Blog: Digital Art

I have no time to be creative …or…Boredom Creativity

Something I hear often is that people say they have no time to be creative. “I wish I had as much time as you to be creative” …Really? Mhhh …ok- well…I am also doing this as my living…so I have to constantly actually make time to be creative. That is another argument though. I say there is always time for creativity if you really want to be creative.
cityview_natkalbach

(above: boredom time at doctor’s waiting room…view out of the window…kind of ;) )

There is lot’s of times where I die of boredom…waiting at the doctor, waiting at the airport, waiting for the movie to continue during the advertisement block, maybe even during the movie, my traveling time, commuting time, being on hold on the phone…gosh there are so many examples…everybody has such boredom times. I figured these times are PERFECT times to be creative!  I take out my art journal or my iPad and just play drawing and painting. It is my Boredom Creativity.

plane_natkalbach

(above: boredom time in plane…actually there is nothing more boring when the blue and grey lufthansa interior in the airplane…unless you start playing with it painting)

Am I good at drawing? NO I am not.

Do I care? No I am not.

Do I enjoy playing around? Yes I do.

Do I learn stuff while doing this? Yes I do.

Do I make the best out of my time to be creative? Yes I am.

How do you spent Boredom Times?

huge hugs

nat

Comments (11)

  • cal8007

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    I read my book, or draw zentangles. Makes take go by so fast!

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    I always have a book with me and a notebook and pen, The notebook and pen have saved major boredom when James and I are at appts. or having long meals in restaurants with the rest of the family.

    Reply

  • Jeanette Nyström (Jeany)

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    Love your “boredom art”. You got me inspired to always have a sketchbook in hand. Thanks for sharing! I also think that it´s always time to be creative. You find time if you really want to do it. It´s like breathing!

    Reply

  • muriel

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    Hello! I love your Lufthansa interior. I also have boredom time in waiting-rooms so, I always take an art book with me when I go to the doctor or such places. Some meetings at work are boring too and there, I doodle on whatever comes under my hand. It often draws my coworkers’ attention and it sometimes ends in me lending them books about doodling or mixed media.

    Reply

  • rains

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    I really like that Lufthansa drawing especially!
    I go to youtube, to art tutorials. But I want to start picking up my sketch book instead.

    Reply

  • Susan

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    Lovely boredom pieces. hihihi. Sometimes there the best. Last I made some time to create and….yes no inspriration ….hello youtube. othertimes it just comes to you. I also always have a sketch book with me.

    Reply

  • mjmarmo

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    Great idea! I need to be prepared for this!

    Reply

  • Francine Clouden (@FrancineClouden)

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    This is awesome Nathalie! I definitely agree that we need to make time to be creative or use our time more effectively. I will usually read a book during times like these, but I like the idea of sketching or doodling (both of which I am bad at incidentally). i think so many people would just jump on their Smart Phones and surf the web or play games, when this is a great time to play creatively!

    Reply

  • Sue

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    I spend my boredom times thinking out the next project/ day dreaming
    because when you craft for a living it is very difficult to turn your mojo on and off at will. The ideas always hit when you haven’t the time and when you have a deadline well…….

    Reply

  • Michelle Guest

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    Reading (if i have a book), doodling or making lists… If im sitting in my car waiting i clean out all the junk that gets stashed or left in the car…

    Reply

  • Scrapmates

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    Amazing,y inspiring Nat

    Sent from my iPad

    Reply

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iTravel…or…my favorite apps and tools for traveling with my iPad

iTravel

I wanted to write a little bit about some of my favorite apps and tools for traveling with my iPad. Two years I bought my iPad …and it is like my super friend ever since. Especially since I travel so much for workshops it became of a huge value. As you know luggage restrictions are tight and especially when you teach you have a lot of stuff in your suitcases: Kits, tools, supplies…if you ever saw my suitcase when I came teaching at your local store you saw it all. When I closed my accounting for 2012 I was shocked at the amount of costs of extra luggage and shipping I paid for last year to get my supplies and kits to workshop locations.

iTravel01

Before iPad or BiP ;) I used to pack stacks of books and magazines in my suitcase because I love to read. BiP I had a travel journal and an idea journal. A book with stuff about the workshops. Pencils, a little bag with art supplies, my laptop for emails and if I needed to work on stuff, tickets, calendar, travel papers, maybe a dvd so I could watch a movie of my liking when on a longer journey…well you get the picture.

