There’s this idea that creativity and artistic abilities comes from some gifted place that only naturally-born artists have.
It’s not true.
Sure, there are some who are instinctively more inclined to the visual arts than others of us, but that really doesn’t mean much when it comes down to your ability to make beautiful things.
Dina Wakely illustrated this when she was a guest on the Roundtable recently. In sharing her scrapbooking process, we saw that her initial steps are spontaneous. But when it comes to putting her pages together into something palatable and beautiful, she draws on the design principles of composition to make it look good and give her pages unity, a focal point, balance, etc.
Someone who had listened to the show said that this logical part of Dina’s process gave her hope because she feels more adept at that part. She’s right to feel that!
Until I started scrapbooking I never explored any sort of visual arts or crafts. I put all of my energies into dancing and performing arts. When it came to visual arts I considered myself untalented and uncreative.
As a scrapbooker I wanted to develop an artistic eye. At some point I began noticing patterns — certain things that consistently looked “right.” Eventually I realized that those patterns I was noticing were design principles. Once I figured that out and I absorbed myself in learning these principles, I was finally able to turn my creativity key!
Learning design principles can help both the naturally artistic and the more logical thinkers:
- Naturally artistic: If you’re instinctively strong in creativity but don’t feel like your work is coming together quite right, the design principles will add an artistic logic to the equation to help you bring your creative impulses into a whole unified piece.
- Naturally logical: If you’re naturally a more logical person who struggles with art, then the logical aspect of the design principles will be your stepping stones into the creative world of visual arts! They will get you to that place in a way that is comfortable and right for you!
If you ever feel like your pages aren’t turning out quite how you wish, ignore the lie that says you’re not artistic or creative enough. That’s not true.
The amazing news is that you CAN improve. You can be a brilliantly creative person and you can learn to make gorgeous things that make you happy.
All you need to do is learn those design principles and how to apply them.
Anyone can do it.
Don’t let the lie about the “natural” artist inhibit you!
By the way, design principles are one of my biggest focuses in the video tutorials for the Paperclipping Membership and we now have 190 of them!