Art, wandering & a life made by hand.

Hi, I’m Meg. Northern Plume is my small corner of the internet for art, wandering, making things and anything else that catches my fancy along the way. It is my digital journal of a creative, slightly eclectic life.

Home

About Meg

Archive

  • The Prompt Made Me Do It: 75 Creative Prompts

    Confession: I have tons of art supplies, tons of creative interests, and no shortage of things I could make.

    What to actually create? That is another matter.

    I have wanted to challenge myself to create more consistently, learn new and different techniques and maybe push myself outside of my artistic comfort zone a little. But I also know that when the creativity starts to feel like homework, the fun is gone.

    So I thought I’d spice it up.

    Enter The Prompt Made Me Do It, a collection of 75 creative prompts to inspire experimentation, build skills, and introduce a little creative chaos to the process.

    I’m not just giving you a list and wishing you good luck. I’m with you in the struggle!

    I’ll be documenting my progress here on Northern Plume, including the successes and failures of the prompts and whatever artistic choices are made along the way.

    I’ve already begun on Instagram, where I’ll also be posting little glimpses of the process.

    And you are welcome to join us!

    A Little Creative Chaos Never Hurt Anyone

    The idea is pretty simple: make art, try new things and see what happens.

    I’ve assembled 75 prompts that combine skill-building, creative exploration and good old-fashioned experimentation.

    Some are simple, like working on color combinations or practicing a certain technique. Others ask you to let go, to do something new, to think about a known subject in a completely new light.

    The goal is not to produce 75 masterpieces. It’s to give yourself 75 opportunities to learn something, to find something out, to just have fun making art.

    And, perhaps most importantly, to remember that creativity doesn’t always need a purpose beyond the joy of creating.

    Rules? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Rules.

    Okay, a couple of rules maybe.

    Make it yours. Many of these prompts were originally inspired by watercolor painting, but there’s no reason you can’t adapt them to drawing, collage, mixed media, acrylics, or whatever creative medium makes you happy.

    No expectations. Give it a shot. Not everything you make has to be a masterpiece. There will be some great experiments. Others will be spectacularly dodgy. Both matter.

    Forget about the timeline. The prompts are not date-specific, so there’s no pressure to keep up with anyone else. Create something each day, once a week, or whenever you can steal a few moments.

    Give yourself permission to play. Experiment with new techniques. Use colors you wouldn’t normally use. Mess it up. Let’s see what happens.

    Enjoy the happy accidents. Some of the most interesting discoveries are those that happen when things don’t go right.

    And most importantly, don’t let the desire for a perfect final product get in the way of enjoying the process.

    Come Join Us In The Creative Chaos

    I will be working through all 75 prompts, and posting updates here on Northern Plume as I go.

    I may turn out something I’m actually proud of some days. On other days you might end up with a spectacular mess. Both will be shared as that is the whole point of experimenting and learning.

    I’ll be sharing my work in progress, the techniques I’m trying, the colors I’m playing with and any little discoveries I make along the way.

    And who knows? Hopefully, by the end of this challenge, I will have learned a new skill or two, found some favorite techniques or finally figured out what to do with some of the art supplies I’ve been collecting.

    Or maybe I’ll just have 75 pages of colorful chaos.

    Either way, I deem it a success.

    Interested in giving it a try?

    If you want to join in, I’ve made a free printable with all 75 creative prompts, checkboxes included, so you can track your progress.

    You can scroll through them one by one, choose the one that appeals to you, or pick a prompt at random when you feel stuck creatively.

    There’s no right or wrong way to get involved.

    GET THE PROMPT MADE ME DO IT – FREE 75-PROMPT PRINTABLE

    And if you do decide to try it, I’d love to know how it goes!

    Share your creations, tell me what you’re experimenting with, or follow my progress here on Northern Plume and over on Instagram.

    Because it’s a lot more fun when we’re willing to make a little mess with our creativity.

    Stay curious. Make a mess. Go forth and make some art.

    ~Meg

    Download the Free Printable: The Prompt Made Me Do It – 75 Creative Prompts

  • Welcome to Fall

    I have always loved fall.

    Bright blue skies with cotton-ball clouds provide the perfect backdrop for trees dressed in shades of golden yellow, brilliant red, and burnt orange. The mornings begin with a crispness in the air, but the afternoons are still holding onto a little warmth. And all of that is accompanied by a feeling of renewal, while most of nature is preparing for a long winter’s nap.

    It’s a bit of a paradox, isn’t it? A feeling of new beginnings in a season that largely is about things coming to an end.

    It’s also the time of year when Penny and I do a lot of hiking. While the evenings get shorter, our hikes get longer. The woods are also quieter as the summer crowds thin out. We often see deer walking through the trees, squirrels and chipmunks rustling through the fallen leaves, and occasionally even a porcupine. Of course Penny is busy following every interesting scent she can find with her nose. Meanwhile, I’m usually looking for one of my favorite things.

    Mushrooms.

    They fascinate me endlessly. The amazing variety of shapes and sizes and colors and textures. Some are so small you could pass right by them without noticing; others impossible to miss. They are weird and wonderful and sometimes downright strange. It was really everything I love about the woods in one strange little being.

    This love affair with autumn, hiking in northern Michigan, the natural world, and our odd little mushroom friends seems like a good place to start this blog.

    I have been blogging on and off since 2009. The original version has long been lost into the depths of the internet, probably living somewhere alongside abandoned MySpace pages and questionable early Facebook posts.

    But lately I have wanted something else.

    I’m in a season of life where I want a little change. Not a dramatic reinvention, but a new beginning. A space that feels like mine, where I’m not worried about the algorithm or if instead of taking pictures, I made a reel instead.

    A quiet corner of the internet, where I can post photos from a hike, a painting I made that I happen to really love, or a book I can’t stop thinking about. A place to talk about a movie or TV show I just watched, a new creative obsession, or whatever strange little trail my curiosity takes me down.

    I don’t really want this space to be about one thing. My interests have never been strictly categorized and I see little reason why I should start forcing them to be now.

    Maybe that is what this new beginning is all about. Creating space for all the things that make life interesting, without feeling compelled to turn them into something else.

    A bit less noise. A little more curious. And probably lots of mushrooms.

    Welcome to my small corner of the internet.

  • Hello World!

    Welcome to WordPress! This is your first post. Edit or delete it to take the first step in your blogging journey.