Friday, 6 December 2013

20 ways to develop your imagination and creativity


20 ways to develop your imagination and creativity
Usually people associate creativity with artists, writers and actors. However, most life situations require creative approach and thinking out of the box. Imagination helps to solve many problems, to achieve success in personal relationships and to increase the productivity and profitability of the business. However, in the development process, you can face the fact that you have run out of ideas.
There are 20 simple ways to develop your creative skills and find new ideas from everywhere:
1. Try to write or draw with your opposite hand. Make written notes, dial phone numbers, slice meat by other hand. As you know, each arm is controlled by opposite hemisphere of your brain, so you can activate your brain in different way and see the world in other colors.
2. While placing napkins on the dining table, fold them in some unusual fancy shapes.
3. When sitting in the traffic jam, notice the license plates of nearby cars, add the numbers in your mind, square the result and then divide it by seven.
4. Cut out some pictures from magazines or newspapers and separate them from their captions. Mix them all and randomly spread captions to pictures. Do you see something interesting? Is there an idea for a new caption or a funny caricature?
5. Divide complex problems on sub-tasks and make lists of them.
6. The next time you travel into an unfamiliar city, do not bring a map. Read the traffic signs and try to determine which local resident you can ask for directions.
7. Carry a pencil and paper everywhere. While sitting on the subway, in the waiting room of your doctor, etc., try to draw everything you see, not necessarily to paint a picture for a museum. For example, sketch a coffee pot on a tissue. Draw a chair in the margin of the magazine. Try to sketch objects spatial perspective.
8. Satisfy your curiosity. If you are interested in something, search for how-tos in the internet, look in the guides, ask someone!
9. Start learning a foreign language.
10. Try new food products every fourth visit to the grocery store. Just put in your shopping cart products that you haven't bought yet.
11. Consider any advertisement in a magazine or newspaper. What would you improve in a graphic design? Come up with a new advertising slogan or suggest the better commercial name for this product.
12. Try to measure food volume with your eyes when cooking.
13. Map out your goals and make a plan of actions for the next five years. Think of something serious: your career, rearing your child, growing a garden or buying a new house.
14. Learn how to play games that require strategy, such as bridge, chess or poker.
15. Change your usual route to work. Measure the time and compare it to the time you usually spent.
16. Open the dictionary and randomly select a word. Try to make a pun, an anagram, or a point of the funny story.
17. Read as much as you can, watch movies and go to plays. Analyze the behavior of characters, try to put yourself in their shoes and think how you would behave in their situation.
18. Be attentive and sharp. Try to notice every detail, whether it is an unusual color combination on a banner advertising or a violin sound from a street musician. Observe and distinguish a variety of smells.
19. Compose tales and fables and try to illustrate them. Give real objects unrealistic features of color, shape, volume, etc.
20. Imagine what it would be like if dinosaurs, some of the plants or animals came to life again? The point of this activity is to learn how to represent something impossible and unreal. Offer it to your friends, record and compare your stories.
There are 20 simple ways to develop your creative skills and find new ideas from everywhere:
1. Try to write or draw with your opposite hand. Make written notes, dial phone numbers, slice meat by other hand. As you know, arm is controlled by opposite hemisphere of your brain, so you can activate your brain in different way and see the world in other colors.
2. While placing napkins on the dining table, fold them in some unusual fancy shapes.
3. When sitting in the traffic jam, notice the license plates of nearby cars, add the numbers in your mind, square the result and then divide it by seven.
4. Cut out some pictures from magazines or newspapers and separate them from their captions. Mix them all and randomly spread captions to pictures. Do you see something interesting? Is there an idea for a new caption or a funny caricature?
5. Divide complex problems on sub-tasks and make lists of them.
6. The next time you travel into an unfamiliar city, do not bring a map. Read the traffic signs and try to determine which local resident you can ask for directions.
7. Carry a pencil and paper everywhere. While sitting on the subway, in the waiting room of your doctor, etc., try to draw everything you see, not necessarily to paint a picture for a museum. For example, sketch a coffee pot on a tissue. Draw a chair in the margin of the magazine. Try to sketch objects spatial perspective.
8. Satisfy your curiosity. If you are interested in something, search for how-tos in the internet, look in the guides, ask someone!
9. Start learning a foreign language.
10. Try new food products every fourth visit to the grocery store. Just put in your shopping cart products that you haven't bought yet.
11. Consider any advertisement in a magazine or newspaper. What would you improve in a graphic design? Come up with a new advertising slogan or suggest the better commercial name for this product.
12. Try to measure food volume with your eyes when cooking.
13. Map out your goals and make a plan of actions for the next five years. Think of something serious: your career, rearing your child, growing a garden or buying a new house.
14. Learn how to play games that require strategy, such as bridge, chess or poker.
15. Change your usual route to work. Measure the time and compare it to the time you usually spent.
16. Open the dictionary and randomly select a word. Try to make a pun, an anagram, or a point of the funny story.
17. Read as much as you can, watch movies and go to plays. Analyze the behavior of characters, try to put yourself in their shoes and think how you would behave in their situation.
18. Be attentive and sharp. Try to notice every detail, whether it is an unusual color combination on a banner advertising or a violin sound from a street musician. Observe and distinguish a variety of smells.
19. Compose tales and fables and try to illustrate them. Give real objects unrealistic features of color, shape, volume, etc.
20. Imagine what it would be like if dinosaurs, some of the plants or animals came to life again? The point of this activity is to learn how to represent something impossible and unreal. Offer it to your friends, record and compare your stories.

Thursday, 28 November 2013



I recently visited the Universal Studios situated at the National arts theatre comlex in Lagos. Here I saw a large number of those I can call "Artists in training" expressing themselves while under the tutilage of some masterful hands of Mr Josh Nmesioronye and Mr Ejor Walace.

It is nice today to see such numbers wanting to proudly wear the artistic robe as compared to the situation in the 70's and through to the 90's when Fine Arts was considered by majority of the public a career for the educational misfit. Nigerians now know better.

Mr Josh Nmesioronye teachinga student.

The universl Studios is headed by veteran Artists in Mr Bunmi Babatunde and Mr Abiodun Olaku. This informal school fills the void created in the art educational curriculum while motivating and encouraging many of us established artists to strive and lend our quota in whatever manner to the uplifting of the cultural and creative location of Nigerian arts.
                                                                                  

Grace Ighavbota
Sanya Gbemileke
Opaleye Adeola
Here are a couple of students who I felt stood out During the visit.


                                                                                                                                                       

                                                                                      

Saturday, 23 November 2013

NEW PAINTING

                                                                 NEW PAINTING

He who must run.

EVENTS






The Guild of Professional Fine Artists of Nigeria recently welcomed its new members into the association. It was hosted by one of its trustees. The following pictures are snippets of the occasion.









Sunday, 17 November 2013

PAINTING OF THE WEEK

Abiodun Olaku is one of Nigeria's greatest pride when it comes to the art of painting. He graduated from the well known Yaba college of technology and is revered for his landscape paintings which are examples of the perfection he teaches to many of the students who throng to his studio yearly in the hope of learning his technic and imbibing his philosophy about art in general.


His works are in many homes in Nigeria and abroad. He has had his solo exhibitions and numerous Group exhibitions. An erudite scholar who is very firm in his beliefs but also very ameable and aproachable. He is a very active member of the society of Nigerian artist{SNA) and the guild of professional fine artists of Nigeria (GFA)

Saturday, 16 November 2013