Right Brain Redux: Day 7 of 30-day Creativity Challenge

Right Brain Redux
Episode 7: Revenge of the Sick

Great day for creativity. Every last one of us woke up sick this morning. Even Little slept till after 9, and he's usually up with the chickens. It's a challenge, right? Every day is a challenge of its own, and we keep on getting reminded of that. That very thing has a lot to do with the creative doldrums we are breaking out of here. Accountability and a structure keeps us rolling.

Kevin: Draw something left-handed

Jess: Cook something you've never cooked before













Jess // "Cook something you've never cooked before"

Honestly, it's been a rough day. I (Jess) know I'm sick because I'm sitting here in a long-sleeved shirt and socks. I DON'T wear socks in the summer... I rarely wear anything beyond flip flops/ sandals. Growing up in Georgia, it's easy to push that no-socks rule clear into October. 

Anyway, I slept while our Little One took a nap, and then had to go back to bed again after dinner. I did end up making something I've never cooked before and learned something to boot. Anything in our lives can be seen through a filter of creativity... think "how can I do this different/ creatively"? 

I had some leftover beef and broth from cooking a roast in the slow cooker. It was marinated in Soy Vay Teriyaki, soy, ketchup, onions, and some water. I mostly had stock and just a little meat, so I thought "how can I stretch this?" (Thanks, Mom, for that lesson of many.) Soup seemed a perfect solution, especially since we were all feeling puny today.

Tossed some stir-fry veggies (baby corn, peppers, peas, carrots, sugar snaps, broccoli, water chestnuts, and bamboo shoots) with lo mein noodles, and that leftover stock in a large pot. Let it boil then simmer for about 15 minutes. Done. Something I've never cooked before, Teriyaki Vegetable Beef Soup. 

Kevin // My (Kev) challenge for today was the same one Jess had yesterday: Draw something left-handed. She set the bar pretty high on that one, but lucky for me we aren't competing. I wasn't quite sure what to draw, and put it off till later in the evening because I just didn't feel like drawing (see accountability above). A gunfighter and a dragon were both rattling around in my head, so I decided to try both, despite being warned that I was being overly ambitious. The results are below for you to see.

This one really was a challenge. One of the biggest difficulties I encountered was my hand wanted to move in the exact mirror image of what I wanted it to. Up and down were fine, but left-right was reversed. I did not finish. But I did write a story in my head while I drew it.

11x17 on Canson Bristol

Doc walked up on the porch and sat down next to the Marshall. The huge corpse in the street was already drawing scavengers both human and animal. Lots of meat and leather to be had.

"Hated to see that happen, Doc. Ol' Joe been a fixture around these parts as long as I can remember."

"Hated to have to do it, Marshall," came the sad reply, "Joe's the third one I've had to put down in the last month. Had to deal with that big finback out on the McKeever place just last week. Half their herd is gone."

"Doc, I ain't never seen anything like this. They're usually pretty even tempered critters, long as you give 'em wide berth. What you think's goin on?"

Doc leaned his chair back and took a long pull on his freshly-lit pipe, "I tell you this much, Marshall; No one's safe in these parts until we figure out what's got the dragons riled up."

What we're listening to // Music to create by











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Right Brain Redux: Day 6 of 30-Day Creativity Challenge

Right Brain Redux: Day 6

Today's Challenges were for Jess to draw something left handed and for myself to create a timeline of significant events in my life.

For my challenge, I decided to jot down a quick list of events that stand out in my mind. Things that happened to me, not historical events. I eliminated a few items from the timeline as being too personal to share online, but the ones that I left are memories that, I feel, helped shape who I m now.

Just writing out a list was a little clinical, so I decided to represent it with a cartoon infographic. It's just a quick ink and marker doodle timeline due to today being crammed again. I am going to list out each event on the timeline just in case you can't read what it says.

First, Here's the whole thing:

1973: Issue #1, First appearance and Origin of ME!

1976: Broke arm, got first sister

1977: Watched a massive flood from my bedroom window. We lived up on the hill. I watched trailers go down the river.

1979: Started school. Principal's office on first day of kindergarten

1982: Got saved

1984: Transformers! Life would never be the same.

1988: Pawpaw Bill died

1989: 2nd sister, 1st car

1992: Graduate HS (Valedictorian)

1994: Bad wreck, wrecked truck

1996: Started Working first full time job

1998: Grandmaw died

2003: Appendix ruptured, died, came back (am I a zombie, then?)

