creativity – Tiana Feng

My Little Creative Corner

June 5, 2015Art, Crafts/DIY, Inspiration, LifeLeave a Comment

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My little creative corner in my apartment #vscocam

A post shared by Tiana Feng (@tianafeng) on Jun 5, 2015 at 1:29pm PDT

When I moved into my apartment, my lease stated that I was not allowed to drill holes in the walls. It wasn’t until I decided to hang up my Wavelength Pop-Up Gallery photos that I decided to look for other ways to put stuff up that wouldn’t leave any marks. Then I found the entire line of Command damage-free wall hangs at Dollarama!

Anyways, I decided to add a whiteboard to my creative corner and found a neat magnetic one from The Board Dudes that has a cork board frame. Now I’m ready to organize my thoughts and to-dos all in one place. I have a really bad habit of flagging too many e-mails or bookmarking too much stuff so this is a good way to mark down what is truly important. Sometimes the ease of digital things just gets in the way.

I love having a little corner in my small apartment where I can dedicate to being creative, whether it’s making art with my drawer full of supplies or simply just writing. A designated spot to me is integral for productivity and also a lovely place to take a mental break.

Do you designate a place to be creative?

What’s Your Evil Plan?

September 20, 2013Books, Business, Entertainment, Inspiration, ThinkingLeave a Comment

“Evil Plans- Having Fun on the Road to World Domination” is a cleverly titled book from comic writer and entrepreneur Hugh MacLeod. In fact, I actually discovered the book because it was sitting in the discount book section at Chapters and it sounded both adorable and intriguing.

To those unfamiliar, MacLeod is the artist behind gapingvoid.com. He creates original art for businesses in hopes to spark creativity, not sit in the background like the majority of mountain-climbing motivational posters.

In Evil Plans, he encourages those who are unhappy in their careers to take the risk of leaving and to figure out their life calling aka “evil plan”. The book is written in short chapters, or tips which are then elaborated on with examples and anecdotes. Oh and of course MacLeod’s signature comics.

I think my favourite tip by far was:

“Don’t worry if you don’t know absolutely everything before starting out.”

It’s something many of people struggle with (I know I do) when changing career paths, or starting their own businesses. However as MacLeod states later in the chapter,

“Interesting destinies rarely come from just reading the instruction manual.”

We may not be the most skilled or talented in whatever it is that we enjoy doing, but it doesn’t validate whether we’re able to do those things. The choice we can make is to find something that matters to us and well, just do it.

What is your evil plan?

Steal Like An Artist

May 2, 2013May 2, 2013Books, Inspiration, Life, Thinking5 Comments

Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist has been sitting on my desk like a paperweight for quite a while. Today I decided to read it and discovered it to be the most invaluable paperweight to have in times of inspirational need.
Kleon, an artist and illustrator, stated in the beginning of the book that all advice is autobiographical. The book focuses around 10 things he wished he had heard when he was younger. It’s advice that to a reader may seem obvious, but is often forgotten.

The book is small and around 150 pages, half of which are artistic scribblings and brainstorming of Kleon’s points. There’s even a “deleted scene” page at the back with images that didn’t quite make it.
One of my favourite quotes from the book is

“You don’t put yourself online because you have something to say- you can put yourself online to find something to say”

. This resonated with me as an online writer both on this blog and over at Ride the Tempo. I never knew what I was doing when I started, but I haven’t stopped and never seem to be running out of ideas.

There’s a page in the book for everyone. There’s a page about embracing obscurity, productive procrastination and more. Everybody can use a bit of creativity in their lives. More pages from Austin Kleon’s book are available on his website.

Lessons I Have Learnt from Draw Something

April 5, 2012April 5, 2012Art, iOS, Technology, Video Games3 Comments

elvis — Really horrible drawing I did of Elvis

If you don’t know already, Draw Something is the new mobile game sensation. It’s basically a set of Pictionary that you can play with your friends who have Apple and Android devices. I have been playing it for a couple of weeks now and through observation I have realized and learnt many things.

Celebrities are really hard to draw. I try my hardest not to use words when I am drawing clues. I think it’s cheating. However, when you get hit with a celebrity, it can become hard.

drake — This is Drake, boyfriend didn't get it.

britney — Name the first generic blonde person you can think of!

People draw people that look like themselves. Whenever the drawing requires the use of a person to describe something, they always seem to look like the person who drew the picture. I’m guilty of this too. My people always look like the doodles of me that I do on My Life In Drawings. Other people do this too though. My friends who have blonde hair draw blonde people. Those that have curly hair draw curly haired people. Even if it takes an extra step to do these things.

pegasus — Guess the hair colour of the person that drew this.

It can be used as a genius marketing plan. Companies should insert their names into this game. Subliminal advertising after all. And hey, if your logo isn’t recognizable for anybody to want to draw it, maybe you should do something about that.

Continue reading ➞ Lessons I Have Learnt from Draw Something

You Are Never To Old For An Imagination

August 30, 2011Education, Life, TVLeave a Comment

I’m the last person in the world to probably act my age. If you meet me I’m both the most hard-working and motivated person you’ll ever meet, but at the same time the most strange and silly if you get close enough. I’ll also probably look like I’m 15 til I’m 40.

What triggered this fascination for imagination was the cartoon Adventure Time, which I didn’t know was more than just a viral pilot episode. The cartoon has some of the most ridiculously adorable and imaginative characters and plots. I showed an episode to some of my friends, but they were not into it. They thought it too random, but isn’t that the point?

In a fast-paced technology world we live in today, I sometimes like to wonder if old-school imagination still exists. I’m an odd one who doodles and writes stories and things on my spare time, but where do other people have an outlet for imagination?

Continue reading ➞ You Are Never To Old For An Imagination