble of random words that only make sense to you, you will benefit from doing it. Do it your way, but don’t skip the brain “dumping-storming” phase. This is how you fill the inspiration FUEL TANK. If you don’t at least scribble a quick note down, often our inspiration gets buried and forgotten. I’ve discussed this topic more in a Substack called Bottle Your Inspiration.
Filling the inspiration full tank will serve 3 purposes:
Empty that full brain of yours and give you much needed clarity.
Fill you with a bit of excitement about “could be” projects.
Grow a library of archived ideas you can pull from whenever you need to.
Either way, take an intentional moment to clear the mental cache and fill your inspiration library. Clear your mind, find closure, and add the period to the end of your vacation or break experience.
This is what a brain dump looks like for me:
Collection of summer moments, color palettes, and mood board:
Here’s a random scribbly brain dump from this week:
Here is my filled out Creative Kickstart Worksheet from August:
This was from 2021 when I was first starting out in illustration and daydreaming about making a “success cake” for myself:
If you’re still having trouble getting started. Then consider participating in an art challenge or prompt. Sometimes that can get the juices flowing. Even the prompts I don’t finish provide me with random sketches I can come back to later. It also allows you to join a community of other artists stretching their creative muscles as well. I’m currently participating in a 30 day Make Art That Sells art challenge. Here are a few of my completed responses:
This post is a part of a monthly post by the Illoguild. This month we are discussing “How do you create?”. I always start with a proper brain dump. :)
Join us for a FREE LIVE ZOOM on Monday, September 15th at 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM MST (4:00PM - 5PM EST). We’ll be catching up about summer and illustration topics.
That’s all I have for you today! I hope it sparks something for you and that your transitions are smooth!!