it's been a tricky couple of months in 'create-amazing-things-land' for Mel Smith Designs. as you may have seen on my latest monthly round up posts i haven't been anywhere near as productive as i was at the start of the year. and this is because of one thing. i've been suffering from the dreaded Creative Block monster.
he's a meany.
he steals all ideas / visions / general ability to do ANYTHING, and you're left with...not all that much actually. on my big plan schedule for this year i was dedicating May through August for designing my new collection(s), starting with woodland. well he scuppered that plan well and good! it was the last week of June and i had 1/2 a design. HALF. crap.
i felt like i had a solid idea and could see what i wanted. but nowt happened. as continued for about 6 weeks. moodboard - done, doodles - yeah a few, thumbnail ideas - check, i even did the individual characters...but no actual FULL COMPLETE STUFF!!
i'm not sure what made the Creative Block monster strike. i guess i wasn't totally secure in the 'woodland' theme so switching projects also as a wise move i think. 'woodland' is something i'd still like to pursue but as another designer said to me, it's been done a lot and i'd have to do something crazily different to stand out. i haven't done many characters before (apart form my recently completed Christmas 2014 card range) so that all made me a bit nervous. but i can build on this separately and go back to it once i feel confident enough.
there are tonnes of advice pages on how to battle creative block, they all pretty much say the same - step away, go for a walk, try a different technique...but i think for me booking a 3 week trip to Peru this September may have helped somewhat! i did 3 designs in 4 days!
i ditched the woodland idea and went straight to what was going to be my 'supporting' range, a smaller collection based on my travel adventures. you've already seen some of my line drawings of the beautiful houses in Amsterdam. well, here's them all designed up. this is just a small part of my full illustration, don't want to spoil to great unveiling :p
and so i continue this weekend, concentrating on other traditional dutch pieces.
so for now i shall stick with the travel bug and continue our tour merrily around the memories from the wonderful places i have been fortunate enough to visit so far...where shall we venture next i wonder...
