What Do Your Pinterest Boards Say About You

My daughter is visiting from Portland for a few days so there is no art to share.  So I am sharing an article that I shared in my newsletter back in January.

Have you fallen in love with Pinterest yet. If you are not on Pinterest let me tell you what it is all about. Its a collection site where you can pin things that you have found on the Internet. It keeps them all in one place in nice orderly folders. You can also like something which puts it all in one continuous stream of images. I find that helpful when I want to be inspired but don't have a category in mind. That is not all it is though. You can also follow other people's boards and they can follow you. Say you create a board about Art journaling and follow a few other people who have done the same. Any time they post a new pin it will show up in your feed. You have the opportunity to pin more things than if you didn't follow anyone. It creates a whole world of people out there collecting the same thing you do. I have found some pretty amazing things that way.You can also search Pinterest categories and find things that way. I only do that when my followers are not pinning what I am looking for.

Sometimes I go along pinning things but never go back to look at what I have collected. If you do that they what really is the point. Now I regularly go back and look at my boards. As I looked through my boards for ideas for dinner and drawing I thought.

"What does my collection of boards say about me." 

I have 76 boards which seems like a lot at first look. I have pinned 2,808 things and have liked 332 of them. I have 8 boards related to animals, 6 related to food, 8 boards related to writing,17 boards relating to art. The is a smattering of other boards in a variety of categories and some that can fit into multiple categories. When I look at all those boards, I can see what I spend my time on. I can see what I am attracted to. I can see the beginning of plans and dreams to make one or another thing reality. I have found many recipes that I now cook regularly. I have created several craft items from my boards along with being inspired in my own art by what I collected. From the tutorials I have learned how to do new things. It's also a place when I can post my own art to inspire others.

Take a look at your Pinterest Boards and see what they say about you. Are they a representative of your life?  What dreams do you have that are not represented there. Maybe starting a board about it will jump start a desire or passion that could become your life's work. The possibilities are endless.

Using Pinterest For Inspiration

I went to  one of my Pinterest boards this morning for inspiration. I knew I wanted to draw something in church today.

I loved this image, it is actually a quilt and not a painting. It's called the Ravens of Angel Crest by Thom Atkins. Isn't it gorgeous.

For my version I separated the birds, made the trees a little less developed, added birds to the second tree and added a mountain.  I like my little drawing, it was fun to make. I find Pinterest is fun for collecting images but its also great to use all that collecting for something. I think I may use this image again in the future. Maybe elaborate on the image, or tackle the idea in acrylic, or even on canvas. Or even make the one tree recede further into the background, or make the bird bigger and more of a focal point. There are lots of different things you can do with an initial idea to make it your own.

Linking to Sunday Sketches today.

How do you use images for inspiration? Tell me in the comments.

Kate

Writing Wednesdays - Pinterest for Writers

Pinterest is a familiar application for a lot of us. In my first look at Pinterest I thought of it as a way to collect the things you like that you find the net. I did not use it a lot at first. Then I saw how people are using it to market their products. There are seminars on how to use Pinterest this way. Then there are the Artists who are using it, Some use it to show off their work and others create boards of inspiration. This can really be fun to do.

Now how can writers use Pinterest? There are several ways I use Pinterest for my writing. First the simplest way is to create a board about your Work in Progress. There are a lot of writers doing this. Its nice to have a visual of what your characters might look like, or the setting or of the events that will happen in your story.  I like to look at my board to keep me into the story, to keep me motivated. Motivation for writers is always a good thing.  But how else can you use it? I have boards for possible future characters, favorite scenery, costuming ideas, Words of wisdom, and more. The ideas are only limited by your imagination.

I print out pictures and put them in my notebook when working on my outline. Sometimes I create screen savers of all the pictures for my novel. I did that for NaNoWriMo last year and it worked great. Pinterest is a fun tool for writers but its easy to get sucked into spending hours on it.  So you may have to work on limiting your time on the site.  You can follow my boards here  If you have a unique way of using Pinterest tell me in the comments.

Writing Wednesdays

Work in Progress  this week.

I finished Nail Your Novel and I really liked it.  The author Roz  Morris also writes a blog of the same name. Nail Your Novel The posts are interesting and informative, if you are writing I highly recommend it.

There is a lot of basic information that I already knew in this book but it is also full of techniques on how to start editing an abandoned manuscript. She shares her plans and techniques from the very beginning to getting a novel published.  Its a great resource. I read it on my Kindle but I don't think I would do that again. I like thumbing through pages and the ability to go back and reference areas. That seems to be easier to do in a print book. I do realize I could add notes and bookmarks on my kindle but I still think a print book is easier.

I also realized I have this book on my kindle too.  I got it for really cheap when a promotion was going on, but never got around to reading it.

Its written by Randy Ingersmanson, whose claim to fame is the Snowflake method. He has an amazing newsletter that he also puts out that I have been reading for several years. So far it is really an easy read and seems very informative.

I am continuing to study about characters and emotion from the Write Great Fiction Series of books. Next on my list is this book on developing a good villain.

I spent way too much time on Pinterest today adding more pics to my work in progress board.  I find Pinterest to be a lot of fun but time consuming too. If you are on Pinterest you can follow me here.

I spent some time in the studio today but I haven't gotten any pictures to show. It felt to be working on art again.  I will have something to share next time.