Happy New Year (that’s if the Gregorian calendar is your thing, otherwise Happy Sunday)!
It’s been an exciting year here at Line In HQ (current location: Chiang Mai, Thailand). As well as travelling to some really neat places and meeting some thoroughly excellent people, I’ve been involved in a number of exciting projects, both personal and as a Professional Inter Web Page Maker.
One of these personal projects was an attempt, started at my busiest time (naturally), to draw 3 new illustrations a week for an entire year.
I don’t know why I’m speaking of it in the past tense, as it only began in September. Perhaps it’s because, of late, I’ve been involved in an even bigger and more exciting project (more details coming soon) so I haven’t been able to dedicate as much time to this as I’d like
However, I definitely don’t want to be Announces Internet Project Then Never Completes It Guy, so I do intend to get back on the drunk, three-legged horse and force the hoary ol’ mare over the finish line by the 1st September 2012.
But in order to do that, I’m going to need to get better, faster.
Which brings us, in a most roundabout fashion, to the point of this post. In pursuit of this noble ambition, my sketchery output has increased dramatically since I began. Recently I revisited some of these sketches and there were some very obvious lessons to be taken from what was (and wasn’t) there on the page.
Being in a particularly reflective mood, I decided it would be a good idea to note down some of these lessons lest I make the same mistakes for a whole another year.
Then I went one further and thought it would be nice if I drew out the lessons.
Here’s what I learned.
1) Choose A Path
The Page that Started It All.
I found that it was important not to get hung up on the first draft. Choose a path and commit to it 100%. Sketch to the page, loose and quick, then work at it to make it better.
2) Tell A Story
Vision: Have a Story To Tell
The greatest technical chops in the world are useless if you’ve got nothing to say. These two bland and unexciting chaps exist in the ether, with no point or purpose to their existence. As such, they lack the punch of some of my more successful illustrative attempts.
It’s important for me to know what I want to say first. Then I can worry about how to say it.
3) Put My Everything into Everything
Make Beautiful Thumbnails
Thumbnails can be loose, sketchy and quick or they can be carefully crafted. They can be vague approximations or precise considerations.
But whatever they are, they deserve my attention. I’ve been guilty of doing thumbnails distracted when they require as much focus as any other part of a project.
Every time I draw a line on a page, I want to be fully committed to that experience. Not rushed or distracted, simply aware of the pleasure of pencil on paper (or stylus on graphics tablet).
4) Finish It Up
Finish It Up (however bad it seems)
I originally abandoned my Robots vs Tentacles sketch because the very early version was a horrible mess and I got frustrated.
It’s only when I was flicking back through the book a few weeks later that I saw how close it was to being something useable. I worked at just a little bit more (it really was only like 5 minutes) and it turned into one of my favourite pieces of the year.
What struck me was how close I was when I gave up: Darkest before dawn and all that, I guess.
5) Plan My Sketches
Plan My Sketches (and fill the space)
This is one mistake I would definitely like to stop in 2012. I’m forever just opening up a new page and starting bang in the middle.
It’s always worth taking a few moments to think about what it is I’m drawing and plan accordingly. A few super-light lines to block stuff out is also a good idea.
2012
Turns out that Learning From Your Mistakes is a super useful exercise!
I’m hoping that taking this time to recognise the mistakes that I’m repeatedly making will hopefully go a long way to stopping them from happening again.
I wouldn’t, like, bet on it or anything.
But I’m hopeful.
