How to Stay Creative in Quarantine // North Carolina Painter Senior Portrait Session

Whether you are bored to death or feel like you are putting out little fires everywhere, it is important to stay creative during this quarantine. Creativity, whether you are a painter or not, can lift your spirits and help you stay positive during this extended stay at home. There are several ways to be creative – the first one I’ll cover, is fairly obvious – ART!

Here are some ideas to get you started:

Step One: Start with a Brainstorm

1. Think through your feelings about all that is going on
2. Think about things and people you miss
3. Write a list of things you are thankful for
4. Think about new memories from before the virus hit and during the last month.

Step Two: Choose your Medium

1. What do you have on hand? Crayons or chalk can work, colored pencils, paint, pastels, markers, scrap paper or fabric, leftover spray paint, glue, scissors, a pencil, and of course, paper, canvas, a piece of flat wood or a stone – get creative.
2. Do you want your piece to be realistic or symbolic? You can paint or draw something lifelike, like a flower, a scene from your favorite place, or a portrait of a person. Going for symbolism? Try cutting or printing clippings from news stories or pictures of things that bring you joy and create a collage with them. Or go for the completely abstract and just stick with strokes and shapes to represent what you are feeling.
3. Try thinking about what colors make you feel certain ways. Are you sad and disappointed? Go with blues and grays. Do you want to portray joy and gratitude? Yellows and oranges are the colors you may lean toward. Stick with similar colors and hues, choose complimentary colors from opposite sides of the color wheel or try all the colors of the rainbow!

Step Three: Calculate or Dive in

1. Plan out your idea with pencil and paper or just look at your medium and pick a point to start.
2. Let your hand and mind guide you. There are no mess-ups here. Paint or draw your feelings and ideas out. If you’re going with a collage or mixed media collage, start gluing! 
3. Let your work evolve with how you feel. You can finish it in an hour or keep coming back over the next few weeks. There is no wrong way to do this. 

My daughter and I tried our hand with some old scrap wood and some acrylic paint we had on hand. We now have a beautiful piece to remember our Easter at home. We also have done a lot of sidewalk art! Scroll down to see our home art 🙂

Before the Coronavirus and stay at home orders were even a faint rumor, I got some of my high school senior team together for a senior portrait shoot involving paint! The theme for my team this year is “Creativity” and this was a bucket list photo shoot I’d been dreaming of. All three of these girls are painters, and I wanted to make sure to keep it authentic. We had such a fun afternoon playing with paint – even on their faces and arms! Unfortunately, we cannot do any more team shoots during this time, but hopefully soon!

Lindsay Corrigan is a portrait photographer located in North Carolina specializing in children’s portraits, dance portraits and high school senior portrait sessions.

Home Photos from my iPhone: