04 - Creative Intentions

Hey there, guys. Welcome to another edition of the Ink Spired Life. My name is Jason Nicholas. I am an artist, architect, teacher, and just all around creative person. I want to share with you some off the cuff, spur of the moment tips on creativity, positivity, motivation, all things good. So this is a real positive environment and positive podcast I'm putting out there for you. Yeah. So here's what I'd like to talk about today. It's the power of setting intentions when we go to create something. So I believe in building these creative, basically like a creative toolkit of habits that I like to practice. These habits help with infusing creativity. They help with breaking what I call blank paper syndrome, which is a fear of getting started when you're in a paint or sketch or draw something. So these tools are, I find really beneficial. And one of those in my toolkit is called intentions. So what is an intention? An intention is basically an end goal or it gives you a kind of focus to aim for. Right. So sometimes when I go to sketch, actually most of the times when I go to sketch or draw, there's really no particular building or scene that I'm going to create. A lot of times I just like to work, kind of riff, be in the moment and just kind of create on the fly. And when I sit down and go to my drawing board and do that or my drawing table, I'm stuck sometimes. So I've created a list of what I call creative intentions that help give me guidance when I'm not trying to create a specific building or scene. I just keep saying buildings because that's what I love sketching is or is anything architecture related. But this can apply to anything that you sketch as well. So here's an example. So one of the intentions I like to set when I'm looking at a blank piece of paper is just being playful. It's kind of a mindset also, right? But having an intention of being playful, approaching what I'm doing with a sense of wonder and spirit of adventure and not really expecting anything on the outcome. It just kind of frames me and it sets me. And it's like, all right, now I know kind of the mindset I want to be in just create. And I'm focusing on the mindset, not the final product. You know, I like to approach and see the world in a wondrous and playful kind of way. So, I mean, look at what happened to Alice when she fell into Wonderland, right? Very, very different world, different reality, very, very creative. So setting an intention, such as being Playful gives me a mindset for sketching and starting and just being in that moment. Another mindset I like to set, or I'm sorry, another intention I like to set is, you know, maybe it's just I'm going to approach today's sketch and experiment with colors. I'm just going to throw color down on the paper, see what happens. I don't care what the end results are. My intention is just to have fun and experiment with color. You know, another thing can be. Maybe my intention for another piece of artwork might be to just grab and go with the tools I have within arm's reach and create something with them. So I'm not. Again, I'm not focusing on what I'm actually drawing or sketching, but it's more of the process, the mindset I'm just grabbing and going. So there's just. Those are three different kind of intentions that I set when I'm going to sketch something. So what I'd like you to do is as an action step, maybe you can make a checklist of different intentions you might want to set before you go to create. That way you have a checklist nearby. Maybe keep it in your studio, maybe keep it taped on your wall or posted on your computer monitor. Just have it nearby and look at this checklist and, you know, pick items off of that with intentions. So, you know, maybe on your checklist you'll have things like I suggested, maybe being playful, experimenting with colors, grab and go with materials that are nearby. Maybe your intention is going to be just play with different lines, line types. You're going to do something with circles. Maybe, you know, maybe I'm going to focus on just sketching windows and doors. So, I mean, the possibilities are endless. But maybe put a Checklist together of 10 different intentions that you can apply when you go to create something. And if you can count how many times I said intentions during this, let me know what the result is. All right, guys, that's it. Thank you for listening. Be sure to visit my website at the inkspiredlife.com and if you go to the inkspiredlife.com forward/tool-materials, you can pull up a list of my current go to's for sketching. You can see some of the pens I'm using and paper as well, so visit that. There's also a link for a discount code that you can use at Lockby. I love using Lockby products like their field journal and their quatro pen case. So check that out as well. All right, guys, thank you again. Let me know if you have any questions or comments and I would love for you to follow me. Subscribe on if you're on Apple Tunes or whatever they call it there, Apple Podcasts, something like that, or Spotify. Just be sure to subscribe and follow me. And if you if you could, I would love for you to leave some feedback or rating. Thank you guys so much. Have an awesome, awesome day. Peace and live creatively. See you real soon. Take care.