Intuition

I’ve realised when I paint I don’t *think*. I go completely with the flow and am totally tuned into my intuition. I’m totally lost in the brushstrokes. When I illustrate, with pencil or digitally, I can *sketch* without thinking BUT when I start adding the layers and colour, my mind often takes over from my heart and gut. And I lose the flow. It becomes more measured and can sometimes lose the looser more organic look that I can see inside my mind.

Getting in touch with my intuition is often related to the speed I paint. With speed there’s no time to think. The brushstrokes are on the page before I know it and something in me just ‘trusts’ it will feel right. That’s not to say there aren’t many times when I look at my paintings and it just feels wrong! But it’s interesting how one way of creating can help you to learn about the other. With illustration, I’m slower. I think a lot more. And writing, well, that’s a step further. I find it so easy to overthink when I’m writing, hovering over one sentence for way too long. I find the key there is to very actively disengage my mind. I put a timer on when I write, usually for 25 minutes. And for some reason that boundary helps my intuition to cut through the noise. For 25 minutes at least! Maybe I should try using a timer with illustration too. I will definitely try to think of it more like painting.

Do you relate? Does creating with one medium sometimes make you overthink while another feels more intuitive? Does one medium teach you something about how you could be more intuitive with another?