A Creative Process – Planned Art

(Follow along with this free pdf Artwork Planning worksheet.)

You Start Where You Are

While there is no one correct way to practice creativity in Art, there are a few methods that I’ve found to be reliable. Of those, they boil down to being either planned or semi-unplanned. Which one I use is determined largely by mood and recent experiences.

They say art doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Indeed, it does seem that artists are continually digesting experiences and discoveries, and in turn, producing their own unique output. So if I have recently stumbled across something I found particularly inspiring (interesting enough that I want to explore it) I will use a structured, planned approach to begin a work of art.

A Planned Approach to Creating Art

Most traditional works of art were planned to some degree. Under many famous paintings you will often find underpaintings which are basically sketches made with a medium compatible with whatever the artist chose for the finished work. What you see when you look at such paintings is the rendering (techniques and mood) and afterthoughts of the artist with the gist of the original idea shining through.

Therefore, a planned approach, like a painting, is easiest applied working from the ground up.

The Approach

The layers (or steps) are usually: inspiration (or the initial idea), the composition sketches, observations and notes, the refined sketch, then finally the rendering process and afterthoughts.

Step 1) Inspiration

Completely unpredictable, inspiration for artwork can be found anywhere there is something you find interesting. Anytime you find something that you would like to work with by incorporating an aspect of it or by exploring what you can do with it in art, you’ve found inspiration. It could be anything from a rendering technique to a good cause you want make people aware of. You know you’ve found inspiration when you find yourself being drawn to something, have an inexplicable urge to make use of it and feel a sense of continued interest once you delve into it.

When considering the role of inspiration in art making, it becomes clear that the creative artist’s first job is to contemplate the initial idea. Whether they end up evaluating them, organizing them, exploring them, or making other use of them depends on the artist. Not all ideas make it to the finished stage. In fact, some never even make it to the thumbnail sketch stage.

Step 2) Composition Sketches

Small thumbnail sketches can give you an opportunity to work out the big picture early on to save you from spending time making major changes later. Whether they are just an arrangement of shapes with labels written on them or 4 slightly different poses of the same subject, they get you into a mindset of making choices. After all, creativity involves making choices.

Step 3) Observations and Notes

Ideally, after each stage of the creating process, an artist should evaluate the progress of the idea and make choices about their next moves. With most mediums anything can be fixed along the way. In fact, learning to make use of your mistakes instead of erasing them can be a good approach to creativity. However, it is still a good idea to make notes along the way before making changes so you can reflect on them if later needed.

Step 4) The Refined Sketch

At this point, only one thumbnail is selected to further develop. It is usually redrawn larger and more details are added. Sometimes, the refined sketch might become a complete drawing. Other times. It is more of a line drawing finalizing what you want to be sure to include in the artwork.

At the conclusion of Step 4, you have developed a more complete idea of what you want to create. It will serve as the prototype for the finished piece.

Step 5) The Rendering Process and Afterthoughts

By the beginning of Step 5, half of your creative choices have already been made. Now, you move on to working with whatever materials and mediums you have chosen for producing the finished artwork. Here you can focus on technique, style, ambience, etc. Then you just have finishing touches and afterthoughts left to add.

Any or all of the steps might get repeated until you are happy to move on. There are many choices to be made. It is worth noting that even the smallest choice can have a drastic impact on the finished work.

Choices I prefer to consider about midway, somewhere around the Refined Sketch stage, include dominant color and impact color, style and medium.

Most often I will draw the ideas on cheap paper then redraw a cleaner version of the refined sketch on the good paper or canvas I intend to use for the actual work. For digital art, I usually transfer the sketch to my laptop then redraw it as a vector drawing in Inkscape. Either way, 70% of the time I begin with a simple pencil sketch of the basic idea.

The Odds of Coming Up With A Good Idea

Not every idea sketch works well. However, I like to think of it as there’s usually at least 1 out of every 20 or so ideas worth pursuing. Although, sometimes you have to go through all 19 bad ideas to get to the good one. Dry spells tend to be periods of incubation and usually occur just before a giant leap forward. For me, I’ve found that how long they last is related to how resistant to change or growth I’m being at that time.

A Note on Overcoming Artist Block

The basic cure for artist block is usually to get inspired. Check out new things, even those unrelated to visual art. Go do something different, learn something new, check out new music. The beauty of visual art is that anything that exists in the human experience can be filtered through it and thus be a source of inspiration.

For more information on creativity and art, check out the page Discover You As An Artist.

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