There is a concept in writing, known as the fast and dirty first draft. The idea is start writing and not stop until all of the ideas have flowed onto paper. Don't edit, don't reread, don't revise, until you are exhausted, until you have given all you can give.
I find that this concept applies to many creative endeavours, painting, drawing, even photography. Create today, refine and edit later. One feature of digital photography that screws up a lot of creative energy is the ability to immediately play the image back on the screen. For some this becomes an obsession, checking and even deleting images immediately. I am not saying I never check, but I check rarely, and don't delete. You may well find that the image that looks imperfect at the moment, has great meaning and value later. Save the bad images.
In painting, you can revise and repaint. One technique is to create a quick underpainting, and then revise, refine and edit in layers. Many of the old masters always painted this way.
Pausing to edit, breaks the creative flow. There are two problems, while micromanaging the current idea, other ideas will slip away never to be recovered, and the creative flow can be difficult to restart once it stops. Don't stop, until you have a exhausted the creative flow or you have a complete first draft.
I tend to use the fast and dirty method, often in my drawings, too.
ReplyDelete