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Tips from Author Donna Jodhan
Using Colors and Shapes to Create

For this month, I'd like to zoom in on how you can use colors and shapes to help you create. It probably sounds like what kids do and in actuality it probably is not that much different. You can definitely use colors and shapes to help you create and it is a great way to help stimulate your imagination and thought process. You can use this technique to help develop scenes in your mind.

Here is an example. Think of the color yellow and next pick a shape. I'll start with a circle and then we'll go from there. Yellow, and a circle. This may first seem to you as being a bit abstract or maybe a bit strange but allow me to go on.

Yellow happens to be my favorite color so when I think of yellow I think of things such as bright yellow curtains, bright yellow shirts, and bright yellow cups and saucers. Next for the circle and I'll think of a yellow circle in the sky; maybe the sun? A bright yellow circle, maybe a piece of beach land? A bright yellow circle, the light of a candle in a dark room?

If you find it difficult to combine the two then take one at a time and after generating images in your head you are now ready to start developing a scene in your mind. Here is an example.

A room with yellow curtains. A carpet with yellow circles for patterns. A circular lawn with yellow flowers adorning it. Circles on a sidewalk. These are all bits and pieces for you to use to develop scenes.

There you have it and happy shaping and coloring!