Magic Stones

Creativity Block Busters

Today I'm spot lighting a site called "PHUN" that can help you get those creative juices flowing.  Sometimes all we need to break through a creativity block is to provide our brains with some out-of-the-ordinary visual or auditory stimuli.  This site offers several fun ways to engage your brain.

My favorite is playing with the colored balls. (Click the "Balls" link) Move your cursor over each dot and watch them magically split into four smaller dots ad infinitum. 

Warning: It can be addictive!

Screenshot:

 

While you are there you'll find several other fun visual "games" like the Fractal Tree:

Each time you click the "regenerate" link a new beautiful tree emerges before your eyes.

So go explore all the site has to offer, but don't say I didn't warn you, you may be distracted far longer than you intend. 

Have fun! Then go out and create something.

Exploring Online Graphic Tools: Peacock by Aviary

Can't afford one of the high dollar Adobe Creative Suite packages?  Looking for free or affordable alternatives to help unleash your inner masterpieces?  For artists on a tight budget or for those of us who are constantly exploring new ways to flex our creative muscles; Aviary provides a powerful suite of browser-based design tools that deserve a closer look.

Today I'm focusing on one of Aviary's Tools called "Peacock". Peacock is a hub (node) based effect/pattern generating application. It runs entirely inside your browser, so it's cross platform compatible.  Peacock does so many amazing things that Aviary calls it their "Visual Laboratory". Experiment with pixel-based images in completely new ways. Check out the new user-created wiki for in-depth documentation.

Peacock gives you a set of hubs (tools) that are separated in five different groups:
Generator hubs - used to create base elements used to construct files.
Effects - used to alter any of the generator hubs.
Controllers - Used to alter the direction rotation, size of hubs.
Resources -  Imported bitmaps.
Blackboxes - Used to load and manage blackboxes into the file

Here is a quick overview of the powerful set of Generator Hubs included in Peacock:

• Camera Hub - Imports a snapshot from your webcam (if available) as a resource to be used in a peacock file.
• Color Field - Fill the entire canvas with a single color
• Coons Patch - Warp and shape input bitmap.
• Dynamic Resource - Use a Dynamic resource as input for a black-boxed file.
• Fractal Plasma - Create a random pattern. It can be used in conjunction with the terrain hub to create landscapes.
• Fractal - Draws a Mandelbrot fractal that can be used to create interesting patterns.
• Gradient -  Make gradient fills
• Histogram - Produce different fills and fill colors from input bitmaps.
• Noise - Fill area with static type noise.
• Perlin Noise - Create varied types of noise fills
• Plaid - Use to generate geometric, fabric, and even water patterns
• Resource - Import bitmaps into Peacock to use in the creations of images.  You can import images from Flickr, Picassa, Facebook, a URL, Aviary Library, or your computer.
• Simple Shape - Shapes can be used as building blocks for other shapes, or as masks.
• Spirolina - Similar to a Spirograph a spirolina draws several different types of epicycloid, hypocycloid, or quasicycloid. These shapes are drawn by a point rotating in a circular direction that is also traveling in a circular path.
• Terrain - Create 3D like landscapes and shapes.
• Wave Generator - Use wave generator to create precise gradient or even psychedelic patterns.

In addition to the Generator Hubs you have full set of Effect Hubs at your fingertips including:

Kaleidescope, Auto Painter, Posterize, Quilter, Several types of tiling effects, Bevel, Glow, Edge Effects, and many more.

Peacock is so full of features that it can be a little daunting at first.  Don't let that stop you, dive right in and start experimenting.  While Aviary tutorials currently only cover their flagship image editing tool, "Phoenix", the Peacock User Wiki provides useful information to get you started.  After you checkout the user wiki, head on over to the Peacock Forums and ask the community for tips and tricks.

I used Peacock to turn this image of Serafina the Bearded Dragon from my Flickr photostream:

into this Kaleidescope Mandala:Blue Mandala August 13.egg by iseevisions on Aviary

Aviary is free, but upgrading to a Pro Account for only $24.99 per year gives you:

• Full access to entire suite of applications
• More file privacy
• Enhanced file sharing and collaboration
• Play with unreleased apps
• Full watermark control
• Get higher quality thumbnails
• Unlimited storage
• Exclusive support access
• Support a thriving artist community

Now go create something.  If you play with the Peacock tool I'd love to see what you come up with.  Be sure to come back here and share your creations.

