Art Process: The one goal

“How do you produce quality work in a tight deadline?”

Hello. Nice to see you here )

Last year I was lucky to get in on the ground of a Children’s Book Critique Group - Illoguild. This gifted me a rare unicorn in a sea of art courses, materials, collaborations and opportunities - a bit of Focus. Focus on Children Book Illustration.

And it was and is great! Instead of wondering what’s next - I settled on individual year goals, instead of doubting my artwork - I got a hive mind of constructive critique and instead of constant self doubt in the atmosphere of FOMO - I got to see all members’ individualities blossom over time.

Illoguild now is on Substack. Each month we each will answer one art related question. For July it’s “How do you produce quality work in a tight deadline?”

My answer: Choose your one key focus.

There is always a hierarchy of goals in any artwork. Familiar ones like effective composition and colour scheme. And more ambitious ones like being relevant to the artist’s journey, relevant to the time, appealing to both different audiences, funny, unique, socially responsible, having yummy details, showing current fashion styles, citing pop culture or historic references, daring, mesmerising etc.

Some artworks reach only one goal and are expendable like phone doodles. Some reach a hundred goals - those hang in Louvre or touched millions through pop culture (e.g. Gerald Scarfe’s animation for Pink Floyd’s Another Brick In The Wall) or treasured in personal memories (those masterpieces skip Louvre and hang on fridges).

For me if I am on a tight schedule though - the easiest answer and the toughest decision is not to try and create a timeless masterpiece hitting many goals but rather put all effort to push just The one goal. And draw the rest on autopilot.

Some possible options for The one goal (examples from picture books):

1. Emotional colour pallette (Chris Haughton)

2. Engaging dynamic characters (Simona Ciraolo)

3. Dramatic lighting (Jon Klassen)

4. Going overboard with your strongest subject matter (Felicita Sala)

5. Making kids giggle (Shel Silverstein)

6. … (suggest your own?.)

Feels also that if applied regularly this rule backfires and starts to produce masterpieces.