Image source: Thepinstripedsuit.com
Just yesterday, we made a post on our sister blog about becoming a freelance digital effects artist. The article got me thinking about time — specifically, how digital artists have to manage their time.
It doesn’t really matter whether you’re a freelance artist or if you’re on a company’s payroll. Odds are good that you have a deadline-driven job. That can be problematic because artists can be… well… (how should I put this nicely?) kind of fickle.
I’m not bashing on artists. I am one, after all! It’s just that a lot of artists have a tendency to be loosey-goosey and have a go-with-the-flow attitude about life. There are plenty of artists with type A personalities who always want to get things done as soon as possible, but by and large artists aren’t exactly well known for their ability to follow strict schedules and plan for the future. That’s why we’re going to talk about time management skills today. Creating a schedule isn’t as fun as creating digital art, but it’s a vitally important quality of great digital artists!
Image source: Christainnewyork.com
I’m one of those people described above. I’m slow. I push things off to the last minute. I like to take breaks and let my mind wander in the middle of a project. I’ve tried plenty of times to buckle down and make myself more organized, but it’s just not the nature of the beast. That’s why (in my opinion) the most important step to being more organized is to be honest with yourself. Don’t think that you can suppress your nature by writing down a schedule, because then you’ll just end up ignoring your schedule altogether. If you like to take breaks, then include time in your plans for breaks. If you like to push things off to the last minute, schedule something fun (but productive) to do at the beginning of the day so you don’t waste all of your time. Work with your preferences rather than against them to maximize your efficiency.
Art is organic. It changes, grows, and evolves in the artist’s mind as a single idea gradually blooms into a beautiful piece of art. For that reason, waiting is actually an important component of digital art. I think that’s one of the reasons why artists tend to be so flighty — the best art pieces arise after an artist has had time to explore the idea in his head before committing anything to paper (or the computer screen, in our case). Don’t think that deadlines destroy your brainstorming time. You can set up milestones so that you can brainstorm artwork during your normal downtime.
Image source: Colormekatie.blogspot.com
What do I mean by this? Suppose that you’re given the task of creating a character model in three days. That means that in the middle of the project you’ll have two evenings to go home and think about your work. It’s always a good idea to plan out your project so that you’re at an excellent stopping point on days one and two so that you are in a better position to brainstorm after you leave work. For example, build the model in its entirety on day one and then leave all of the coloring to day 2. By dividing your work into chunks, you’ll be able to approach each phase of work with a fresh mind that isn’t burdened by all of the baggage of yesterday’s problems.