Creative Ecosystems

A sketchbook prompt (+ a free printable)

I was out for a walk a few weeks back, right around twilight. As I rounded the corner, a bright orange something caught my eye. At a distance, I was unsure just what I was seeing. So I hopped the ditch, braved the mosquitoes and made my way into the woods. And what I saw was this mushroom.

I should preface this by saying that I know virtually nothing about mushrooms and will never, ever eat one in the wild because my ID skills are nascent. But after poking around the interwebs, it seems the orange mushroom might be Amanita Flavoconia (mycologists, feel free to correct me). And what fascinated me with this variety of fungi is the symbiotic relationship they have with hemlocks, the very same trees that surrounded the specimen. I marveled at everything that comes into play for a single orange mushroom to exist.

This interconnected relationship between fungi and trees got me thinking about creativity. Art results from a myriad of possibilities that all combine in a single work. We may not be orange mushrooms, but we do depend on the alignment of multiple variables to ignite the creative spark. So I created an exercise, to see what possibilities resulted from a set of parameters. Think of it as artistic symbiosis.

Be forewarned, this is alternately entertaining and maddening. The idea is pretty straightforward: choose one item from each of the columns and see what evolves in your sketchbook. I tried to work out how many combinations are possible, but the mathematics made my head hurt. Let’s just say, it works out to be a lot. Download below (free for personal, school and library use).

Ecosystems

3.42MB ∙ PDF file

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My first attempt was to draw fungi (A), using oil pastels, (B) with the timer set for 15 minutes (C). The oil pastels were my grandfather’s. I’ve been keeping them for purely sentimental reasons because they’re just not my thing typically. But I found their bold expressiveness matched with mushrooms to be actually quite enjoyable. Also, looks like the green patch of fungi in the middle of the page is sentient. Hey, it’s 2025. Anything can happen, right?

My next combination was to draw clothing (A), with marker (B), using my least favorite color (C). I am not a fan of pink. At all. I own exactly one pink garment and that’s only by accident. But the selected parameters resulted in shapes and textures I probably wouldn’t have tried otherwise. And that had me wondering if using something unfamiliar was stretching my thinking in different ways. I still don’t like pink, though. Sorry.

And my final combination was a person (A), with graphite (B), using my non-dominant hand (C). This one, oof. My initial frustration was through the roof. I couldn’t manage consistent lines and my mark-making felt unpredictable. I compensated by going s-l-o-w-l-y and focusing on blocks of value, rather than line work. And at that point, things began to feel more interesting. It made me think about drawing speed a lot. And rendering tightly vs. loosely was a real consideration.

So all this from a mushroom? Yes, all this from a mushroom. Here’s hoping you find your own symbiotic relationship with any number of creative things.