Home › Forums › Explore Subjects › Illustration › Long Term Illustration Project (75+ paintings) – How to keep going?!
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March 22, 2018 at 9:35 am #453347
Hi everyone,
TL;DR: How do you keep yourself working steadily on a long-term project, with a lot of illustrations, without falling off the wagon or off schedule? Bonus points if you can recommend practices that have worked for you with a similar project!
I’m currently working on a pretty big illustration project (for me) – a series of seventy-nine ink-and-watercolor mixed-media pieces, 9×12″. That’s 79 pieces NOT counting any re-dos I may have to do. It’s a Tarot deck, for those interested (and yes it has an extra card). So there aren’t really going to be repeated characters, just some motifs. Ideally the style should be consistent, and i certainly want to use the same materials throughout. I’m working independently, planning to do this as practice and portfolio items, or possibly self-publish.
Here’s my question : How do I keep my momentum? My momentum/motivation are great right now – I’m meeting my quota and then some – but I know from past experience that this won’t last forever. I’ll hit slumps, I’ll hit roadblocks, I’ll get art block (scream of terror here). I’m just concerned because in the past, I’ve bailed on most of my long term projects. It took me 15 years of trying to complete a comic at all, to even make a 30-page one-shot.
I’m working on briefs/scripts for myself for each image, and I have a solid write-up of what I want and intend the overall project to be. I’m taking the scheduling week by week right now, looking at taking pretty much the rest of this year to do this project (it’s March as I write this). I schedule time for painting as best I can, but I’m new at watercolor, and watercolor is not exactly a “fast” medium. Takes time for washes to dry, and such…
Anyways. Any help/experience would be much appreciated. Or stories from similar projects. Or just sympathy for my crazy self deciding to do this crazy huge series!
~Julian
Comic artist, illustrator, watercolor newbie, art supply junkie.
Art blog: http://julianjaymes.com
Read my comic online!: http://julianjaymes.com/sidelinesMarch 22, 2018 at 10:55 am #589364Hi Julian,
Personally I have 2 long term projects on the go but I constantly get interrupted by brain farts and daily strips. I find if I’m burning out on one thing then I’ll go an work on another. I try not to put too much pressure on myself to get these things out there but I try to create at least one cartoon a day whether it’s part of the main project or not. My main projects at the moment are a retelling of “this little piggy went to market” set in Trumps America and some illustrations for a book submission that a publisher requested. In the last couple of months I’ve motivated myself by streaming on twitch. It’s a super friendly community and if you work to a schedule then you sort of have a responsibility to stick to it. I stream about 2 hours per evening and always get a strip or single panel finished in that time. I also work exclusively in watercolour for my finished work.
Regarding watercolour, once you get comfortable with it the illustrations will fly out. What you have to remember about watercolour is that it’ll do it’s own thing. It’s a lot like a cat. You think you own it but it’ll take a poop in your sock drawer just because it can.
I’ve decided to kill all my social media today but if you want a longer chat etc you can message me on here or through the email link on my website.
Christopher
March 25, 2018 at 5:35 pm #589366Hi Christopher,
Thanks for your input! I really appreciate it. And what you said about watercolor is so true…I thought I’d own it, but it pretty much does what it wants and I just get to clean up after it as best I can!
I’ll look into Twitch. I currently post timelapses on YouTube, since I finally got a smartphone with a half-decent camera that does pretty good time lapses. I’ve only actually posted…maybe two or three? But I’m working on more. Just have to get into the habit of actually filming my work.
~Julian
Comic artist, illustrator, watercolor newbie, art supply junkie.
Art blog: http://julianjaymes.com
Read my comic online!: http://julianjaymes.com/sidelinesAugust 15, 2018 at 1:36 am #589367Create one piece every day and you will certainly move forward with your projects.
Sometimes I am able to create more than one illustration in a day, sometimes not, but the goal is always creating something in a day, even a smaller step forward is helpful.
You can do 75 paintings in 75 days depending on the complexity and techniques.
Petra Stefankova
www.petrastefankova.comNovember 2, 2018 at 8:41 pm #589365I have trouble with long-term projects (mine are mostly writing), but they’re very important to me. All I can say is “Set yourself a demanding schedule, expect to fall off the wagon sometimes, and always get back on eventually.” Good luck.
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