Planning Your Art - Ideas Plus Planning Equal a Successful Composition
It is all too easy to have a seemingly cool idea and discover that it just simply doesn't work.
To get struck with a burst of inspiration only to find out half way through the drawing that you don't like it and now you feel defeated.
There is an imperfect but more predictable process to help safe-guard yourself from this common pitfall.
First, you must think of your idea and define it.
Think of your idea and find a few ways to tweak it in ways that still encompass the original spirit of thought.
Spinning the idea gives options and options are good when developing the foundation of a composition.
If we are stuck on one idea, we tend to fail when that idea doesn't hold up.
Second is the process of planning.
Often, I use a series of loose sketches called thumbnails.
I know myself and how I ted to focus on to many details.
So, to combat this, I keep my thumbnails small so that I'm unable to add too much detail.
I can then focus on the overall idea rather than getting caught up in the particulars.
Sometimes in this step, I'll gather some image reference material from the Internet to assist me.
Last, I make a decision as to the best thumbnail image that best captures not only the original idea but my interest.
From there, I can either trace over the image by blowing it up and adding more detail or I can start fresh with the selected image in mind.
Here is a simple example.
Consider both "Ideas" below and draw thumbnails of the two.
Idea 1: A man tends to his garden with garden tools on a nice day.
Idea 2: A man bends down to appreciate his tomato while tending to his garden.
Now, put the two thumbnails side by side and decided which one appeals to you more.
Thumbnail 1? OR Thumbnail 2? After quickly drawing the images, it was very easy to see which drawing was more appealing.
The more appealing image will make for a much better composition.
Both ideas were pretty good but the second idea seemed much more interesting to me and therefore I was able to do more with it.
Now, you may have chosen the first idea and you may have made it work for your.
The point is that there were options.
If there had only been one option, I may have gotten stuck on the first idea and abandoned it or struggled.
As you can see, giving some forethought to compositions beforehand will make the process much more enjoyable and successful.
To get struck with a burst of inspiration only to find out half way through the drawing that you don't like it and now you feel defeated.
There is an imperfect but more predictable process to help safe-guard yourself from this common pitfall.
First, you must think of your idea and define it.
Think of your idea and find a few ways to tweak it in ways that still encompass the original spirit of thought.
Spinning the idea gives options and options are good when developing the foundation of a composition.
If we are stuck on one idea, we tend to fail when that idea doesn't hold up.
Second is the process of planning.
Often, I use a series of loose sketches called thumbnails.
I know myself and how I ted to focus on to many details.
So, to combat this, I keep my thumbnails small so that I'm unable to add too much detail.
I can then focus on the overall idea rather than getting caught up in the particulars.
Sometimes in this step, I'll gather some image reference material from the Internet to assist me.
Last, I make a decision as to the best thumbnail image that best captures not only the original idea but my interest.
From there, I can either trace over the image by blowing it up and adding more detail or I can start fresh with the selected image in mind.
Here is a simple example.
Consider both "Ideas" below and draw thumbnails of the two.
Idea 1: A man tends to his garden with garden tools on a nice day.
Idea 2: A man bends down to appreciate his tomato while tending to his garden.
Now, put the two thumbnails side by side and decided which one appeals to you more.
Thumbnail 1? OR Thumbnail 2? After quickly drawing the images, it was very easy to see which drawing was more appealing.
The more appealing image will make for a much better composition.
Both ideas were pretty good but the second idea seemed much more interesting to me and therefore I was able to do more with it.
Now, you may have chosen the first idea and you may have made it work for your.
The point is that there were options.
If there had only been one option, I may have gotten stuck on the first idea and abandoned it or struggled.
As you can see, giving some forethought to compositions beforehand will make the process much more enjoyable and successful.
