One thing I've been thinking about a lot lately is how to be a fulfilled creative person when the majority of your life is consumed by being interested in creative related outputs. From working full time as a designer to also developing this blog, social media content and my own lettering projects, it can feel exhausting to be creating content or designs all the time, so today I thought I would just have an open discussion about it. 

If you asked me what I enjoyed doing I would reply by saying by lettering, designing, animating, writing, taking photos, reading, mind puzzles, going round exhibitions/museums, hearing live musicians/comedians and visiting new places. The vast majority of that list includes creativity in some sort of way, and then a good 3/4's are directly produced by myself. When your life is like that it can be hard to always feel up to the mark. 

Since moving to London, I've had a feeling like I need to be doing all the things all the time. Then with the idea of being a "hustler" (although can we please leave this mentality for 2018 and onwards) it's very easy to feel like you are falling behind when you aren't actively doing something that directly impacts your creativity. 

But what I've been realising is that you need to make time for the things, hobbies and whatever else that gives you enjoyment from life that won't make you feel pressured, forced or stressed about the work. If you are interested in creating something it should be done at a moment you want to during a time that you can focus on it with the mental capacity to actually enjoy it. And it's actually good to switch things up a lot.

When I need a break from thinking up ideas, I'll usually sit and play a game or do some sort of puzzle. Once I got into a routine for commuting to/from work I realised I needed something that wasn't necessarily writing or sketching on the tube but still stretched my mind. So instead I looked to getting a soduko app as I've noted before I love completing these! They still make me think about patterns and layouts but in a totally different way. A refreshing way. 

The moral of this post though is that you don't have to be and honestly, you shouldn't be a 24/7 creative. It can put a lot of strain on your overall physical and mental health as well as your wellbeing to be continuously be creating, thinking up ideas, visiting creative events/shows/museums, etc and then be implementing everything somewhere. So make sure you take a break- it doesn't mean you fail as a creative, it'll give you the strength to grow as one.

[header photo by Ben Kolde from Unsplash]

Check out the communities posts:

Danielle Warman (Blooming special)
Charlotte Kathleen G
Laura Campbell (The Floral Elephant)

Read my other posts from #CBloggers17

Introduce Yo' Self: Day 1
My Hand Lettering Process: Day 2
Facing Imposter Syndrome: Day 3

Want to join in? Get all the details in the link up! blog post.

Image created using this image downloaded via Pexels

So for the 3rd topic of #CBloggers17 it's all about the Creative Industries! I left the topic totally wide open with this as I felt it would make for some interesting conversations and perspectives among people and I mean there is a lot to be said. 

Going down the route of speaking about issues within the Creative Industries, there are so many to choose from. With issues around 'free' work, unpaid internships, lack of representation of WOC/other minorities within high roles, how creativity is still not seen as a skill among some, as well as a whole heap of other problems and issues. I've spoken about some other issues before on this blog before including misconceptions of studying graphic design, how my high school expierence killed my creativity and I've also spoken several times about how I feel lucky to have had supportive family that push me to follow my dreams of working in the creative industries.

For me thought I thought I would talk about an issue that largely lies with yourself and no-one else, and that is self doubt and imposter syndrome.

I won't lie these are things I have experienced a lot and I know a lot of people who go through it too, it's something in the creative waters. But when you deal with imposter syndrome it doesn't affect anyone else, just you and your work largely. It can paralyse you from producing or developing work. It can stop you from taking on new experiences or opportunities. And it can stall your growth not just as a creative but as a person too.

And today I wanted to speak about how I've tried to overcome it each time.

Give yourself perspective
What is it that makes you feel like you can't do this or you shouldn't? If you are looking at other peoples work and feeling that you'll never amount to their level, stop. Your skills and journey are unique to you and will shape your future to be what it should be, not what you think it should be because of what everyone else is doing. Look at your old work, the stuff you did when you started out. You'll see from then how far you have progressed and how much you've learnt.

