I love Spooky Season, don't you?
And there's no better time to try something new and daring, for playing pretend- for trying on a mask, so so speak.
We spend so much of our time exploring our personal style, finding our authentic voice, that it can sometimes feel a little... constraining. Get's a little... boring.
Dunno about you, but I admire so many other creators out there, and some days, I really just wish as was somebody else.
And while it can feel a little uncomfortable to create something completely outside of our personal style... I say it can also be quite invigorating!
Shaking things up can give us new creative energy. It can also teach us more about the things we do when we come back to our comfort zone.
Putting on an act, pretending to be someone you're not, can -ironically- teach us more about ourselves, revealing things about ourselves that we want to begin to explore in our own style.
And so I invite you to try these 4 ideas for creative masquerading:
1. Embrace the macabre.
It’s the spooky season! Embrace the dark side and let’s add some haunted elements to our work. Of course, this idea is most affective if our usual style is not usually spooky (but even if you are well acquainted with darker imagery, there are sub-genres galore to try incorporating into your work.)
Is a darker color palette in order?
How about some horror imagery?
What does spooky look like when YOU try it on?
2. Try on someone else's style. Be a copier- just this once.
This is a time when we can give ourselves permission to be entirely unlike ourselves- and what better way to do that than by being someone else? Give yourself permission to wholesale copy another artists’s style. Or copy a work of theirs entirely.
Note: I am in no way endorsing you trying to pass off another artists’s work as your own, BUT I will say that we can learn so much about art, and our personal style, by copying someone else‘s.
Plus, it can feel so exciting to pretend to be someone else.
3. Branch out into a different medium or art form
Shake things up. You more of a painter? Pick up pastels.
You write stories? Try poems.
A sculptor? Heck, try tap dancing.
“But I can’t tap dance,” you say. “I‘m NOT a dancer!”
That, my friends, is the whole point. Try and be someone you’re not.
Just for today.
4. Take on a challenge
Inktober! Drawtober! 30 Days of Spooky Doodles! Seven Days of Halloween (or X-mas, or Mermaid...) Prompts!
There are so many different seasonal challenges to jump into this time of year (or, frankly, any time of year.) And they’re all great ways to stretch ourselves, get out of our comfort zones, and give the steering wheel over to someone else for a change. Maybe it will be awful. Great!
Maybe it will be awesome. Wonderful!
But were sure to learn something new about ourselves, and what we’re capable of, as creators.
Some of these things may make us uncomfortable, make us feel inauthentic.
But sometimes, donning the mask frees us from who we think we’re supposed to be, and can put us in touch with hidden parts of our true selves.
So go forth and be brave! Who will you be today?