I signed up to do Creative Jumpstart 2021 back in November. What with Covid and no studio groups to prep for, my creativity has had a minor slump and I’ve not even had the mojo to create for the fun of it. Creative Jumpstart has a daily 10-15 minute tutorial or inspiration video to watch and so far it has included monoprinting, art journaling, illustration, watercolour and collage as part of the ‘storyteller’ theme. I’ve had a go at all but one so far and it’s been great to challenge my prejudices against some media (watercolour!) and to try out new media. Here are my attempts at the first week of projects:

The word for the year – reconnect. Let’s hope that’s possible in some fashion, preferably face to face again! Then there’s my toddler painting of a train with the memories that evoked in a mini-journal. An abstract monoprint, embellished with colour pencil and stencilled paint. An illustration in paint and coloured pencil on Yupo paper. A childhood cartoon character ‘Zob’ brought into technicolour as a whimsical character story. And finally, an art journal page using wax resist, storytelling and silhouetting to complete the story. The project I haven’t yet tackled is combining collage with a very loose style of acrylic painting. I’ve not joined in that one yet as I don’t have a suitable starting point to work from at the moment.

It’s not too late to join in… It’s the 10th Creative Jumpstart and there are six weeks of prompts rather than the normal four. Videos are downloadable to keep as long as you do it by mid-November. I thoroughly recommend it for kick-starting a sluggish mojo, especially if you’re into mixed media.