7 Fun Ways to Get those Creative Juices Flowing

Image by mikebaird via Flickr

You finally managed to carve out some precious time to get back to your creative work, but you find yourself staring at a blank page, canvas, lump of clay, hunk of metal... with no idea how to proceed. Creative blocks, are something every artist faces at one time or another. There are many techniques you can use to help shift yourself out of a blocked state.  Here are a few of my favorite techniques:

1. Do something mundane like vacuum or sweep your floors.  I find the sounds and rhythmic motions help shift my mental state allowing new ideas to slip right in.
2. Get back to nature. Get yourself out of the house or studio and go for a nature walk.  Your goal is to completely immerse yourself in the sights and sounds of nature.  If you live in a big city, find a large park with walking paths. Tune out as much mental chatter as you can

   Image by Cryztalvisions via Flickr

   and concentrate on taking in all the sights, sounds, colors, and textures around you.
3. Relax with a furry friend. Find your cat, dog, rabbit, guinea pig... buddy and a relax together.  There is something magical about stroking the fur of your animal companion that helps shift you into a more receptive mental state.  It's also great for lowering your blood pressure.
4. Seek out art in your community.  Go to a play, the museum, art gallery, a concert, a movie, a craft fair, etc.  It doesn't have to be something related to your own work, just exposing yourself to the creativity of others can help shift you into a creative state.

   Image by Daniel Greene via Flickr

5. Just do it!  Even if you don't feel the least bit inspired to create, spend some time with your medium and tools.  Painters and graphic artists, play with different color combinations and textures on the canvas; writers, just put some words down, it doesn't matter if it makes sense or not just write whatever pops into your head; crafters, get out your supplies and play--randomly arrange items together. What emerges may surprise you.
6. Creative Play. Play with a medium you don't normally work with.  If your a sculptor, try playing with paint, if your a painter try working with clay, etc.  Sometimes working with an unfamiliar medium can spark new ideas or even take you in a totally new direction.
7. Play some music. Put together a play list of music that really inspires you and gets you moving. Turn up the volume and dance with abandon.  Alternatively explore a new music genre using tools like Pandora.com, Last.fm, blip.fm 

You can also find some great and fun tools on the Internet to help you get back into the flow of creativity

Be Sure to Checkout the Following Online tools:

Visual Acoustics:  A canvas to paint reactive music and vision as a real-time artistic performance.

Flash Paint
Online paint application

Jackson Pollock
Paint like Jackson Pollock. Spend hours throwing paint

EyeWire Creativity Cards  Print out these cards and use them to spark your creativity when you are feeling less inspired.

Looking for more ways to spark your creativity?  Here are a few of my favorite books on nurturing your creativity:

What inspires you and gets your creative juices flowing?

Design by the Book -- an inside look at the creative process

The New York Public Library holds a wealth of unexpected sources of inspiration for artists and designers: from vintage valentines and textile patterns, to fabric samples and turn-of-the-century menus from around the world. For this online-only miniseries, Design by the Book, NYPL partnered with the leading design blog Design*Sponge to invite five New York City-based artists to sift through its collections in search of inspiration. Watch as the artists, who range from a glassblower to a letterpress printer, create unique works inspired by what they found. The artists are: Lorena Barrezueta, Rebecca Kutys, Mike Perry, John Pomp, and Julia Rothman. Music for the series was provide by Clear Tigers.

Want to see more?  Stop by Art Babble for the next installment in this exclusive online series and much, much more to feed your creativity.

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• Are We in a Library Renaissance? (treehugger.com)

Appreciate the Beauty Around You

I try to take time stop and appreciate the myriad of beauty I encounter on a day-to-day basis, especially the wonders of the natural world.  As the busy holiday season approaches it's sometimes hard to remember such a simple practice

My friend Amy Lenzo is a master at seeing and appreciating beauty everywhere she goes.  She's also a talented photographer and takes her trusty Canon Rebel with her on daily walks.  Amy is able to capture wonderful slices of beauty with her camera and shares these images with us in her blogs Beauty Dialogues   and All is Light . 

See Amy's post on "Morning Dew" for an example her practice of beautywalks.
I encourage us all to follow Amy's example and set aside some time each day to meditate on and appreciate the beauty that surrounds us.  I think this practice is especially important this time of year when sometimes we allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by social pressures and commitments.