E23: Start Your Art Project The Right Way! (3 Key Tips)

This is The Twenty Third Episode of the Visual Scholar Podcast - With Tim Mcburnie.
Starting a project can be both exciting and frustrating at the same time!
Often the things we do in the beginning can define the success we have in the end... or even if we are able to finish the project at all.
In this video I share my experience managing different artistic projects and the strategies I have developed to help people deal with the creative and productivity challenges that art projects offer!
Below is in Automagically generated summary so you can check out the content and also to help with search functionality!
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In this video, I delve into the essentials of starting and successfully completing your art projects. The focus is on the value these projects bring, not just as a learning tool but also as a means to define and express your artistic identity. Whether it’s a series of images, an art book, trading cards, or even a digital game, these projects can take various forms, each with its unique challenges and rewards.
A crucial part of this journey is planning. I emphasise the need to thoroughly understand and define your project's deliverables. These are the tangible outcomes, like a finished digital file in illustration or a game-ready 3D model in gaming. Drawing on my experiences, I illustrate the importance of this aspect, showing how it lays the groundwork for a project's success.
Another key aspect I discuss is the inevitable friction encountered during the creative process. This friction occurs as your project moves from an idea to a tangible form. While the initial stages are often full of optimism and creative energy, the reality of creating can be challenging as it often differs from your initial vision. Understanding and overcoming this friction is a normal and essential part of your artistic journey.
Defining success in your art projects is also vital. I talk about how to set clear goals and understand what success means to you. Is it about completing the project, achieving a certain level of quality, commercial success, or just fulfilling a personal creative urge? Knowing what you aim to achieve with your project is crucial for satisfaction with the outcome.
The video also includes practical advice on building a project 'skeleton' or framework and creating a visual map to track your progress. This practical approach, coupled with managing the emotional aspects of the creative process, is as important as the artistic skills themselves.
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This Podcast is designed to help you demystify the world of Art, Productivity, and Creativity. So you can get better faster, and enjoy your Art Journey. We discuss Drawing, Painting, Illustration and Entertainment Design. Along with Productivity and Career Advice.
The Visual Scholar Podcast is designed to help you demystify the world of Art, Productivity, and Creativity. So you can get better faster, and enjoy your Art Journey.
We discuss Drawing, Painting, Illustration and Entertainment Design. Along with Productivity and Career Advice.
Find Visual Scholar as an Audio Podcast Here:
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/6VbdwbiZqy8nqb90ruKQCX?si=21b9c1d02c85419f
Show homepage on The Drawing Codex:
www.thedrawingcodex.com/podcasts/the-visual-scholar
Learn more about Tim Mcburnie:
Learn Drawing and Illustration at The Drawing Codex: www.thedrawingcodex.com
Check out The Drawing Codex KZbin Channel:
/ @thedrawingcodex
Portfolio: www.timmcburnie.com
www.artstation.com/tim-mcburnie
timmcburnie
timmcburnie

[@zup9819]

Another Mcbanger

[@suhaybabdi9248]

Very underrated channel, love your videos! Probably the channel that has helped my art journey the most so far 😊

[@kjarts]

great. very informative, a great help.

[@lakasilum]

ive been binging your podcasts while i draw and I developed a Pavlovian response that everytime I hear your voice, I'm automatically at drawing mode lol

[@mandrewraiford]

Great thoughts, sir. Vision + Project Management + Execution = Completion & growth. Excellent episode.

[@Vestele8]

I found your channels maybe a month ago, I think your content is really helpful especially when I’m trying to create comic myself x) I’m always waiting for new vid so yeah, you should get more recognition here on youtube!

[@davidfernandez4851]

Agreed, planning is key. The old saying, "if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail."

[@EmeraldVideosNL]

The enthusiasm at the start, followed by the dying down of it towards the end. In work, essay writing, story of my life 😂 Such a grind to complete anything, especially once it becomes a 'job' for some reason.

[@domeddome]

Excellent video! I got a good taste of planning my own projects recently. I'm putting together my first physical zine, just a simple art/sketchbook zine. I've done a couple PDF only sketchbooks in the past, which clip studio makes easy enough to do. But with printing a physical zine I realized I need to plan out the offsetting of the pages, so once I have them printed, folded, and bound together, all the pages are in the correct order I intended. This lead to me spending a good bit of time setting up templates and my pages so that when I'm moving files around, I don't get confused and contantly have to double check everything. It's not the most exciting work in the world, but I see now how doing all this planning and setup at the beginning makes everything smoother once I'm well into the weeds of drawing and finishing up all the pages. I naturally took this planning and started applying it to a short comic I want to make. I got all the pages planned out, all the templates planned. Then I realized the story and designs need more work before I commit to actually drawing the comic. I always want jump in without much planning, but as I've improved my skills I've realized I'm just not at that level yet where I can jump in without spending plenty of time planning. I need more time to write out my stories, even if that's just me journaling. I also need more time designing my characters and the world they'll inhabit. The design part for me is especially important I think. If I don't like drawing my characters or settings at this stage, drawing the comic will become a real drag, and the story alone may not be enough for me to care to finish. A lot of us have continuously heard the "steps" for making comics, and it always is something like, "step 1: ideas, step 2: story. Don't start drawing before you've written your script". And I think, actually no, you should be drawing from the very beginning. Sure maybe you don't start drawing finished pages before your story is ready... but even then, maybe drawing a few test pages while working on your story is a good idea. The page design, panel to panel sequence, and how dialogue will fit in is pretty darn important to comics storytelling! We have to remember, especially if making projects solo, that we're human and not machines. If you can spend some more time early on to figure out if the project is even going to be fun to draw, maybe that can help tell you exactly what you need to work on.

[@thecat_iswatching]

I watched this through twice, and I'll probably replay once more so all the information sets in. Thank you! Something that stops me from ever starting, is that I'm scared which story or idea I send into the experimentation project. I'm always worried the trials and errors will eventually kill the story idea as well. Another reason I don't start, and it feels really silly to say, but I'm also scared to set an idea in motion and by the end of it my skills have inevitably grown stronger and changed so much that I scrap the whole thing because it isn't consistent. If that makes sense... I'd love to hear your thoughts or experience with this, and thanks for all your content Tim!

[@ratchetandchank8648]

I think that miss match of quality isn't uncommon in longer projects though. I think berserk is a good example of this. I think if you put the first chapter next to chapter 100 it would be really jarring, but the growth of the artist never bothered me as it happened over time. In fact, knowing that the quality is only going up creates intrigue. Hopefully you start your project good luck

[@thecat_iswatching]

@@ratchetandchank8648 I love that you called intriguing, I've never thought of it that way at all. It's encouraging to hear some people don't mind seeing the human aspect of these projects. Thank you so much for sharing!