Creativity 101 the point is...

The goal in making art is to communicate something. It can be as simple as enjoying the artist's pleasure in the completed work or it can be a statement about social injustice and all the variables in between.  Elements and principles are the tools  through which we can communicate.

The prelude to creative designing is an understanding of the design elements. We then organize these elements on a page following design principles.  No doubt one can break the rules but it is helpful to at least start with an understanding of the rules and how they work.  Here is a link to a site I found helpful.

We start with a point which is a coordinate in space.  But a point is not actually something we can draw because then the point would require dimension.  But we can draw a dot. Dots are the most basic element and are the building blocks for everything else.

The defining characteristic of a dot is that it is a point of focused attention.  It has a different story to tell than a line.  Dots work together to form an endless  variety of arrangement and complexity. They can even be strung out to form lines and curves.  They can form complex shapes, patterns, textures, and any other structure imaginable. Dots in combination can imply direction and movement.

In my Creativity 101 session we sorted dots (beads) and began to differentiate between shades of colours- cobalt and teal.  I want to get us thinking and really seeing what is all around us.  Shades of blue are a start.

Then we began to get into the basics of creativity.

Afterwards I decided to soak some scrap fabric that I used to cover my work surface in the 'dirty paint water.

 I had my eye on a section that had some spray that translated into dots to my way of thinking.

Then I began to make dot patterns.

Acrylics are a bit easier to control and the end of the handle is a great tool.

Paint pens need a bit of care as sometimes you get a blob and they can also spread.

I used a white out pen to add some detail dots.

A sharpie works great and the different sized points offer lots of options. They didn't bleed as much as I thought they would.

 
I'm getting better control here. The orange and purple are paint pens and the green is acrylic.  A fine point sharpie outlines some.

Not all dots are round. A fine point sharpie makes fine dots to contrast the blue paint pen kidney shaped dots.

The dots can be arranged into patterns.  This was great fun and I'll be doing some more of this.
After all, the point   is to have fun!