PostIt Notes: An interesting attempt to be creative while being busy

I got very busy at work for a few months in 2018. I took up a large project to shoulder on. While overall it was a great experience, days and nights were busy in a consistent manner. I would not get much time to sit and sketch. Sometimes, while ruminating or solving a problem, I would listen to talks, or doodle on my notepad or a sticky note. One day, my idea bulb lit. Ting! "I can save the sticky notes! We will figure out later how to use them. Let's do this!" So I started saving the sticky notes after doodling on them. Some of them were words randomly jotted down while listening to talks, some were random doodles while trying to process my thoughts, and some were sketches of objects lying around me.

Later, when I got time, I revisited the notebook where I had patched them, and decorated organically  with wherever my fingers took me. I liked the experience. It was fun to see how my fingers will surprise me.

The above one had lot of text, and I was self-conscious about people reading the texts. When I started inking on the page, I intended to cover the text with doodles. But somehow that did not happen. The final sketch looked nice as it was, and I did not want to add more details any more. I am glad I did not.

There was a point where I would put down my pen on the sticky note, and all that would come out would be ugly, squiggly, clumsy spirals. I was ashamed of them, and worried too. I kept thinking, "What has happened to me? My creativity is suffering. Is it worth being this busy?" So, when assembled this collage of doodles, I tried my best to hide them, with structured blocks. It looked nice enough. Then ideas sparked. I got dragonflies from Google Images, pasted them, painted them, and added sparkles on them. Basically, I tried everything to hide the squiggly doodles. :D

 

Well, this collage was not any different from the previous one. But the style turned out to be different. I enjoyed putting the white circles. The white circles and golden edges bring a sense of calm. I like this one the most so far for the same reason, for bringing a sense of calm to the chaos.

This one is sketches of objects that came on to my line of sight when I looked for a subject to sketch impusively. The fact that I was sketching on sticky notes made it easy to just sketch the shapes without adding a lot of expectations. Each of the objects were drawn at different points of time, and at different places. I painted them from memory later after making the collage using crayola markers, and later spray painted them. It was a nice exercise to liven up still life sketching.

This collage was a mixture of objects and doodles. After laying them out in a nice order, I started experimenting and let the ideas develop as I went on. It was the most difficult one among all of the sketches here. Making the large squares needed lot of carefulness. I had to wait for each layer to dry before I applied the next stage. So it did take me quite a few days to finish this. After completion,I like how stylish it looks.

In the end, I am proud of the whole exercise  and how it turned out to be. It broke some of my bad patterns and also helped me notice what I enjoy the most.  I learned how to make time for enjoyment when I am busy. I learned to plan my project into small sections, and collect them later over time instead of doing everything in a single block of time. Although the execution was planned, the act of sketching and painting was spontaneous and I allowed myself to explore and surprise. It was a very nice feeling. I hope this experience and learning seeps into other aspects of my life too.

I am still doodling on sticky notes and saving them instead of throwing them away. However, I think I am done with this style of 2x3 grid for now, and may have to invent a different pattern if I want to make good use to them.