Are you still watching? We have all had this notification show up this past winter as we are binge-watching Netflix originals and various other television/movie subscriptions. If there was a single still-image of this last winter, it would be me sitting in my front room, eyes glued to a laptop, while Netflix is continually looping in the background. The scary part about this situation is that the unmoving still-image wouldn’t be too far from the living truth.
Being in a creative field during the twenty-first century usually means this type of activity is a normal experience. It happens all of the time. We find a comfortable place to sit, open our laptops, and turn on some form of background noise to keep us entertained enough to not get up or move. While being somewhat necessary and unavoidable, this type of stagnant environment was pretty detrimental to my personal creativity.
Since the warm weather has been consistent, I have found myself longing to be outside. I especially feel this pull when I am setting up for another screen-based creative session. When this pull starts that weird little tech geek in my subconscious says, “You need your laptop for this. How will you take your laptop outside? What if it rains? What if your battery runs out?” These thoughts usually succeed in keeping me inside, but for the past couple of weeks I have been able leave the comfort of the solitary room. I left my computer inside, picked up my Denik sketchbook, found a comfortable place to sit outside, and started a creative sketch session.
With all this screen-time and cold weather, I had forgotten how amazing it is to just sit down and sketch. Sketching these quick ideas, while looking around at the landscape and listening to the various objects moving around, allowed for more ideas to flow from mind to the paper. It felt right. There is something fulfilling about using all your senses as you try to think creatively. Inspiration can basically come from anywhere, and it is not only influenced by what you see. It's alsobeing outside in an environment that engages all your senses in multiple ways that allows for more opportunities to be inspired.
I am sure there are actual scientific studies about this phenomena, but I have found that when someone recommends a new way to do things, I like to try it for myself before I form an opinion about it. So go do it. Get off your phone, tablet, laptop, or television and do some work outside free of technology.
Written by:
Skyler Musgrave | Denik Graphic Designer
Oh yeah, and if you need a place to store those ideas and sketches you come up with outside, we’ve got you covered. Here are a couple I would recommend:
