Make your best craft and creative work better with this colorful little manual of new and helpful ways to best express your creativity, break through creative blocks, and improve your flow. This colourful little manual is welcoming and unintimidating, and it solves a common problem - "Why can't I be as creative as I want to? Why can't I make better art and craft work?" - using very attractive and innovative solutions. In its full-colour pages, you'll find a variety of new and helpful ways to best express your creativity, break through creative blocks, and improve your work. Author Roberta Bergmann's spot-on guidance includes 40 prescriptions for boosting creativity - including Brainwriting (creative ways to get started); Bullet Journal (a calendar-based plan of action); Idea Box (collecting things that inspire you); Arrange a Rendezvous with Yourself (set a date and time for tasks you want to complete); Broaden Your Horizons by attending special events for inspiration. You'll also find 15 tips for overcoming creative blocks - including Be Brave & Jump, Get Out of Your Comfort Zone, Turn Negatives Into Positives, and more.For fans of the popular books The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon, this colorful little manual solves a common problem - "Why can't I be as creative as I want to? Why can't I make better art and craft work?" - using very attractive and innovative solutions. Its full-color pages include new and helpful ways readers can best express their creativity. Along with author Roberta Bergmann's spot-on guidance, every spread combines photos, the helpful work of successful artists worldwide to learn from, insights, hashtags to check out, and more. Includes 40 activities and bits of helpful advice for boosting creativity, 15 first aid tips for overcoming blocks, and other resources that will help readers improve and express their creative flow. AUTHOR: Roberta Bergmann is a freelance artist, illustrator, and book designer. With more than 15 years as a creative professional, she is the author of several books published in Europe, including The Basics of Design. 177 colour images
Table of Contents:
ForewordWhom Is this Book for? 8
What is Creativity? A Brief Introduction 10
Questionnaire about Creative Types 14
Which Creative and Working Type Are You? 16
How to Start 22
1. Status Quo 24
2. The Place 25
3. Workplace 26
4. The Battle Plan 26
5. Distractions 27
6. Get Started 27
40 Prescriptions 28
No. 1 Just Get Started 30
No. 2 Or Do You Prefer to Plan? 32
No. 3 Finding the Right Theme 34
No. 4 Stash of Materials: Treasure Hoards 38
No. 5 Ask Your Way through Your Future Project 40
No. 6 Act Like a Child 42
No. 7 Think in the Opposite Way 44
No. 8 Sources of Inspiration 46
No. 9 Rendezvous with Yourself 48
No. 10 Chaos! 50
No. 11 Recombine Things 52
No. 12 Riches of Variation 54
No. 13 Use Your Subconscious 56
No. 14 Try It Out Mathematically 58
No. 15 Provoke, Rebel: Time for Wild Ideas! 60
No. 16 Change Your Perspective 62
No. 17 Hermit or Team Player? 64
No. 18 Things Do Happen by Chance 66
No. 19 Hang in There, Keep Going! 68
No. 20 And Now: Take a Break! 70
No. 21 Sparring Partner 72
No. 22 Be Interdisciplinary 74
No. 23 Take the Elevator 76
No. 24 Practice, Practice, Practice 78
No. 25 Tell Stories 80
No. 26 No Dogmatism, Please! 82
No. 27 Experiment 84
No. 28 Broadening your Horizons 86
No. 29 Improvise 88
No. 30 Keep It Simple 90
No. 31 Intuition or: the First Idea 92
No. 32 Selective Perception 94
No. 33 Visualize Ideas 96
No. 34 Role Models & Guiding Figures 98
No. 35 Research Spirit & Inventive Spirit 100
No. 36 Humor 102
No. 37 Get Yourself Moving 104
No. 38 Surrealism 106
No. 39 Find Analogies 108
No. 40 Thinking Outside the Box 110
First Aid for Blocking 112
Recognizing & Analyzing Blocks 114
No. 1 Be Brave, Jump In 116
No. 2 Get Out of Your Comfort Zone 118
No. 3 The Right Timing
No. 4 There's No Such Thing as Perfection! 122
No. 5 Find Rituals 124
No. 6 Turn Negative into Positive 126
No. 7 Willpower, Perseverance & Continuity 128
No. 8 Support 130
No. 9 Set Boundaries 132
No. 10 Time Out for Body and Spirit 134
No. 11 Overcome Obstacles 138
No. 12 A Restart 140
No. 13 Appreciate Your Worth 142
No. 14 Classify Criticism Objectively 144
No. 15 Stop! Pull the Emergency Brake 146
Appendix 148
Thanks! 150
Recommended Reading 151
List of Sources and List of Images 152
Index of Key Words 157
About the Author :
Roberta Bergmann (Braunschweig, Germany) is a freelance artist, illustrator, and book designer. With more than 15 years as a creative professional, she is the author of several books published in Europe, including The Basics of Design. www.robertabergmann.de
