Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Coming out of hiatus!

Wow, it's been about two months since I updated my blog.

There has been stuff going on here and there, ranging from various dance projects to trying to sketch everyday all while futilely job hunting. Also, I added a header to Butterfli, and my website is at like a 1.5 version. I'm most likely going to redesign the whole thing again without finishing the current layout, but when I finally get that done, I don't know.

During this slow creative pace I'm now going through, I realize that as opposed to just wanting to make really good work for a portfolio, I've been learning about how I work. What styles feel natural to me, what methods best work for me. I tend to overthink during the preproduction phase, just sketching to find out the right composition or concept, and I always end up getting stuck. Always. Or at the least, frustrated and discouraged.

Perhaps the spontaneity is what I need. It's okay to not have a complete final sketch (my old Illustration professors would gasp). Maybe all I really need is just a basic idea of what could end up being a meaningful and striking image, and then use that as a jumping point when I begin the final and let the creativity do its own thing.

This newest illustration of mine is the first one I've managed to complete this year. I did not draw out a final sketch to come up with this final result. Instead, I had a different sketch that was very influenced by one of Audrey Kawasaki's older paintings, a colored pencil reference book that held step by step fruit renderings, and a picture of one of BoA's photoshoots that focused on her gorgeous hands and fingernails. Somehow, it worked.




The complete look isn't exactly what I had in mind, but I got over it and learned to be okay with it and moved on. Right now, the important thing is to just keep making until I do get to the point where my work could work with me and not fight me.

No comments: