Prompt #65 - Two Separate Sides of Rorschach

Can you change your perspective?

Hi, I‘m Lorena and welcome to The Stress Less Pencil. Together, we create art to make us feel good, not to make it look good. All weekly prompts are designed for total beginners and experienced artists alike, so let's go!

Photo by Christopher Bill on Unsplash

When tackling challenges, be it at work or in life, I often confront the uncomfortable truth that thinking outside the proverbial box doesn't come naturally to me. I'm really good at finding creative solutions within the boundaries of the problem that I've been given. But rarely is it my first instinct to say "screw it, let's just burn the whole box down”.

There are some ways of thinking, that are hard wired into my brain. But even this wiring can be changed with some practice. One way I try to get outside my own head is to try and change perspectives. Put myself into the shoes of a different person. How would my Dad approach this issue? What would my mother think about it? What questions would my boss ask? What would my best friend propose? Or the all-time favourite:

WHAT WOULD BUFFY DO?

Today, we'll try changing perspective to break down the walls of our own mental box.

The Activity: Two separate sides of Rorschach

You'll need some form liquid paint for this - watercolours or acrylics for example - and two pieces of sturdy paper that can handle that paint.

Step 1 - Prepare the Smudge

Take one of the papers and generously add your paint. Choose 3-4 different colours and apply it randomly to the paper. You also want to leave some white spots.

Take the second piece of paper and press it onto the first. Pull the two sheets apart. The result should be the same paint smears on both sheets of paper, just inverted. Like the two sides of a Rorschach image, but on separate pages.

Rorschach Test. Source: Wikipedia

Step 2 - That's one way to see it

Once the paint has dried, take the first page and have a look at it? What do you see? Take a black pen and draw outlines to turn the image into what you first thought of.

In the image above, I would have turned the red blob into a sea horse, the blue blob into a crab, and the smaller blobs into flowers and fishes.

This first side should not require much mental effort, just go with that first comes to you.

Step 3 - That's another way to see it

Now take the second page and repeat this exercise, but this time try and see something else in the picture. This will be tricky at first. Your mind will automatically go back to the thing you already identified in your first picture.

There are a few things you can try to quite literally change your perspective here. Try and turn the page around. Maybe something reveals itself when you look at the problem upside down? You can also squint your eyes, or think what another person might see.

In our example, I might have gone for a red high heel show stepping into a puddle.

Once you have the new image in your mind, take your black pen and add the outlines.

Well done! You have looked at the same thing twice and have seen two different solutions. Next time you're facing a new problem, try looking at it upside down. Maybe this was Spiderman's secret all along.

Photo by Jean-Philippe Delberghe on Unsplash

My Example

I randomly added a bunch of water with a big paintbrush and then added four different shades of watercolour. Here are the blobs I got to play with:

And here is what I came up with

I started with the image on the left, where I immediately saw a bird, and some leaves and flowers. As expected, the one on the right was a bit trickier, but admittedly a lot more fun. I’m calling it “Fantastic Beasts and where to find them boxing”. I started with the dragon on the right and then just made it up as I went along. And yes, the dragon does indeed fart out of its back.

Tye process, and the result, remind me of something I read about brainstorming ideas. First, you need to get out all the obvious ideas, the ones that come to mind first. Get rid of everything your brain has seen somewhere else and is just regurgitating. Once you’ve purged all the recycled material, that’s where really new and creative ideas start to emerge.

On that note, happy week and happy boxing!

Love, Lorena