This is a brainstorming map of some ideas for a canvas I want to do for “A”.
[click to enlarge]
I’m always curious about how other people work. How other people do or make the things they do. The working process. Writers. Artists. Journalists. Innovators. I like to know how they came to that final peice.
Most big illustration works begin like this fo rme. on regular ruled paper with a pencil. Just a visual map of some ideas, briefs, possibilities.
I have three main ideas here, circled and roughly sketched. This is the idea stage so everything is sketchy and open and little bits of ideas will clutter every circle.
One of them, in this case the map idea, will be further developed with relevant illustrations, played around with in photoshop, see the light of day. The others will stay on that page, and hopefully also somewhere in my head, until a relevant opportunity brings it out again.
Usually, like in this case, the others may not be created for this particular purpose but their inspiration wil show in something else. Like here, I like the idea of a more abstract peice in which the central subject is actually removed from the picture. I think it adds a different kind of drama. And I like the idea of a comic book style peice, I haven’t done them i awhile and it fits the current writing mood I’m in. So the next person to have a birthday or order an illustration may see something in one of these formats giftwrapped for them.
You’ll see a real-life complete version of this when I’m done.
I usually see something that makes my soul go ping and I take a photo or I have a thought about a mandala and I try make a first copy out of stuff in the garden and take a photo.
Then I stare at the photo before going to bed every night until a deepening of the image appears.
hele:
yes, sometimes i need something to simmer at the back of my head for awhile without thinking about it consciously. usually that phase for me comes right after this one. brainstorm. pick the one i want. look at it before bed. sleep.