Blog Post 1 Creativity

     In this week's Creative Blog I wanted to share an exercise I read about in a book from class called Caffeine for the Creative Mind by (Stefan Mumaw and Wendy Lee Oldfield). The creative exercise was called Dude, Nice Koala Pinky! This Creative exercise talks about how a unique part of our anatomy is our fingerprint and how everyone's fingerprint is different. But one thing in common is for the most part everyone's fingerprint is almost the same shape. In this exercise I was tasked with combining both my fingerprints and an ink pad and playing with different variations on how to create an animal image out of each finger print on a separate piece of sketch paper for a total of five different prints. 

Thoughts

I found these exercises interesting and exciting but I did notice I had some challenges because not only is our fingerprint different but we all have different size fingers and it creates a different shape in each of our prints. Each different print creates a different shape and different shape animal. You can also use multiple prints to create odd shapes that fit odd looking animals or insects.  

Challenges 

    The materials needed in this exercise included an ink pad or paint, paper and possibly some colored pencils or markers for adding details. Adding the detail can be the most tricky part because you have to look at the finger print and determine what animal or insect you can draw with the size print you have on the paper. Once the fingerprints dry, use markers or pencils to add features like eyes, ears, legs, and other details to transform the fingerprints into animals.

Success 

    This was a fun little exercise because it can encourage participants to think outside the box, maybe a rabbit from a thumbprint or a fish from several fingerprints. I tried this exercise out with my 2 year old because I read that this exercise is often used in art classes or children's activities to foster creativity and fine motor skills. Some examples of ideas we came up with included a butterfly. We used two thumbprints side by side for the wings, then added a body in the middle with a marker. We also did a ladybug by making a red thumbprint and adding black spots and a head with a marker. You can also add tiny legs and antennae. Also a fish by creating an elongated fingerprint for the body and adding a tail and fins using a marker. You can make different colors for variety!