Breaking it Down

Remember this principle? It’s worth repeating.

1. There are steps that happen in between the initial conception of a piece of art and the finished piece.

So many steps, in fact, that it can seem overwhelming and impossible at first glance. Making art requires us to break down our process into smaller baby steps so that we know how to proceed.

Smaller building blocks work together to create the foundation of your artistic toolbox. I like to think that I possess an ‘arsenal’ of different techniques, that I can pull from as necessary to render the image I’m working on.

Depending on your current skill level, you might want to start with the major building blocks, like honing your color mixing or shading techniques.

When you seek out to render a final image, it is wise to break the image down into several sections and practice each section BEFORE attempting the final piece. For example, if you want to draw a portrait, break down the eye, nose, lips, and hair separately, so that you can make your mistakes in your sketchbook and not on your final piece. You then can learn how to correct those mistakes without having to overwork your piece. The beauty of sketchbook studies is that there's no pressure to get them right, so you relax and you experiment. In that frame of mind, you improve much faster.

In the time it would take you to draw a lesser quality portrait, you can practice lots of small studies, dramatically reducing your frustration and increasing your confidence with the process. You are then ready to start a final portrait, which will be much easier to render and which will result in a more polished and refined piece of art.