Free Your Artist - Archive

Story Machine — March 2001

For the fun links associated with this exercise, please e-mail me.

Quote | Visualization | Affirmation

Free Your Artist

One day a student asked Taiga, "What is the most difficult part of painting?" Taiga answered, "The part of the paper where nothing is painted is the most difficult."

   — Painting Zen

Creativity Exercise

Is the muse missing? Inspiration expired? Are you just plain stuck?

Try Laura Givens' Story Board!

My good friend, Laura, made this story board for me as a holiday gift last December. It's based on Scott McCloud's (graphic artist and writer) Story Machine.

Instructions:

Lay flat, put crystal (provided by Laura) OR MARKER in the center of the board (I, naturally, prefer the cat).

Take 12 sided die (provided by Laura) or 2 DICE, OR PICK A NUMBER FROM 1-12. Throw once (sounds like my excerpt, huh?). With 1 = North, 2 = Northwest, etc. determine which way to move your marker.

Throw the die again and move your marker that many spaces.

When you land on a square, use it to take your creative work in a whole new (random) direction.

I was thrilled with the gift and still love to use it.

Says Laura: a story board is best if someone close to you makes it for you. Also, keep the art/symbols as simple as possible.

Enjoy!

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Affirmation

Every day, in every way, I draw inspiration from a variety of sources.

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