Wednesday 14 July 2010

Re-Working

I've been working on the design of a mailer type thing, and it's taken me ages, it's ridiculous.

I sort of did a sketchy first version, which wasn't quite right, so I re did it a bit, still all sketchy, and still wasn't happy, so I tinkered with bits, and faffed around, and faffed a bit more, and re-sketched some of it and felt dis-heartened.

Then I started again and re-sketched it all loosely, and re-jigged it and faffed and tinkered a bit more, but still wasn't happy with it, but wasn't sure why.

Then, I decided to work into it a bit more, to decide what each of the bits in it was going to be like.
And once I'd drawn it all properly, not sketchily, I realised there was too much in it, it was all a bit busy, and I also realised I didn't have a proper sort of concept or idea behind it, really.
So, I had a cup of tea, and thought about it a bit and suddenly had an idea for a concept and composition.
So now it's all drawn and I'm going to do the colouring.
But this initial bit has basically taken about a week, and I feel a bit like I was wasting time faffing around.
Maybe if I'd drawn it all properly earlier, I might've realised what was wrong with it earlier, which is a bit frustrating.
But I'm trying to persuade myself that the faffing was all an essential part of the creative process.
so, now I'm trying to do the colour nice and quick to make up for it, but I find colour really hard.
Best bet is to just launch in and whack it about a bit, I reckon.
No good being timid in this sort of situation.

I think I'll quickly and loosely put a bit of colour on, get it all covered, and then I'll have a cup of tea as a reward.

But anyway, here are some a sketches of a doggie that's going to be on it.

2 comments:

  1. I do that ALL THE TIME. I've *finally* noticed that I do it, which is in my opinion an enormous step forward, even if it's not, say, solving it. What I've finally figured out is that I'll keep fussing and fussing and fussing if something is fundamentally not right with what I'm doing, except instead of noticing that, I just fuss. Hopefully moving forward when I start doing that I'll know to look for the fundamental problem, not the niggly detail...

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  2. I've had experiences like that, with writing rather than drawing, but I think the two processes have lots of parallels. When you get to the end, you feel as if whatever took so long for you to reach that point was a waste of time and effort exactly because it took you so long. But I've found that even if I don't use much of what I've written there are always at least one or two, sometimes more, little useful elements in there - flakes of gold dust among the other mundane specks.
    And isn't tea a wonderful reward?!
    P.S. Cute dog - quite regal!

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