Talk to people
Literally every creative I know has gone through this before and I'm sure it'll be the same for you too. If you open up to the people you are close with or speak to a mentor or even an educational tutor, they can help on the last point and open your mind to see how far you've come and give you feedback on what you can do to progress further.

Don't worry about failure and don't stress about success
These two words, "failure" and "success", seem to take of a lot of people's lives but you have to try and not let them. Failure will happen. You are never going to sail through life and have everything work out exactly as you think it should be. And don't worry that your successes will come falling down. Whatever you've been successful at, as long as you've done it honestly, is yours to take and you should go celebrate it. In fact, go celebrate both your wins and looses, there's things to learn from both.

Be aware
Realise that if, at the moment, you are scared to jump into a new opportunity that it isn't likely you're scared because you won't be able to do it. But be aware that the reason you can feel uneasy is that it's a huge step and what can come next will be enormous for you. As they say, if you're not scared then your dreams aren't big enough.

and lastly...

Remember to find enjoyment in just creating
It can often be a burden that accidentally falls on our shoulders as creatives nowadays when we think we need to constantly be sharing things on social media. From clients we work with, to projects we do and works in progress, amongst having a #flawless life it's just crazy. No person is crazy so stop worrying about portraying yourself in a certain way on line and remember that what you share online is down to you and no person, not even yourself, will completely know who you are as you are always growing and changing. So experiment! Do batshit crazy things. And if you share them with the world or not, just enjoy the process of being free.

What's some of your ways to combat imposter syndrome? Let me know below!

And if you fancy reading some more thoughts on the creative industries, check the link ups below:

It's Day 2!! So for today's topic it's all about Creative Process. For my take on today's topic, I thought I would delve into my process for creating hand lettering designs. It seems to be the main thing I get asked about, both by people on Instagram and even in job interviews. So I thought I'd dedicate this post to how I do this, from planning a piece, developing the style then working into it digitally and lastly uploading it to socials! 

Step 1: Planning & Sketching

For me step 1 always involves coming up with what it is I want to create a design about or for. This can vary from lettering things into objects, an editorial design or something else for like a poster or merch. 

Once I've decided or know what it's for I write out the words to get an idea about the letters fit amongst each other and to also quickly experiment with the layout of the letters. From this point I'll start working on a medium sized scale in my leuchtturm1917 (usually about a quarter of the page) to define the letter forms a bit more. From here I will occasionally draw it up bigger if I want to add more flourishes and details at that point or it's onto the digital portion of it!

Step 2: Developing the style & digitising 

When it comes to developing the style, as I said it can be developed while sketching or by doing it on the digital side. More and more lately, with my ProCreate app on my iPad I have been developing the design on that. Using the app it allows me to be more experimental with the styling and it also means I don't have to use lots of tracing or sketching paper in order to work out the best way to represent the phrase, word or editorial use. 

Digitising can some times be the longest part of the process, as I will refine the letters and make the size and shape of the letters concise in relation to each other. Although it is also at this point I can realise that once the forms are worked out the way I want them to be, they might not work for the piece on a whole and so it means I need to re-sketch a new layout. After I've refined the design and perfected the colour palette I then save it.

Step 3: Posting to socials

Making the designs on ProCreate it makes the whole uploading to Instagram simple! There are options to share directly to IG but I prefer to save the image and process video instead. However, the app also makes it super simple to take into Adobe products which is great but hasn't been something I've particularly used so far. 

Is there something I've missed out here that you'd like to know about? Leave any Q's below or feel free to tweet me directly too!

Also sorry for the images being a total mix of designs! I planned to have the one design and show the entire process from start to end but then realised I didn't have videos for the ones that would show the best process! Learn for next time right?

Check out the communities posts:

Danielle Warman (Blooming special) - Working for free

Charlotte Kathleen G
Laura Campbell (The Floral Elephant)

Read my other posts from #CBloggers17

Introduce Yo' Self: Day 1
Facing Imposter Syndrome: Day 3

Want to join in? Get all the details in the link up! blog post.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, music is a huge thing to me! I listen to it daily, when I'm getting ready, travelling, doing work and even trying to get to sleep!

