Creative Basecamp

Creative Process

Talented Enough

By

Are you talented enough to chase your artistic dreams? Absolutely. In this article, I’ll like to share with you 3 truths that will build your confidence that you have enough talent to begin right where you stand.

But first, a little preface.

It was summertime in the 90s. I lived in a small rural town, school was out, and for 3 months we had to find our own ways to occupy our time. My friends and I decided to make a movie. We donned the camcorder from my parents’ closet and got to work writing a script.

I can’t speak for my friends – maybe they just wanted to do it for fun. But to me, this was serious business. I had a grand vision. It was to be an epic production; a hollywood grade spy flick featuring an evil plot, a mad genius, espionage in the name of the greater good, and intense action sequences. As we started writing our script, I started to face an awful realization: this movie isn’t going to be any good. We were kids. None of us knew how to do wicked special effects or stunts. Surely nobody would want to watch a movie with kids trying to act like they were adults. We couldn’t even drive cars. What kind of spy movie doesn’t have cars? Maybe we weren’t capable or talented enough to make something as awesome as what I was aspiring to. In short, my little friends and I simply weren’t talented enough to do a good job.

[Read more…] about Talented Enough

Edit Your Brain’s Programming

By

In my previous article, I wrote about the possibility of changing the way we think. I call this “reprogramming” the brain. We each have a wealth of experiences, both good and bad, which shape our outlook and in turn shape our behavior. When we procrastinate our important creative projects, we’re usually letting ourselves be controlled by fear. If you haven’t already, I’d recommend reading that article because it forms the basis for the one you’re reading now.

Having a productive mindset when it comes to your creative endeavors will go a long way toward your lasting success and fulfillment. If you believe you will fail, you likely won’t even try. Adding to that, if you’re paralyzed by the thought of failure itself, this only compounds the issue. I’ve struggled with these unproductive mindsets in the past, and I know that they lead to a whole lot of inactivity and a whole bunch of projects scrapped before they get their chance to shine. This repeated failure to commit and follow through actually makes the problem even worse as we may begin to believe that we’re not even capable of finishing anything. We may start to think that we’re fundamentally flawed in some way. I’m sadly speaking from personal experience here. Life is too short and your potential is too great for all that mess, I say. Is it possible to change the way we think, or to reprogram our brains? YES! And to great effect.

[Read more…] about Edit Your Brain’s Programming

Train Your Focus, Get More Done In Less Time

By

Sometimes I let the number get really high because I know it bothers my wife.

We live in a time where we’re always connected. A constant barrage of messages from friends, notifications from apps, and the hottest trending news dings, flashes, pops and otherwise yells for our valuable attention. That attention is a commodity advertisers pay top dollar to secure. In a time like 2017 it feels harder than ever before to get anything meaningful done. [Read more…] about Train Your Focus, Get More Done In Less Time

Create Every Day

By

What are you working on? Whether it’s something concrete like an animated series (that’s us!) or whether it’s less concrete like building the life you want by attaining your goals, we’d love to hear about what you’re involved in!

Whatever it is you’re working toward, what have you created or built today that has gotten you closer to your end goal? What have you created this week? This month? Have you created something even within the past year that you can look at and be proud of?

Creativity is Essential

Your creation can be a work of art, a story, or music. It could even be a more toned physical form or a habit of eating something healthy every day. I include all these things in the category of creativity because by building something meaningful to us or by making ourselves or our lives better in any way, we’re being active agents in our own lives. We are creating our reality rather than letting outside influences create it for us. In this sense, creativity is absolutely essential for human beings to be truly happy and fulfilled. To consistently create everyday is the only true recipe for success, no matter what it is we’re trying to build or achieve in life. [Read more…] about Create Every Day

The Power of the Side Hustle

By

For years, I’ve wanted to make a cartoon. It’s been a dream of mine ever since childhood. Like many of you, I’ve done my fair share of daydreaming about the things I might create one day. I think this is common for people who have creative minds. It feels great to dream.

The prospect of having some amazing project under your belt is an exciting one. The stories we have yet to tell, the products we have yet to create, and the content we have yet to publish has the potential to impact the world. There is the possibility that hundreds or thousands of people sharing our similar interests will love and appreciate the work we do. Making something amazing that people enjoy opens doors for us that would otherwise remain closed.

Dream, Meet Reality

Unfortunately, we all have real lives outside of the amazing things we want to create. We clock in at 9 and clock out at 5, day after day. Bills need to be paid, chores need to be attended to, and important relationships aren’t going to nurture themselves. Our bodies and minds are quite unforgiving when they don’t get the sleep and sustenance they need. Go too long without exercise and you start to put on the pounds. The important ideas in our heads start to feel ever less important as we consider that working on them doesn’t keep the lights on or put food on the table. These things take a lot of time, and we don’t have much left in the day after other obligations are met. So they get put on the mental backburner, waiting for that magical day when money somehow becomes a non-issue, when time grows on time-trees and a hungry audience suddenly shows up at the doorstep, excitedly demanding us to create and throwing fistfuls of money at us.

Of course, logically we know that this will never happen! But either way, we keep busy day to day. Songs remain unsung, books remain unwritten, games remain unprogrammed, and canvases remain blank. In my case, cartoons remained unanimated in favor of more “important” things. [Read more…] about The Power of the Side Hustle

What is your dream project?

By

I believe that every creative person has at least one huge, ambitious project or idea that they would like to make a reality. Maybe it’s a series of paintings, a novel, a YouTube channel, a rock band, album or composition, a video game or an app. In our case, that thing that we kept coming back to was an animated series.

It’s not just the idea itself that the creative person dreams of. We dream of the impact it could have in our lives. The prospect of finishing a project and getting it noticed is exciting because it would open new doors. We look forward to a day when we may just be able to quit working for “the man” and start producing what we want to produce, all the time.

[Read more…] about What is your dream project?