Nowadays I pack for all the mentioned above just my iPad. And since I know there must be people out there that love their tablet too-  let me show you some of my faves. I will not state the “obvious” like the kindle reader, the magazine reader- although you might wanna know which magazines I heart – LOL – instagram etc.

Travel04

I have a lot of creative or fun apps as you can see- I love them all- LetterMPress – if you love Letterpress- and that was actually btw how I created my logo for Creative Jumpstart 2012 and some other logos. ArtRage pretty cool- but also VERY intense. A nice app if you want to play with different brushes and paint media and with painting over photos and such. Zen Brush was one of my first apps- and I still like it a lot. Also awesome for just drawing and sketching thinks or doodling along while waiting for the journey to end or start…

Travel09

but my favorite one is my Paper 53 App– which my husband showed me several months ago and which I bought every single update for it like a crazy chicken and I am probably the only one who is always hoping there might be an update for it when opening the update folder

With this app you can draw and sketch, do watercoloring etc.

Travel05

I use it a lot to play when I travel and sketch down some ideas- you can even mix your own colors- which I think is brilliant and I love it sooo much.

Travel07

(see the tool? The brush…I will talk about this in a second ;) )

itravel11

some of these ideas get more played with on real paper or in an art journal later

aj

you can also create several journals and I often write into them too – with my sensu brush& stylus- which I will tell you in a second about

Travel06

OK- now I told you several times I would tell you about this brush and the stylus…well here is my favorite tool right now for my iPad. It is called sensu and it is a brush and stylus in one.

From their website: “The rubber stylus is exposed when the brush is closed. This stylus is great for sketching and writing or as a general navigation tool. Grasp Sensu near the nib section and pull it out of the protective cap. You will reveal the capacitive bristles of the artist brush. Insert the rubber stylus into the cap and the cap becomes a handle for your brush.”

 

Brilliant! It really does give you the feel as if you handle a brush. Yes it is still digital what you do- but it feels way more natural. If you do some sketching and painting on your tablet  – this is the best thing I have found so far! I love that it is so small and you have the protection too – I am just in Love! I saw at Paperworld that they will also bring out just the brush for the tablet  – without the stylus which will be much cheaper then. But for me the point is actually having both because I write and sketch on my iPad too. I am very pleased with the stylus too. If you have a good stylus though you might want to wait till the sensu with just the brush is on the market.

Travel03

Another one of my faves is Dropbox – might be boring for some of you- but oh I love dropbox. You can save files on dropbox, share folders with other etc. If you don’t know dropbox at all- you have to figure it out: But what I love about the app for the iPad is that I can upload files in my Dropbox folder- pdf, word documents – so I can for example upload the lists for the materials for my workshops etc. And once I have opened those documents while still online on my iPad…I can actually open them from now on even offline on my iPad. And that is pretty cool. I cannot tell you the times that this has saved me lot’s of problems and headaches when traveling and without my computer at home.

Travel02

Oh and another tool -is my keyboard case for the iPad- I got it from my husband for christmas. It also serves as a closure and protection which is really good- but of course the best thing is that you have a keyboard when you write emails or text that is longer. Doing this on the iPad I find just hideous and annoying.

itravel10

The only funny and weird thing is- that as soon as you see your iPad more in a usual Monitor way- you forget that you still need to touch it as there is no mouse. I cannot even tell you how often I have tried to find my mouse pad or the mouse next to it…ahem ;)

oK- now – there is more apps I love – but I think that should do for now. I hope you found it a bit interesting :)

If you use a tablet what are your favorite apps or tools?

