02 - Med-INK-tations
25 Sept 2022 · 5 min
A short solo podcast episode by Jason Nicholas introducing 'Med-INK-tations'—timed free-drawing/continuous-line exercises (typically 2 minutes) to overcome blank-paper syndrome and trigger creative flow. He suggests a follow-up 2–3 minute exercise of examining scribbles to find shapes, and offers a sponsor mention recommending Lockby travel Field journals with discount code InkSpired1 for 10% off.
Questions this episode answers
Jason Nicholas.
2 minutes.
2–3 minutes.
InkSpired1.
10% off any one regular-price item.
Chapters
Hey there, everybody. This is Jason with another episode of the Inspired Life, where I'll be giving you some creative tips on mindset, painting, sketching, and just looking at the world in different and wondrous ways to help fuel your creativity. So for today, I'd like to talk about something I call blank paper syndrome. Have you ever stared at a blank sheet of paper, or maybe it's a blank canvas, and wondered where to start, what to paint, what to draw, what to sketch? It happens to me all the time, to be honest with you. It's just. It's just part of being a creative ideas don't always come easily. They don't always flow. We have to work and develop and build creative skills and mindsets. So today's tip has to do with crushing blank paper syndrome, and I'll have more tips about this in other podcasts. But tip number one is what I call Medinkations Med Inktation is just a way of getting your creative flow kind of started. What you need to do this is a blank sheet of paper or canvas. It's up to you. Some music I like to listen to, maybe just some peaceful, relaxing music and a timer. So I typically set my timer for two minutes, close my eyes, and then I just put my pen to paper and let the pen wander. It just drifts aimlessly around the sheet of paper. I'm not thinking about what I'm drawing. There is no end goal other than to just get your mindset into a creative state of flow. You know, sometimes we've had a rough day or a billion different things going on. I know I always have a lot going on, and we just have to get into that creative mindset. So I found meditations to be a great way to shift gears, you know, to get away, to step away from the activities you've done during the day, and just to put yourself kind of put your mind on a blank page. Right. It's refreshed, reinvigorated, and renewed. So today's tip is try medications. And yeah, I hope. I hope this helps you. I'd love to know what you got out of this. If you do meditations, share with me your thoughts or your comments. As a bonus tip, sometimes what I like to do after I do meditation is I'll look at my sheet of paper. You know, basically it's a lot of scribbly lines. Sometimes it'll be a continuous line drawing where I just let the pen drift without picking it up. But I'll take that sheet of paper and I'll just look at it. I'll spend maybe another two to three minutes looking at the paper, looking at it from different directions and seeing what I could see in the shapes. Sometimes you could see faces in the shapes, animals, maybe patterns. It's just another kind of trigger to say, okay, brain, okay, hands, okay heart. We're now in our creative state. Let's get cracking. So there you go. That's today's tip. Try meditations to just get your creative flow going. By the way, if you happen to be out and about and not in your studio, one of the things I like to do is always carry a travel journal with me. So I'm really, really fond of using the travel Field journal by Lockby. Lockby is an awesome company. I've bought many of their products and for anybody listening to this podcast, I just want to offer you a special discount. If you purchase anything from Lockby and enter the discount code Ink Spired1, you can get a 10% off discount on any one regular price item. That would be awesome if you purchase it. It helps me out. I get a little commission off of each purchase. Yeah. So I do recommend Lockbe check out the Show Notes for more information. Thanks a lot and I appreciate you all have an awesome, awesome day.