fear of the almost-blank page

[egypturnash]

I never thought I'd find myself in this place.

I have a piece of board that I taped off the edges of and painted a halfway-interesting gradation on. I have a sketch that I did of what I want to put on this board. I did some quick tests with various pencils I have lying around, to see what will work with throwing gouache on top of it - some of the pencils I was thinking of using turned out to be too waxy.

And this piece of board, and the sketch, are just sitting there. I whipped the sketch out in a minute or two. It should be a moment's work to get a loose version of it blocked in on the board, enough to start painting over it. But I keep on cringing away from doing this.

Because I'm afraid of fucking it up.

Three bucks worth of board (I think), a bit of paint, a few minutes of painting, and I'm afraid of fucking it up.

I've been spending too much time with 'undo' available. I feel like an idiot.

I also need to figure out a cheap and not-annoying way to get a rough from a little sketch onto board. In the long run, I suspect I want an opaque projector...

Comments

[martes.livejournal.com]

I've learned the joys of transfer paper for getting drawings onto watercolor paper or colored paper. If the picture is too big/small, then xerox it to the right size before transfer.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Once I get ahold of a printer, stuff like that'll be easier, too...

After writing that I ended up sitting down with my rough and the board and just redrew it. Probably in more detail that I actually need, what with using opaque paint, but hey!

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

I suggest rather than starting on your comic and good paper, get some cheap paper and just doodle in gouache on it. Fuck around, mess shit up, see what you can do.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Hell, this is why I'm painting on illustration board. A few bucks per piece is nothing compared to canvas. After pondering why I was balking by writing this, I sat down and just eyeballed my rough onto there in pencil... I think I might do some tiny color roughs on the computer to decide on hues.

[mutleyjames.livejournal.com]

While in the offices of the Seminar people I occasionally do work for, I made an error on an illustration I was working on this week.
I actually thought "apple-z" at the texta.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

One google later to clear up international slang... It's amazing how this stuff just gets into your unconsciousness. It's so easy to just get totally dependent on undo, instead of being able to shrug and recover from mistakes.

[kamenkyote.livejournal.com]

If you have access to an ink jet printer at all, scan the image, mirror it and print it. I've used black ink jet ink many times for rubbing tranfers and they work really really well.

Remember, though, that you can always start over. Keep the original sketch or at least a scan of it. Transfer with a grid, perhaps, or even sketch from your sketch. You know you have the ability to paint, to create art. Trust in that. And if it takes more than one try, so what? You -can- do it.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

I will remember this when I get ahold of a printer. We keep putting off such things!

Mostly I was kinda weirded out to find myself feeling commited to one piece of board and maybe ten minutes fucking around with a few shades of green and purple to make a gradation. What the hell? Normally I don't give a damn.

[eriscontrol.livejournal.com]

About printers—my dad bought a Brother MFC-210C for $100, and it has a scanner and fax built in as well. It's a fairly good printer for general purpose stuff, though I can't vouch for its photo printing abilities as I haven't checked.

Anyway, my point is that Brother printers are inexpensive and seem to be of good quality (better than the countless HP, Epson and Canon printers we've owned) and there are Mac drivers available for most of them—even for the scanners. (:

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

I've got my eyes on... um... pricier printers. Small posters and all that.

I don't really trust the all-in-ones, plus they tend to be sheet-feed scanners rather than flatbed. Not very usable when most of your scanning comes out of a sketchbook you don't feel like ripping up!

[eriscontrol.livejournal.com]

I figured you probably wanted something higher-end, but I thought it was worth a mention. Although I imagine you aren't as poor as I am. (:

Please do tell me how it works out when you do get one, in case I can afford a pricier printer one day.

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

Bob Ross once told me that in painting there are only happy accidents.

[eriscontrol.livejournal.com]

I agree.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Usually this is my attitude in drawing, and it's been the attitude I've brought to painting. But this time... I siezed up. Weird.

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

The cheapass Jr. Tracer thingy at most craft stores is a functional opaque projector, in friendly blue plastic, no less!

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Ooh. I'll keep an eye out for those suckers. I feel like that's an important missing step in my painting "process" right now!

[foxboom.livejournal.com]

I understand exactly where your coming from... im having a terrible time just drawing enough so that a took a friends advice and i bought a book called "the artists way" and well i just started it but i hope i can get past this mental block ^_^;; i suggest it it seems like a decent read but i just started it heh!