Have a gorgeous day

Nat

Comments (18)

  • Margi Laurin

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    also I recommend you try a Jot stylus by Adonit (some minor maintenance is all that is required to keep this puppy in top working order) and another awesome, albeit minimalist app is SketchTime . I am attaching a link so show you what I have done in sketchtime this past year. http://www.margilaurin.ca/Site/Digital_Painting.html

    Reply

  • Jeremey Blease

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    What is the app that looks like it reads street tag, in the picture it’s in the bottom row second app in.

    Reply

  • Sasha

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    Thank you very much for sharing Nat! The apps you enjoy seem very cool, so I’ll definitely have to check them out soon! I did just recently get my iPad though, so as of right now there aren’t too many apps that I would consider to be favorites. There is one app called DISH Anywhere that I’ve really enjoyed as of late because of all the traveling I do for my job at DISH. That app lets me watch all of my TV shows from home, live or recorded, anywhere I go in the world! It’s perfect for a TV addict like me because with it I always have entertainment, and a way to keep up with my shows when I’m half way across the country.

    Reply

  • Lisa Flaherty

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    I am a bit behind the iTimes, :) but got my first iPhone for Christmas and I LOVE IT!! I can’t believe how amazing it is, and that my old Droid was really that crappy! Haha! So, I still live in the age of BiP, but hope to make the jump at some point. You’ve made a great sales pitch, and I love the drawings you’ve done with the different apps and the organizational tips, too!

    Reply

  • Kathy P

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    Great post, Nat! I am going to spend some time exploring your app suggestions! I only got my first iPad last November, so I am just learning the ropes! But I do love it! Thanks for leading me further into the mixed media/art world!!!

    Reply

  • osmancm@comcast.net

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    Thanks so much Nathalie, I’ve been trying to figure out how I would use an Ipad. Still don’t know how to instagram and you post helped.

    Reply

  • mjmarmo

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    I love using the kindle app and there are some games I play. I want to look into some of your apps!

    Reply

  • Martha Richardson

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    I love my iPad and always on the look out for new apps that work…thank you for sharing!!!

    Reply

  • Laurie Hunt

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    Great post Natalie! My husband has an iPad and uses like a madman. Truth is, I bought for myself, but at the time — it was right after it came out — there weren’t that many apps and I found that I just did not utilize it so I gave to him. Now I am thinking about a mini in the not too distant future, so it was fun to read all that you do with it. Thanks.

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    Kinda freaks me out that you can do so much art digitally. I have a Samsung tablet that I use for going online and as a Kindle reader. I’m sure that it can do more but haven’t spent the time to figure it out. Cool examples that you shared.

    Reply

  • Katrina

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    Great post Nat, I love Paper 53 too but I do need a better stylus. I bought a cheap one but it is way too thick for drawing. Have you tried Fingerpint? Its a free app I got the other day, just a bit of fun but is is amazing,hypnotic and great fun.I won’t tell you about it too much as it will spoil the surprise but do have a look. :)

    Reply

  • Marsha.

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    Wow, this is a helpful post Nat! Thank you for sharing. We got an iPad in December (officially it’s my husband’s) and I’m still figuring out stuff… I also use Dropbox a lot and I’ve started watching TV-series on it. I will have to see if I can get the brush/stylus as a gift for my mom’s birthday. She would love that!

    Reply

    • Marsha.

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      TV-series on the iPad… Not on Dropbox… But I’m sure you understand :-).

      Reply

  • sylvia

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    i love this post Nat, thanks for sharing!! i don’t use a tablet but that Paper 53 App looks aaamaaaazing!! also, i’m in love with your iPad sleeve!! have a lovely wednesday, hugs to you. xxx

    Reply

    • Marsha.

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      Ooops, sorry about that!

      Reply

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