Today's #CrazyRebelliousArt is themed about art, or for me including, design techniques that you don't get to use in your own work. So I'm going to share a few of things I would like to do more and things I'd like to try!

Today's blog post from #CrazyRebelliousArt is focused around what our blog 'name/tagline' means. I think I've briefly covered it before but can't remember what blog post it's in so I'll just share it again! 

So a few years ago when I was nearing the end of my 1st year at College studying Graphic Design, we needed to create a brand identity and 'website' for ourselves. When coming up with my branding I didn't really want to just go for the standard of my name and after a bit of brainstorming I ended up going with "OhHay!".

I feel like this challenge is really helping me share new and more up-to-date versions of posts I shared ages ago! And this post is no exception. Last year I shared a post of some Inspirational Instagrams and now I'm back with a new list! 

It's been a long time since my last Recent Inspirations post and thought with today's prompt for #CrazyRebelliousArt being what's been inspiring you this week, what better time to share an updated version of it! 

Woo! I'm back on track with #CrazyRebelliousArt (well just, I have half an hour till it's the 13th). Apologise with there being a lot of back posting this week but at the end of last/start of this week I just wasn't really feeling it! And although I've got a bit of a cold right now I wanted to try stick and get back into this so I've been doing my hardest! Anyway, today's theme is to talk about "How you get out of a creative block" and I've spoken about this topic kind of before, but that was over a year ago! So today I thought I would just do a list of maybe like 20 or so (I'm just going to keep writing them till I can't think of anymore), that may help you over come creative block! 

Oh wow it's been an incredibly long time since I shared a little update about what I'm doing at uni! Actually, my last update was on my first day back at uni this year, oops! Anyway, with today's post for #CrazyRebelliousArt being a Photo Log of a piece of art work created today, I thought instead I would share what I've been up to at Uni since my last update!

Ahhh! So today's topic is to share 10 of your favourite quotes! I've always been a massive lover of quotes, with ones from books, shows, lyrics and whatever else I can somehow relate to one so this may be a little hard for me just to pick 10 but I will try!

List your 10 Favourite Quotes

1. "Feck perfuction" - James Victore

Definitely one for the days when nothing seems to be going right.

2. "Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." - Thomas Merton

I just really like this. I've found that this year my art has sparked something inside me that has cause me to find something more about myself but also given me a sense of calm while doing it.

3. "You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life" - Austin Kleon

So true. IF you think life is bad to you then you'll never get over it.

4. "If you want creative workers give them enough time to play" - John Cleese

I'm not in the working part of the Creative Industries yet but this is so true! How can you be exciting without doing exciting things!?

5. "Don't compare your beginning to someone else's middle" - Jon Acuff

I really need to start remembering this one more...

6. "We're the authors of our lives" - Set It Off

Because it doesn't matter what folk say to you, it is your life and your decisions

7. "The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life." - Jessica Hische

Hell to the yes!

8. "It might not be my weekend but it's going to be my year" - All Time Low

Forever the optimist. 

9. "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one." - George R.R. Martin

Why you should always have books around you

10. "The things that make you weird as a kid will make you great tomorrow" - James Victore

And it will make all the haters extremely jealous! 

So that's some of my favourite quotes, if you're interested to find more I like then you can have a nosy at my two Pinterest boards here and here (the second is more poetry). Anyway, comment below with some of your favourite quotes too! 

Today's #CrazyRebelliousArt was themed about sharing a book relevant to your field, but although I have huuuuuge collection of design books I am still making my way through them! So instead I thought I would share a Podcast that I listened a lot to last month when I was going through all of her old ones.

For today's #CrazyRebelliousArt the topic is to speak about our process for a current project. I'm still not really in a place with uni work were I want to talk about it so I thought what else can I speak about, and obviously that's my #Create365 project!

