Creative Mindset

What is an INFP

INFP is just one of the personality types from the Myers-Briggs assessment test.

I am an INFP personality type. This means Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving. (Introverted Feeling with Extraverted Intuition) . If you would like more information about this personality type or any of the others click here.

The test is a questionnaire that anyone can take to find out how their personality preferences help them make decisions and how they perceive the world around them.

Each of us is different and there are 16 personality type combinations. If you are the curious sort like me and you want to know about these personality types then click here to check them out.

You can also take the test here at Humanmetrics to find out about yourself.

INFP and Creativity

This can mean quite a few things but mostly we are creative, inquisitive, we like to explore new things and possibilities, we are experimental, curious and surprise many of us creative types fit this personality type.

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I came across this short video today by Artist Jake Parker.

He is known for illustrating picture books, comics and much more. He is also part of SVSLearn.com. That is the School of Visual Storytelling where he partners with Will Terry and Lee White. They offer a lot of classes on basic drawing and perspective to digital painting and all about the children’s book illustrating industry. I highly recommend their classes.

This video that captured my attention. It is only a few minutes long but in it, he stresses the importance of finishing the art projects you start.

He expresses how important it is to complete your art rather than judging it for whether it’s good or not.

This is such a simple concept and a valuable one too!

By seeing it through to the end you not only learn about the process of your art but you also learn to complete things and see them through. That in itself is a valuable skill to bring to your art focus.

If we constantly abandon our art then we miss out on learning about ourselves, our process, our progress, and our vision. We develop a habit of quitting things that aren’t perfect. That leads to a consistent feeling of dissatisfaction and disappointment. I don’t think any of us want that.

Art isn’t what lets you down, the process isn’t what disappoints you, it’s your expectations of the outcome that let you down.

If you learn to enjoy the process and see it through you will gain so much and your artistic visions and abilities will grow. It is that small amount of attention you give to the process of creating, being in the zone and enjoying it that brings joy to the artist.

The outcome will forever be moving and changing.

The more you learn the more you will want to know. The more you paint the better you will become, the more you will repeat this process throughout your artistic life.

The sooner you enjoy the process and see it through the more you will enjoy your art and the outcome will be a wonderful product of the process of a finished not perfect piece of art.

Have you ever wanted to explore a certain style in your art that is different than the one you currently create? Is there an artist whose style you admire and would love to be able to think in that way?

I have always admired a looser style of art no matter what medium the artist is working in. The kind of art where you can feel the movement and energy. Creating a piece where you are not putting in every detail but working to bring out just enough to tell your story and leaving the rest up to the viewer. That has been a desire of mine for a very long time.

What my brain wants to create

When I work I tend to like to fiddle with the details. I get carried away bringing forth lots of detail. Now there is nothing wrong with detail. I am not complaining, merely saying that give me detail and I can sit here for hours and hours fiddling with things. I just get into the zone and love disappearing into my art.

That being said I am now in a place in my life where I am also ready to explore and grow as an artist an want to put time into exploring a whole different style. I have attempted a loose style before and failed. I have tried my hand at this a few times over the years and not accomplished what I wanted to do.

So you may ask why am I trying this again? That’s a good and fair question!

I am now at a place in my life where I have peace and can focus in a much different way than before. My life before was very stressful and anything but a place to find oneself. I truly believe now looking back that when we are in these difficult places in life where stress is the high ruler that it can be hard to connect with the inner artist on the level it takes to explore something so deep and meaningful and challenging! At least that is what I believe the case to be for me.

I do not create well from a place of unrest. For some artist that is where they do their best work. We are all energized by different things and different energies in life.

The photos in this post are by Artist Dawn Emerson and I just love her work. I have watched several of her tutorials which are available on Artists Network tv. For $20 a month you can subscribe and watch as many tutorials from artists as you like.

Dawn is an artist who is fully engaged and alive in her process. She dances with her easel as she brings her art to life. Her process is one of discovery and playfulness. In her book, she said  something to the effect of “if you go into your studio to do what you have always done, then you will do what you have always done”

This is a simple but powerful statement. To me, that can mean you as an artist are always playing it safe. You are good at this thing and you keep doing this thing. To expand you must try new things and constantly move forward in your exploration.

I need a plan

I feel another reason I failed at my previous attempts to explore this style in my art is because I didn’t have a plan of action. As a result, I floundered, wishing for something magical to happen and as we all know that isn’t how this art thing works.

My approach to this will involve roughing out a plan to start, following through on a consistent basis in practicing this plan and evaluating my progress and editing the plan accordingly. I obtained a lot of information from her book and her videos and feel like my mind and my heart are all in the right place this time to give this an honest and full attempt.

I will be noting my plans, goals, progress, and thoughts as I journey down this road of artistic exploration. I am not sure where it will take me and that is not the important part. I will fully embrace the process and the journey and certainly learn something about myself and my art. I will wind up where I am meant to be.

Stay tuned and watch for updates on how this artistic endeavor is progressing.

And if any of this interests you I suggest you check out her videos and her book. Both have lots of valuable information and inspiration.

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Going from a detailed realistic style to a loose style.

Often times we admire an artistic style that we ourselves can’t seem to accomplish. I know that has been an issue of mine for quite some time.

I love the loose style of many artists no matter the medium they use to accomplish that. My brain loves to tinker with the details and over the years I have attempted to try my hand at loose art and haven’t been able to nail that skill. As a matter of fact I failed at it over and over.

I am about to try this again. Why you might ask? Why would I tackle this after so many failed tries?

That’s a valid question and I have some thoughts on that.

I believe that our lives and the stress and chaos we have in our every day can contribute to our struggles with our art.

It was only when my life took a more peaceful less stressful course that I had space inside me to discover my inner artist in a bigger way and that is when my art arrived in the most amazing way. It may have been more detail-oriented, but it still showed up in a way it never had before.

So if life stress is a contributing factor to connecting with our inner artist at any point in life, then it is also possible that because of that stress I did not have the ability to have that conversation with myself about working my way to a looser style.

There was no plan of action, there was no quiet space to explore that, there was only desire and disappointment that quickly followed.

I am a different me now and that makes a difference

My life is different now years later and I have found how to listen to the artist within. The process is the journey and I can now appreciate every moment of that in a way I never have before.

Working the process is a much different approach to my love of art than it was in my younger years. There is a comfort in this process that I am now in tune with and that makes such a difference.

I also have a plan and a commitment to working the process of this change. That was something I could not do before, I wanted the result without the hard work. I think that’s something we can all relate to.

In the stress of my life I was not able to see those things.

Does the medium you pick to do this make a difference?

For me, I am going to say yes, yes it does! Right now I use colored pencils mostly for my art medium. Pencils work well with details and give me an opportunity every step of the way to fiddle with all those details.

And for that detailed part of my brain that works great. We make great art together. But I want to feed a looser more abstract style of information into my brain.

That’s where pastels come in. Pastels are my new chosen medium to explore looseness in my art.

Pastel sticks, for me, are not the same in my hands as pencils. Pencils let me fiddle, pastels make that harder.

My plan is to pick things to paint that promote mark making, color, emotion, energy and texture and not detail.

I admire the art of Debora L Stewart. This is one of her abstract art pieces.

You can find her website here.

Also check out her youtube channel

She was very realistic in her art in the beginning and loved the more abstract looser approach. She set out to make that loose style her style.

Apparently, she succeeded in achieving that. If she can get from detailed and realistic to here, then so can I!

I also watched a few of her real-time tutorials on artists network tv. For a 20 dollar a month subscription I watched her and several others. I will only subscribe for a month or two, but the cost of an in-person class would cost me way more. So it was a worthwhile twenty dollars invested.

I am going to write about this journey here on my blog

When we start a journey we have lots of questions, we wonder about many more things than we do as we get further down the road in that process.

The questions and thoughts we have at the beginning and through the journey change and fade as we grow into that artist.

It is possible that many others want to build a different style other than the one they do best at the moment.

Maybe this journey and my thoughts as I work through it will help me clarify how to accomplish my goals and also help others see into the process as it happens.

I will share my struggles, my failures as they are also a part of my future success.

It is only from failure that we figure out what does and does not work.