2004: Met Jess online

2008: Broke leg, Met Jess for real, Married Jess, my Mini-Me called me "daddy", Move to GA

2013 Little arrives! (Name loosely translates to "Peaceful Builder"... answers to "Hurricane")

2014 Moved back to WV

2015 Children's' Pastor FWC Kid's Church "Spark Kids"!

Good start, eh?

Jessica selected a very detailed close-up of a dandelion scattering its seeds as her left handed art project. It's done on plain copier paper with a #2 mechanical pencil. Totally freehand and done completely with her left hand. She felt it was unfinished, but her hand was cramping too badly to continue (carpal tunnel). I think it is beautiful. Art is often like raising a child; you may not feel you are done shaping them, but there is a time they are mature enough to stand on their own. And this piece definitely is. She has set the bar quite high for me when it comes my turn to do this challenge.

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Right Brain Redux: Day 5 of 30-Day Creativity Challenge

Right Brain Redux: Day 5

#1: We love you Aunt Dorothy. Rest easy in His arms.

#2: What we're listening to tonight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOzh0I3IHMg

Short day for projects today. Had to go say "See you in a little while" to a precious family member.

(Kev) My challenge for today was to cook something I had never cooked before. Everything I could think of I had the stuff to make, I've done before. I elected to make something in a way that I never had before. We have no working oven at the moment, so I decided to try making cookies in a waffle iron.

I took balls of dough and placed them in the iron and squished them down with the iron on high. It took about 5-6 cookies worth of dough to make an even waffle. Too much dough is messy. Found that out the hard way. 

I timed the cooking at 4-5 minutes. The cookie had good color but was too soft to lift out so I had to flip the waffle iron over to get the cookie to drop out on the plate. This is NOT SAFE.  I only made two so I haven't come up with an alternative yet.

After letting the cookie sit for a few minutes, it hardened up to a crisp cookie. I prefer them softer myself. I served the cookie topped with vanilla ice-cream. I would think servings would be best at 1/4 waffle with a scoop of ice-cream. I plan to try it again at some point with a lower temp to get a softer cookie. Jess found the final consistency to be perfect.

Jess' challenge for today is to write a Haiku based on the last thing she watched on TV. Well, the last thing she watched before making her draw was the Dr. Who Christmas Special "The Christmas Invasion" (2005). We've already watched through the end of Season 8 of new Dr. Who, and now we're re-watching with Kev's Mini-Me (our oldest son/ Whovian.) 

Haiku Doctor Who

Christmas Sycorax

You know the Doctor saves us

It's a Fightin' Hand!

Posted from scribbly-wibbly-stuff.tumblr.com via Pinterest.com

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Right Brain Redux: Day 4 of 30-day Creativity Challenge

First off, we want to tell Aunt Dorothy: Say hey to Pawpaw Bill for us. We love you. You got your healing when you crossed the river.

Monday. All day. So today gifted us with the challenges of Kev creating a set of inkblots (like an inkblot test) and describing what he saw in them. Jess drew out "Draw a friendly robot". Which immediately caused her to ask "Is there truly such a thing as a friendly robot? They all have ulterior motives." I submit to you Transformers G1 Bumblebee (cartoon version). So friendly you might get diabetes if you hang around him too long...

Anyways.

For my (Kev) challenge, I created about a dozen inkblots using plain printer paper with India ink and some of Little's finger paints.  I pre-folded the papers then opened them back up and applied drops of black ink and in some case some blobs of colored paint. Then I folded the paper and smoothed it out to spread the pigments and unfolded it to dry. A couple of them ended up so full of paint they were almost useless, but I came out with ten really nice ones. Some of them I think made such nice patterns they are practically art and I may explore this as a method/ medium in the future.

That much said, I selected  6 blots to describe. I have numbered them 1-6 and will flip through them and give my immediate first impression of what I see. I will not spend time studying them or seeking patterns, just what jumps out at me.

 #1. Alien woman in a black lace collar and a blue dress with pink ruffles and black shoes.

#2. Hammer-headed lobster

#3. Wolf's head

#4. Pelvis with a vertebra above it

#5. Mothra flying over islands

#6. Blue man with warthog/ elephant head

I give no analysis. Take what you will from what I see.

When I (Jess) pulled out "Draw a friendly robot", my initial thought was cutesy robot. But then I gave it a second thought and mulled over the idea of a robot that was friendly/ helpful but didn't necessarily look friendly. My first thought after that was of the terminator in T2. But even that character, though he was a father figure, wasn't really friendly. Picture an endoskeleton holding a balloon. Then I thought of Handles. Yes, we watch Dr Who. A lot. Cybermen are very very bad. But handles started out useful and even though we didn't get to see but the beginning and end of his story, he spent a long time with the doctor. At the end, he was clearly counted a friend and not just a tool. So without further ado, I give you "Handles." Well done, Mate.

