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Intuition From Einstein to Frankenstein - How I Failed for Two Hours Straight (Process Video + File)
🕑 Added 2023-09-02 16:29:23 +0000 UTCHey everyone!
In today's video process, you'll see me struggling with an idea for two straight hours. I often don't share these failed attempts, thinking they're not relevant to your learning process. However, I was so frustrated with not capturing what was in my mind that I thought, maybe, there's something you can take away from it, or maybe you can relate in some way.
The problem was simple: I had this scene in my head emotionally, but it wasn't visually clear in detail. Sometimes, I have a very loose idea in my head of how the picture or scene should feel, and then I proceed to shape that feeling with lines or brush strokes. Sometimes this ideation process in my head comes with some suggestions of how the characters should gesture, but often this suggestion is rather vague.
At first, I wanted the character inspired by the bear to be bigger than the character inspired by the cat, substantial enough to cover a significant part of the composition. In the meantime, the cat would act as a secondary character. The short backstory of my reference picture was about a lonely bear plush, either sad or forgotten, and then this little cat comes along to offer some kind of company. My initial interpretation was similar, one friend offering support to another; the smaller character being the positive energy around the bigger one, who was kind of depressed. To spice things up, I thought the bigger one should be like a Frankenstein plush, not alive but in pain because he's not human or something along those lines. However, something was off; even though it was relatable, I didn't like the fact that the form of support involved alcohol. Plus, this bigger guy was clear in my mind, but the little one, the cat, wasn't. What was his motivation? I'd done a similar cat character a few weeks back, and I really didn't want to go down the same road. These things often pop up while I'm in the process, and I can lose track of all the characters I've done and fall into repetitive ideas if I'm not careful.
After an hour wrestling with this 'Timon and Pumbaa' dynamic, I took a break and thought about making the size difference even more extreme. The cat was already considerably smaller than the bear plush, so I thought of a different storyline—something more in touch with the Frankenstein situation but seen from a more innocent viewpoint. You've heard this kind of story before; a child or teen finds a big, weird creature. These stories are often about innocents who don't judge the monster, which is also innocent in some way. At this point, the idea and the little story were clear, but the scene wasn't. I knew he needed to be sitting and the child standing so he'd look bigger than he is. That was the first approach. I nailed the child character on the first try; even with very sketchy lines, I can often tell if I like something. But the bigger character was different. I kept changing his shape, face, body pose, proportions, clothing—everything, but something was still off. What was I doing wrong? Then it hit me: the ideal image in my head was from a frontal view, almost from the ground up, making the feet look bigger and the head smaller. I had been drawing him from a top-down view, so he didn't look as big as in my mental image. For more specifics on character perspective, you can check out this link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/anatomy-meets-2-84952708.
The way I resolved this was by positioning the 'camera' not from a top view but from a frontal view. This way, the big guy's torso would be the same size or even bigger than the child, and both legs would wrap around him. After trying a very simple shape, it felt more in tune with the picture in my head. After that, the process was more relaxed and loose. It's often this first step in the creative process where I struggle the most: how to shape the ideas.
Conclusion: If you've been reading my previous posts, you'll know that I often share different formulas and methods. They're practical tools to bring some order to the chaos of your process. But during that process, it's important to stay true to the intuitive process in your head. That barrier you hit when trying to give shape to the images in your mind must be shattered with persistence and patience. So my advice is, jot down your technical process and use it as a tool to chase that ideal picture in your mind.
Fun fact: I was listening to the audiobook 'Einstein: His Life and Universe' by Walter Isaacson, and one thing that struck me was Einstein talking about the importance of creativity and intuition in his process. I never thought art and physics had much in common, but I'm delighted to find out they do.
Also, I'll try to keep the articles a bit shorter than 1000 words. I know I tend to go on, and it might be hard for some of you to keep up. I'll aim to be more streamlined and straightforward in the future.
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Comments
Ramon Nuñez
Cheers!
Zwelff
Most relatable post ever! Watching the process video really hits home. Thank you for sharing your insights🙏
