Ugly Work
That pile of drafts spilling out to the wastepaper basket IS how you get to the next level
I’m trying to get a simple idea across but it’s taken me so long to do it.
I have numerous digital drafts, but I wish this iPad was a typewriter, so I could show you the pile of crumpled up paper next to the waste paper basket to signify work went into this. This is the first paragraph but already so much work has gone before, you can feel it in my ‘voice’.
I read some advice for artist from American painter Eric Fischl.
“That it’s through their limitations that life becomes expansive” - Eric Fischl
The article I’m trying to write is an answer to the question posed by the
this month, which is.How do you level up as a creative?
Bah easy I thought.
Then I tried writing something about morning routines and evening reviews. About how I played Magic the Gathering as a kid. And how every day now is like playing the game with my best cards, and every evening, is a time for reflection, trying out different card combos. I tinker with decisions. The decision to wake up early vs sleep late. The decision to move 5 projects along incrementally vs immersing myself in one at the time while ignoring others. The decision about which hours to spend with my kid.
These decisions are like cards in a deck.
As I wrote, I thought about format and framework and headlines and sub headlines and tone. I thought about you the reader and readers who have never read my work.
The point that I was trying to make, is that to level up, you need a system of
Designing a Plan,
Trying the Plan,
Refining the Plan.
It’s that addictive loop that make video games and card games so compelling.
But is THAT what makes you level up? Or is that just what makes you addicted to the game.
All the while this quote nagged at me at the back of my mind.
“That it’s through their limitations that life becomes expansive” - Eric Fischl
I guess you could say, the way to level up is by embracing your limitations. Then using those limitations to make something honest and true. The effort of doing that, unlocks the next level.
You can’t step into shoes that are too big for you and wait to grow.
You need to run in the direction of your goal in the shoes you have.
Or barefoot.
Or crawl if you have no legs.
Writing this now feels like crawling, but it’s not some lame woe is me kind of crawling, it’s crawling like I’m going to be the world champion of crawling.
Levelling up is also about all those drafts next to the wastepaper basket. Those failed attempts are not impediments to the process, they are the process.
It’s not pretty. The work is just that. Work. Pure, unadulterated ugly work.
It shows.
Ugly sketches are not something to be ashamed of, it’s something to be so %^&*$(&! proud off.
So ask me again, “how do you level up as a creative?”
Two words, write them down.
Ugly work.
Watch this space to see what everyone else in the
has to say about this topic. The illoguild is an international group of picturebook illustrators world wide that have been meeting twice a month since 2022. We meet once in public and once in secret. You’re invited to the next public session on Zoom.Join Live us as we discuss levelling up as illustrators. 19 Aug 2024 (It’s free)
Or wait for the recording. Which will be available to paid subscribers
Sketchbook Project.
Use your old ugly sketches as inspiration, redraw them at your current level. Share both side by side!
A few days after writing this, I found a couple of other excellent posts on similar topics,
wrote about The Creative Bubble on Medium, and wrote about Donkey Work.
Yes!! This is something I’m very much in support of. For years I had sketchbooks that were for planning and also sketchbooks that were for painting and even more books for notes and ones for journaling. All of them half full and it felt like pulling teeth to get anything done in them. In the last year I’ve moved over to one sketchbook/notebook/journal everything goes in there and I have no level of entry. The ugly stuff is everywhere and I love it, because in between the ugly stuff Is stuff I’m proud of ideas and inspiration. I honestly think it’s been a key change in the improvement of my work. I’m a better artist thanks to the freedom of ugly art.
Adam, I love this post! The train of thought took me through all sorts of interesting places. You are right — ugly work, which I also think of discomfort. You can't level up without getting ok with discomfort — the uncomfortable feeling of doing the ugly work until you get to the good work.
I always appreciate your notes on the creative process.