Remember—anything worth doing is worth overdoing—DO IT BIG!
I totally overdid it for one of my assignments. So much that my “concise” images became these stylized, high-contrast compositions. And I have been battling the urge to scrap everything and start over, all because I’m afraid I didn’t do the assignment “right.”
Overdoing led to me overthinking. Typical.
But I realized a few things as a result…
I will forever blur that line between illustrator and photographer. And I know, I know, I’m not alone. But in comparing my work to that of my peers in the class, that’s when I noticed it, how I approached framing my drawings like I was framing through a lens. And know that I do not mean that as a flex; it’s just an observation of how I can’t let a drawing just be a drawing.
No matter how much I fight it, I work very meticulously, almost to the point of perfectionism. Once I get an image idea in my head, I have to make it. I pulled reference photos and even past sketches and drawings to rework into what I wanted to do for this project. And then I sketched everything digitally so that I could just knock it all out on the index card without working and reworking over and over again. It should have been a streamlined process, and it was until I started inking everything and something didn’t turn out. Three drawings I had to start over again. Not a huge deal, but it took time, and I didn’t go to bed until I was done.
I was so worried about going overboard for a project that really should have been a lot simpler than I made it. And then I remembered what my art teacher wrote in my yearbook a million years ago: “anything worth doing is worth overdoing.”
The anxiety won’t go away, but at least I can recognize it and keep reminding myself what Mr. Lauxman said.
