The First Steps to Starting a New Illustration
The first few crucial steps that I take with each one of the room illustrations is in the Careful preparation of my Dura-Lar. This month I am on Room 011, I have learned the hard way how important it is to be careful and precise with the preparation of any new piece no matter what the material, because in a short while it could be a masterpiece.
Today as I set out to begin a new room illustration
(check out other room illustration here) and I found it difficult to do so. When making art, starting is always a struggle for me. It's often when I make my first mistakes. Sometimes, the concept of a piece or metaphor is exciting enough to get me started, but what happens when the excitement wears off? I get stuck in the middle of the process and find myself needing to make difficult decisions that I am not prepared to make.
It's easy to advise someone to take a step back, take a break, a breath, and look at what your working with—to re-evaluate. But I would like to know how many of us actually take breaks as often as we should? I know I don't. Too often I catch myself saying, “what I really need to do is to push through it, or I'll go back to that smudge and fix it later.” I sometimes even leave entire spaces blank. Of course sometimes we do need to push through problems and leaves spaces blank, but I can't count how many of my paintings still have that blank spot, leaving them unfinished. The problem for me can always be traced back to the beginning during the set up. Whether it's a sloppy under drawing or simply being too caught up in the desire to get lost in the whimsical world of painting and creating, I can forget the importance of taping down my edges, cleaning my palate, or changing my brush water.
Sometimes it's Good to Break the Rules
The nature of my technique is as organic as any, but the beauty lies in the order as much as the disorder. I tend to strive for a special kind of balance, and if I'm lackluster in the beginning, the end product is bound to be the same. I don't mean to imply that I don't allow my intuition to take over, or that it's irresponsible for me to bend my own rules. In fact, my favorite part of my technique is getting the opportunity to know and understand the materials that I use. I am a sucker for being mesmerized by creating texture, putting on rich color, deep black lines, and using the materials in general. Sometimes I find myself making quick changes in order to showcase the beauty of the texture.
However, the truth is that I can't always predict how the pigment is going to react to a wash, which brush stroke the ink is going to grip and flow through. It's even hard to predict whether an air bubble will be a problem or a blessing. All I can do is set myself up for success and follow through with my intentions. To me, this means that I need to enjoy and honor the order and discipline of art making as much as my natural need to express and communicate through it.
Developing Technique through Self-Assigned Projects
The room series has allowed me to practice my technique in a way that no other single illustration ever could. Sure I have applied some necessary rules to ensure the cohesiveness of the series, and some of those rules do include the prep-work. The guidelines I have set for myself in this series has brought to light my strengths and shortcomings as an artist, and in the mean time I have developed a technique that works for me. Most of all, I have learned that the beginning of any project is crucial. In addition, I have learned that having the patience to tape down my edges and set up my work space is as important as understanding my materials. The series of illustrations The Invention of Rooms embodies the very practice of my technique. The technique I use to create these images is applied in a very specific order and practice is about perfecting the order so that while painting I am free to simply paint.
The Creating of Room 011
The first few crucial steps that I take with each one of the room illustrations is in the Careful preparation of my Dura-Lar. This month I am on Room 011, I have learned the hard way how important it is to be careful and precise with the preparation of any new piece no matter what the material, because in a short while it could be a masterpiece.
Follow my process and my technique of creating Room 011 and others by checking back into the blog category The Process of Creating.
Posted in The Process of Creating. Updated April 30th, 2011.
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