16 May I Tried Coloring For 30 Days – A Creativity Experiment
While we stay located at one zip code (for health and safety reasons), I’ve come to realize that what I’ve been missing is creative experimentation. Things that take us out of the comfort zone and allow us to collect memories (and not things) are one of the major elements I miss from our life pre-COVID. When we were traveling full-time, it was so easy to be taken out all forms of comfort because hey, travel just does that. Being stuck at (a temporary) home takes away those feelings, so while we all slowly get back to our normal lives – with or without full-time travel – I want to spend my time doing a few fun and creative experiments. With each experiment, I’m hoping to be that much closer to living my best life once again, embracing change and newness to help me find creative happiness. My first experiment involves some pops of color and mindfulness (a couple of my favourite things) so hope you enjoy: 30 Days Of Coloring.
The Benefits Of Coloring
Coloring books for adults have been a growing global trend. There was an increase in popularity around 2013, when Johanna Basford’s ‘Secret Garden’ reached number one on Amazon’s best-seller list…and there’s good reason for this increase in interest. Clinical psychologists have found that there are numerous benefits to adult coloring, specifically how they benefit a tired and jaded adult brain, and some of these benefits include:
- Experiencing improved focus and attention to detail
- Replacing negative thoughts with positive ones
- Reducing stress and anxiety with the mindfulness of coloring
- Getting better sleep when you color before bed
“One of the first psychologists to apply coloring as a relaxation technique was Carl G. Jüng in the early 20th century. He did this through mandalas: circular designs with concentric shapes similar to the Gothic churches’ rose windows. They have their origin in India.” – Elena Santos
The Rules Of The Experiment
- I would need to spend 30 days coloring – no breaks allowed
- I could color anything I wanted, using any medium
- I could do it at any time of day that suited me
What I Needed For The Experiment
- A coloring book for adults – I ended up going with one of Millie Marotta’s books, called “Beautiful Birds And Treetop Treasures” which has 80 illustrations to choose from
- Coloring pencils – I first bought a pack of 12 and after a week invested in another set of 24 so I could experiment with different color combinations
What I Discovered After The 30 Days Of Coloring
I noticed that I immediately spent less time on my phone, and less time on social media. What free time I had during the day, I would spend by myself in my colorful little world.
On a practical level, I discovered that choosing my color palette carefully at the beginning would determine the success of the artwork, because I couldn’t exactly “start again” like you would on a laptop. Spending more time in the beginning being selective and planning became an important step in creating a better piece in the end.
What I loved was that it felt like I was collaborating with another artist. Millie would draw the base of the artwork (the illustration) and I would bring it to life by adding my choice of color combinations.
I was also reminded of the power of color. I loved how I could switch and swop between different hues, spending three days looking at fiery reds and oranges, and then switch to tropical blues and greens. It was refreshing, and such an easy way to bring variety and change to such a repetitive task.
I found that I needed to color on days when I didn’t have enough creative outputs, and when I didn’t play enough. On days where I was hiking, reading, writing or editing, I wasn’t motivated to color because it felt like I was getting too much stimulation. On “boring” days, where I had to do a lot of admin or run errands, I felt myself craving that coloring session – it became a form of play and escape for me.
When I first started the experiment, I don’t think I was engaged with the act of coloring – it simply became something else I had to do, something else on my to-do list. Once I let go of the need to complete the artworks, and let go of the pressure to do it, I started to enjoy it more.
As with anything, there were days when I didn’t feel like doing it, and had to force myself to sit down and spend the time. Then there were some days where Stevo couldn’t pull me away from the coloring (I think the most time I spent was over three hours the one day).
I enjoyed it most in the late afternoon or early morning, when I had natural light to work with, and a sense that I had “me time”. If I had obligations like meetings or urgent deadlines, or was tired from the day and had to go to bed, I enjoyed it a lot less.
The artworks that brought me the most joy were the highly detailed ones with teeny, tiny spaces to color, where I needed to stay really present in order to get the detailed coloring done. It became almost a meditative state where I blocked all other thoughts (and the outside world) out. The finer detailed illustrations also gave me the opportunity to spend a long time crafting and “perfecting” each artwork, which I almost always naturally gravitate towards in my creative work anyway.
I found that it’s a great past time if (like me) you need to reach a goal or “see results” at the end of something. I normally find that I can’t just do something for the sake of doing it – I need to feel like there’s a greater purpose, or mission in mind, and the completion of each illustration gave me something to work towards.
My favourite piece came about after I had a disastrous one, where the colors weren’t gelling and my coloring style was lazy. I felt deflated and didn’t like it at all, then started a new one and it turned out to be my favorite. What I learned from this was that it was important that I abandoned what wasn’t working quickly, to move onto something new which might end up being a hit.
Can Coloring Inspire Creativity And Clear Creative Block?
The goal of the experiment was to see if spending 30 days coloring could inspire creativity, and ultimately be labeled as a way to clear creative block. Since coloring involves both logic (coloring between the lines, and completing forms and shapes) and creativity (mostly in how you’d mix and match colors) my short answer would be, yes, coloring definitely inspires creativity. As you read from my discoveries above, coloring gave me the opportunity to play with color, craft separate artworks over a period of time, and stop and start different projects. I could do it at any time of the day, and it gave me something to work towards – fundamental elements required for any great creative piece.
If it cures creative block, is a slightly more tricky question to answer. I went into this experiment hoping that the act of play (in the form of coloring) would relax me enough so that I could be more free with my creating. Just like when we first left home, getting creatively inspired was at the core of the mission, and if you stick to something and do it day in and day out (even when you don’t feel like it), you’ll get into a rhythm and find that flow – you’ll remain inspired and constantly stimulated, allowing you to create on a regular basis, and ultimately figure out a way that works.
Designing your life starts with the small habits you bring through in everyday life, and if I continue to play around with small creative projects, they will undoubtedly keep me more inspired and motivated, and ultimately help me to cure creative block and find creative happiness. I hope this little experiment inspires you to try and play around with some small creative projects too.
C
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