Create Your Masterpiece: Busy Hands, Cymplified!

Proverbs 10:4 (NIV)
⁴ Lazy hands make for poverty,
but diligent hands bring wealth.

Ecclesiastes 11:6 (NIV)
⁶ Sow your seed in the morning,
and at evening let your hands not be idle,
for you do not know which will succeed,
whether this or that,
or whether both will do equally well.

“Always be creating!” That is letterer Abbey Sy’s motto, I believe. Note to self: buy her book, The ABC’s of Hand Lettering.

Anyway…

Our hands have purposes. They were meant to do something beautiful, to make something useful, and to be busy with something helpful, because “busy hands are happy hands”, do you agree?

I wanted to use my hands to draw and paint towards one of my dreams. But, some things were holding me back. Like the fear of the blank page, the desire for my output to be perfect and shareable, the lack of knowledge. Thus, I ended up staring at that blank page, having ideas that stayed in my head, being confused about the materials to use. I ended up creating nothing!

Sad, right?

I have to get motivated somehow. Seeing the works of many makers on Instagram and their blogs, I got inspired. I got encouraged to:

• Begin somewhere – anywhere!
• Take out my art materials. Don’t be lazy!
• Put that pencil to the paper. Put that paint-soaked brush to the watercolor paper.
• Make the most of my mistakes. Work around my blunders.
• Share and ask for feedback.
• Create more.

These days, I’m keeping my hands busy with sketching and watercolor painting. Even if they are not yet worthy to be called masterpieces. In the process, I am learning.

A photo posted by Cym M (@ceemee) on Jul 21, 2015 at 1:44am PDT

A photo posted by Cym M (@ceemee) on Jul 24, 2015 at 1:42am PDT

And one should not stop learning. When I feel like I’m stuck in a rut, I’m glad there are creative workshops being offered where I could pick up new styles or try new techniques. There are many creative things we could do with our hands. Through these workshops, we could try different crafts and ways of painting to see which one we would prefer or would suit us best.

The links will take you to more information.

Paper Cutting 101
by Manila Workshops
August 1, 2015
10:00 am – 1:30 pm

Brush Lettering Meets Paper Cutting
by Googly Gooeys
August 22, 2015
9:00 am – 12:00 nn

Watercolor, Rubber Stamp Carving & Calligraphy + Gold Leaf Workshops
by Life After Breakfast

Craft Workshops
by Hey Kessy

Basic Drawing and Painting Workshop
by U.P. College of Fine Arts

So, in which workshop will you find your busy hands? 🙂