The State of The Union: Part 3

1. Describe your typical creative process, from getting an assignment to finished piece.

My process varies a bit from piece to piece, but I'll almost always start with a list of word associations or mind mapping. After that I'll move on to thumbnails... and then I take a giant leap from thumbnails to the final piece (I should never do this). If I decide on a painting, I will do an underpainting in either acrylic or subtractive oil wash. If I'm using my tablet I'll scan the thumbnail or a sketch and start from there. I'll build on the sketch or underpainting to the finished piece. More often than not I'll tweak the values or composition I started with, because I had left out the valuable step of using tracing paper after thumbnails.

2. Describe what you think your creative process should be like.

Well, it starts the same way with mind mapping and word associations. Then I should move on to thumbnails. Tracing paper should come after thumbnails, and I would start by redrawing the compositions on layers and moving them around- a lot like one would do in photoshop or illustrator. This part of the process should be the foundation or skeleton of a piece. Tracing paper would help me discern what aspects of the composition need rotating, a change in value, different perspective, or removing all together. The details in the final piece should be just icing on an already lovely cake after tracing paper. I'd then scan the tracing paper and print to scale to be projected onto my working surface for the finished piece. I'd trace my lines and take up where I left off in question 1.

3. Research and describe a professional creator's creative process.

I read a bit about George Balanchine the famous ballet choreographer and I noticed that his interests were not limited to his creative field. He immersed himself in music by enrolling Petrograd Conservatory of Music where he learned to play and compose on a piano. He was also interested in filmmaking, theatre, teaching, music theory, and education.

Creative professionals generally share the same inspirational drive that Balanchine had with his career. Their interest in the creative process is so great that they must branch out into other mediums to have full understanding of their craft. It is important for me to learn from that example and become more learned in other processes, creative and otherwise.