By Matt Fussell
Creativity is the artist's secret weapon. Without it, skill has little use. Although technical skill must be developed and is incredibly important, it is useless without the ability to communicate ideas and problem solve in a creative way. I believe that creativity is much like a muscle. If you work it it will grow and develop, becoming stronger with each exercise.
I would like to share with you a drawing exercise that is designed to enhance creativity. It will give you or your students the ability to practice creative thinking skills, in turn making you a stronger artist.
Begin by writing down several nouns on pieces of a specific colored paper.
Next, write several verbs on pieces of paper of another color.
Then write several places on paper of another color. Place of the papers into a hat or container. Decide on a few things to draw on a blank sheet of paper. These objects must be completely non-objective. For this example, I drew a wavy line, a geometric shape, and an organic shape.
Now pull one of each of the colored papers from the hat. You should have one noun, one verb, and one place. For this example, I was given tiger (noun), jumping (verb), and the Eifel Tower (place). Now you must create an image of a tiger jumping at the Eifel Tower using the shapes and lines that you had already drawn. No erasing.
The point here is not to create a master work of art. Instead it is an exercise for the creative mind. Do this exercise often and your work and creative skill will improve.
