Drafts and how to abandon them

Aka always know when to leave the party

I’m creating new things at the moment so I’m doing a lot of doodling and tweaking.

I’m all for creating without the end in mind, but sometimes you do need to have the end in mind, you need to have a thing at the end of your creative energy.

When you are drawing to create a finished thing and not just for the mental equivalent of brain zoomies, there is a bit more pressure.

Maybe you are creating something for someone else as a gift or something that is going to be seen by other people.

It’s natural you want it to shine and be as beautiful as it can be.

There is a time for wild abandoned playtime and also a time to get focused and concentrate. Booooooooooooooo.

This is why you should employ this very easy technique to make your thing the very best

1- Accept that it is probably going to take you a few iterations to get there.

2- Accept that ‘there’ means the very best you can do right then , and that at some point like Leonardo da Vinci you will need to abandon it and stop.What is finished anyway? Nothing is ever really finished in art.

3 - Know that this won’t be a 5 minute job.

4 - Abandon rubbers and all that jazz- messy first iterations can help you find the soul and the spark.

5 - Don’t over polish- this is a really difficult line to tread. Sometimes you’ll get it wrong.

6- Don’t underpolish ( see above)

This is how I try and manage all these things👇

Do a version- walk away.

Come back the next day- Ask myself- has it tuned to crap overnight? Any glaring weird bits?

Do another version ,walk away.

Repeat.

Leave a couple of days in between but never toooo long else the soul of it kind of disintegrates like ash. And no one wants that. Disintegrated soul ash.

Then most importantly,

Stop.

At some point you must stop.✋

The thing must now fulfill its destiny.

(Always know when to leave the party, my number one rule for life.😂)

✏️✏️Doodle challenge

⏰Set a timer for 10 minutes

☕️Grab a brew

✏️ Doodle 1 thing that was special about today.

✨ EXTRA DOODLE LEGEND POINTS- go back to it a few days later. Could this little doodle be made into a card to send to a friend, draw it again, copying your original but this time on a blank card. Don’t rush it. How was that? What do you think about the outcome? Let go of good and bad judgements , is it appealing or not appealing? Look again tomorrow, how do you feel about it now?

📩 Bang a stamp on it and send it to a friend - they’ll love it, however you feel about it. (You know I’m right)

Let me know if you doodle anything and how you feel about drafts!

Speak soon,

Amy xx

✂️ Sketchbook Snippet

This is my dog Barry who makes an excellent model. Drawing from life is such a good way to practice your drawing. As you can see some of these are a bit weird and wonky but I share in the hopes to get you doodling too. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Your sketchbook is a place to play❤️✏️