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Right Brain Redux: Day 3 of 30 Day Creativity Challenge

Sundays are busy days for us, so time for the challenge was definitely part of the challenge. My (Kev) Jar pull for today was to write a poem (length and type unspecified) on a subject chosen at random by Mini-me. He chose for me "Spider-Man". I debated for a while over what kind of poem to try. Now, I'm no poetry aficionado. I do enjoy a limerick every now and again, and I can appreciate good poetry. As far as writing goes, I'm merely a dabbler. So here you have it:

Superhero when he crawls the walls

Peter Parker when he walks the halls

Intent for evil brings his attention

Dumb crooks in police detention

Extra headlines for Triple J

Really makes for big payday

May never knows where he's been

Always honors his Uncle Ben

Never lets evil doers win!

C'mon, Monday! Bring it on!

Kev

Jess // Day 3 Challenge: Take a Photograph of Something Intriguing

I had originally thought I'd try to ride around to find my photography subject. I had an idea of something involving old bricks, unexpected pops of color, and/or something you'd most likely pass by with no second thought. Those subjects will surely find me another day though as I'm always looking for them. Like Kev said, Sundays are our busiest days, and by this evening, I was also feeling rough... that sinus infection is coming for me. So I grabbed my camera and headed outside before I lost the daylight. Hope for a couple of pics, probably macro shots, I had, but what I didn't expect was later choosing 1 of 80 shots.

I find unattractive things intriguing. I'm obsessed with rust and chipped paint. Algae, moss, and rotting things make for perfect subjects. Maybe it's drawing out their intriguing qualities that makes me feel like I've redeemed them in some way. I'm sure I could analyze why that's so, but to make this blog entry a little more succinct, I'll move on. Here's the picture I finally decided to post (no small task due to incurable indecisiveness.)

Here's where that indecisiveness hits again... what I like about it: color, rust, paint chipping, something you'd likely pass by or not notice, a bonus spider web, and even a hidden spider to find. Do you see it?

I might get this one printed, and I'll probably post a few of the other 79 shots at some point too. Day 4, I'm ready!

Jess



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Right Brain Redux: Day Two Updated Projects

Right Brain Redux: Day 2

Today was one of those days. You know the ones: those days where everything comes up and goes haywire (especially the toddler) and by the time that you've done all the errand running and putting out fires and hidden the matches (Jess, not really, this is a hypothetical situation) from the toddler again and maybe chased down a bite to eat (that the toddler carried through the house) there just doesn't seem to be any time left for, well, anything. Well, that's where we found ourselves today. Between the errands and getting ready for Kid's Church tomorrow, there really didn't seem to be time to squeeze in a creative project this evening.

We started this little experiment as a way to kick start our creativity after it's been idle for so long, but today it has also shown us that you CAN find time to create. You just have to want to. Maybe you give up something else for it. The relaxing bath. Another episode of Dr. Who. Part of your sleep. You just decide which one is the most important to you.

Today's challenges were:

Jessica: Create a piece from/ inspired by an everyday object.

Jess took her inspiration from something most of us see every day, and incidentally our studio name. She began with a stove burner/ eye from an electric stove and stripped it down to its basic shapes and curves.  Framing a portion of the eye in the image and stripping out the colors, she added some old-fashioned halftones and created an image that I would almost swear was a domed city from one of my old Buck Rogers comics I had as a kid. I love it.

Kevin: Design a T-Shirt based on a visual pun.

I actually thought this one up yesterday without having any idea I would draw this particular challenge today. The phrase I punned was the title of the old hymn "Power in the Blood". I took the image of a blood bag and simply placed a universal style power button in the middle of it. I had thought of doing a blood splatter with the button in it, but I just didn't have time. I went old-school in the creation of this image. Light pencil sketch, inked over and the pencil erased, then colored in with some Twenty-year-old Prismacolor markers I bought way back in art school. The red one gave me its last I think. After coloring in, I went over the red with alcohol on gauze to feather it out a bit and blend.

Neither of these pieces took and extremely large amount of time to create. In fact, I'd guess about an hour apiece. Proof that you CAN find time to create. They may not be perfect design, but they are perfect imperfection. And that's art.

See you tomorrow for Round 3!

Kev

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Right Brain Redux : Day 2 Project Challenges

Our challenges for day two have been drawn from the jars. 

Check back to see how the challenge goes! 

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