the creative process

The Four Steps of Creativity

We’ve known for a long time that the creative process can be broken down into four distinct processes, most of which can be fostered and augmented. The processes are:

1. Preparation
2. Incubation
3. Illumination
4. Implementation

I’ll spend some time on each step.

Preparation

This is the first phase of what most call work. A writer, for example, prepares either by writing, reading, or revising earlier work. A musician plays scales, chords, or songs…a painter messes with paints or visits an art gallery…an entrepreneur researches problems to solve….a programmer plays with code. In each example, the creative is going through relatively mundane processes.

The reason I say most call this phase “work” is because these processes may or may not be inherently enjoyable. They’re also fairly mundane and tedious, but the creative has learned that this process is necessary to plant the seeds that lead to…

Incubation

This would be the mystical process if there were one because you often don’t know that you’re percolating an idea, or if you do know you’re working on one, you don’t know when it’s going to come out. It’s at this phase that your conscious and subconcious mind are working on the idea, making new connections, separating unnecessary ideas, and grabbing for other ideas.

This is the phase that most people mess up the most with distractions and the hustle and bustle of daily lives. Modern life, with its many beeps, buzzes, and distractions, has the strong tendency to grab the attention of both our subconscious and unconscious mind, and as result, the creative process stops and is instead replaced by more immediate concerns.

However, from this phase comes…

Illumination

This is the “Eureka” moment that many of us spend our days questing after. When it hits, the creative urge is so incredibly strong that we lose track of what else is happening. The driving impulse is to get whatever is going on in our head down into whatever medium it’s intended to go.

The most frustrating thing for me is that the “illumination” moments happen at the most inopportune times. They invariably happen when I’m in the shower, when I’m driving by myself, when I’m working out, or when I’m sitting in mind-numbing meetings that I can’t get out of. Of course, the bad part is as I said above: the impulse is to get the idea out as soon as possible, so it’s not at all uncommon for me to stop showering, driving, or working out and run to the nearest notepad – and, in meetings, I start purging immediately anyway. I’ve yet to gain enough clout to excuse myself from the meetings, but I’m working on it.

I was speaking to a friend a few weeks ago, and I told her I was frustrated because I was pregnant with ideas and didn’t have time to get them out. Keeping with the analogy, when a Eureka! moment hits, it’s much like labor – you’re done with incubating, and it’s time for…

Implementation

This phase is the one in which the idea you’ve been preparing and incubating sees the light of day. It’s when that written piece comes out, when that song flows, when that canvas reveals its painting, and so on. It’s also when a good creative starts to evaluate the idea and determine whether it’s good or not – but only after they have enough to see where it’s going.

Most of the creatives I know or work with get really frustrated with others at this phase. Other people only see the creation at the end – they don’t recognize or care much about the process that generated that idea. This is especially true with some supervisors and bosses who expect the end product on a certain schedule – the process does not work that way. Creatives know that for every good idea, there’re at least a few that don’t work out, but they can’t know ahead of time what’s going to work out and what won’t.

The creative process begins with work and ends with work. The take-away point here is that creativity is not just percolating and Eureka – it’s percolating and Eureka sandwiched between work.

kathryn parker almanas

FLYING FISH PRESS was established in 1987 by internationally known book artist and book art educator Julie Chen. The press focuses on the design and production of limited edition artists' books with an emphasis on three-dimensional and movable book structures and fine letterpress printing. Editions range in size from 25 to 150 copies. Work from the press Is known for combining meticulous attention to craft, intricate structural design, and inspired artistic vision.

quote reflection

"Without civilization we would not turn into animals, but vegetables." Mason Cooley.
without civilization we would become lazy and not do anything.
Mason Cooley (1927 – July 25, 2002) was an American aphorist known for his witty aphorisms. One of these such aphorisms Cooley developed was "The time I kill is killing me."

what is panography

Panography, or Joiners, is a photographic technique to compose one picture from several overlapping photos. This can be done manually with prints or by using digital image editing software.

Panographs may resemble a wide-angle or panoramic view of a scene, similar in effect to segmented panoramic photography or image stitching. A panograph is distinct because the overlaps between adjacent pictures are not removed. Panography is thus a type of photomontage and is a sub-set of collage.

In 2008 Canadian artist G. Scott MacLeod used the technique for portraiture.^{[citation needed]} He photographed people lying down and used personal elements as a backdrops. MacLeod used this technique in the body of work Sacred Feminine and Masculine^[1][2] shown in Canada.^[3] IPSEN's Silent Fighters book, published in March 2010, also used this technique for images of patients with dystonia.

grant wood

Grant DeVolson Wood (February 13, 1891 – February 12, 1942) was an American painter, born in Anamosa, Iowa. He is best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest, particularly the painting American Gothic, an iconic image of the 20th century.^[1]

what is manga

Manga is the Japanese word for comics. It is used in the English-speaking world as a generic term for all comic books andgraphic novels that were originally published in Japan. Manga is often considered an artistic and storytelling style that can also encompass non-Japanese works, however. The term "AmeriManga" is sometimes used to refer to comics created by American artists in a manga style. Manwha is the Korean equivalent of that idea.

what impact did comics have on modern art

comics have revoulitionized the way art is made and looked at

andy warhol

Andrew Warhola (August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987), known as Andy Warhol, was anAmerican painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became famous worldwide for his work as a painter, avant-garde filmmaker, record producer, author, and member of highly diverse social circles that included bohemian street people, distinguished intellectuals, Hollywood celebrities and wealthy patrons.

Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, books, and feature and documentary films. He coined the widely used expression "15 minutes of fame." In his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, The Andy Warhol Museum exists in memory of his life and artwork.

The highest price ever paid for a Warhol painting is $100 million for a 1963 canvas titled Eight Elvises. The private transaction was reported in a 2009 article in The Economist, which described Warhol as the "bellwether of the art market." $100 million is a benchmark price that only Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-August Renoir, Gustav Klimtand Willem de Kooning have achieved.^[1]

quote

evil is done without effort naturally, it is the working of fate good is always the product of art.
i think this means that humans naturally have the abitlity to be good and evil.

Mark Streeter

cagle.com

is a website containing political comics and tons of political cartoon artist

impact will eisner had on comic industry

will Eisner was voted into the top 100 comic artist of all time, and he has a whole week devoted to him and what he has done, he also has an award named after him