venturing outside my comfort zone

As an artist (and a creative person in general) I feel that its really important to always push yourself to grow, develop and change things up. Its never good to get too comfortable when it comes to making art because you miss out on growth that comes with venturing outside your comfort zone- this is when really great things happen in the creative process!

The one big thing that makes me squirm is working small! Give me brush and a 6 foot surface and I'm in my comfort zone but tell me to work small and I feel like I've been confined, restricted and I suddenly lose all inspiration. So in my quest to always be growing and getting better I have been challenging myself to work small- really small!

I recently purchased a whole bunch of teeny, TINY stretched canvases and went to town painting on them. I picked a subject matter that I am familiar with but challenged myself to work within the small surface with expressive techniques. I forced myself (yes forced) to use the same techniques that I use when working big- using my fingers, lots of defined brushstrokes and messy layers.

The result, after working through numerous little "shell study" paintings was that I actually started to really enjoy myself and found that I didn't have to feel restricted by the size of the surface. Suddenly the discomfort sort of just fell away and I found myself really enjoying the process of working on a smaller scale.

I challenge you to push yourself outside of your creative comfort zone- whether its scale or subject matter, materials or techniques- try something new or even something that makes you uncomfortable- if you give it a little time I guarantee you'll grow, you may end up enjoying yourself and actually find something new to add to your creative routine!