I start every project with a panic that I have no ideas, whatever I'm asked to do isn't what my style is suited to and my creativity is spent so I'm finished. I've done this so many times I see it as normal now, so although I go through the motions and I genuinely believe them I try and put them to one side and have a go at what is asked of me sort of thinking that this one doesn't matter and the last project that I did was more important so that's the one that really mattered.
I like to draw and doodle ideas then I'll do a bit of research to try and back up or disprove my ideas. I also think about what I'm trying to achieve when I'm doing other things like walking the dog or driving to work. I do come up with some ideas when I'm trying to go to sleep or when I first wake up if it's a day that I don't have to leap out of bed at a stupidly early hour. I think that some of my best ideas are aha moments when my brain makes a leap off into an odd direction though sometimes they might be a bit odd for what I'm trying to do. Research is usually mainly online but it might lead me to a book I need to read or an exhibition that I should see.
Usually I like to do more than one version of a response to a brief. Often the first version isn't particularly good though sometimes subsequent ideas are worst because I'm over thinking things or getting into too much obscure details. Also I like to give my customer a choice of ideas, sometimes they see something in my less favoured version which can change how I respond to a project.
Time management is very hit and miss. Sometimes I'm reasonably efficient and everything seems to come together well but I often feel that I've spent too long on a project getting lost in ideas and details or over polishing my image until I've killed it off. Because I work in the evenings after work it's easy to drift, I'm a bit tired so my focus isn't there and I'm not very efficient. I do pet portrait commissions and illustrations for veterinary scientific articles and I always meet the deadlines set, so I can work within a timescale though a lot of these projects don't require an enormous amount of imagination more technical drawing skills.
I critique my work all the time. There is a constant voice in my head that tells me everything that I do is rubbish. I try and tune it out but I think it limits my creativity at times, it doesn't happily settle for an "unfinished" image so I have a filter that doesn't let some of my looser work through. I try and get round this by showing my working process on my blog and offering more than one version, the proper finished one and something that is a bit more experimental. I try and keep asking myself whether the image fulfils the brief and try and go back to re read it several times during a project to be sure that I haven't missed something or wandered off completely on the wrong track. I try and get someone else to look at my work too in case I'm not making sense. The problem is that many people are just too nice so it's difficult to get an honest view. I have put some of my images up for critique in the forum but sometimes you get so many different viewpoints that you end up more confused that when you started. My adult kids are very helpful and I do ask their opinion when I'm stuck.
Sticking points are always at the start and probably about 2/3 of the way through when I feel that I've spent too long on an idea and I need to wrap it up. I don't usually have much trouble finishing though I often find a bunch of new ideas pop up at the end which could merit exploration. To be honest when I'm done I'm completely fed up with the project and eager to try something different (until I read the brief and decide it's not for me....) I do find it difficult to raise the enthusiasm to revise projects after I've submitted them to my tutor for feedback. I can do it, but I often fell that I've lost the rhythm when I come back to them.
What are my strengths? Hmmm. I guess my drawing skills are quite good though I'm never satisfied with them. I am reliable and if I say that I will do it I will give you something on time. (I know that I have extended OCA deadlines but that's usually because I've been asked to do something for a personal client and there aren't enough hours in the day.) I'm good at communication and I can work with clients and give them choices in what they get and I don't mind changing things a bit to suit their needs, scientific illustrations need to be quite precise and specific. I'm less inclined to modify my style for my portrait commissions, if you don't like what I do you don't get the picture and you don't pay, there are many others out there who have different styles so in that circumstance I think that it's better to change artist than to try change me.
What do I need to improve? Confidence, especially to offer something different but also to say that I'm an artist/illustrator and to be seen while I'm developing a drawing when its at the dreadful what on earth am I doing here? stage. Creativity to come up with the ideas that are different. I need to work faster and more efficiently both when I'm drawing from life and want to capture people in action, but also to come up with more ideas and variations but not spend weeks over it. I need a bigger audience on my blog or at least some people who will comment on what they see good or bad I don't mind I just want feedback. I need a better understanding of the Adobe suite to be more efficient in manipulating my hand drawn images for publication. I need to persevere with digital drawing on my phone. I need to be better at using paint rather than coloured pencils and I need to use more collage to underpin my drawings. I could go on.....
Finishing
Wait until the deadline looms or I realise that I've spent 6 weeks on the same project. Panic a bit. Tie up lose ends. Think of loads of things that could make it better or a completely new direction that I hadn't considered before. Decide that there really isn't enough time in my life and that I could do a whole degree on whatever the project is so publish it on my blog. I probably should set a mini deadline where I review where I've got to and where I'm going maybe a week before the end although I work in uneven bursts so it's sometimes difficult to see when that will be. Maybe a mini review each time I come back to a project would be more realistic but that might be too frequent to get the necessary overview.
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