Stickman.com

Whatever you're doing, STOP!

Check out drawastickman.com. All you need is a mouse/touch pad and a few minutes and there you have it, a creative, fun treat for you to enjoy.

Anyone can enjoy this, however creative you think you are.

Good old fashioned drawing...with computers!

For some reason, mine's a bit grumpy. It's just how he came out. There's a character waiting to be created...are you up for the challenge?

Day 318: Working with Windmills

Here is a story all about a windmill. This windmill:

But this story starts partway through, as I, the story-teller can only retell the second chapter of it's life. It was found, broken and discarded outside a house. Its sails had fallen off, its paint chipped and old. The windmill had been forgotten, in a state of disrepair, or was it?

The lady who found it decided it wasn't the end for this windmill and took it home. With a bit of glue and a few coats of paint, the battered windmill was restored to it's former glory and sits in a sunny garden for all to admire.

And now it's found its way onto a creative blog! What a wonderful example of using forgotten things to make beautiful creations. You know what they say, one man's rubbish is another man's treasure. So keep your eyes pealed. You never know what could be waiting for you to restore. It's a great way to get creative and use your talents...

What will you create?

As for the first chapter of this windmills story, well, I'll leave that up to your creative imagination to discover...

Day 271: World Book Night

Following on from World Book Day on Thursday, tonight is World Book Night, which is aimed at encouraging adults to read and enjoy books. 1 millions books will be given away for free across the UK and Ireland by givers. They are enthusiastic readers who have applied for 50 books each to spread around. My housemate, Alice managed to get involved and is putting 50 copies of Beloved by Toni Morrison on a train in Swindon for people to pick up, take away and read.

There are twenty different book titles being given away including One Day by David Nicholls and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. So, keep your eyes peeled folks and you could land yourself a free book!

There are hundreds of events going on all over the place tonight, so get involved. Find out what's going near you here. In Trafalgar Square, London, there is a big celebration with over 5000 people attending and readings from famous authors like Mark Haddon and Phillip Pullman.

If books are your thing then this is your night. Hey, if books aren't your thing, this is the perfect opportunity to try them out.

Day 248: Just Volunteer

Goodness knows why today's entry is brought to you at 6:25 in the morning! I have been awake since 4:15 and thought, after two hours of rolling around in my bed, it was time to get up.

The truth is, I'm worried. I'm worried about life after I graduate and what anyone creative can possibly do for the world in a time of resession. No one's hiring, no one wants to invest in creativity and I just don't know what to do with all my creative enthusiasm.

But, after two hours of thinking, I have come to this conclusion. Us creative folk just need to volunteer for a while.

Last year I went into two secondary schools to teach creative writing (for free) and I loved it. In the summer I volunteered with the Bath Kids Lit Fest and loved it. This year I am volunteering with Bath Festival's educational department and, yet again, am loving it! It's amazing what people will let you do when you'll do it for free.

All of this stuff looks pretty good on my CV and so, I'm hoping that one day it'll get me a job I really enjoy too, but until then, I'm gonna keep on doing stuff for free. Life's too short to get caught up in making money.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you enjoy being creative, then just do it. Get involved and see where it takes you. What do you enjoy doing? What's going on in your area? Could you get stuck in? Doing stuff for free in a time of global resession is what's gonna make the world keep turning I reckon! I'm telling you, it's the way forward...

Day 102: The Credit Crunch and BP Portrait Award 2010

It seems to me that the government is cutting more and more creative funding all over the place due to the credit crunch, so how are we supposed to get any inspiration around here? Can we be inspired when we don't have any money either?

Well, I am here to say YES! I spent the day yesterday visiting gallery after free gallery in London. It really is amazing how much free stuff there is to do in London. I mean, just walking around looking at buildings, people and soaking up the atmosphere is pretty inspiring.

First, I visited The National Gallery where I stared at old, old paintings of mythological scenes, aristocratic families and religious iconography. Its so cool how stories feed art and in turn, art feeds stories.

Whilst having my lunch on the steps in Trafalgar Square I watched a bazaar mechanical design piece called Outrace move around, flashing lights and making strange noises (I think it would have been a lot more impressive in the dark).

Then, it was onto The National Portrait Gallery, which had the BP Portrait Awards 2010 exhibiting. Intricate portraits by contemporary practising artists lined the walls with hundreds of people viewing them. Perhaps the funniest thing was the sight of  twenty school girls sitting on the floor in front of one painting , showing a girl with ipod earphones in. You literally had to hop over them to get past. There was also a little photography collection by Jason Bell, showing famous Brits living in New York.

On the way back to the train station (sort of) I quickly popped into The British Museum (which is massive and cannot be 'popped' into!). I only had time to look at the Egyptian collection (briefly), which was awe inspiring! I got told off by a 'guard' for touching this absolutely massive stone arm, once belonging to a Pharaoh's statue. In my defense, I had to touch it, people made that!

Check out this website which lists free comedy, art, theatre etc in London and see what you can do. There is SO much (despite the credit crunch) you can be inspired by, all for the price of a train ticket!

See what's in your local area too. There's bound to be a museum, gallery, local art/writing/dance group or something, somewhere near you.

Feel free to be inspired wherever you are!