So today I couldn't really be bothered writing anything proper but still wanted to post something since I guess I'm trying to do #blogtober... Ignore the fact that I've missed a week of that anyway! But yeah I've had this tag saved for ages and thought it was about time I did it! I originally came across it on Gemma's blog and loved it! But there area few Questions that aren't really relevant to me so I've changed those ones to something different (Q's 3 and 4). I've only scored out the original wording in these Questions in case you fancy doing it yourself!

For most of year I've had the black dual brush tombow pen in my pencil case and have loved using it! It is great for doing simple line work with the standard nib and even better for using the brush end for typography purposes! But the main reason I love my tombow pen is because it works soooo well with water! Half the time I show people work I've created with it they ask "is this watercolour?", obviously it's not but it really does give off that effect! 

Anyway, a few weeks ago I decided to take the plunge and buy the pack of 18 pens in the pastel. I really wanted to buy one of the coloured packs as there was so many ideas I had been having where I kept thinking that it would be great to do by adding some colour. 

On Monday I had a little bit of an unusual but lovely experiencing with a man on a train. If you read yesterday's Creative Journeys Tag post you would have seen that I said I used to be really self conscious about speaking about my work and stuff but I feel like it's becoming better. And on Monday? I feel like I pushed myself out there a little. 

Last year I was tagged in the Creative Update Blog Hop and I've been thinking recently about wanting to kind of create my own tag that would connect creatives again! So this is where the questions (and my answers) below come in! I thought it would be fun for us to all speak about how we started and where we want to go.

It's been a while since my last inspirations post so I felt it was time to share a new one with all my current and recent inspirations! Within this update I don't have any Blogs/Vlogs just due to the fact I haven't really been reading blogs too much nor watching much on YouTube! What I do have instead are tumblr inspirations as that's the corner of the internet I've been hiding in the past few months. 

Portraiture- It's been a long time since I have sat and drawn people but I really want to start doing this again so I can mix it in with more of my own artwork.

Journal- I have just ordered a midori travellers notebook so have been looking for inspiration in ways to set it out. I have also got a moleskine coming to use for my honours project so journals are a big thing for me right now!

Anna Jane Seane- I do just love Seane's work but I also love how much detail there is within side this piece in particular. I also love the kind of mythical/spiritual vibe throughout her work. 

Autumn Outfits- This year the UK haven't really had a very striking Summer so I'm looking forward to Autumn coming and being able to layer up and be cosy!

Colourful Dip Dyes- Charli (from Charli Marie TV) shared a review & process of how she made her hair colourful like this a few months ago but I still love it. I really want to do something similar with mine!

Rings/Suns&Moons- This is a bit of a different one for me as I never really wear rings but I've been seeing so many adorable ones as of late that I want to pick up! Also suns, stars, moons, generally anything astrological has been appearing in my life so much lately!

 Cocktails- All I'm going to say is that this sounds amazing and I think I'm going to have to make a ton of cocktails for my 21st next year (if not sooner)!

Rocky Road Pancakes- Since my last visit to the Pancake Place was a while ago I've been trying to make my own versions since!

Chicken Ramen- I tried chicken ramen for the first time a few months ago and I've been craving it ever since so I'm deffo needing to try a recipe for it!

Nature- My tumblr has always been very 'nature' driven but lately it's gone a bit OTT! I'm craving the outdoors so much (ignore the irony), plus it's making me want to go travel a-lot!

Moon- As I said before I've been loving the moon a lot as well, but I've also been doing a lot of my 'creating' when the moons came up. 

Tattoos- I still haven't got me original tattoo design done yet but I've been seeing so many on tumblr and it's giving me loads of ideas for other ones I want to get done!

Design Books- Since reading this post by Polly, my design book has grown so much! They've been a massive inspiration and will help so much for Uni this year!

Mark Making- I've been looking at and watching quite a few videos that kind of encourage(?) mark making and I can't wait to try some of the techniques like this one out!