Drawar

I think I over plan- I'll see something or have an idea that strikes my fancy and then I am compelled to do a sketch . . . then I worry about composition - on and on until finally I get to paint. Usually it's a few weeks of planning until I get to the easel. I'm making an effort to be a bit looser - but I suppose each artist is different in the amount of prep time. I'm working for the day I just sling paint and call it done.

I'm not an artist in the traditional sense (I write and, at best, scrapbook), but I am most definitely a planner. When I scrapbook, I measure, trace, and cut until something is absolutely 100% perfect. If it's not, I go back and do it again, planning even more.

I wonder if the visual arts are like the written ones -- a sort of back and forth between what you have in mind when you begin and what you discover as you get further into a project.

When I write fiction I have a general idea of something I want to know more about, and a structure in mind (generally the structure comes from the form), and then I begin. As I go, I do a little more planning ahead. But I love how things come to you -- things you never thought you had in you -- as you write. And then, when I finish, I go back to what I've done and try to impose a little order. It's a back and forth thing between articulating your intentions, losing yourself in what you're doing, and then standing back and trying to straighten things out a little. Someone once said that writing can be like driving at night -- you can only see as far as your headlights will illuminate, but eventually you will get to your destination.

It depends on WHAT I'm making.

If it's lathe work I HAVE to plan it out... if I'm designing anything using digital media I don't typically plot out all my moves before I work.

Thanks for answering, guys. :) I think it's interesting that most of us--myself included--change our planning according to the medium. Are there any studies about that? Because usually people just paint others with one brush, saying they're either organized or unorganized.

Like RIghtOn mentioned, it really depends on what I'm doing and if you consider it to be art. The custom HVAC work I do can be labeled as art with all the pretty bends and detailed planning, at the end it's a maze of shiny copper and I love looking at the pipework. That particular art-form (yeah, it's a stretch) requires a ton of planning but when I'm working on prototype stuff or digital projects then I just go with it and analyze later what I constructed.

My brother is a full-time painter and has two exhibitions a year, one in London with 40 or so landscape oils of Provence, France and the other is an exhibitoin of his large abstract work. He earns his entire income from painting. He tells me he plans quite fully but leaves space for flexibility in between. He knows how many paintings he can manage in a week/ month and goes to his studio from 8.00/9.00am till 5.00Pm or so and works at it till he's done. The quantity output requires him to plan to ensure he's got enough work in both types of his genres by the deadlines set by the galleries.

I'm a photographer in my spare time and a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, UK. Although I haven't had an exhibition for 6 years, all my work falls into two categories or projects; I plan ahead. One of my themes is trees and the other is church interiors, all in monochrome and produced by hand in my traditional darkroom. I keep to projects because over a period of years (14 for my tree project and 5 years for church interiors) my portfolio builds up and now is large enough for another large exhibiton in one theme or the other, or a book publication. I am attracted to photograph many other things too, people, places, abstract and although I'll photograph a few, I restrict it. If I do too much of on other things I'll end up with a disparate collection of bits that don't hang together in the way I'd lik , I'll not know what to do with the random pics as they don't fall into a project and it distracts me from my main themes which I get so much fun from. I've got more than enough work to do anyway with limited time. I've currently got 34 rolls of exposed film waiting for developing and printing, and 80% falls into my themes of churches or trees. Site.

So to answer the question, I plan ahead but it's without a final result in mind where as my brother plans ahead with definite exhibitions and results in mind.

I came close to failing a design course or two because the teacher didn't like the way I executed my ideas.

According to them you CANNOT design anything from your head... it has to be planned out. So they wanted to FAIL me for not using THEIR preferred method of planning. Even though my work beat out others who HAD followed his ideas when submitted for gallery spaces.

No two people are identical in how they reach the finish line.

NoelKingsley: That's awesome! It's incredibly inspiring to me to hear about people who really make their living by painting and photography.

As far as the thread, when it comes to designing I got into the habit of layering trace on top of trace until I have hundreds of different sketches and ideas layered out. When I go back and look through the stack I begin to notice the evolution of the ideas and sometimes pick out where a wrong turn might have been or good ideas that were left behind. A huge benefit of this idea for me was the act of pushing myself forward and to KEEP laying it down and getting even terrible ideas out on paper, I've often had some of my best design ideas or realizations come when exploring an idea most would deem stupid or pointless to explore.

Hi all, my first post.
As a full time artist of ten years I can tell you that the medium often sets the pace. Oils require forethought and planning, photography can be either spontaneous or planned. I now work in HD video and can tell you that it requires a lot of planning to get the look your after. For me the genesis of the idea usually comes after or during a sleepless night. I now have to right them down or the thought flee quickly (shades of Dali). Then the preparation, then the execution, then the assessment. The prep seems to take the longest and provides for a fuller realization of the concept. Sounds crazy but I'm an abstract minimalist. Nature teaches me the most and requires attention to detail, hence the long development times. Nature reveals all art, and all art is a reflection of nature.
Giant

Halfway my getting organized, making plans and GTD I am distracted by something. I think that says it all.

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.

In regards to art: If I have a certain theme in mind, I'll look for stock photos that are connected to it. Yet, most times, I'll just be browsing stock and get inspired to use it for something. (Sometimes it takes a little while to get made, though.) Or I'll be working in Apophysis or Bryce and will get an idea that way.

In regards to web design: I usually start with a colour scheme of sorts. Then I decide how I want to lay out the content.

"Dreaming is the one way of planning"....Without Planning I cant do anything. Planning saves time and work.Wooden garden benches .

I tend to do a few thumbnail drawings before starting something big.
But as you said sometimes its just when the mod strikes, i just start drawing or doing some graphic design.Like for example this piece i create is when "the mod strikes" flickr. It only took me a few hours to create with no thumbnails or real set goals.I then usually set goals for myself and try to exceed them, it helps create a better piece of art.

Little planning. Lots of revision. Not many finished pieces.

I think if you're going to be spontaneous you sometimes have to learn to accept the results rather than revise ad infinitum.

The pieces I finished were semi planned and there was a structure to the process.