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Welcome back to the dust, Brave Souls.
Tonight we are digging into the archives. This is a session on Ideation and Practice.
Sometimes you have to go back to the basics. Sometimes you have to open a sketchbook and just let it be ugly.
The Hardest Part of Design
I was talking to chat earlier, and I mentioned something that I think is universal for creatives:
The hardest part about any bit of design is nailing down what you are going to plan out to draw.
It’s not the drawing itself. It’s the decision.
It’s looking at the blank page and committing to a direction. That is where the friction lives. That is where the resistance shows up.
So tonight, I’m just dropping in thumbnails. I’m trying to get the gear down. I’m trying to grease the wheels of ideation.
Sketchbook Rules
I started a new sketchbook recently while I was at the park with my son.
I have a rule for my sketchbooks:
The first page is always going to be nasty.
I don’t try to make the first page pretty. I don’t try to make it a masterpiece. I scribble. I doodle. I break the seal.
Because if you try to make the first page perfect, you will never fill the rest of the book. You have to give yourself permission to be messy right out of the gate.
Notes from the Spec
I’m going back through my spec—my notes on the world—and thinking about what needs to be visualized.
When you are worldbuilding, you have all these ideas floating in your head or written down in text files.
This culture does X.
This creature looks like Y.
But until you put it on paper, until you thumbnail it out, it’s just ether. It’s just smoke.
So the practice tonight is about grounding those ideas. Taking the text and turning it into texture.
The Ask
We are building this world one ugly sketch at a time.
My Ask: If you are stuck on a project, if you are staring at a blank page, do me a favor. Ruin the first page. Scribble on it. Break the seal.
And if you want to support the work I’m doing here, share this with a friend or check out the BoneShop.
Until next time,
It’s your boy Howler.
