Different illustrators work in different ways. Many of the elements of your creative working process will be similar to what we have outlined, but there may be variations, different emphasis in different places, areas that need development or particular strengths.
Reflect on the projects you have been involved with up to this point.
- How would you describe your creative working process?
- What stages do you go through?
- How and when do you critique your work and what questions do you ask yourself?
- How do you manage your time?
- Where are the sticking points?
- What do you think are your strengths and where do you need to develop further?
- What’s the process of finishing your work?
Write a short outline of your working process. Include flow diagrams if it helps describe how you work. Be as honest as you can about how you actually undertake project work.
Reflect on your relationship to ‘finishing’ your artwork. Is this an area you struggle with? Identify how you might get around this issue.
My Creative Working Process
How would you describe your creative working process?
At this point in the course, I have developed a fairly consistent, systematic approach to my working practice. Although it does need some improvements, it does seem to be quite a logical and productive process that suits me. I seem to work best within a structure and clear guidelines, hence my preference for closed briefs, as too many options allow for procrastination and lack of motivation.
I have based this exercise on my creative working process with reference to the work produced for this course as opposed to personal work, for which I have a much less structured approach. I do believe, however, that being more disciplined in my personal work, although not for doodling, would be very beneficial and result in improved productivity in my work overall.
What stages do you go through?
This is a general overview of my creative working process, but, of course, this would vary depending on the requirements of the project.
I begin each exercise or assignment by reading through the brief, more than once, to understand what is being asked of me. At this early stage I may have a few initial ideas, but a more recent addition to my process has been not to settle on a particular concept too soon. At this point I will begin imagining potential ideas in my mind and this will continue to be an ongoing part of the process.
Unless there has been a corresponding Research Point prior to the Exercise/Assignment, I will undertake some research, for example, to find practitioners who have focused on a similar topic within their own work or look further into a historical element of the brief. I do tend to go quite in depth with my research, especially when it is a subject that I find interesting.
Alongside the research stage, I will usually draw out a mind map of the particular topic and, hopefully, some associated themes and words will come to mind. I do not always find mind maps that helpful, but occasionally an idea will be sparked this way so I do try to ensure I include one of these each time.
The next part of the process is to draw thumbnails of any potential ideas. I have recently come to understand just how useful these are for creative thinking and I try to do as many different drawings as possible. These thumbnails will be very rough to begin with, but hopefully at least one of them produces a spark worth pursuing.
Assuming that one (or more) of the thumbnails depicts an idea I would like to develop, the next stage is to scale up and draw out some rough sketches, which will evolve into drafts.
At the point where I have produced a clean final draft I will decide whether to transfer from analogue to digital, for example, to add colour. I used to work almost exclusively in digital form, but this has changed and I generally prefer to work in analogue for the early stages. It has resulted in a much improved level of drawing, which I can then (hopefully) apply in the digital realm as well.
I will then add colour and make any further additions or clean-up, as required.
The final part is the reflect on the Exercise/Assignment and consider how successful it was. A recent addition to this process was to list and discuss five aspects that went well during the task and five aspects that could have been improved upon. This has been a very useful tool in having a balanced approach when analysing the outcome as I do tend to focus more heavily on the negative criticism of my own work. This approach allows me to define areas that I can try to improve upon whilst also acknowledging some of my small achievements.
How and when do you critique your work and what questions do you ask yourself?
I believe it is important to consistently question the creative process and I do try to implement this at every stage, although this does not usually prevent one or more calamity from occurring. This is definitely a part of the work flow that I need to improve, implement on a more regular basis and be more effective with it usage.
I am not always the best at making changes, so I feel that it is probably ideal to be most intensely critical at the earlier stages of the process, before any decisions are ‘set in stone’, but one should always be prepared to be adaptable and make changes, if this is required to achieve a more positive outcome.
Some of the questions that I should and do try to ask myself include:
- What is the illustration trying to communicate – is this message clear?
- Is the composition working?
- Am I meeting the requirements of the brief?
- Have I made good colour decisions?
- Have I reached a point of conclusion?
- Are the font choices working?
I am sure there are many more questions that could be included here, but it is not something I have ever really taken stock of, I just tend to do it as part of the creative process. Perhaps this is an area I need to consider more fully as I progress through the course.
How do you manage your time?
Time management is certainly an area that I need to work on. I think the main reason for my issues with this is the lack of a structured timetable. Most other parts of my life tend to run on a regimented schedule and I, therefore, need to find some way of combining this more effectively with my creative work.
Overall, I feel I do dedicate enough time to my course work, I just tend to spend too long on particular parts of it, because I find it interesting or I want to try and understand a certain aspect more clearly. I then realise that I have so much more work to do and start to panic!
Other aspects of life tend to merge into the time I should dedicate to personal illustration work. I feel this is the area of my creative world that is the most neglected, much to my enduring annoyance and the lack of consistent practice is evident when I do not see much improvement.
Again, I do believe I would be making better progress if I was working to a timetabled routine, which required attendance to classes and regular submissions of work.
Where are the sticking points?
Some of the areas that can often lead to challenges during the creative process include:
- difficulties coming up with any workable ideas.
- lack of certain technical abilities – I know what I want to do, but do not have the required knowledge or skills to achieve it.
- lack of access to certain tools and materials.
- self-doubt, self-criticism or lack of self-motivation.
- poor time management (as discussed previously).
What do you think are your strengths and where do you need to develop further?
Areas of strength include:
- Hard-working – once I have an idea to work on, particularly in an area of illustration I enjoy, I will put all my effort into it.
- Imaginative – I believe I have quite a peculiar, vivid imagination that allows me to think of creative ideas and scenarios.
- Inquisitive/Curious – I really like learning about most things (although I am sure I must have limits…) and then considering the challenge of how I could represent these in a visual, creative form.
Areas that require improvement:
- Be more experimental – I need to get out of my comfort zone in terms of materials, style and subject matter, for example.
- Become less emotionally attached to my work – I need to learn not to take constructive criticism of my work as criticism of me as a person.
- Regular, substantial drawing practice – I need to incorporate this into my daily routine as a matter of urgency!
Reflect on your relationship to ‘finishing’ your artwork. Is this an area you struggle with? Identify how you might get around this issue.
I would say that I generally reach a point when I feel that the art work is acceptable and have run out of time to do any further amendments. This often means I have not been able to add lighting effects or any other final tweaks. If I had the time to include these, I believe I would usually be able to conclude at an appropriate point to leave the artwork and not over work it.
Sometimes I do produce a few versions of the ‘final piece’ with slight variations and I find it difficult to choose the ‘best’ one. This is an example of when regular feedback from others would be beneficial.