No, no, this is not as dreadful as it sounds. Most artists use baby wipes in their art–to wipe up smears, to spread ink, to clean fingers. I use mine to read, to let my mind wander and come up with new ideas.
Sometimes when I sit down at the art table, I need a few minutes to move from what I was doing before to a creative mindset. The shift is not always automatic. This morning, I found a used baby wipe (no babies in the house, this was an alcohol ink wipe) and immediately began to see figures in the ready-to-discard wipe.
There are figures pressed into this baby wipe, and as the ink soaks into the grooves, allowing figures to stand out. Here is a close-up of another wipe I played with.
Using a Tombow pen, I pulled up a little robot of inspiration. He’ll have to work hard to bring me new ideas, and with those friendly antenna, he should pick up ideas from far off.
Yes, you can see it as a demon, but I decided to befriend the abstract as a robot. You can even see the extension cord on this guy.
By the time the outline was done, I had an idea and was ready to work. Taking your mind off your work allows ideas to float to the top of your mind. And it’s kinder than sitting down and saying, “I need ideas, and I need them now!”
—Quinn McDonald is a creativity coach who often needs to get to creative ideas by a long path and the back door.
QuinnCreative 