Tag: creative

So Edits, Many Drafts, Such Work

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Get your red pens out. It’s time to edit!
Part Three of my series on the creative process
Missed the previous posts? Here they are: Intro | Part One | Part Two

This is the most time consuming stage of the creative process. This is when you’ll grab your grammar police badge and mark up your first draft with a red pen. Be ruthless to yourself. This is when you’ll step back from your drawing and fix any stray shadows or messy lines you missed. For graphic design, this is when you’ll make sure your image’s attributes are correct (aspect ratio, for instance). Is something stretched too far? Is it squished too thin? Is everything spelled correctly?

Once you get that next draft going, it is time to consider getting a second pair of eyes. Word to the wise, keep your battered rag-doll of a first draft buried within the confines of your hard drive. I learned this the hard way. A first draft is something that only a mother can love.

Why hide it from the world? There are more flaws in a first draft than there are in a second or third. The human eye has a knack for narrowing in on mistakes and things that are out of order, especially if they are obvious. The more noticeable the flaws, the less likely you’re going to get helpful feedback.

Everyone will point out that you misspelled that one word in the title. They will flock to the banner in your graphic that is stretched just a tad too much. That eye you forgot to color in? That’s what they’ll see.

How fast did you spot the error I put in there? 

…Or something worse will happen. You’ll get ripped apart. You were so proud of your initial creation, that you skipped the three Ps of making something awesome. I completely relate to this temptation and have made this mistake myself. You’ll learn all about that in my next post.

The most difficult part of editing, revising, and perfecting something is the attention span needed for such an undertaking. Trust me when I say that staying focused is the hardest part of this stage. Here are a few personal things I do to help keep myself on track:

1. Fix myself a non alcoholic drink that isn’t water (water’s great and all, but it’s boring. I find drinking a glass of juice helps).

2. Listen to classical music. Oddly enough, this one works. If you can’t stand the idea of classical music, there are a number of heavy metal bands who’ve done concerts and special albums with symphonies
       Metallica – S & M
       Apocalyptica
       Trans-Siberian Orchestra

3. Reward yourself with something after you’ve reached a certain point. Working for a reward is always a motivator for me!

The Three Ps of Making Something Awesome

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Plan, Practice, and Patience!

Plan 

Something amazing is buzzing through your head, and you are compelled to create it. This is the part where you jot your awesome idea down. Here are a few suggestions that have always worked for me in the past:

Art/Crafts – make a few quick sketches
Writing – make an outline of the basic premise
Graphic Design –  piece together a diagram.

Now is the time to figure out what your idea’s purpose is. This is the most important stage because everything that comes after it builds up to your project’s meaning. How will the story end? What feeling do you want your painting to evoke? What message is your graphic design ad/cover/logo getting across? Asking those basic questions opens your mind to a huge flow of new ideas.

Let them come. They will improve upon your initial idea. Sure, there’ll be some doozies that fall flat, but they will only help you sharpen and forge your idea.

Practice 

This stage is straightforward and doesn’t need much explanation. Remember that annoying phrase, “Practice makes perfect?” Draw multiple sketches to hone your design in. Incorporate some of those fresh ideas from the planning stage and see what works best.

Write a few quick scenes to get a feel for your characters (they don’t have to be a part of the final story, just write them to get the creative juices flowing). Revise that outline. Play with different colors, fonts, shapes, and themes for your graphic design piece.

Keep doing this until your sketches and scenes begin to look and/or feel refined.

Patience

Now that you’ve figured out your end game and have a few sketches, scenes, or [insert your brand of genius here] under your belt, you’re ready to sit down and build your creation. Don’t rush it. Create another draft if you have to. You want this thing to pop.

Once you finish it, resist the urge to declare that it is done. Resist the urge to post, publish, or send it in. Patience is a virtue that is hard to tame. Set it away for a day, two days, or even a week. When you come back to it, you’ll feel as though you have a fresh set of eyes. I’ll go into more detail about this in my next post, So Edits, Many Drafts, Such Work.

Plan Your Genius

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Stop and look both ways before crossing the street!

You’ve got this great idea. It might be the most awesome thing since instant coffee, and you want to rush your fabulous thing so that the world can see it! We’re talking ASAP. You scramble faster than a NASCAR driver at the Daytona 500 and zoom through that final lap. You post it on the Internet.

…Aaaaannnnnd you wait for the likes. The Internet is dead silent. You ask yourself, “Why?” Your thing has all the fabulousness of Thranduil, King of Mirkwood riding his beautiful elk into battle, right?

This is a pitfall everyone has fallen into at one point or another, myself included. You’re giddy, and you feel young again! You have all the excitement of a 10 year old kid who just finished stringing a macaroni necklace. The teacher loved it. You show it off to your parents. DAD LOOK WHAT I MADE! LOOK HOW AWESOME! You got that instant thumbs up back then. It was a sure deal.

Posting your stuff on the internet is much the same. You just finished something amazing, and you crave those digital thumbs ups, recognition for your hard work. You want to be patted on the back—it is only human to desire validation and praise, so don’t feel bad for craving it.

Look at this sketch for example. I was excited after finishing it, I mean John Smith as a Romulan Commander!? Heck Yeah! It’s an okay first attempt; I’ll give it that, but I know it can be so much more than what it is. Was I tempted to blast it on every channel of the Internetz as soon as I finished it? You bet I was!

Back to your awesome thing you just posted. Where did you go wrong?

Every good product comes with planning, practice, and patience. That thing you posted was awesome, but what if it was only the first draft of something even more amazing?

Look at John Smith now. I listened to that tiny, inner voice of mine and decided to draw another sketch and to perfect his face. Sure, I could have colored in the first attempt, but I don’t think it would even compare to this one. I took the first sketch and decided to do another one, this time using many reference pictures of the actor instead of just one.

The bottom line is this: don’t rush. Take that awesome thing and wrap it in bacon, and by bacon, I mean your genius because your genius is one of the few things more awesome than bacon.

I will discuss ways and provide tips on how you can mold your first attempts into amazing works of art, prose, or [ insert your hobby here] in my next post, The Three Ps of Making Something Awesome.

I Love Cardboard

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Day 4: Post a talent you have. 
 I found a Post-A-Day prompt for September on Pinterest (there is much more to that site than food and Mrs. Cleaver’s favorite picks). Here is a link to the pin: Pin me!

 Since it is obvious to anyone who visits my blog that I write and draw, I had to go digging for something else. I can’t sing (you do not want to hear it. It’s like a wailing cat or screeching eagle). I am an okay dancer, but it’s nothing to boast about. I don’t do magic tricks, so this left me in quite a pickle! 

Then I remembered that I used to build things out of cardboard. I haven’t done it in over a year, but it is something I’m good at. All of the cardboard creations you see in this post decorated my cubicle at my old job. I ended up giving them away to coworkers right before I left. I sometimes do wonder if they are still around.